Date of Award

2008

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Dissertation

Language

French

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

History

Advisor

Jacques Ferland

Second Committee Member

Scott See

Third Committee Member

Richard Blanke

Abstract

This dissertation addresses the manifestation of identity and otherness in the programs and four didactical works in Canadian History for French secondary schools in Quebec from 1955 to 1967. To carry out this research, a diverse number of primary and secondary sources were consulted in order to determine if the expression of identity and otherness in the programs and four didactical works in use corresponded to two forms of clerico-nationalism and to Quebec autonomism of the period. The main primary sources of this study consisted of four didactical works in Canadian History, whose textual analysis on the theme of identity constitutes the crux of this dissertation. In addition, files, programs and journals of the Department of Public Instruction, found at the Quebec City/Chaudiere-Appalaches center of the Library and National Archives of Quebec, as well as four Quebec government reports and two education conference reports from 1956 and 1958, form an integral part of the primary sources consulted. These sources revealed that the heretofore traditional expression of clerico-nationalism and of the new tendency of Quebec autonomism manifested themselves in education and evolved throughout the 1950s. This manifestation and evolution helped to create updated historiographical identities for Quebec, French Canada and even Canada at large in the face of technological acceleration, federal centralization of power, and worldwide bifurcation of identity due to the Cold War. Furthermore, in answering this challenge to identity, the educational bureaucracy and secondary school programs—including in history—became both qualitatively and quantitatively complex even before the creation of the Ministry of Education in 1964. As a result of this move toward greater complexity and other factors, the last decade of the Department of Public Instruction constitutes a formative period and can be seen in many ways as a single historical unit with the first decade of the Ministry of Education.

Download

Files over 10MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share