February is Black History Month in Canada — an opportunity for students to focus on the legacy of Black Canadians, past and present. A government of Canada website gathers information and resources for celebrating this month (https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/campaigns/black-history-month.html) that may be helpful to teachers aiming to explore an important piece of Canadian history and culture. A new title from Nimbus Publishing is an additional resource: Amazing Black Atlantic Canadians by Lindsay Ruck (nimbus.ca). Another new book written by Dr. Samantha Cutrara and published by UBC Press entitled Transforming the Canadian History Classroom: Imagining a New “We” will be of interest to history teachers who seek to fully engage their students as they learn to understand the history of our country. The book is a response to the evolving demographics of our ethnically and culturally heterogeneous population and is a call for a radically innovative approach that places students—the stories they carry and the histories they want to be part of—at the centre of history education. Instead of separating “us” from “them” in examinations of our history, Dr. Cutrara demonstrates how to develop an inclusive sense of national identity in all Canadian youth (ubcpresss.ca).
