Hypothesis: During the 1950s, Canada was still in the process of self-discovery as it tried to define itself independently from Great Britain. The preceding decade saw the end of The Second World War, and Canada was beginning to define herself as an influential middle power in the following years. And as The Cold War began, Canadians sought to identify themselves as strong, democratic, and free, as opposed to the Communist Soviets. Closerto home, politicians were debating how to foster a stronger sense of national unity. A special committee was formed in 1950 to consider whether Canada ought to use a national textbook, and the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences was appointed in 1949 to consider the status of Canadian arts. Both of these federal movements intended to strengthen and define the Canadian nation, which may have had a trickling effect into the provinces. There was a movement in NewBrunswick toward the end of the 1950s is to include more local history and stories to existing programmes of study in order to encourage more pride and awareness of matters close to home. Coinciding with the local history movement, parents and educators alike were concerned as larger schools were being constructed. A concern for community was raised, as children were unlikely to learn local history if they were sent to larger schools further from home. We believe that the teaching of Social Studies in New Brunswick would have been influenced by these various circumstances, with the result that the topics of interest in the early 1950s would be different from the topics in the late 1950s. The earlier years would focus more on traditional Western European history and the link between Canada and Great Britain, while the later years may see a movement towards Canadian history and an exploration of what “Canadian” means.
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