Nineteenth-century educational reformers were fond of an agricultural metaphor when it came to the provision of more and better schooling: even good land, they argued, had to be cultiated; othersie noxious weeds sprang up. In this study of education in Ontario from the establishment of Upper Canada to the end of Egerton Ryerson's career as chief superintendent of schools in 1876, Susan Houston and Alison Prentice explore the roots of the provincial public school system, set up to instill a work ethic and moral discipline appropriate to the new society, as well as the beginnings of separate schools. today the Ontario school system is once again the subject of intense and often bitter deabte. Many of the most contentious issues have deep and complex roots that go back to this era. Houston and Prentice tell the story of how Ontario came to have a universal school system of exceptional quality and shed valuable light on an area of current concern.

Situating the evolution of Methodist education for women in Ontario within the larger social and cultural context, Methodists and Women's Education in Ontario describes the often unintended and unforeseen forces unleashed by women's education and the ambi

Christian organizations have always played a large role in Canadian education. By 1949, five provinces had constitutionally protected denominational schools. The federal government’s responsibility for the education of Indigenous Peoples was effectively contracted out to the churches for more than a century, resulting in a history of abuse that has only recently come to light. From the 1950s to the 1970s, several initiatives in different provinces set the stage for significant reforms to education. Some of these tested the limits of denominational protections, but could not shake the underlying constitutional structures. Patriation of the Constitution and adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 codified fundamental changes in thinking about civil rights. The Charter allowed existing denominational rights to be challenged on many fronts. However, all such challenges were rebuffed by the courts on the grounds that the Charter cannot be used to override other parts of the Constitution. By the 1990s, it became apparent that another route to reform was available, through the amending formula. Constitutional amendments were used to end denominational control of schools in Newfoundland and Quebec in 1997 and 1998. The circumstances around those constitutional amendments are discussed in detail as possible precedents for similar outcomes in Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. This book contends that change will certainly come to these provinces and several paths to reform are explored. This reform aims to remove the discrimination inherent in denominational institutions while preserving some form of religious involvement in certain schools.

Stern discipline, so prevalent in Ontario classrooms during the first half of the twentieth century, remained intact not only because elementary and secondary teachers wanted to keep their jobs, but also as a result of control exerted by higher authorities. During their training, teachers encountered this control, particularly during practice teaching. As educators, their mandate to "keep order" extended well beyond the classroom. Ignorance and insensitivity when dealing with issues of ethnicity, religion, gender, colour, and mental and physical capabilities frequently resulted in discrimination. Beyond corporal punishment, the subtleties incorporated in rules, rituals, and curriculum reflected the societal conviction that a teacher was always in control-expectations that mirrored the previous century's school reformers' desire to instill a work ethic and moral discipline suitable for an emerging society. In Not Just the Strap, author Vera C. Pletsch offers an intriguing analysis of discipline during the formative period of Ontario's history, when locals and parents controlled education. Making extensive use of archival material and interviews with former education authorities, inspectors, trustees, school staff, and pupils (1900?1960), Pletsch depicts an era of hierarchical control in school discipline-a period when few initiatives for change in educational policy, or in curriculum, were introduced. By explaining the subsequent efforts to dismantle the old philosophy, she also sheds valuable light on an area of current concern.

Times change, lives change, and the terms we need to describe our literature or society or condition—what Raymond Williams calls “keywords”—change with them. Perhaps the most significant development in the quarter-century since Eli Mandel edited his anthology Contexts of Canadian Criticism has been the growing recognition that not only do different people need different terms, but the same terms have different meanings for different people and in different contexts. Nation, history, culture, art, identity—the positions we take discussing these and other issues can lead to conflict, but also hold the promise of a new sort of community. Speaking of First Nations people and their literature, Beth Brant observes that “Our connections … are like the threads of a weaving. … While the colour and beauty of each thread is unique and important, together they make a communal material of strength and durability.” New Contexts of Canadian Criticism is designed to be read, to work, in much the same manner.

An exploration of two centuries of formal education in Canada in which the accomodation of minority needs and local versus central control are recurring themes.

The pre-1960 history of print culture and libraries, as they relate to the First Peoples of Canada, has gone largely untold. Paper Talk explores the relationship between the introduction of western print culture to Aboriginal peoples by missionaries, the development of libraries in the Indian schools in the nineteenth century, and the establishment of community-accessible collections in the twentieth century. While missionaries and the Department of Indian Affairs envisioned books and libraries as assimilative and "civilizing" tools, Edwards shows that some Aboriginal peoples articulated western ideas of print culture, literacy, books, and libraries as tools to assist their own cultural, social, and political aspirations. This text also serves to illustrate that the contemporary struggle of Aboriginal peoples in Canada to establish libraries in communities has a historical basis and that many of the obstacles faced today are remarkably similar to those encountered by earlier generations.

This selection of essays focuses on schools - their tasks, processes and context by examining the aims of schooling as a primary educational institution, the means, particularly teaching-learning processes in the classrooms, and the environment, classroom, school and societal affecting schooling.

In the more than two decades since the publication of Ontario Since Confederation: A Reader, Ontario, Canada, North America, and the world have experienced a whirlwind of profound changes. This new edition brings together leading scholars to present a new and expansive view of Ontario’s social, political, and economic history. Building on the strengths of the first edition, the second edition reflects on the dramatic changes in historical practice and understanding that have marked the last two decades. Taking a chronological approach and broadening the theme of state and society, the book explores important topics such as the environment, gender, continentalism, urban growth, and Indigenous issues. This timely update to Ontario Since Confederation features new and revised chapters, as well as new discussion questions designed to stimulate and guide readers to make connections between and across the entire book. Bringing together a wide range of perspectives, approaches, and frameworks, Ontario Since Confederation sheds light on historical changes in Canada’s most populous province across more than one and a half centuries.

In ten original studies, former students and colleagues of Maurice Careless, one of Canada’s most distinguished historians, explore both traditional and hitherto neglected topics in the development of nineteenth-century Ontario. Their papers incorporate the three themes that characterize their mentor’s scholarly efforts: metropolitan-hinterland relations; urban development; and the impact of ’limited identities’ — gender, class, ethnicity and regionalism — that shaped the lives of Old Ontarians. Traditional topics — colonial-imperial tension and the growth of Canadian autonomy in the Union period, the making of a ’compact’ in early York, politics in pre-Rebellion Toronto, and the social vision of the late Upper Canadian elites — are re-examined with fresh sensitivity and new sources. Maters about which little has been written — urban perspectives on rural and Northern Ontario, Protestant revivals, an Ontario style in church architecture, the late-nineteenth-century ready-made clothing industry, Native-Newcomer conflict to the 1860s, and the separate and unequal experiences of women and men student teachers at the Provincial Normal school — receive equally insightful treatment. An appreciative biography of Careless, an analysis of the relativism underpinning his approach to national and Ontario history, and a listing of Careless’s publications, complete this stimulating collection.