A quick glance at the
title of this Oxford "Discovery Series" text reveals that
it was written specifically for the new (1998) Ontario elementary
grade six social studies curriculum strand "Canada and Its
Trading Partners". Even with this understanding, some of the
content in Ursel's Discovering Canada's Trading Partners
appears at best confusing and at worst irrelevant. However, the
topical incongruencies and slapdash manner of the Ontario curriculum
are not solely to blame. As with all textbooks, authors make decisions
about what to include and exclude and how to present the topics
and information that are included. Limitations are placed on authors
by editors and publishers and, considering that this textbook addresses
one half of the grade six year yet is only 80 pages long, Ursel
clearly had to make choices.
Ursel begins by explaining
the idea of trade first through a short fictional story and then
through a brief history of trade. The lemonade stand story is a
fairly typical device in economics-focused books aimed at young
people. The problem with continued reliance upon this idealization
is that students are expected to make the considerable conceptual
leap from understanding this summer pastime as "trade"
to understanding that the complex and interrelated processes of
national and international government rules and regulations, the
commodification of non-renewable and renewable natural resources
by government, industry and business, and the exchange of manufactured
goods along with both practical and intellectual human services
are also "trade". It is simply too great a leap.
A history of trade is
offered that is not only far too brief but is overwhelmingly eurocentric
in perspective. Ursel includes a full-page world map and timeline
to discuss and illustrate the history of trade. While all the continents
of the world are included in the map, the written information is
only about Europeans, early civilizations that have been claimed
as part of Western Civilization, and the pursuit of worldwide European
trade. The timeline begins with the Sumerians in 3000 BCE, moves
through the Babylonians and Phoenecians to the Crusades and Marco
Polo, and ends with Great Explorers in 1400-1600 CE. Due to this
eurocentric geographical and ideological privileging, Ursel can
make the following statements about the Crusades: "Trade declined
for 100 years after the fall of the Roman Empire. Many luxuries
of Asia were once again traded and brought to Europe" (p. 13,
emphasis in original). Notwithstanding the typographic error —
1000 years would be more accurate — and the poor wording which
makes these sentences oppositional and therefore confusing, Ursel
states that all trade everywhere in the world was impeded at this
time. This is hardly the case. Another example of the author's eurocentric
perspective comes in the few sentences explaining the trading time
period called Great Explorers: "As sailors set out to trade,
they explored unknown lands. Their search for trade routes brought
them to North America" (p. 12). While these lands may have
been unknown to the sailors in question, the representation of European
explorers discovering already inhabited lands has long since been
challenged and debunked. It was also disappointing to realize that
North America is included in the trade timeline and map not to acknowledge
the sophisticated trading that flourished between indigenous societies
but as an addition to the established eurocentric storyline. To
her credit, on the following page Ursel does acknowledge that aboriginal
peoples engaged in trade with each other however, this is again
set within the framework of how these alliances contributed to the
European-focused fur trade. It is unfortunate that Ursel chooses
to emphasize the history of trade from a eurocentric perspective;
by doing so she effectively implies that the best purpose for trade,
if not the only purpose, is to make profits and develop surpluses.
She fails to acknowledge that trade can be a reciprocal, equitable
and mutually beneficial relationship that meets needs as well as
wants and that nomadic peoples as well as agricultural-based societies
engage(d) in trade.
Ursel spends considerable
time explaining the concepts of import and export before moving
on to the largest component of the text: Canada's trading partners.
This section includes continental maps and pictures which both reinforce
stereotypes of particular geographic regions, such as a rice field
in China, and pictures that likely challenge stereotypical images
of places, such as the photograph depicting Nairobi as a modern
city. Due to curriculum requirements, there is a heavy emphasis
on the various geographic and economic regions of the United States.
Ursel also includes sections on Mexico and Japan; again, the curriculum
requires that students study a trading partner from a geographic
region such as the Pacific Rim. What is missing from this textbook
— and it is a glaring omission in my opinion — is comparable
information about Canada's geographic and economic regions.
There are also several
inaccuracies and confusing and overly simplistic explanations in
the text that cause me concern. For instance, two of three pie charts
are actually circular, horizontal bar graphs (pages 21 and 26).
In her discussion of the American southeast, Ursel claims that "New
Orleans in Louisiana is the oldest city in the South, founded by
the French in 1718" (p. 47). This is not true. The city of
St. Augustine in Florida was founded by the Spanish in 1565 and
has been continuously inhabited since then (http://www.ci.staugustine.fl.us/visitors/specialplace.html).
While Ursel makes some
effort to explain why Canada belongs to trade groups such as La
Francophonie and the Commonwealth, she makes no effort to explain
the basis of membership in the G-8. Rather, she names the member
countries while also explaining that the "G-8, or the
Group of Eight, meets regularly to discuss economic issues before
they become sources of conflict" (p. 74, emphasis in original).
This example illustrates my biggest concern with this textbook.
I appreciate that complex ideas such as international trade need
to be simplified for young learners, however, I find this book leaning
more towards simplicity rather than simplification. The conceptualizations
and explanations of the processes of trade should be more thorough.
For instance, Ursel could have more adequately explained that while
it is governments who set the rules and regulations for trade it
is usually companies situated within those nations that actually
engage in capitalist trade.
Ursel glosses over the
effects of trade agreements such as NAFTA in which trade disputes
are ongoing and the roles played by organizations such as the G-8
in establishing and regulating inequitable global trade agreements.
While the idea of "cheap labour" appears repeatedly throughout
the text, for example, I think Ursel is less than honest with young
learners about the real life repercussions of cheap labour on the
lives of people like themselves and their parents. While she refers
to cheap labour as a key component of economic success for companies,
Ursel fails to explain that for those skilled and unskilled working
class workers of the first world who have lost jobs or are continually
threatened with job loss, loss of wages, working hours and benefits
as well as for those workers in developing or poorer countries who
may get those jobs but who have little or no job security, extremely
poor pay, no benefits and terrible working conditions, "cheap
labour" is not such a success story.
I also have concerns
about the student activities — called "Something To Do"
— included throughout the textbook. For example, in the International
Trade Groups section grade six students are blithely encouraged
to "Role-play setting up a trade agreement between Canada and
the United States to sell Canadian fresh water" (p. 75). They
are to practice their skills in setting trading rules and negotiating
conflicts. What this exercise does not ask students to do is to
think about and discuss who owns this resource; whether or not this
"renewable" resource should be traded away or not; and
how to ensure our own needs as Canadians do not become subservient
to those of a larger market. It ignores the increasing dilemma of
water shortages throughout the world and the glutinous North American
overuse of this most precious and necessary yet vulnerable resource.
As Ursel does mention environmental problems — such as overhunting
beavers during the fur trade (p. 16) and the devastating impact
of overfishing on fish stocks (p. 23) — connected to trade
practices, I do not think it unreasonable to deliberately help students
begin making real connections between the harvesting of natural
resources in exchange for monetary profits and the ultimate consequences
of these behaviours.
There is no doubt that
the rushed manner in which the Ontario social studies curriculum
was conceptualized has resulted in a fragmentary and knowledge-as-product
perspective toward complex social processes. The emphasis on expediency
rather than conceptual thoroughness in the curriculum reform process
has directly resulted in substandard learning resources. Oxford
University Press was not the only publisher to take advantage of
the economic opportunity available in quickly supplying the school
children of Ontario with textbooks. While the format of this book
(photographs, maps, easily identifiable sections of information
and sidebars) is appealing, the content falls short — perhaps
not of curriculum expectations, but certainly in terms of aiding
substantive learning and understanding.