483649

2013
ESJ8210.1177/1746197913483649Education, Citizenship and Social Justicethier et al.

Article
ecsj
Education, Citizenship and

An analysis of historical agency Social Justice

8(2) 119133

in Qubec history textbooks

The Author(s) 2013
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DOI: 10.1177/1746197913483649
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Marc-Andr thier
Universit de Montral, Canada

David Lefranois and Stphanie Demers

Universit du Qubec en Outaouais, Canada

Abstract
In the 1980s, in Qubec history textbooks, authors presented history through linear, monocausal designs
and attributed most social, political or economic changes favourable to democracy to unstable external
causes or to stable external causes. They seldom attributed the evolution of democracy to unstable internal
causes. These textbooks presented citizens as having almost no active role in socio-historical changes. This
invited students to analyse past controversial social issues from a fatalistic perspective or through subjective
moral criteria, while reinforcing the assumption that people from the past had bad ideas that good people
have fortunately refuted since. Qubec history programmes were reformed, in the 2000s, for middle and
high schools. This article presents the results of a content analysis of the new history textbooks used in
Qubec, to see whether they still present such a deterministic and relativist perspective of social change.
The preliminary results show that they do.

Keywords
Actantial model, agency, citizens, history teaching, Qubec, textbooks analysis

Writing from a socio-cultural perspective, Barton and Levstik (2004) argued that since socially
determined goals necessarily affect human activity, some underlying logic, therefore, always
guides history teaching, be it tacit or overt, and that scholarship should contribute to public debate
about untested assumptions relating to the ends history education is really pursuing. Contribution
to democratic citizenship being one of the main grounds for including history in the curriculum of
many states (including Canada), research should analyse the means (practices and tools) mobilised
in history classrooms to achieve those goals. Textbooks are often such means.

Corresponding author:
Marc-Andr thier, Centre de recherche interuniversitaire sur la formation et la profession enseignante (CRIFPE),
Universit de Montral, Marie-Victorin Building, 90 Vincent-dIndy Av., Montral, QC H2V 2S9, Canada.
Email: marc.andre.ethier@umontreal.ca
120 Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 8(2)

Textbooks (sometimes under new guises, like iBooks) are still held by many teachers to be bear-
ers of official educational aims as well as the definite authority on historical fact and interpretation
or historical truth, according to the dominant objectivist paradigm still commonly espoused by
teachers, as recent research reveals (Therriault, 2008). As many history teachers appear to rely
heavily on textbooks in their daily practice (Lebrun et al., 2002; Charland, 2003), we seek to
develop an understanding of the discourse found in such material in relation to general educational
aims such as critical citizenship education, political literacy and the development of justice-
oriented analysis and praxis. Aims of that kind were put forward to justify Qubec history pro-
grammes reform, in the 2000s, for middle and high schools. Are textbooks that are presently used
in Qubecs classroom for history teaching helping or thwarting attempts by teachers to prepare
students for democratic citizenship? Are they helping students to appraise multiple causes of his-
torical events and patterns, such as discrimination, exploitation, intolerance, oppression, violence
and other democratic issues?
In the first part of the article, we present the context of our research and its theoretical frame-
work. Issues of methodology will then be discussed, followed by the presentation of our prelimi-
nary analysis of textbook content pertaining to 5th century BC Athens and four Qubec/Canada
historical contexts.

Context
Among other lofty democratic claims formulated by Qubecs new history programme, official
documents stipulate that by the end of their compulsory schooling, students will have been taught
to see themselves as historical agents capable of and required to participate in collective deci-
sions. They will also master the cognitive processes required to learn to deconstruct narratives
and memory as well as to intervene in autonomous, critical, effective, informed, open, reasoned
and rigorous ways. School history is presented by the formal curriculum as assisting students to
construct and freely exercise the social and political dimensions of their citizen conscience
(Lefranois et al., 2010).
The official discourse goes on to claim that history education has broken away from chauvinis-
tic narratives, be they Canadian, Qubcois, male and so on, and from the mechanical memorisa-
tion of facts. There is not much new to these stated wishes, nor to the fact that once again, they
are not fulfilled yet by the actualisation of this programme, although they are achievable. Indeed,
Cooper (1994, 1995) and Cooper and Capita (2004), for example, have established that even young
children can deploy historical reasoning in early elementary years. But before going on with criti-
cism of the new history programme, it must first be presented.
The programme is structured along 4 years of secondary school, from the 7th to the 10th grade.
The first 2 years focus on what is officially referred to as World History, though it would be more
appropriate to refer to History of Western Society, for a total of 150 hours. The last 2 years focus
on national Qubec history, first, from a chronological standpoint and second, along a more the-
matic approach, for a total of 200 hours. As early as 1996, a sub-committee mandated by the
Education Ministry of Qubec had requested that history education be given more hours in the
overall school curriculum. The new programme is in keeping with this request.
The official title of the programme History and Citizenship Education eloquently demon-
strates the extent and central importance of the mandate given, first and foremost, to history teach-
ers. Educating citizens, while a general educational aim to be striven for by all teachers, is officially
considered to fall within the purview of history teachers in particular, who are asked to help
students develop an understanding of key concepts such as society, state, liberty, nation and so on,
thier et al. 121

as well as three competencies, which should habilitate them for open and enlightened social par-
ticipation within the public sphere (Qubec Ministre de lducation, du Loisir et du Sport
(MLS), 2006: 1). This implies that students will learn to problematise issues facing contemporary
societies and question the origins of these issues (subject competency 1), to establish and interpret
facts through historical attitudes, processes and concepts (subject competency 2), and, finally, to
rationally debate, then act, while taking into account social and political implications and motiva-
tions of stakeholders propositions (subject competency 3) (Qubec Ministre de lducation
(MQ), 2004: 344349). In sum, they should be able to make decisions, about public issues, that
are carefully reasoned, based on evidence and logical thought, and grounded in a realistic under-
standing of how the social world operates (Barton, 2012: 131).
History didactics, in general, present two reasons in defence of history learning. Decision
makers also use these reasons to justify curricular change. The first of these refers to the idea that
attitudes, methods and cognitive processes subsumed by the historical method allow citizens to
intervene in an open, enlightened and effective way in social and political life. By studying his-
tory, students are expected to learn to question and problematise social phenomena, as well as to
deconstruct, rationally weigh, take position on and tolerantly debate arguments relative to con-
temporary public controversies. The second refers to the thesis that studying history can help
students recognise human action as the motor of historical change. Some extrapolate this to the
idea that students who are conscious of their historical agency (who consider themselves as
co-authors of their own actions and of history1) should be motivated more to act politically
(thier and Lefranois, 2011).
These skills embody citizenship aims of the History and citizenship education programme. To
help develop these skills, teachers requested they be integrated in teaching materials. In fact, since
2005, 17 new didactic sets and more than 25 workbooks destined for the History and citizenship
education course have been published, in French or in English, and purchased (Lefranois et al.,
2011). However, no study has yet verified whether massively renewing teaching materials supports
the development of competencies that programmes aim to develop, and, in the case of history, the
fulfilment of the programmes citizenship aims. We wonder whether textbooks contribute to stu-
dents recognition of the power of collective agency to act upon the present and mould the future;
whether they are likely to lead students to see themselves as the subjects of a complex history,
which they believe they can, at least in part influence through social debate and action within the
public sphere (MLS, 2006: 60, 80); and whether they provide conditions to lead students to
understand that democracy is the result of a long process which each generation is called upon to
pursue (MQ, 2004: 348).
This is the curricular renewal context that has led the Education Ministry of Qubec to grant
over US$350 million, since 2002, for the purchase of officially approved instructional packages
(comprising students textbooks and teachers handbooks), forcefully requested by schools to help
implement the curricular reform (Chouinard, 2002: A3). Between 2006 and 2010, Qubec schools
purchased 13 French-language and 4 English history instructional packages a total of 9922 pages
(MLS, 2010).
This mass entry of new textbook material in schools has of course awakened history didactics
researchers curiosity, further encouraged to invest this field of investigation by the opportunity to
put their theoretical framework to the test upon unexplored, though familiar, ground.
Endless research has indeed for many years and with great consistency documented the
major flaws of history textbooks notably with regard to omissions, bias and social, ethnic and
sexual stereotypes, to name but a few (one can refer to Pratt, 1972; Derman-Sparks, 1989; Baqus,
2009; Boutonnet, 2009). Recent research and literature reviews, nonetheless, point to how textbooks
122 Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 8(2)

impose discourse upon students, exert a decisive influence on lesson planning (sometimes even
being used as substitutes for curriculum), occupy the greater portion of class time and induce edu-
cational practices that are ill-fitted for learning higher order intellectual skills (Lebrun, 2001;
Spallanzani et al., 2001; Lebrun et al., 2002; thier, 2006; Therriault, 2008).
In Qubec, research has been funded to look into how new secondary school history textbooks
perpetuate stereotypes against Muslims (Triki-Yamani et al., 2011), how they contribute to improve
reading skills (Blaser, 2008), or the importance they give to the main ethnic groups (Lefranois and
thier, 2011), for example, focusing mainly on the French-language texts. In other words, research
has of yet shown little interest in paratext (instructions, tasks and questions, maps, figures, iconog-
raphy, historical sources, historiographical excerpts, etc.), teacher handbooks, student workbooks
or English-language instructional packages.
More importantly, current research appears to neglect a fundamental aspect of the citizenship
education expected from the history programme, that is, the function and actions that instructional
packages ascribe to the various historical agents in socio-political change. If students are indeed
expected to emerge from school conceiving of themselves as empowered historical subjects, they
must not be prevented from understanding history as a process constructed, inter alia, by such
historical subjects in the past. Recent research does not establish either individual or collective
historical actors identity or role in the conquest of democratic rights lauded by the textbooks. To
this day, it has not been ascertained to whom or to what textbooks attribute the causes of democrati-
cally favourable change. What kind of citizenship practices underlies iconographic and textual
content? In other words, are citizens and human groups ever portrayed as causing historical change?
Who is portrayed as agents of change?
We propose to present within the limited scope of this article the preliminary analysis of a subset
of the data gathered in preparation for a systematic and comparative content analysis of textbooks.
Our research objectives are as follows:

Describe and analyse this preliminary sample in order to outline definitive methodology for
analysing the complete data set with regard to political evolution;
Determine to which types of causes authors attribute democracy in their texts;
Determine which types of citizens the authors promote through paratext.

Theoretical framework
Our theoretical framework borrows from semiotics. By adapting some literary analysis categories
from the works of Bakhtine (2003) on the structure of prose, we seek to identify to whom (which
historical figures, which groups, etc.) the causes of rupture, continuity and change over time are
attributed, and which agents are portrayed as protagonists, receivers or beneficiaries, executants or
spectators of action. In addition to defining categories of agents associated with historically signifi-
cant quests, we hope to identify, as they appear, models of citizenship practices intrinsic to histori-
cal agents actions. This research thus aims to use content analysis adapted from Greimas semiotic
theory, more specifically, the actantial model, to identify which models of citizenship practices are
set forth by textbook texts and paratext (including illustrations).
Greimas model defines narrative as a quest in which characters (actants) play one of six roles:
sponsor, receiver, subject or hero, object, opponent or auxiliary. Hence, calling on the most-often
used example, one could take the legend of King Arthur and narrate it this way: Percival (the sub-
ject) seeks, on Arthurs request (sponsor) to find the Holy Grail (object) in order to save humanity
(receiver or beneficiary), with the help of Merlin (assistant or auxiliary) and in spite of Morganas
thier et al. 123

(opponent) obstruction. As this example demonstrates, narrative analysis based on the actantial
model identifies the recurrent roles assigned to characters (whether they are individual, collective,
living, inert, real or imaginary) of various literary genres (such as fairy tales), but also in argumen-
tative text such as historical accounts or essays. They refer to actants as those who accomplish, are
submitted to or obstruct the main action of a story (Greimas, 1966: 33, 1983: 155).
In the case which concerns us, quests may aim to diminish, maintain or increase equality as the
basis for democracy in other words, to confer the governed with a greater hold on public power,
increase its reach, ensure it is not reduced, and so on. In such cases, quests would be defined as
democratic, whereas those that aim to increase or maintain inequality, to restrict the governeds
effective capacity to determine their own fate, or to exploit them would be defined as
anti-democratic.
The actantial model designates those acting as subjects of these quests (consciously pursued or
not), their receivers or beneficiaries and so forth. These actors may be special or ordinary individu-
als, abstract entities and so on. The sponsors, receivers, subjects, assistants and opponents of these
quests, if they are human, may be those who govern as well as those who are governed. Some
attributes of this assortment of actors allow us to group them according to the perceived causes of
success or failure of democratic and anti-democratic quests. The latter can, in fact, be efficient,
neutral or counterproductive. We will come back to this later.
Expanding democracy can be conceived as a political quest, that is, an act by subjects to obtain
greater equality and reciprocity (quantitatively or qualitatively) or to prevent them from diminish-
ing (or, conversely, to diminish equality and reciprocity or prevent them from increasing), whether
the act bears a positive or negative outcome. Narratives from selected textbook chapters must be
described and analysed with regard to political evolution in order to find out which actors textbook
authors destine for which quests, which objects have been assigned to these quests and who
receives or benefits from them. We hypothesise that very few actants will be part of the narrative
and that in spite of a few exceptions, citizens will be absent or have their role restricted to that of
assistants or auxiliaries.
The perception of causes can be classified according to three attributional dimensions formu-
lated by analogy with Weiners classic model (Weiner, 1979: 18; see also Viau, 1994; thier, 2000,
2006). The first dimension refers to the location of the cause, which may be internal or external to
the subject. Hence, if intellectual aptitude constitutes a cause, success or failure is derived from an
internal locus of control, whereas if difficulty of the task or economic condition is perceived as a
cause, locus of control for success or failure is external. The second dimension deals with the sta-
bility of the cause, distinguishing between permanent (and stable) causes and those that can vary
repeatedly and are modifiable. Effort and organisation can be seen as modifiable causes, while
attributing success in partisan politics to charisma is by nature invariable. The last dimension refers
to controllability, where causes are seen to be controllable if agents are perceived to have influence
over them. If the fact that the agent decides to get involved or to organise (or not) and this involve-
ment or organisation is deemed to be a cause of success or failure, one can refer to controllable
cause. Conversely, when agents exert no power over causes, these are seen to be uncontrollable.
We would include in this category causes that are out of agents control: fatality, providence,
chance, human nature, and so on.
By combining two of these dimensions, it is possible to delineate four categories of actors in an
historical text, which can be conceived through the actantial model as the subjects of a quest. The
first category refers to external stable causes and includes transcendental causes or causes that are
not known by the governed and cannot be modified, such as chance or the laws of history. The
second category comprises external modifiable causes, which are external to the governed, but
124 Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 8(2)

which can vary, such as the will of an exceptional individual. The third category encompasses
internal stable causes, which are inherent to the governed, who nevertheless have no hold over
them, such as human nature, egotism and wickedness. The final category relates to internal modifi-
able causes, which are under the governeds control and which they can modify their individual
involvement or their membership in and contribution to an organisation would be such a cause.
Although they base their writing on a vast corpus of evidence, historians attribute, most of the
time (if not always), causes for historical change to one or more of these four categories of agents.
The above framework allows for analysing their scholarly writings, as well as textbooks.
In addition, authors may perceive quests to have different outcomes: Quests can be successful
or in vain, they can even produce outcomes opposite to those expected. Claiming a democratic
right may be considered a democratic quest, even in circumstances where it produces no positive
change in claimants fate. Such an outcome would make it a neutral or counterproductive quest.
The 70 BC revolt of 70,000 Roman slaves led by Spartacus was a democratic action (because
they fought for freedom against slavery), though it ended in bloody repression. Textbook authors
may thus qualify or describe quests as efficient, counterproductive or neutral.
While Greimas actantial model allows for the analysis of historical actors agency, our analysis
of citizenship models promoted by textbook authors through paratext requires another layer of
theoretical framework. Westheimer and Kahnes (2004) research regarding the types of citizens
schools aim to educate provides three categories that can be used to analyse citizenship practices.
According to this typology, citizens can be

Responsible and conform to social rules and norms (they recycle, vote, pay taxes, respect
the speed limit, enlist in the army, give to clothing drives).
Participatory and taking part in social, community and political life (they run for office,
raise awareness about responsible consumption, organise a clothing drive, etc.).
Oriented towards justice and focused on determining the social factors of individually abu-
sive behaviours and experiences in order to reform society to counter injustice (they question
the general causes of poverty and take disinterested initiative in favour of social equality).

Method and data set

The structure, content and tasks presented by the Qubec history textbooks reviewed for this
research were analysed in order to establish how authors presented the social groups which con-
stitute Qubec society, and which social and historical roles they attributed to these groups. The
method used was based on coding and categorising text segments according to the theoretical
framework. More specifically, the units of analysis were composed of texts written by textbook
authors, historical documents (written and iconographic) and paratext (i.e. student tasks).
Thematic analysis through pre-established categories lead to coding semantic units according to
a list of indicators associated with aforementioned actantial model elements. Relevant to this
study was the triangulation through interjudge agreement (agreement of researchers) on their
respective coding. This allowed for the adjustment of the initial analytical grid. A subsequent
analysis of the stability of coding by researchers proved the grid to be effective. The data set is
composed of five French-language textbooks treatment of 5th century BC Athens and written for
first-year secondary Qubec students, as well as the chapters from four French language text-
books, called Les Premiers Occupants (First Nations), Les Franais et lmergence dune
socit en Nouvelle-France (The Emergence of a Society in New France) and Le changement
dempire (Change of Empire) for grade-9 students, and Culture et movement de pense (Culture
thier et al. 125

and Currents of Thought) for grade-10 students chapters that were selected because they
address political and democratic development, comprising a total of 1242 pages. Teacher hand-
books and student workbooks were omitted from this subsample.

Results: textbooks, historical agency and democracy

There emerges from the analysis of all five textbooks a prevailing premise regarding democracy:
real, true democracy is the right to participate in the decisions of the society in which one lives.
However, the idea that democracy is acting to guarantee rights (to housing, healthcare, residency,
etc.) is almost nowhere present.
Such a premise stems from specific assumptions about democracy and also leads to other cor-
relates and certainly to some contradictions. First, democracy is associated with the possibility to
defend ones opinions, to vote or to get elected. Second, the history of present-day democracy is
seen to originate with 5th century BC Athens, having existed nowhere else or at no other time
before, then having disappeared for a long time until its re-inception in 18th-century Western
Europe and North America. However, Athens first democratic experience differs from democracy
as we presume it to be today, as it excluded over three quarters of the city-states population and
was furthermore founded on collective rather than representative participation. Textbook authors
present this latter point not as a quality of Athenian democracy but as a flaw.
In other words, there is a contradiction: Athens is both good, as the birthplace of Real democ-
racy, the very same democracy found in Qubec, and bad, as it functioned according to a model
different from that associated with Real democracy. Textbooks must reveal and overcome this
apparent contradiction.
Despite the Athenian Assemblys importance, textbooks do not provide students with examples
of acting citizens or collective action. On the contrary, assemblies are portrayed as inefficient,
time-consuming and controlled by military and demagogic elites. The governed (ordinary citizens,
slaves, women, etc.) are rarely present. When they do appear, they are never portrayed as actors
(with rare exceptions), but as objects, assistants, beneficiaries or victims. Indeed, textbook authors
stress that women are not allowed to vote and that they perform all domestic tasks, that metics have
no political rights and cannot own land and that slaves are property and perform the most difficult
manual labour. No examples of these categories of actors struggling against or resisting their con-
dition are ever presented.
Great historical figures, on the contrary, are presented as those who make history, as its true
subjects. The names of Cleisthenes and Pericles are very much in evidence, as sponsors of democ-
racy, and other traditional heroes appear, though not as often. This is the case for Draco, Solo,
Pisistratus, Themistocles, Ephialtes and Cimon.
Discourse found in the selected chapter contains almost no traces of social struggles directed at
obtaining greater democracy before or during the period under study. The people, as they were, are
portrayed as having done nothing favourable for the advent of democratic institutions or ideals.
Everything is shown to happen as if democracy self-generated or was borne from the will of great
individuals enlightened by some democratic revelation. Cleisthenes, for example, is shown to push
for the adoption of measures to limit the power of rich families.
There are, nonetheless, two notable exceptions (or quasi-exceptions) to this single-minded narra-
tive. The first takes on the issue of stasis (this is the textbook excerpt in question): Everyone wishes
for change. Revolts break out. The rich families lose the exclusivity of power. While it does reveal
that struggle took place, no subject of this struggle is identified, no person is the bearer of the action.
The second excerpt involves a collective agent portrayed favourably: Athenian leaders will head
126 Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 8(2)

the first democratic experience in the history of Greece. Here again, however, students are pre-
sented with the governing elite rather than the governed as agents of change.
In the chapter Culture and currents of thought, social interactions are often presented as con-
flictual (as power relationships), and their treatment by authors demonstrates that the evolution of
currents of thought is a product of confrontation, and conditioned by the ruling class, though some
groups remain present and have obtained important gains (workers, women, First Nations). For
grades 9 and 10, 55% of items relating to social change show groups as instigators of social change
and actors/subjects of history. Most often, groups are members of the clergy (Jesuits, missionaries,
priests, etc.) or the ruling class (nationalists, Grits, Liberals, etc.) but also social groups (workers,
French-Canadians, women, etc.). Evidence of social struggle is more apparent and most probably
reflects the nature of the chapter (Culture and currents of thoughts), which deals more clearly
with this theme. Yet, groups are making history: workers, feminist, First Nations and linguistic
minorities.
Otherwise, 26% of items pertain to great historical figures presented as the true actors/subjects
of history. Most often, they are part of the ruling class (the monarch, Prime Minister, politicians,
clergymen) or actors from the liberal professions (journalists, merchants, artists, writers, etc.). An
important part of items (16%) pertaining to historical agency is associated with anthropomorphised
agents who act as human beings but are merely political or cultural entities: the state, governments,
countries, socialism, communism, and so on.
There are variations, from one textbook to the next, in the importance assigned to great figures
of history. We can note, for example and without any statistical pretensions, that the authors of one
textbook (Fortin et al., 2008) refer to 35 religious and military figures, industrialists, aristocrats,
prime ministers, governors and intendants in contrast to 7 cinematographers, writers, artists, phi-
losophers, intellectuals, architects and journalists in a chapter pertaining to Culture and currents
of thought (a total of 42 historical agents), while the authors of another textbook (Dalongeville et
al., 2008), for the same chapter, refer to 10 figures from the first category and 10 from the second
(20 historical agents).
In addition to the great historical figure, authors also attribute a pivotal role to another type of
historical agent: the anthropomorphised abstract entity.
Ideology, for example, is frequently anthropomorphised:

French-Canadian nationalism between 1920 and 1950 attempts to find solutions to the consequences of the
Depression, but also to counter socialism, communism, and fascism, which also propose alternatives to
capitalist and industrial development. (Fortin et al., 2008: 62)

At the end of the 1970s and in the 1980s, feminism, whether it be reformist or radical, diversifies its
means and extends its opposition to other factors of discrimination. (Fortin et al., 2008: 72)

The militarisation of society imposes a strict system of moral values on the Japanese []. (Thibeault et al.,
2008: 232)

Industrialisation and urbanisation, which are beginning in Japan, foster a new cultural and intellectual
effervescence. It will however be used by military imperialism (19121945), which instrumentalises
culture to nationalistic ends. (Thibeault et al., 2008: 232)

Traditionalist French-Canadian nationalism is a current of thought which goes beyond the defence of
French Canadians rights. It is also a response to the concerns arising from the rapid modernisation of
thier et al. 127

society. On the political level, this nationalism did not aim for Qubecs independence, though the
temptation to do so may have existed. (Thibeault et al., 2008: 202)

In their narration, authors frequently assign external causes to change in the form of another
type of anthropomorphised historical agent: the geographical or political entity:

Among others, from this period on and for centuries to come, the Ottoman Empire reinforces its grip on
the North African coast, with the exception of the Kingdom of Morocco. (Thibeault et al., 2008: 237)

During the second half of the 19th century, France dominates the whole of Senegal, which generates a
profound upheaval for its population. (Thibeault et al., 2008: 238)

In the same period, many European nations (Belgium and Poland, for example) as well as is the case in
Latin America (such as in Venezuela, Columbia and Argentina) revolt against the established political
order and fight to take control of their destiny. (Bdard and Cardin, 2007: 376)

Between 1639 and 1853, Japan indeed refuses all diplomatic and commercial contact with the outside
world, though the study of Western sciences continues on a limited scale. (Bdard and Cardin, 2007: 417)

Near the end of the 1990s, India begins important reforms by liberalising its economy and providing more
space for private business. (Dalongeville et al., 2008: 88)

At times, agents are presented as abstract entities that, in essence, correspond to institutions,
such as the constitution and human rights. They may also be constituted of groups of people, which
may be confused with territory, the State or other political creations:

By adopting the Act of Qubec, which replaces the Test Oath by an oath of allegiance to the king,
re-establishes French civil laws, and recognizes the Catholic religion, Great-Britain believes that unlike
their neighbors, Canadians will not demand the same rights as their British counterparts. (Fortin et al.,
2008: 32)

Within the framework of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, individual fundamental rights are
guaranteed by a constitution and by law. (Fortin et al., 2008: 33)

In 1867, Confederation calls upon all Canadians to unite within one nation and to share a single identity,
in spite of past disagreements. (Bdard and Cardin, 2007: 388)

In order to rectify flaws in the educational system, Jean Lesages liberal provincial government, elected in
1960, implements a series of measures. (Fortin et al., 2008: 66)

This is the perspective from which the provincial government signs the James Bay and Northern Quebec
Agreement and promises to consult with the Inuit and Innu nations in regard to issues which concern them.
(Fortin et al., 2008: 71)

The government of Quebec draws inspiration from policies adopted on an international scale regarding the
preservation of world heritage. It has notably adopted a new definition of heritage, as proposed by the
UNESCO at the turn of the 21st century. (Fortin et al., 2008: 85)

Human activities or actual objects created by man sometimes come to life in the textbooks:
128 Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 8(2)

The newspaper printed by Mesplet beginning in 1778 constitutes the principal means of spreading liberal
ideas. The newspaper also defends the separation of church and state, and denounces the Canadian nobility
and clergy who are opposed to the establishment of a legislative assembly. (Fortin et al., 2008: 35)

The adoption of conscription in 1917 gives rise to riots in many parts of the province, in particular in
Quebec City, where people are killed by the riots. (Fortin et al., 2008: 59)

In the second example, the riots, rather than, say, the police, cause the loss of human life (including
that of the rioters). In fact, ordinary humans, the governed, the oppressed and the exploited of all
walks of life are not only rarely present, but when they are presented as subjects of history (which
is even more rarely), they are shown to be inefficient or isolated agents, as demonstrated by the
next two examples:

Reformist feminist demands face many opponents who consider that granting women access to education,
and political and legal rights constitutes a threat to the social order. The Catholic Church and the tenants
of survival nationalism are not alone in their rejection of feminist demands: some women also share their
opinion, In 1922, a petition requesting that government not recognize womens right to vote is published
in the daily La Presse. It is signed by 45 000 women. In spite of the unfavourable welcome received by
feminist demands, women are granted voting rights in 1918 at the federal level and in 1940, at the
provincial level. (Fortin et al., 2008: 52)

Since the 1980s, the feminist movement, strengthened by its victories and gains, has been gradually
running out of breath. (Thibeault et al., 2008: 211)

In the chapters titled First Nations and The emergence of a society in New France for grade-9
students, the authors of one of the textbooks insists on indigenous resistance to French explorers
and to Native contributions to the exploration of new territories by the French (in a common ter-
ritorial construction). At the same time, as is the case with the other textbooks, the pervasive idea
that Natives can be reduced to historical objects manipulated by various Western interest groups
remains present (members of the Canadian elite preferred the Panis, an indigenous nation of doc-
ile temperament from the Mississippi Valley), rather than the idea that indigenous people were
participants in a relationship, which was at times mutually beneficial with regard to some socio-
historically situated criteria:

In order to promote the adoption of Christian values by indigenous nations, the Catholic clergy encouraged
the settlement of the colony. It encountered resistance from the trading companies, whose interest lied in
commerce and profit, and who perceived anything which distracted Natives from hunting as a threat. In 1635,
Jesuits founded their missions in Huron-Wendat territory, where they worked to evangelise the population.
From there, they explored the territory to reach other nations and thus contributed to the fur trade.

Every textbook author emphasised presumably unilateral European influence. The European
way of life is presented as having been little transformed by contact with indigenous people,
excepting some influence on vocabulary and clothing. In the development of the fur trade as organ-
ised by the French crown, trading companies and their merchants, Natives are portrayed as auxil-
iaries: the Montagnais [sic] become commercial intermediaries between the French and other
indigenous nations. In the chapter titled Change of Empire, indigenous resistance is present, but
discreet, and it serves the history of the French ethnic group: a short time prior to the signature of
the Treaty of Paris, native allies of the French resisted against British occupation. The textbook
that produced this excerpt is the only one that presented consequences of the change of Empire for
thier et al. 129

indigenous nations (Pontiac is the main instigator of the rebellion of the Great Lakes indigenous
nations against the British).
This preliminary analysis allows one to see that national history textbooks leave little space for
non-European agents. In addition, causal explanations of historical change as presented by text-
book authors leave the impression of derogation by agents who are not great historical figures (in
the case of the French, then the Canadians and later the French-Canadians, military leaders, the
nobility, bishops, etc., hold all the power to provoke social change). Geopolitical entities are per-
sonified as acting historical agents, as we have already seen. Examples of participation in collec-
tive life and opportunities for public debate about social issues are seldom presented, thus
weakening the critical, utopic and prospective functions ascribed by scholarly history and political
theory to the learning of history and its processes. Here are some examples of a monolithic depic-
tion of agents:

In contrast with what had occurred under the French regime, one now dares to openly discuss political and
ideological issues and even to oppose the powers in place. (Bdard and Cardin, 2007: 371)

In the wake of the Quiet Revolution, the Qubecois reject religious values associated with past
traditionalism. (Bdard and Cardin, 2007: 405)

Through fashion, they [women] manifest their desire for freedom as well as their political and social
demands. (Dalongeville et al., 2008: 54)

Francophones, who have little schooling, do not participate in business and make up the labour force of
businesses managed by Anglophones. (Dalongeville et al., 2008: 58)

Individualist values become increasingly important among the population. (Thibeault et al., 2008: 229)

Text is also accompanied by extensive paratext, the latter being essentially made up of icono-
graphic documents (maps and illustrations), in addition to a glossary, timeline, diagrams and writ-
ten documents, such as historical source documents or more contemporary interpretations.
The textbooks present an abundance of maps of Europe and some world maps. However, the
latter show North America as uninhabited in the 5th century BC, which is surprising, to say the
least. Illustrations are mainly composed of pictures of statues of great historical figures
artefacts, as it were. The figure most often presented is a statue of Pericles, though Solo,
Themistocles, and some philosophers are also represented.
One also notes that the chronology presented is exclusively related to political institutions and
war, from which emerges a teleological discourse based on a mechanical evolution or linear suc-
cession of steps inevitably leading to greater and greater democracy, moving from monarchy to
oligarchy to Solo, Cleisthenes and the Athenian golden age of democracy.
The diagrams serve to illustrate either the structure of political institutions (those of Qubec as
well as those of Athens) or the social and political exclusion associated with Athens, though here
no reference to such exclusion in Qubec is provided.
Some contemporary examples of democracy or democratic action are presented. This is the case
of one textbook, which presents the petition initiated by a young woman, Virginie Larivire, against
firearms, and of another, which presents a demonstration against a coal-generated power station
(the Surot). In both cases, the emphasis is placed on the importance of having ones voice heard,
as if to say that all leaders need is to hear the information provided by the peoples voice to under-
stand a phenomenon and put an end to its negative consequences.
130 Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 8(2)

Every one of the middle school textbooks also provides students with short quotes, mostly from
Euripides and Plato, arguing against democracy, ironically, though they do quote Pericles as saying
just the opposite.
The student tasks, which are presented alongside these sources and the questions found in the
textbooks, focus students attention on scanning for and understanding information presented in
documents or in the main text. They do not require that students problematise real phenomena nor
do they call for heuristic use of concepts, method and so on to evaluate historical interpretation or
for argumentation.
These tasks promote citizenship practices and participation associated with responsible or par-
ticipatory citizens types 1 or 2 from Westheimer and Kahnes typology. Participation and prac-
tices, which could be associated with a type 3 citizen one who is oriented towards justice are
nowhere to be seen. Here are some examples of tasks:

Describe how Pericles fosters democracy.

Demonstrate how all citizens in Qubec are equal.
Identify an impact of the lack of interest towards democracy.
Name venues where one can express his or her views.
Create a survey about democracy.
Organise a poster contest to promote voting.
Give ones opinion: Should freedom of expression be limited?.
Identify public institutions in ones community and determine which services they provide
for citizens.

Discussion
The exploratory research presented here entails a number of limitations. First, we have yet to ana-
lyse all the textbooks. Second, and most importantly, we have not taken into account how teachers
use the textbooks, and we have no idea of how students understand or interact with their content.
The second phase of our research will include all the other chapters, while the third phase aims to
examine how students and teachers use the textbooks, workbooks and handbooks, in both lan-
guages and throughout Qubec.
Nevertheless, we can already determine that textbooks provide students with the basis for a mis-
leading vision of the world, which does nothing to empower them as citizens, despite explicit claims
to the contrary in the curriculum documents. Research on history teaching and learning demon-
strates the persistence of transmissive teaching practices, characterised by a single factual narra-
tive that students must reproduce, by the absence of socially sensitive issues, source heuristics, call
to authority (of sources), reducing student tasks to spotting information and faithfully reproducing
it. The same body of research shows that most often, observed teaching practices model themselves
to the structure of textbooks, thus hindering the development of agency (Barton, 2012). In our study,
one can see that textbooks present the cause of political change as external and modifiable, and that
the governed are not portrayed as subjects of history. Finally, textbook narrative and paratext are
marked by a telos and a portrayal of history and indeed history education as reification. As such,
textbooks do not provide fertile ground for and may even become obstacles to reflecting on the
roots of systemic injustice, which characterises many social and cultural interactions.

Conclusion
Some brief comments, to conclude. Scientific implications of this first stage of our research are
twofold: first, the analytical grid based on the actantial model and on Westheimer and Kahnes
thier et al. 131

typology has proven theoretically sound in analysing textbook narrative and paratext and it will be
improved. Second, some hypotheses can be tested on the basis of this preliminary analysis, specifi-
cally in relation to teaching and learning history.
In addition, the results of this exploratory study hold some social implications, the first being
that in their present state and if used as is, Qubec history textbooks do not appear to be useful tools
for educating critical citizens. Finally, there are educational implications pertaining to textbooks,
namely, that they should be deconstructed in class, with students learning to problematise their
narrative as a historically and socially situated phenomenon.

Acknowledgements
The article was written with the collaboration of Francis Dupuis-Dri (Department of Political Studies,
Universit du Qubec Montral, Canada), Vincent Boutonnet and Marie-Hlne Brunet (Faculty of
Education, Universit de Montral, Canada).

Declaration of conflicting interests

This article is inspired by a shorter text with the following title and completes its content: thier, MA,
Lefranois, D, Dupuis-Dri, F and Demers, S (2012) New textbooks and the 21st century history programs for
middle and high schools: an analysis of history textbooks from Qubec. Case study: a chapter about fifth
century B.C. Athens. International Journal of Historical Learning Teaching and Research 11(1): 5970.

Funding
This research was partially financed by the Fonds quebecois de recherche sur la societe et la culture (FQRSC,
2010-2013) - David Lefranois.

Note
1. We use the concept of historical agency as Barton (2012) defines it. The concept is composed of three
dimensions: (1) agency and the subjects of history subjects of history are seen as actors of history, as
(explicit or implicit) initiators of actions in which is assigned accountability, a responsibility for events,
processes and so on in history; (2) agency and the actions in history there are intentional human causes
of actions and constraints on these actions (Seixas, 2006). Actions are complex and may involve name-
able individuals, collective entities (which, to varying degrees, deal with internal diversity) and inter-
actions and (3) agency and choices in history the actions of people in history are related to beliefs,
attitudes, moral standards, socio-economic perspectives on the world and so on, in which their choices
are exercised (in order to maintain or change them).

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