This chapter opens with a brief history of Canada for the international reader. Chambers comments that Canada’s unique position as an extremely diverse parliamentary democracy means that education is highly challenging but rarely a matter for public debate, as it is never a federal election concern, but rather rests with the provinces and territories. She comments that while multicultural education as a whole still needs much more attention, Indigenous curriculum in particular is underrepresented in scholarship.

The role of Indigenous knowledge systems as both content and pedagogy continue to be developed by numerous scholars. A phenomenological approach, increasingly utilized in education in Western Canada, allows educators to think practically through the interactions between curriculum, pedagogy, and the lived experiences of teaching, learning, and everyday life. In addition, the hermeneutic tradition in Canadian curriculum studies has lead to a complex 'cross-cultural mediation’ that is dynamic and does not shy away from difficulty. Other theoretical framework—of autobiography and intersubjective narrative inquiry, for example—also highlight the role of experience and relations, and a focus on topography—on relationships with space and place—in turn emphasizes holistic connections between persons and their environments.

Chambers’ discussion goes on to address issues of hyphenation (e.g., what it is to be “Japanese-Canadian”) and postmodernism, and also engages with a significant body of Indigenous theory. Her conclusion states that many curriculum scholars in Canada advocate for a 'middle or third way’ that braids together languages, traditions, pedagogies, and theoretical frameworks rather than a single accepted practice.

Access this Resource:

Chambers, Cynthia. “‘As Canadian as Possible Under the Circumstances’: A View of Contemporary Curriculum Discourses in Canada.” International Handbook of Curriculum Research, edited by William F. Pinar, 221-252. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003.

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