Chapter 1: The Data -- Examining Canadian public education policy products of the 20th century

1.a

The significance of public education commission reports to the “big picture”

   The essential text shaping Canadian public education legislation is the “commission report.” Commission reports make recommendations to the legislature, the highest provincial structure managing public education in Canada as a consequence of control over education as written in the Constitution of Canada. The content of the commission reports is either misunderstood or considered sacred, not available for study, outside investigation. This attitude may exist because the documents are products of public government, but the content of a commission report is primarily misunderstood when it is confused as citing the legislation and the regulations. Regulations through School Acts designate the legal functioning of the bureaucratic system. There are some commission reports that are mainly instrumental, but most reports contain text that documents current economic and social conditions, make observations and recommendations to deal with them, suggest new adjustments and new institutions. Commission reports have covered curriculum, subject areas, schools boundaries, bussing, teachers’ salaries and any range of public education policy from local to provincial. Commissioners report their findings to legislatures. The reports make recommendations that provincial and territorial legislatures can refer to in order to direct their ministries of public education and make changes in legislation. Public government commission reports are cultural and ideological. Commission reports are also a specialized type of literature. When considered as historical products that are amenable to chronological arrangement, these reports construct a linear Canadian picture describing Canadian public education. Together they create an available data source facilitating that which is often dismissed as either impossible or antithetical. The synthesis reveal the major themes, and the historical and ideological shifts occurring in Canadian twentieth century public education policy.