One of my key questions has been whether current events could form the complete basis for the social studies curriculum.  To answer that, I have tried to take a few different current events and use them to meet the BC learning standards.  In short, I have determined that current events can be used as the basis for social studies curriculum.  Let’s take the Grade 10 Social Studies curriculum (1914-present). It has 7 curricular competencies and 8 content requirements.  Let’s say we want to look at these content areas and curricular competencies through the themes raised in this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/minority-report-issue2-ministers-foreign-policy-freeland-champagne-1.5370658.  The theme here being, i.e. Canada foreign policy.  Here is some summary ideas for how it would be possible:

8 content requirements:
  1. government, First Peoples governance, political institutions, and ideologies: topics to explore include, how have different governments over time conceived of the role of the ministers/ministries of foreign affairs in Canada, what can we learn from how that role has been divided or resourced among federal ministries?
  2. environmental, political, and economic policies: topics to explore include, what are some of our key headline-getting foreign policies, how have those changed over time
  3. Canadian autonomy: topics to explore include, how autonomous are we in relation to our foreign policy 
  4. Canadian identities: topics to explore our concept of our selves as defined in how we relate to other nations (e.g. history of peace keeping, what is our role on the international stage, and how has the changed over time?)
  5. discriminatory policies and injustices in Canada and the world, including residential schools, the head tax, the Komagata Maru incident, and internments: topics to explore include, how has Canada’s foreign policy contributed over the last 100 years to discriminatory policies and injustices
  6. advocacy for human rights, including findings and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: topics to explore include, what UN human rights agreements has Canada been a part of? 
  7. domestic conflicts and co-operation: topics to explore include, how do regional differences impact Canada’s take on foreign policy, e.g. dairy industry and negotiation of trade rights and obligations
  8. international conflicts and co-operation: topics to explore include, who are Canada’s allies, now and how have they changed over time (NATO, Paris Agreement)?  

Through the exploration of the content, build the curricular competencies:

  1. use inquiry: Let the students ask the questions
  2. assess significance: Ask why does this matter?
  3. assess evidence: Look at different sources to examine the different facts, opinions etc
  4. compare and contrast continuity and change: look at the issue now and how it has changed over time
  5. assess cause and consequences:  Look at what has happened now, and over time, and see what were the beginnings of this issue? what will be the consequences of it in the future?
  6. explain and infer perspectives: who are the actors? what are different ways of knowing?
  7. make reasoned ethical judgements and assess appropriate ways to remember and respond:  has Canadian foreign policy been successful over the last 100 years? where to from here?