CITIZENSHIP STUDIES 20-LEVEL: LIFELONG LEARNING CITIZENS

Part A

Broad Area of Citizenship: Social Studies, History, Native Studies

Lifelong Learning citizens continuously strive to understand the dynamics of change and critically seek new information to make reasoned and unbiased decisions.  This area of Citizenship study develops skills, attitudes and knowledge.  Citizens develop a critical understanding of, actively explore and analyze events and the effects of decisions on multiple governance levels.

High School students will identify and examine the effects of inequity and conflict using Canadian and world history as content and context.  They consider the impact of worldview in dealing with conflict and inequity (10); examine Canada’s reputation and role as a global citizen (20); and, consider the root causes of inequity and the challenges that multiple perspectives bring to resolving conflict (30).

Throughout the study, students engage in critical and dialectical thinking in order to ensure that multiple perspectives, consistent with Canada’s multicultural policy are considered.

Overview and Desired Results of Citizenship Study

Students continue to actively pursue and seek to understand multiple perspectives so that they can participate as citizens with a global perspective. With participation comes an examination of the roles and responsibilities of citizens nationally and globally.

Students explore a variety of worldviews to understand their impact on human rights and economic well-being.  They study the circumstances that allowed cultures and societies to accept intolerance and the practices of genocide.  Students will also examine the various ways that Indigenous cultures have attempted to deal with the legacy of colonization.  This area of citizenship encourages investigation of the roles and responsibilities of citizens within the world so that citizens can act to address issues of injustice.

20

  • Social Studies students will consider how conflicting worldviews have affected human rights and the economic well-being.
  • History students will consider how the application of a 20 century view of citizenship created the climates for intolerance and genocide.
  • Native Studies students will consider different approaches to overcoming the legacy of colonization and struggles for self-determination.

Enduring Understandings of Citizenship Study

Students will use this information to understand:

  • Injustices of today have roots in the past.
  • Canadian society is challenged to manage the coexistence of diverse worldviews.
  • Canadian citizens work to achieve a balance between rights and responsibilities through learning and action.
  • Canadian society has inequities and elimination of these is beneficial for all Canadians.
  • For each individual, becoming aware of racism in Canadian society is an evolutionary process and a precursor to change.
  • As citizens of local, national, and global communities, Canadians are conscious, self-reflective, and critical of their own beliefs and actions and seek to make positive change.
  • Citizens show flexibility of mind.
  • Enduring understandings and questions stimulate thinking, guide the inquiry and are linked to outcomes.
  • These questions point to the “big ideas’ in the area of inquiry and should be considered and reconsidered as the inquiry progresses.
  • Deliberation of these understandings forms the evidence of learning at the end of study.

Knowledge and Skill Development

Students will explore to understand:

  • The role and impact of International and National codes of Human Rights, Indigenous Peoples, Children, and Disabled Persons;
  • The backgrounds of various human rights and social justice issues;
  • Various forms of conflict and dispute resolution forums including: Court Trial, Sentencing Circles, Town Hall Meetings, Mediation, Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, Human Rights Tribunals; and,
  • A variety of negative examples of conflict resolution and their residual impact including: assimilation, annihilation, and segregation.

Students will be able to:

  • Use strategies for persuasion and advocacy and apply processes of ethical decision-making
  • Use criteria to evaluate personal and others perspectives
  • Learn to make and test hypotheses and organize data so that it can be analyzed.

Essential Questions

  • What does it mean to be a citizen?
  • Why is there conflict between worldviews?
  • What is required for conflicting worldviews to coexist?
  • What range of responses have citizens used throughout history to respond to conflicting worldviews?
  • How do engaged and respectful citizens respond to conflict in a modern democracy?
  • How does an ethical and democratic society define and pursue justice?
  • What issues and opportunities does Canada’s multicultural policy and affirmation of diversity create?
Essential Questions are open-ended questions that are continually revisited, encompass concepts that students will explore throughout the unit of study, form the evidence of understanding and frame the assessment at the end of the study.

Saskatchewan Curriculum Concept Connections

This section connects teachers and students to the concepts explored through Social Sciences Studies:  Social Studies, History, and Native Studies.  General outcomes/objectives are identified.  It is the opinion of the development committee that the outcomes incorporate the three perspectives of Social Sciences through exploration of historical and contemporary issues, which in Canada’s case must include Indigenous perspectives.  Teachers may choose, however, to explore these outcomes/citizenship considerations specifically through the lens of their respective social science area.

The order in which they are listed suggests a general idea of the learning plan to follow.

Students will:

  • Examine relevant social and historical issues for the purpose of understanding the impacts of differing worldviews;
  • Evaluate imperialist policies, practices and attitudes of the past and analyze the residual effects of such policies and practices in contemporary society;
  • Scrutinize the evolution of Citizenship as it pertains to Canadian and our World issues;
  • Examine the role diversity plays in society, noting the opportunities and inequities that arise in trying to affirm multiple perspectives;
  • Identify examples where the rights of the minority have not been respected in the 20th century;
  • Examine the challenges of protecting the rights of the minority while advancing the goals of society; and,
  • Generate conflict resolution strategies that create an atmosphere of respect for difference.
Students will:

  • critically seek and evaluate new information to recognize information gaps and make informed decisions;
  • analyze the debates of critical issues and evaluate the arguments of both sides;
  • recognize information gaps and refine skills to obtain information; and,
  • identify successful conflict resolution strategies.
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20-Level ResourcesLevel 20 Lifelong Learning Citizens Part A Curricular Connections and Background