OESSTA is pleased to anounce its membership and support for a new national project, the Social Studies Educators’ Network of Canada (SSENC/RESSC). The mission of SSENC/RESSC is to provide a network of social studies educators from every province and territory in Canada (in both official languages) to share resources and approach government and non-governmental agencies regarding the support and promotion of social studies education across Canada.
SSENC grew out of conversations between history and social studies teachers at Association for Canadian Studies conferences, resulting in a panel discussion at the 2018 Ontario History and Social Sciences Teachers’ Association (OHASSTA) annual meeting (where OESSTA was represented). Since that time, SSENC has grown to include membership from every province and territory in Canada (except, at the moment, Yukon territory). In addition to several virtual meetings, SSENC has met in person twice, once in Montreal in August 2019, and once in Ottawa in November 2019. We are pleased to announce that as of December, 2019, SSENC has been officially incorporated! We are also working with Canada’s History with the hope of securing basic funding for association insurance, branding, and costs related to communications and in-person meetings.
We are currently planning on two in-person meetings in 2020, both in Winnipeg: once in July (following the Historical Thinking Summer Institute) and once in October (conjointly with the Association for Canadian Studies conference).
2020 goals for SSENC include developing a journal and website with information about the different provincial organizations (including OESSTA) including conferences, resources, databases, etc. We also hope to provide a database of social studies and history courses and curricula from the different provinces and territories.
For more information, please contact James Steeves (current OESSTA representative to SSENC/RESSC) at jsteeves71@gmail.com.