By adopting a critical pedagogy lens, and conducting a Textual Analysis, this thesis examined the literatures on secondary school English Language Arts curricula of British Columbia (BC), and English curricula of Ontario (ON). With the research question –how (if at all) are the English Language Arts curricula of BC and the English curricula of ON that focus on poetry, influenced by multiculturalism? – I studied the strengths and weaknesses of both the curriculums, particularly with their focus on multiculturalism and presented the implications of the limitations that emerged. The strengths of secondary school BC English Language Arts curricula focused on multicultural poetry are;core competencies fostering intercultural communication skills, big ideas nurturing empathy, collectivism, Freirean critical consciousness and praxis, appreciation of First Peoples’ traditions, promotion of social justice, flexibility and interdisciplinary space for teachers and students. The strengths of secondary school ON Englis hcurricula focused on multicultural poetry are; student autonomy, critical classroom discussions, and fostering of interpersonal and intrapersonal skills. The study also assessed the implications of three major limitations: 1. lack of teacher prompts and vagueness around the implementation of BC curricula, 2. Overcrowding of ON curricula, and 3. Dearth of specific multicultural contents such as textbooks or resources for classroom perusal.This study found that poetry within the curricula of BC and ON, is only minimally influenced by multiculturalism. My thesis contributes to the English Language Arts/English curricula of BC and ON, teacher education programs and to the larger discourse of Canadian multiculturalism by providing suggestions for curriculum developers, policy makers and teacher educators.
