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Teachers: Guide your students

Discover the many educational applications of the Shared Memory exhibition, designed in partnership with specialists in educational materials. Take a look at the timeline at the top of the interactive map. This timeline includes 8 chronological periods, which are commonly used in current Quebec and Canadian history curricula.

Image showing an example of navigation by themes for the 1840-1896 epoch of the exhibition

The content of the exhibition has therefore been structured in such a way as to be divided into chronological segments that correspond to those of the most common teaching programs. In concrete terms, the chronological segments used to divide the content of the exhibition are the same as those used in the curricula for teaching the history of Quebec and Canada in Quebec high schools. These are presented in ministerial documents of the province of Quebec* as follows:

  • Origins to 1608: The experience of the Indigenous peoples and the colonization attempts
  • 1608-1760: The evolution of colonial society under French rule
  • 1760-1791: The Conquest and the change of empire
  • 1791-1840: The demands and struggles of nationhood
  • 1840-1896: The formation of the Canadian federal system
  • 1896-1945: Nationalisms and the autonomy of Canada
  • 1945-1980: The modernization of Québec and the Quiet Revolution
  • From 1980 to our times: Societal choices in contemporary Québec

Within each historical period of the exhibition, the images are divided into different themes. These themes have been created so that they can be linked to the specific knowledge elements most commonly used in Quebec and Canadian history curricula. By way of example, here are a few image themes associated with the period 1840-1896.

Image showing an example of navigation by themes for the 1840-1896 epoch of the exhibition

Each of these themes features images related to the content of this period of the history curriculum :

  • The theme of Québec City's surroundings presents images of the transformation of villages around the city in the mid-19th century, illustrating the process of urbanization that was taking shape at the time.
  • The theme of the presence of Indigenous peoples in the second half of the 19th century features images depicting relations between First Nations and the rest of the population at the time.
  • The theme of Québec, city of power, features images of the various buildings used by parliamentarians in the city in the mid-19th century. This is an opportunity for your students to make connections with the eras of Lower Canada and of the United Province of Canada.

The entire content of the exhibition has been designed to enable teachers to make relevant and direct links with the content of their school curricula.

If you're a teacher, you're invited to guide your students through the exhibition. Ask your students how the different themes in this exhibition relate to what they're learning in class. The exhibition as a whole is designed to enable students to see that the great history of the country, as they learn about it in class, has been concretely lived out over the centuries in the little history of the people of Québec City. The exhibition aims to bring to life the concepts learned in class, through visual archives.

Québec City's past illustrates how citizens have lived through the various historical periods of the country. It focuses on the coexistence of communities established on the territory at different times in the past, from the First Nations, to people with French and British backgrounds, as well as to people from every region of the world.

So, why not take your students on a trip into Québec City's past?

* History programs differ from province to province. We invite you to refer to your province's educational curriculum to determine the chronological correspondences that apply between these periods and your history teaching structure.