Researching history education in Canada: plus ça change?

This article explores history education research in Canada by analysing three important studies conducted prior to 1970. The article considers how history education has shifted across these reports and what questions and problems remain stubbornly consistent and contemporary in history classrooms, despite regular interventions, reforms, papers, studies and curricular initiatives. The three research projects discussed in this article provide glimpses into how research on history education in Canada has been conducted, and what assumptions, questions and beliefs have driven it. In comparing these three studies, the article identifies important continuities and changes for Canadian history education researchers over time. In thinking across these three studies, the article also identifies and reflects on what paradigms of educational thought are present in each case, and how the socio-cultural-political context they were conducted in shaped the research. The article argues that each of these three studies reflects key debates in educational theory, including questions about progressive education and the civic and citizenship function of history education in society. The article also raises questions and issues for researchers interested in conducting national studies of history education in other national contexts with similarly decentralised education systems. Finally, the article addresses what might be learnt by current history education researchers doing similar work today.