Print, Profit and Pedagogy: The School Aids and Text Book Publishing Company

By:
MaryLynn Gagné
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The School Aids and Text Book Publishing Company operated in Saskatchewan from the mid-thirties through to 1978. This paper will examine how a small prairie publishing firm was able to thrive through the Depression years and beyond by employing local school teachers, artists, amateur historians, superintendents and other educators as writers, by marketing directly to teachers and to the provincial Department of Education, and by exploiting the crucial role that the authorized textbook played in classroom instruction in Canada during that time period. It will also explore, through examples and content analysis, distinctive features of selected School Aids publications including a strong interest and focus on the history of Aboriginal peoples on the prairies, an emphasis on “progressive” teaching methods, incorporation of considerable local content, translation of homegrown textbooks into French, and suggestions of socialist leanings.


Keywords: Publishing History, Textbook Publishing, Educational Publishing
Stream: Books, Writing and Reading
Presentation Type: 30 minute Paper Presentation in English
Paper: A paper has not yet been submitted.

MaryLynn Gagné

Education Liaison Librarian, University of Saskatchewan Library, Education Library
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, CANADA

MaryLynn Gagné is Education Liaison Librarian at the Education Library, University of Saskatchewan. She holds an MLS from the University of Alberta, and has been a Reference and Instruction Librarian with the University of Saskatchewan since 1988. Since 1992 she has been responsible for the development, organization and bibliographic management of the Historical Textbook Collection, a unique provincial resource of authorized Saskatchewan textbooks and locally published materials.

Ref: B06P0021