Ostensibly a "social
studies textbook for high school" (back cover), Challenge
of the West is written and presented in a style that makes it
suitable for a number of grades from junior high up to and including
high school. As well, the content corresponds with several social
studies and history curricula across Canada including the strand
entitled "The Development of Western Canada" found in
the grade seven history curriculum of Ontario.
The front cover of
the textbook is a reproduction of Adam Sherriff Scott's The SS
Beaver off Fort Victoria, 1846. The painting depicts two aboriginal
persons in the foreground with their backs to the viewer. They are
looking across the water to a British fort on the opposite shoreline.
In the water between is a British ship and a smaller boat filled
with, presumably, residents of the fort. As the two aboriginal persons
are in the foreground, the viewer is encouraged to interpret the
painting from their perspective. The dominant impression is one
of "watching from the sidelines". The aboriginal people
are not participants but observers, surveying activities that will
change their worlds.
Change is very much
what this textbook is about. In the introduction, the authors encourage
students to think about "change", how it comes about in
their worlds and how it has come about throughout Canadian history.
As Cruxton and Wilson state in the Introduction, "sometimes
change just happens. Other times, we make a change happen. When
we set out to make change, it can involve conflict or struggle"
(no page). These words are a foreshadowing of the conflict and struggle
that has been a part of Canada's historical development.
The textbook is divided
into six chapters: 1) Rebellion and Change in Upper and Lower Canada;
2) The Road to Confederation; 3) Exploring and Opening the West;
4) Manitoba and British Columbia Enter Confederation; 5) Preparing
the West for Settlement; 6) Settling the West. Though the content
is never extensively detailed, the chapters do cover what are often
considered the main events in Western Canadian history from 1815
to 1914. The building of the CPR is captured in chapter four, the
Red River Rebellion, Northwest Rebellion and the trial of Louis
Riel are highlighted in chapter five while the Gold Rush is explored
in chapter six.
However, as the chapter
titles suggest and as is the pattern of history textbooks designed
to meet the requirements of history curricula, the content focuses
on the changing "West" from the perspective of Europeans
whether British soldiers, French politicians or Mennonite settlers.
Even the notion of "the West" is a reference to territory
west of earlier European settlements in Newfoundland, the Maritime
colonies and the Canadas. Rarely is the history told from the perspective
of aboriginal peoples. Their voices are silent and their histories,
separate from those that are entwined with European colonists, are
absent. This is not to suggest that aboriginal peoples are missing.
They are very much present in the historical narratives and biographical
inserts provided. Almost the entirety of chapter three is devoted
to the "First Canadians", who they are and where they
live. Nevertheless, their histories remain distant and aloof from
the perspective suggested-forever illustrated as the "other",
standing on the outside watching as their worlds are changed by
the main event which is the development of a nation called Canada.
The painting on the cover is indeed metaphoric.
Liberally peppered throughout
the chapters are charts, maps, timelines, paintings, photographs,
poems, songs, cartoons and reproductions of original documents.
There are also a number of inserts that are separate from the main
body of text. These inserts offer interesting biographies of people
such as Québec political reformer Louis-Joseph Papineau and
author Susanna Moodie. All of these features combine to give the
textbook a sense of variety and offer students different ways of
learning the content. One problem to note is the serious dearth
of passages which "permit" the historical actors to "speak"
for themselves. Though there are a few, offering students more opportunities
to read what William Lyon Mackenzie, Sir John A. Macdonald, Catherine
Schubert or Crowfoot actually said would bring an increased impression
of humanity to the historical narratives and elevate the textbook's
overall sense of credibility as a source of historical information.
Each chapter includes
at least one "developing skills" section. The foci of
the developing skills sections include creating a mind map, decision
making, cause-and-effect relationships, interpreting political cartoons,
interviewing, using maps as visual organizers, preparing a research
report, debating, making oral presentations, and analyzing bias.
These sections are divided into numbered steps that include easy-to-follow
instructions and examples. The result should be the development
of skills that are transferable to other courses of study.
Also included at the
conclusion of each chapter are a series of activities. The activities
sections are divided into three parts: Check Your Understanding;
Confirm Your Learning; and Challenge Your Mind. The first part focuses
on comprehension questions that refer to the chapter completed.
The second part encourages the use of information in the answering
of broader questions. The third part challenges students to analyze
situations and consider questions and statements from a number of
perspectives as well as synthesize information in the formulation
of their own views. These parts are well written, progressive in
complexity and offer teachers a range of choice to use in meeting
the learning needs of students that have a range of abilities. One
criticism of the developing skills and activities sections is that
there needs to be better integration between them. Only occasionally
are students expected to use the skills developed in one section
to complete the activities in the other. Students need opportunities
to refine the skills they learn. By explicitly and purposefully
providing students with activities that encourage the use of newly
developed skills there is greater possibility that the skills will
be internalized and endure.
While the book may not
be deemed adequate by some teachers as the sole text to use in their
junior high or high school social studies or history courses, the
authors must be given credit for hitting the "high spots"
of the mainstream history narrative of the Canadian west, developing
important skill sets and providing students with a number of interesting
activities. Until the time when history curricula value aboriginal
perspectives as much as they do Europeans, textbooks like this are
meeting their mandate.