Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Chapter 2: Organizing the Data -- Fifty Essential Canadian 20th Century Public Education Commission Reports


2.d
Fifty Essential Canadian 20th Century Public Education Commission Reports
    Previous chapter two sections have introduced the reader to the utility provided by Goulson's list and offered a chronological listing of public education policy documents produced in Canada dating from 1787 (section 2.c). Section 2.e, linking to the website, introduces some of the documents available after cessation of Goulson's list in 1983. The reader is reminded that Goulson's list was originally sorted by province and that the re-sorting of Goulson's list is part of the project to analyse Canadian public education policy historically using comparative analysis of the key public education reports of the 20th century (the project is limited to the 20th century). In order to construct a reliable comparative, a comparative with vital data, it was necessary to determine how the documents that Goulson helped to identify as historically significant to each province/territory (Goulson included territorial products), collocated with each other. 
   This section introduces the reader to the reference and compendium “Fifty Essential Canadian 20th Century Public Education Commission Reports,” and online reference providing access to key Canadian public education documents of the 20th century either through transcription or links. With transcription, the researcher has a searchable data set for key themes to analyse.  The contents section from each key document is regularized with its historical counterparts for comparative purposes. Essentially, a compendium with the “Contents” containing essential commissions and reports of the 20th century is available on the home page at http://www.canadianeducationalpolicystudies.ca.
    I hadn't completely linked the separate sections of 1960 PEI and 1994 Ontario was incomplete, although the Ontario Ministry of Education makes it available online and the link was made available. It can be said that without such a resource, that the long view of Canadian public education policy history for the 20th century is exclusive information available to only a handful (if that) of scholars and academics because the comparative is only achievable through a concentrated study of a range of commission reports that do not exist in one depository and whose titles are lost information when they are not brought into collocation through such a project. This is a one-stop overview that permits Canadian public education policy history to be essentially brought back into the public domain. Nobody knows where Canadian public education policy history is because it was constructed by public representatives and committed to commission reports. Until the example of Ontario’s 1968 Hall-Dennis, such commissions were not mass-produced for public consumption. 
     What I indicate to the reader concerning the website data is the following: Tables, footnotes, contents, appendices are not available on all documents. Spell check and paragraphing is in progress. Checked documents are listed as CanEdPolDoc followed by document complete year with province name and chapter number. Permission to link PEI 1971 & 1974 granted by Verner Smitheram. Permission to copy and link "An Overview of the Educational System in Canada" granted by TVOntario. 1969 Ontario, Permission Pending. 

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