Salon

Salon is the quarterly digital newsletter of the Social Studies Educators Network of Canada (SSENC). It features classroom strategies, critical reflections connecting research and practice, organization news, sponsored content, and commentary on current themes in history and social studies education. Salon fosters community building among Canadian educators through relevant information and curated resources.

Salon Autumn 2026

President’s message – Autumn 2026

As social studies educators, we are often tuned in to the patterns of the past and the present. We can see the effect of the past on the present. Our role is to bring those effects to light for our students so that they can engage thoughtfully with the complexities of the present.

Engaging (and free!) learning resources from Veterans Affairs Canada

In Canada, we are fortunate to live in peace, thanks to the service and sacrifice of those who have served in uniform across our military history. Leading up to Veterans’ Week (November 5-11), help your students better understand the present by examining the past. Our free print and online resources are designed to help students of all ages remember and recognize Canada’s Veterans.

Commemorating Canada’s First Internment Operations

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress’s National Internment Committee, along with SSENC, is inviting teachers to bring an often-overlooked chapter of Canadian history into their classrooms: Canada’s first national internment operations (1914–1920).

Bringing Public Policy into the Classroom with Policy 101

How do governments make decisions that shape our everyday lives? And how can young people better understand and engage in those decisions?

Book Review: Rescuing Reason: How History Education Can Help Save Democracy

As a Social Studies teacher in Alberta for the past 33 years, I have never felt the weight of our profession quite as acutely as I do today. Political polarization is reshaping our communities, an “age of distraction” fights for our students’ attention, and the coming wave of artificial intelligence promises to fundamentally challenge our perceptions and understandings of teaching and learning. In these challenging times, where many of us are experiencing a sense of moral distress as we struggle to preserve and sustain the foundational project of our liberal democracy, Dr. Carla L. Peck and Dr. Alan Sears have delivered a timely call to action with Rescuing Reason: How History Education Can Help Save Democracy.

Past Articles

Samara Centre

Samara Centre

The Samara Centre for Democracy has been providing insights into our political system for decades. And in the last few years they have been developing podcasts you can use in the classroom

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National Internment Commemoration Day

National Internment Commemoration Day

Understanding our history and how it impacts our future has never been more important. One key event in Canadian history is the interment of enemy aliens during World War One. The Canadian First World War Internment Fund has worked with the Critical Thinking Consortium (TC2) to create free resources for teachers to help plan lessons which demonstrate how ultranationalism has been a part of Canada’s history

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President’s Message: Fall 2025

President’s Message: Fall 2025

Welcome back to school! This issue of Salon is dedicated to giving you some foundational tools and resources to help you take inquiry to the next level in your social studies classroom.

Maybe you are looking for ways to strengthen your students’ historical thinking skills. BC educator Nathan Moes’ can get you started with Assessing Historical Thinking – a new resource to support your students with bite-sized tasks that highlight skills like corroboration, contextualization, close reading and sourcing.

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Policy 101

Policy 101

“Why do I need to follow this rule?” “Who makes the rules?” “Why don’t I get a say in the rules?”

While these may sometimes seem like rebellious questions from your students, they reveal curious minds that may not know yet that they have a passion for public policy!

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Formative Assessments to Build Historical Inquiry Skills

Formative Assessments to Build Historical Inquiry Skills

As social studies educators, we know that guiding students to think like historians means more than having them memorize dates or recount facts. Real historical inquiry rests on a set of disciplinary practices—sourcing, contextualizing, close‐reading, and corroborating evidence—that require deliberate scaffolding and feedback.

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SSENC Fall Conferences

SSENC Fall Conferences

The Social Studies Educators Network of Canada (SSENC) is excited to be present this Fall at our member provincial associations’ fantastic professional development opportunities across the country! Look for our booth on the 24th of October at the B.C., Manitoba and Nova Scotia Social Studies Teachers’ Association events. Additionally, SSENC will be engaging with P.E.I. teachers on November 6th and 7th.

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Countdown to SSENC’s 2025 AGM

Countdown to SSENC’s 2025 AGM

We’re now less than a month away from SSENC’s Annual General Meeting—an essential event that shapes the future of our organization. This year, we’ll be electing our executive and table officers for the 2025–2027 term.

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These are our archived issues of Salon, our newsletter.