Overview
- Explores the evolution of post-war national identity in educational policies in two settler colonies of the British Empire
- Takes a comparative approach, drawing on case studies from Ontario, Canada and Victoria, Australia
- Contributes to studies of ‘Britishness’ in the twentieth century, showing how this sense of imperial citizenship continued to be felt in both Canada and Australia into the 1960s
Part of the book series: Britain and the World (BAW)
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
This book explores the evolution of Canadian and Australian national identities in the era of decolonization by evaluating educational policies in Ontario, Canada, and Victoria, Australia. Drawing on sources such as textbooks and curricula, the book argues that Britishness, a sense of imperial citizenship connecting white Anglo-Saxons across the British Empire, continued to be a crucial marker of national identity in both Australia and Canada until the late 1960s and early 1970s, when educators in Ontario and Victoria abandoned Britishness in favor of multiculturalism. Chapters explore how textbooks portrayed imperialism, the close relationship between religious education and Britishness, and efforts to end assimilationist Anglocentrism and promote equality in education. The book contributes to British World scholarship by demonstrating how decolonization precipitated a massive search for identity in Ontario and Victoria that continues to challenge educators and policy-makers today.
Reviews
“Stephen Jackson has written an excellent account of how two British Dominion educational systems attempted to meet the challenge of decolonization and the mass movement to the Dominions of non-Britons in the post-World War II era. In a meticulously researched and well-thought out comparison of the Province of Ontario and the State of Victoria’s state school systems, Jackson explores how the still vibrant Anglo-centrism of Dominion education at mid-century was profoundly undercut by both religious and ethnic diversity, and shows how each system tried to manage the complicated process of promoting an entirely new, multi-cultural national identity.” (Stephen Heathorn, Professor of History, McMaster University, Canada)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Stephen Jackson is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Sioux Falls, USA.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Constructing National Identity in Canadian and Australian Classrooms
Book Subtitle: The Crown of Education
Authors: Stephen Jackson
Series Title: Britain and the World
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89402-7
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-89401-0Published: 20 June 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-07761-7Published: 15 January 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-89402-7Published: 06 June 2018
Series ISSN: 2947-7182
Series E-ISSN: 2947-7190
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIII, 282
Topics: Modern History, Imperialism and Colonialism, History of Education, History of the Americas, Australasian History