Canada Since 1945
Curriculum guideline
Classroom instruction will include both lectures and seminar discussions. Lectures will provide instruction on weekly topics with opportunities for student inquiry and discussion. Seminars will encourage active class participation in the analysis of assigned primary and secondary readings. Classroom instruction may also include facilitation of student-led projects, student presentations on specific readings and/or topics, and other types of student-led activities. Classroom instruction may also include tutorials and workshops on transferrable skills, including research methods, academic citation practice, and presentation skills.
Methods may include:
- lecture/discussion
- group work
- peer review
- independent research
- instructor feedback on students’ work
- individual consultation
- presentation (individual or group)
Topics include: optimism and uncertainty in the postwar period; the demographic changes brought about by the post-war baby boom; the Cold War and consumer society; the Americanization of Canada; the emergence of new social movements and the social, political and ideological upheavals of the 1960s; Aboriginal people, land claims and the struggle for public voice; immigration, diversity and multiculturalism; francophones, anglophones and Quebec sovereignty; regional resistance to federal policies and politics; the emergence of environmentalism; and questions of national identity and national unity. Particular emphasis is placed on the social experiences of the generations born after World War II.
A sample course outline may include the following topics.
Note: Content may vary according to the instructor’s selection of topics.
- Introduction
- Canada Reconstructs: The Postwar Reality
- The Baby Boom, Suburbanization and “Normal” Citizens
- Cold War/Hot War: Canadian-American Relations
- Oh, Canada! The Massey Commission, Maple Leaves, and Cultural Nationalism
- The Not-So Quiet Revolution in Quebec
- Youthquakes: New Social Movements and Protests
- Towards a Modern Welfare State: The Just Society
- Just Watch Me: Trudeau, Quebec and the October Crisis
- The Unjust Society: Indigenous Peoples in Postwar Canada
- Referendums and Repatriating the Constitution
- Canada Enters the Digital Age: Free Trade and Changing Economic Realities
- Immigration, Multiculturalism and Transnationalism
- Canada in a Global World
At the conclusion of the course, successful students will be able to demonstrate historical thinking skills, research skills, critical thinking skills and communication skills appropriate to the level of the course by:
1. Locating, examining, assessing, and evaluating a range of primary sources and secondary scholarly literature critically and analytically (reading history).
2. Constructing historical arguments, taking historical perspectives, and interpreting historical problems through different types of writing assignments of varying lengths (writing history).
3. Participating in active and informed historical debate independently and cooperatively through classroom discussion and presentation (discussing history).
4. Independently and cooperatively investigating the ways that history is created, preserved and disseminated through public memory and commemoration, oral history, community engagement, and other forms of popular visual and written expressions about the past (applying history).
Assessment will be in accordance with the Douglas College student evaluation policy. Students may conduct research with human participants as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans.
Students will have opportunities to build and refine their research capacity and historical thinking skills through assessments appropriate to the level of the course. There will be at least three separate assessments, which may include a combination of midterm and final exams; research essays; primary document analysis assignments and essays; quizzes; map tests; in-class and online written assignments; seminar presentations; student assignment portfolios; group projects; creative projects; class participation.
The value of each assessment and evaluation, expressed as a percentage of the final grade, will be listed in the course outline distributed to students at the beginning of the term. Specific evaluation criteria will vary according to the instructor’s assessment of appropriate evaluation methods.
An example of one evaluation scheme:
- Participation and In-Class Work: 15%
- Seminar Facilitation and Reading Notes: 10%
- Primary Source Analyses: 20%
- Research Project Proposal, Annotated Bibliography, and Peer Review: 15%
- Research Project Presentation and Peer Feedback on Research: 10%
- Research Project Essay: 20%
- Public History Presentation: 10%
Textbooks and Course Readers will be chosen from the following list, to be updated periodically.
An instructor’s custom Course Reader may be required. Additional online resources may also be assigned, and links to specific resources may be provided in the course outline.
Bothwell, Robert. Alliance and Illusion: Canada and the World, 1945-1984. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008.
Bothwell, Robert, Ian Drummond and John English Canada Since 1945: Power, Politics and Provincialism. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2001.
Briggs, Catherine. Modern Canada: 1945 to the Present. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Christie, Nancy and Michael Gauvreau, eds. Cultures of Citizenship in Post-War Canada, 1940-1955. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2004.
Edwardson, Ryan. Canadian Content: Culture and the Quest for Nationhood. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.
Fahrni, Magda, and Robert Rutherdale. Creating Postwar Canada: Community, Diversity, and Dissent, 1945-1975. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2008.
Finkel, Alvin. Our Lives: Canada After 1945. Toronto: Lorimer, 1997.
Iacovetta, Franca. Gatekeepers: Reshaping Immigrant Lives in Cold War Canada. Toronto: Between the Lines, 2006.
Owram, Doug. Born at the Right Time: A History of the Baby Boom Generation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997.
Palmer, Bryan. Canada’s 1960s: The Ironies of Identity in a Rebellious Era. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
Vance, Jonathan. A History of Canadian Culture. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009.
One 1000-Level History Course, or the permission of the instructor
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