Alberta curriculum framework includes promotion of oil and gas sector [Video]

A curriculum framework that calls on teachers to promote Alberta’s oil and gas industry to schoolchildren was quietly published months ago, to the surprise of education experts and the opposition.

The document was published online in April and includes a directive from Minister of Education Demetrios Nicolaides to teach K-12 students about “Alberta’s reputation as the most ethical producer of oil in the world,” and “the importance of natural resources in enabling and sustaining Alberta’s society and Albertans’ quality of life.”

Despite the framework being on the government website for six months, University of Alberta education professor Kent den Heyer told the IJF the development process was opaque, and few of his colleagues in the curriculum research community even knew about the minister’s directive.

“I reached out to some of my colleagues, some of whom were leaders of what they would call expert group consultation on social studies, and they had never seen that,” he said of …