Peter Seixas

Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of British Columbia

Peter Seixas is Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy at the University of British Columbia and Director of the Centre for the Study of Historical Consciousness (www.cshc.ubc.ca). He taught high school social studies in Vancouver for 15 years and earned a Ph.D in history from the University of California at Los Angeles. He is author of numerous articles in Canadian and international journals, editor of Theorizing Historical Consciousness (University of Toronto Press 2004), and co-editor with Peter Stearns and Sam Wineburg of Knowing, Teaching and Learning History: National and International Perspectives (New York University Press 2000). He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada), and holds the Canada Research Chair in Education at the University of British Columbia. Among his many awards for research, he is the recipient of the American Historical Association’s William Gilbert Award recognizing outstanding contributions to the teaching of history through the publication of journal articles, the National Council for Social Studies Exemplary Research Award, and the American Studies Association’s Constance Rourke Prize. His contributions to history teaching have been recognized with the British Columbia Social Studies Teachers’ Association Innovation Award (2007), and the Ontario History and Social Science Teachers’ Association National Leadership Award (2007). His major current projects include Benchmarks of Historical Thinking: Towards a Framework for Assessment in Canada, to infuse historical thinking into curricula, professional development, classroom materials and assessments; Canadians and Their Pasts, a multi-site research collaborative centred around a Canada-wide survey; and an edited series for Journal of Curriculum Studies entitled “National History and Beyond.” He is also writing a memoir of his life, set in New York and Vancouver.

Publications, Grants, and Presentations

With Kadriye Ercikan. "Assessment of Higher Order Thinking: The Case of Historical Thinking." In Assessment of Higher Order Thinking Skills, edited by G. Schraw. Scottsdale, Arizona: Information Age Publishing, in press.

With Penney Clark. "Obsolete Icons and the Teaching of History." In New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada, edited by Penney Clark. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.

"Assessment of Historical Thinking." In New Possibilities for the Past: Shaping History Education in Canada, edited by Penney Clark. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2011.
French version:
« Évaluation de la réflexion historique ». In Histoire, musées et éducation à la citoyenneté, edited by Jean-François Cardin, Marc-André Éthier, and Anik Meunier, 247-63. Collection cahiers de l’Institut du patrimoine de l’UQAM. Montréal: Éditions MultiMondes, 2010.

With Kadriye Ercikan. “Historical Thinking in Schools in Canada.” Education Letter (Queen’s University) (Fall-Winter 2010): 11-14.

“University-Based Research on History Didactics: A Canadian Story.” In J. Hodel & B. Ziegler (Hg.) Forschungswerkstatt empirisch 09. Beiträge zur Tagung "geschichtsdidaktik empirisch 07" (Geschichtsdidaktik heute, Band 3). Bern: hep, 2010.

"A Modest Proposal for Change in Canadian History Education.” International Review of History Education 6 (2010): 11-26. (Revised and expanded version of the non-refereed Teaching History article below).

With Kadriye Ercikan and Viviane Gosselin. “Cuestionar el pasado: los canadienses ante las polemicas historiograficas.” Ciudadania: Didactica de las Ciencias Sociales, Geografia e Historia 64 (2010): 58-66.

"A Modest Proposal for Change in Canadian History Education." Teaching History 137 (2009): 26-30.

"Pondering the Past: Six Great Tips to Get Your Students Thinking Historically." Teaching Canada's History: A Special Publication of Canada's History Society (September 2009): 16-23.

“Prologue” to Creating Canada: A History – 1914 to the Present by Jill Colyer, pp. 5-11. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2009.

With Kadriye Ercikan and Viviane Gosselin. "Canadians Confront the History Wars." Canadian Diversity/Diversité canadienne 7(1) (2009): 50-54.

"Imperial America." Review of The Perils of Empire: America and Its Imperial Predecessors by James Laxer, and What is America?: A Short History of the New World Order by Ronald Wright. Literary Review of Canada 16(9) (2008): 23-4.  Revised and reprinted online as "America: Bad to the Bone?" The Tyee (Jan. 16, 2009) http://www.thetyee.ca/Books/2009/01/16/USHistory/

“National History and Beyond: An Introduction.” Journal of Curriculum Studies 41(6) (2009): 719-22.

"'People’s History' in North America: Agency, Ideology, Epistemology." In Narrating the Nation: Representations in History, Media and the Arts, edited by S. Berger, L. Eriksonas and A. Mycock, 269-89. New York: Berghahn Books, 2008.

"Collective Memory, History Education and Historical Consciousness." In Recent Trends in Historical Thinking, edited by D. A. Yerxa, 28-34. Columbia SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2008.

Review of The River of History: Trans-national and Trans-disciplinary Perspectives on the Immanence of the Past by Peter Farrugia (ed.). University of Toronto Quarterly 77(1) (2008): 197-8.

"Benchmarks of Historical Thinking: A Brief Overview." Canadians and Their Pasts Newsletter 3 (2008): 1-2.

Preface to Thinking Historically: Educating Students for the Twenty-First Century by Stéphane Lévesque. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.

"'Historical Consciousness' and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning History." History: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Newsletter 1(3) (2007) http://www.indiana.edu/~histsotl/blog/about-the-society/newsletter/v1n3

"Popular Film and Young People's Understanding of the History of Native American-White Relations." In Celluloid Blackboard: Teaching History with Film, edited by Alan S. Marcus, 99-120. Greenwich CT: Information Age Publishing, 2007.

"Who Needs a Canon?" In Beyond the Canon: History for the 21st Century, edited by Maria Grever and Siep Stuurman, 19-30. London: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2007.