From curriculum to teacher practice: is Nova Scotia's junior high social studies diverse in its offerings?

Sociological research on the integration of Nova Scotia's Indigenous and African-descended content with school curriculum is limited. The adequacy issues of classrooms' covering these populations are more pronounced when looking into junior high social studies classes. This thesis focuses on answering the question of how well these junior high social studies classes address content related to these communities in their classrooms. These questions were analyzed through semi-structured interviews with four social studies teachers regarding their curricular understanding and individual practices. A critical reading of the 2005/2006 and 2020 grade 7 and 8 curricula was also undertaken. From these analyses, it is found that there are in fact barriers (Professional Development, Student/Teacher demographics, and teacher resources provided) that inhibit teachers from being able to incorporate content about these communities into the classrooms successfully. This thesis uses an Anti-racism educational framework (Dei, 1996) to assess curricular content and teacher practice. This thesis argues that some of the current curricula used by parts of the province are defined as "Eurocentric" and dishonest about the narrative surrounding Indigenous and African Nova Scotian populations.