Western Standard - March 14, 2024


Alberta Education Invites Feedback on Draft K 6 Social Studies Curriculum

Topics
new curriculum development
Mentioned
Edmonton Catholic
Alberta Invests in Arts and Culture： Funding for Edmonton's Cultural Infrastructure 'MAiD： the made in Canada solution to end of life health costs'

Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

143.62

Word count

1,208

Sentence count

60


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Learn English with Alberta s new K-12 Social Studies Curriculum. In this episode, Premier Rachel Notley talks about the process of developing a new curriculum for Alberta s K-6 students, and provides an overview of the proposed curriculum.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 After my appointment as minister in June of 23, I directed my team to immediately begin building a new consultation framework that would involve our partners and members of the public to inform the development of a new draft curriculum.
00:00:14.140 We developed a new five-staged approach to drafting and implementing the new curriculum.
00:00:20.240 Phase one began in August, which involved the ministry sitting down with key partners to have some initial conversations.
00:00:26.400 We met with the Alberta Teachers Association, school boards, including Edmonton Public and Edmonton Catholic.
00:00:33.340 We met with the College of Alberta Superintendents, the Alberta School Boards Association, the Association of Alberta Deans of Education, the Blackfoot Confederacy, the Confederacy of Treaty 6, the Métis Settlement General Council, and more, to get their views and perspectives from the very beginning about what a new curriculum should look like.
00:00:51.800 Once we had a general agreement about the scope and sequence of the new curriculum, we were able to move into Stage 2.
00:01:00.340 Stage 2 included a public survey so that all Albertans could also have their chance to provide direction at the very beginning.
00:01:07.540 I want to thank and commend the almost 13,000 Albertans who completed the survey.
00:01:13.200 They told us that they wanted students to learn both Canadian and general history, as well as structures of government, early settlement and exploration, trade and the global economy,
00:01:24.540 legacies of ancient civilizations and First Nations, Métis and Inuit history and traditions.
00:01:30.080 I am proud to say that we are delivering on what Albertans are looking for.
00:01:34.280 During Stage 2, we also spoke with First Nations Education Authorities, the Alberta Teachers Association and Social Studies Specialist Group,
00:01:45.060 the Alberta Anti-Racism Advisory Council, the Premier's Council on Multiculturalism, Francophone Organizations,
00:01:51.360 the Canadian Arab Friendship Association, Jewish Community Organizations and other multicultural communities.
00:01:57.360 Department officials also met with curriculum development specialists and other stakeholders to explore and discuss content.
00:02:06.880 A full list of these stakeholders is available online on alberta.ca slash curriculum.
00:02:11.940 In addition, staff from my team attended teachers' conventions across Alberta throughout February to deliver information sessions on the development of the new draft social studies curriculum
00:02:23.740 and collect feedback on what teachers would like to see.
00:02:27.700 Stage 2 also included conversations with content specialists.
00:02:31.680 That included professors in history, politics and economics and also included a teacher consultation group that included teachers with subject matter expertise who were nominated by their respective school divisions.
00:02:45.420 Having received all that input on content, we are now ready to move into Stage 3, which involves some more public engagement and a review of the draft K-6 social studies curriculum.
00:02:58.620 Stage 4 will involve piloting, which will commence in September of 24 through to June 2025.
00:03:06.260 And Stage 5 will be final implementation of the new K-6 social studies curriculum in September of 2025.
00:03:12.940 Today, in addition to the new 2024 draft K-6 curriculum, my department is also releasing an overview of proposed draft for the K-12 curriculum for Albertans to view and provide feedback on.
00:03:29.440 The draft K-12 social studies overview provides a summary of what students learn in each grade and shows how learning progresses as students transition through the grades.
00:03:39.160 The new 2024 draft K-6 social studies curriculum outlines what students are expected to know, understand and what they should be able to do at the end of each grade level and was developed using the draft K-12 social studies subject overview as a guide.
00:03:57.020 I want to be very clear that this version of the draft K-12 social studies curriculum is new.
00:04:04.560 Last year, as I highlighted, we returned to Albertans with a clear intention to start fresh.
00:04:09.940 Now, let me provide you with a quick overview of what Alberta's new social studies curriculum may look like.
00:04:16.320 The new social studies curriculum will contain five streams of learning, history, geography, economics, political science, and civics, and citizenship.
00:04:28.220 Students will be exposed to topics in each of these areas in each grade.
00:04:32.600 In kindergarten, children will explore culture.
00:04:35.420 They will explore tradition and community.
00:04:38.420 They will learn about culture, traditions, and places in community, civic responsibilities, and needs and wants.
00:04:44.020 In grade 1, students will explore local communities and culture.
00:04:49.520 They will learn about respecting diverse cultures, key features of our physical world, and learning about buying and selling.
00:04:57.120 They will also learn about Canada's official symbols, and learn about First Nations, Métis, Inuit, and Francophone communities.
00:05:05.020 In grade 2, students will begin to explore Canada.
00:05:07.940 They will learn about Canada's Indigenous communities, our physical regions, our provinces, our territories, the leaders in Canada, including Prime Minister, Premiers, King, and Indigenous leaders.
00:05:20.440 They will also learn the importance of opinions, forming opinions, and how to distinguish fact from opinion.
00:05:27.140 In grade 3, students will explore Alberta and the prairies.
00:05:32.640 They will learn about Alberta's first inhabitants.
00:05:35.940 They will learn about Alberta's physical geography, official symbols, natural resources, and the communities that have shaped our province, including First Nations, Métis, Inuit, Francophone, and our cultural diversity, including the important contributions of multicultural communities.
00:05:52.440 They will also develop an understanding of voting, charitable giving, and volunteerism.
00:05:58.960 In grade 4, students will explore colonial Canada and confederation.
00:06:03.860 Here, they will learn about the establishment of New France and the transfer of French Canada to British rule.
00:06:10.780 This will take students up to confederation as they learn about the forces that drove confederation.
00:06:15.900 In grade 5, students will learn about ancient civilizations and empires.
00:06:22.420 They will explore diverse societies, including in Mesopotamia, Persia, India, Greece, Rome, and Mesoamerica.
00:06:30.820 They will also explore how ancient civilizations and empires influence our society today.
00:06:36.880 In grade 6, students will focus on democracy.
00:06:39.640 They will learn about the history, principles, and operation of democracy, and explore the historical evolution of democracy.
00:06:47.720 They will recognize the difference between representative democracy and direct democracy, and explore how economic freedom and personal choices are vital to the operation of a democratic state.
00:06:58.660 Curriculum for grades 7 to 12 will be developed in the coming months, but Albertans can explore the subject overview and the draft content that would be covered in each of these grades online at alberta.ca.
00:07:12.300 I'm proud to share that beginning today until March 29, Albertans can provide feedback on key learnings with the new draft K-12 social studies curriculum through a feedback form on alberta.ca.
00:07:25.000 Their feedback will be used to further refine the draft K-6 social studies curriculum before it is expected to be released in the spring, so that we can help teachers prepare for optional classroom piloting.
00:07:40.040 By taking these steps, I am confident that we are developing a social studies curriculum that meets the learning needs of all students and positions them for success.
00:07:48.460 I'd like to conclude today by thanking our incredible partners in education, community organizations, and Albertans at large, who provided input into the development of this new draft social studies curriculum.
00:08:01.940 Your contributions will help ensure Alberta students learn from a curriculum that builds their critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, and empowers them to be active citizens.
00:08:12.680 Once again, I encourage all Albertans to share their feedback on key learnings with the new draft K-12 social studies curriculum by completing the online feedback form at alberta.ca.