History as a ‘GPS’: On the uses of historical narrative for French Canadian students’ life orientation and identity

Thisarticlepresentstheresultsofastudythatanalysesstudents’historicalnarrativesofthenationinrelationtohistoricalconsciousnessandhowtheirsenseofself-identificationwithgroupsaffectstheirnarrativestructureandorientation.ThisstudywasconductedwithFrenchCanadianstudentsregisteredintwohighschools(n=58)andoneuniversity(n=18)inOttawa,thefederalcapitalofCanada.Ifoundthatastrongsenseofidentificationleadsyoungpeopletoconstructmoreengagingandmilitantstoriesofthecollectivepast,withgreaterhistoricalappropriation(usingthecollective‘we’)andasenseofcontinuitywithpastactualities.IthendiscusstheimplicationsofthisstudyforresearchonthenarrativecompetenceofhistoricalconsciousnessandwhathistoryeducationmightdoinschooltopromotehistoricalconsciousnessinCanada.

Recent studies have explored the relationship between students' ethnic and religious identitiesandnationalhistory (Barton,1996;Epstein,1998;BartonandMcCully,2005BartonandMcCully, ,2010Carretero et al., 2012;Peck, 2010;Sáiz Serrano and López Facal, 2016). Their findings yield importantinsightintohowhistoryandidentityworkinschoolandotherculturalsettings.They show, among other things, that positive emotional ties to the nation make students accept more readily the dominant national narrative, often in terms of collective membership and mutualexperiences(e.g.ourcountry,wewon).CarlaPeck's(2010)studywithEnglishCanadian studentsinmulticulturalcontextsgoesfurther,suggestingthatethnicidentitiesseriouslyaffect how young people ascribe significance to events and adopt narratives of the collective past. Yet, there are important differences between 'ethnic' and 'national' identity groups that are often overlooked in the literature. As Will Kymlicka (1995) argues, ethnic groups are made up of individuals and families, often as a result of personal immigration, who share common ethnocultural traits. They wish to preserve these traits as part of their heritage and identity butwithinthepublicinstitutions,lawsandprinciplesofthestate.Nationalgroupsarehistorical communitieswithasocietalculture,moreorlessinstitutionallycomplete,claimingself-governing rightstoensurethefulldevelopmentoftheircultureovertime.Followingthepoliticaltheory ofKymlicka(1998:27),Idefine'societalculture'asaculture(setofbeliefs,socialforms,traits andcommonlanguage)sharedandusedinawiderangeofsocietalinstitutions,includingschools, media, law, economy and government, and which provides people with meaningful ways of life across the full range of human activities, encompassing both public and private spheres. Whilemostethnicminoritiesseekculturalaccommodationandmoreequitableinclusionwithin thedominantnationalnarrativesoastoavoidexclusion (Stanley,2006),nationalgroupswant to maintain distinctive cultures and historiographical narrations because they constitute the essenceoftheircommunityidentity.
While this undertaking may initially appear banal, it is far more complex and powerful thananticipated.AsRüsen(2005)stresses,theactivereconstructionofthepastasnarrativeis thecoreofengagementwithhistory (seeWaldiset al.,2015).Narrationisthusaparticularly relevanttoolforthisresearch.First,itplacesstudentsintheroleofnarratorswhohaveto mobilize historical knowledge in the form of a story that gives a particular orientation and meaningtothecollectivepast-asortofglobalpositioningsystem(GPS)forhistorypurposes.

Students' narrative orientations: The struggle for survival
This study reveals that young French Canadians are far from being historical amnesiacs, as oftenportrayedpublicly.Thegreatmajority(76percent)producedcoherentnarrativesusing temporal experience and imputing a particular orientation to past realities. Few participants presenteddescriptive(17percent)orunclear(7percent)storiesonthehistoryofthenation. As might be expected, the length and depth of narratives varied significantly between high schoolanduniversitystudents.Theformerproducedrelativelyshorterstories(average:106 words)comparedwiththelatter(average:462words).Highschoolstudentsalsoincludedless historiographical information than their university counterparts, relying more extensively on one or two broader historical trends (e.g. colonization, war) and citing simplified periods of historicaldevelopment(e.g.discovery,French/Englishwars,Francophoneschoolquestion Thesedays,weareamuchlargerpopulationwithanincreasingnumberofFrenchschoolsbut thestruggletopreserveourstatusasaminoritywithcollectiverightsandanofficiallanguageis stillpresent.
These key episodes in national history are not presented as isolated incidents. Rather, they are part of a distinctive emplotment, as recurrent elements of tension and rupture for the developmentofthecollectivelifeofFrenchCanadians.Theconclusionoftheirstoriesisequally affected by this narrative emplotment. In organizing the internal unity of their stories via a conceptofcontinuousFrench/Englishstruggle,studentsmadetheexperiencesofthecollective pastrelevantforpresent-daypurposes.Whilesomehaddistinctivelypositive/negativevisions ofFrenchCanada,themajorityoptedfortheperspectiveof'adversity' (seealsoLétourneau, 2006(seealsoLétourneau, ,2014.Thisparticularconceptofmilitancyreferstoapermanentstateofstruggletomake the most of adverse life situations. Stories of adversity are not exclusively about a negative visionofthepast.Insteadtheybridgetimedifferenceswithaconceptionofhumanexperiences characterizedbyasocietalconditionofseriousandcontinuousdifficulty;vigilanceisde rigueur. Thefollowingexcerptisanexampleofanadversityperspective: I know that, to protect themselves, Francophones developed strategies to preserve their language,theirculture,andtheirreligionwiththeestablishmentofCatholicschoolboards.With these,theFrenchpopulationofOntarioisstillalivetodaybecausepeoplehavealwaysfought toothandnailforsurvivaldespitestrongassimilationpressure.

Why use the narrative orientation of French Canadian survival?
Our participants could structure the history of the nation in many different ways. After all, there are multiple stories of the nation to which students are exposed and that they could drawfrominCanadiansociety.Yet,themajoritypreferredtostructuretheirnarrativesalong thestorylineofFrenchCanadiancollectivememory.Unlikeethnicgroups,Canadiannational minorities possess a more or less complete culture, with a shared language and collective memory, that preceded the creation of the country. For French Canadians, their historical culturehasbenefitedfromwell-establishedcollectiverightsandinstitutionsmakingitpossible to preserve and diffuse this culture over time. So it is very likely that young Francophones fromOttawa,liketheircounterpartsinQuébec(seeLétourneau,2006),madeuseofhistorical references, teleological schemes and representations of the nation that are salient in French Canadian popular culture, remembrance and flag ceremonies, films, television, heritage sites, communityactivitiesandfamilystories. Schoolhistoryalsoplaysakeyroleinthisprocess.Indeed,studentsinFrancophoneschools in Ontario learn Canadian history from the perspective of French Canadian development in the country. Curricular objectives explicitly promote 'Francophone culture' and 'identitybuilding' (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2013) as a way to counter the dominant influence ofEnglishCanadianculturalidentity.Publicschoolingisclearlynotneutralwithregardtothe commongoodofFrenchCanadianculture.Tobe'goodcitizens'intheOntarioFrench-speaking curriculumisnotequatedwithCanadiancitizenship;itmeansbeingpartofahistoricalculture basedonFrenchlanguage,memoryandidentity. Theovertrelationshipbetweenschoolhistoryandidentityraisesthequestionofnational identification.Whatimpact,ifany,doesidentityhaveonhistoricalconsciousnessandnarratives ofthenation?Thisisanimportantquestionasresearchrevealssomethingnovelinthestudyof narrativecompetence:theimpactofthenarrator'sidentityonthestructureofnarrative.Works innarratologyhavesuggestedthatwhatnarratorssayisasmuchaboutthemselvesasabout theworldtheywishtodescribe (Carr,1961;Carr,1986).Yet,tothisday,welackempirical knowledgeonthisparticularrelationshipbetweenidentityandnationalnarrationinCanadian education.
Interestingly, our results present little variation between a strong identification with 'Canada' and 'French Canada'. This is surprising, as a strong sense of identification with the country as a nation would normally favour a Canadian nation-building type of narrative. But fewstudents(6percent)followedthispattern.Whatthissuggestsisthatourparticipantsdid notseethetwocommunitiesasmutuallyexclusive.Infact,Francophonestudentsconsidered CanadianidentityasaconduitforstructuringaFrenchCanadiannarrativeofthenation.Thisisan importantfindingthatrefutesacceptednationalistviewsofhistoryeducation.Canadianidentity canfunctionasaconvenientstandpointforpeopletonarratedifferenthistoriesofthenation. Identity-building is a complex process, and in multicultural states it is hazardous to pretend thatnationalbelongingcanbeunderstoodinonlyonesingularwaybyitsmembers,orthatwe shouldgenerateonlyonenationalnarrativetopromotesolidarityandsocialcohesion.While theinterpretativeworkofhistoricalconsciousnessistiedtoaprocedureofidentity-building, thisprocessisalwaysrelationalbetweentheindividualandthecollectiveself.Humanagencyis thusimportantforunderstandinghistoricallearning.AsRüsenremindsus,'theconstitutiverole ofneedsandinterestsindealingwiththepast,andthefunctionofrememberinginorienting human activity and forming all kinds of identity are of constitutive importance for historical studies' (Rüsen,2005:131).

Discussion and conclusion
In this article, I argued that historical narratives are central to our ability to make sense of the past and orient ourselves in the course of time. Studies of young people's narratives of thecollectivepastofferimportantfindingsforthedevelopmentofthenarrativecompetence. Interestingly,Isuggestedthatthebulkofstudiesconductedonstudents'narrativecompetence haveexaminedthesubstantiveknowledgeoftheirstoriesand,toalesserdegree,theirnarrative orientationandidentity.Littlehasbeensaidonthenatureofhistoricalnarrativeandtheprocess ofnarratingthehistoryofthenation.Thisisironic.Manyhistoriansandeducatorsusenarrative intheirrespectiveworks,whetheritisinthebookstheyuse,themoviestheyshow,theexhibits theyvisitorthelecturestheyperform.