Canada Studies Foundation | The Canadian Encyclopedia

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Canada Studies Foundation

Canada Studies Foundation, was founded 1970 following revelations of the National History Project (1965-68) that the average Canadian high-school student had an abysmal knowledge of Canada. A.B.

Canada Studies Foundation

Canada Studies Foundation, was founded 1970 following revelations of the National History Project (1965-68) that the average Canadian high-school student had an abysmal knowledge of Canada. A.B. Hodgetts, who had perceived through the project, as well, that the study of Canada in schools was itself a divisive force, set out to provide opportunities for people from different levels of education and different parts of Canada to work together on Canada Studies project teams across linguistic, cultural and regional barriers. Walter L. GORDON served as chairman and private-sector fund-raiser for the initial 5 experimental years, with Hodgetts and George S. Tomkins as co-directors of activities; the first year's expenditures were over $500 000.

With a solid core of active participants by 1974, the foundation's support was assumed by provincial ministers of education and the federal secretary of state, and by contributions in kind from teachers, schools and local school jurisdictions; the 1975-76 budget was $600 000.

From 1978 to 1986 direct support was almost exclusively by the Secretary of State, with yearly expenditures below $300 000. For 15 years the foundation was the sole nonprofit developer of Canadian Studies material. It pioneered new approaches to teaching about Canada. Some 30 000 teachers in Canada received in-service education regarding Canadian Studies. The foundation developed and published some 150 volumes of teachers' manuals, stimulated a new market for Canadian textbooks publishers, established a network of more than 2000 teachers across the country, distributed a widely read bilingual newsletter (Contact) and promoted a structured approach to the study of Canada, as described in Teaching Canada for the 80's (1978). The foundation surrendered its charter in 1986, its original objectives having been met.

See also CANADIAN STUDIES.