Hypothesis: There were stark similarities and differences in the content and method of delivering Social Studies education during the 1920s in New Brunswick. In fact Social Studies as a subject did not exist, but by definition would consist of History and Geography, for students who attended from the provincial population, which in 1921 was approximately 387 876 (The Canada Year Book, 1922 p.97). It was a time in which a greater importance was being placed on education, teacher salaries were increasing, and female teachers in New Brunswick were given equal pay to males.
It is our hypothesis that these subjects were taught with different assumptions in mind, and from a different point of view than today. This period of education exists before many influential historical events that helped shape the goals and approach to Social Science programs as we know them, including World War II, The Cold War, War on Terrorism, social movements, The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and the dawning of the information and technology age. To explore our presumptions we use secondary sources to set the context for our study and examine school textbooks and provincial documents as primary sources to discover the nature of Social Studies education during the 1920s, compared to today.
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