Canada emerged as a nation through a confederation of provinces beginning in 1867. Since that time, responsibility for educational endeavors at all levels (elementary, secondary, and tertiary) has been assigned to the provincial governments, a responsibility they zealously guard. The federal government' s role is to provide monies or transfer grants to the provinces, which decide how these funds will be spent. These decisions determine the shape of education within each province.A range of educational endeavors, emerging as a result of various social movements, lies between the formal educational programs offered by publicly funded educational institutions and the vast array of informal learning activities conducted by individuals (Livingstone, 2005). The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provided fertile ground in which social movements were born in response to social and economic needs; developed and spread; and then became a stable organization with reliable funding, metamorphosed into a more flexible organization, or faded into history. The social movements that typify early Canadian adult education are many and varied, and in combination with the unique educational systems that emerged in each province, they gave rise to a patchwork quilt of adult education activities.Trying to describe the beginnings and the full extent of this quilt is difficult. Where to begin? What social movements to include? How to assess the consequences of these social movements? Michael Welton (2006), a Canadian historian and adult educator, points out that at the start of the 25 3
This paper reports on the analysis of science curricula carried out across Canada within the framework of the Second International Science Study (SISS). The organization of Canadian education in twelve autonomous educational jurisdictions is briefly described and problems are noted in relation to the analysis of curricula on a national scale. The international design for curriculum analysis is discussed and an alternative design, more suited to the diversity of science education in Canada, is introduced. The analysis of curriculum documents is described and three patterns which emerge from this analysis are identified. These derive from the concepts of commonality, specificity and prescriptiveness. Commonality relates to topics listed in curriculum guideline documents by a number of jurisdictions. Specificity refers to the richness of curriculum documents. Prescriptiveness is a measure of the extent to which jurisdictions do or do not make provision for local options in curriculum design. The Canadian analysis, using the concepts of the common curriculum, specificity and prescriptiveness, is described and research procedures are exemplified. Outcomes of curriculum analysis are presented in graphical form.
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