Resumen de Pedagogical knowledge as a distinct object in the history of education: the example of Ontario, Canada
Using the example of the 1937 Ontario elementary school reforms, this article will make the case for considering pedagogical knowledge as a distinct object in the history of education. In this context, pedagogical knowledge refers to the conceptual and normative aspects of teaching and learning that seek to inform the decision-making of the teacher in relation to children (childhood), teaching, and learning. It refers to the knowledge that defines children and what teachers need to know about children in order to teach effectively. This is in distinction to pedagogical content knowledge which refers to knowledge of subject matter and strategies of delivering or teaching the content of that subject. The argument will be developed by examining a long series of pedagogical documents issued by the Department of Education that elementary school teachers used to guide their practices. It will identify a science of education and child development and psychology that, despite political and cultural change, defined pedagogical knowledge in the elementary schools of Ontario for a period of 60 years. This article will make the case that the Pedagogical knowledge defined in the 1937 Ontario education reforms in the document Programme of Studies for Grades 1–6 of the Public and Separate Schools comprises a history that is distinct and represents a subset of the main patterns of change in the historiography of Ontario education. During the twentieth century elementary schooling in Ontario can be viewed as the result of two discontinuities or epistemic shifts. The first occurred in 1937 with the adoption of a science of education, child development, and psychology as the dominant form of pedagogical knowledge. The second happened in the mid 1990s when most provinces in Canada including Ontario undertook a centrally driven reform of schooling and curriculum and a shift to outcomes-based learning and a pedagogy of measurement. As such, the latter represented a paradigm shift in the aim and intent of elementary schooling, teaching and learning.
