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Addressing sexting in sexual health education classrooms is one way of supporting young people to become good sexual citizens and to emphasise respect and consent in their sexual practices and in their lives. While a fair amount of research has worked with youth to understand their motivations for sexting, less research has been conducted with in-service teachers to understand their perspectives, pedagogical approaches, and beliefs regarding young people and sexting. Set in this context, this paper discusses findings from interviews with Canadian teachers who were teaching a new Ontario Health and Physical Education curriculum that included discussions of sexting. Our findings suggest that many teachers are still engaging discourses of risk, shame and blame when they talk to their students about sexting. Likewise, longstanding gender norms and stereotypical sexual scripts are evident in the ways in which many teachers both understand and teach sexting. Some teachers, however, are engaging in more promising pedagogical practices that frame sexting as having a range of uses, outcomes, and purposes, painting a more holistic picture of young people's sexting landscapes. Findings from this paper may be useful for educators and policymakers creating sexting curriculum for young people in educational settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the imperative for social work educators and professionals to integrate environmental dimensions into curricula and field practice purposefully. Advocates argue that this integration is vital for the profession to effectively contribute to social and environmental justice. Despite these calls, there is a paucity of scholarly attention to the extent of environmental justice considerations in social work curricula. In response, this study employs in-depth interviews with program directors and curriculum content analysis at McGill University’s School of Social Work to assess the inclusion of environmental justice issues. The findings reveal that these issues are marginally and superficially integrated into the curriculum. Despite this, interview participants express confidence in social work students’ ability to support clients facing significant environmental challenges. This study suggests broadening the traditional ‘person-in-environment’ concept in social work education and practice to encompass the physical environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a response to multiculturalism's reductionist and othering constructions of Black presence in Canadian early childhood research and practice. We engage in possibilities for creating movement away from multiculturalism as the primary way of responding to anti-Blackness in Canadian early childhood education. We put forward orientations that emerge when we imagine the abolition of Canadian early childhood education pedagogies and curriculum that are shaped by neoliberal multiculturalism. We organize our abolitionist praxis in relation to what kinds of stories and modes of storytelling of Black life might be needed in early childhood education in Canada. We focus our attention on three interconnected pedagogical orientations: storying abolition geographies, storying Black ecologies, and storying Black aliveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the findings of a quantitative study of 1,698 public library websites in Australia, Canada, and the United States over a period of three years using a spreadsheet protocol. The purpose of the research was to evaluate public library websites, available online sources, and whether library staff were available to respond to users' questions and concerns regarding the website. Descriptive statistics are used to report the results. The study provides public library website information regarding which protocol criteria each country's libraries attained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an increasingly globalized world, there have been mounting calls for social accountability with respect to recognizing Indigenous and nonwhite human rights within nation states. Thus, this perspective paper reflects on the Canadian occupational therapy journey for social change with a specific focus on Indigenous fieldwork experiences. First, we describe the importance of cultural safety in occupational therapy practice and partnership development. Then we profile a unique and successful fieldwork experience as a guide for facilitating transformative learning during an Indigenous fieldwork placement. The results of a national portrait evaluation of Indigenous fieldwork across Canada and considerations for future actions are also presented. The time is right to create further opportunities to develop creative, constructive dialogue and strategic thinking to engage in and evolve occupational therapy fieldwork education in forward-looking partnerships with Indigenous stakeholders, services and communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the questions and approaches of a five-nation cross-cultural study of state-based curriculum-making discussed in this issue ofJCS. The paper reviews the two decade-long interest of many nations in state-based curriculum-making and presents a framework for thinking about state-based curriculum-making as a tool of educational governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the discursive construction of ‘active citizenship’ within recent civics curriculum documents across three provinces in Canada. New secondary school civics curricula have emerged across liberal democratic states since the year 2000, presumably in response to the perception of youth as disengaged from political involvement. Many of the new curricula subsequently emphasize ‘active’ engagement within the polity. The central task of this paper is to better understand what such ‘active citizenship’ actually means, via the methodological tool of discourse analysis. Engaging a theoretical frame that incorporates Foucauldian governmentality theory and cultural theories of the role of the state in creating subjectivities, the paper ultimately argues that the ‘active citizen’ of contemporary civics curricula is, in fact, a deeply neoliberal subject. The article then draws on feminist theories of citizenship in order to assess the forms of exclusion that the curriculum documents inadvertently create, arguing that they ultimately participate in a long tradition of devaluing such elements of citizenship as relationality and emotional ties. We conclude that one of the fundamental goals of citizenship education – to expand access to citizenship participation for all – has failed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The internationalization of universities and the aging of the global population are two current issues that converge and challenge undergraduate gerontology curriculum development in Canada. One response to this challenge is to envision an intercultural gerontology curriculum. What might this curriculum encompass? How might it be taught? An exploratory study was undertaken to address these two questions. This paper presents findings from this study based primarily on interviews with university-based stakeholders from Canada, the United States, and Europe. Thematic analysis of the interviews resulted in five themes: multiple perspectives on cultural diversity; the dynamic nature of cultural diversity and aging; flow of an intercultural curriculum; institutional culture and intercultural curricula; and principles and practice for intercultural gerontology. Framed by principles of gerontology theory and educational approaches, this paper focuses on the principles and practice suggested by study participants. Scaffolding learning, active learning strategies, experiential learning opportunities, teacher modelling, and internet-based learning are discussed as key to intercultural learning. An appendix includes a list of resources that may be useful to developing an intercultural gerontology curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores discourses of affirmative consent in sex education curriculum and policy. It traces the ways in which discourses of consent have emerged in sex education debates, focusing first on the activism of two young women in Ontario, Canada who lobbied the provincial government to include discussions of consent in a new Health and Physical Education (HPE) curriculum. Their activism is instructive for the ways in which their lobbying was eventually subsumed into the logics of curriculum, with learning outcomes and lesson plans taming the passion of their protest. As others see in sex education the answer to sexual violence, we cannot forget that sex education is, in part, a defence against passion, and that consent - once swallowed up by HPE - might also work to tame the unruliness of sexuality. Turning to age of consent laws - another arena where discourses of consent discipline the sexuality of young people - I ask how our pedagogical and legal address to sexuality paradoxically refuses its force. This is the central argument of this article - namely, that the concept of consent brings with it, into education, a procedural logic that misrecognises sexuality as a transparent, communicative, and rational experience and mistakes compliance for learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes a contribution to the field of French immersion studies by examining student attitudes towards the secondary French immersion curriculum. Some of the students had made the decision to stay engaged with the programme while others had become disengaged from it. Drawing on the results of interviews with 23 students in a high school in Ottawa, Canada, the study reveals that the attitudes of engaged and disengaged students were informed by the everyday realities of their respective linguistic and academic situations. Students referred to their family backgrounds and interests in learning and using French inside and outside of school, to their learning styles, to the marks they obtained in school, and to their educational experiences. At times, engaged and disengaged students also shared overlapping attitudes, informed by factors such as language, class, culture and race. This paper concludes with a brief discussion of the implications of the study for the future curriculum development of French immersion programmes in Canada and in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers a critical discourse analysis of a life skills career education curriculum for schools in British Columbia, Canada. This curriculum calls for the development of a set of life skills that are positioned as central to students’ employability. At the heart of the curriculum is a focus on personal development, in particular, the need for students to develop self understanding and learn from role models how to face and conquer adversity. This paper builds on existing criticisms of how notions of employability and life skills have displaced policy orientations and interventions that might address structural problems of unemployment, with a personal development orientation that places the burden of change and adaptation entirely on individual workers. The goal of this inquiry was to illuminate the assumptions and the underlying ideological terrain giving shape to this curriculum. Informed by the critical frameworks of Nancy Fraser and Ulrich Beck, as well as critical curriculum scholars, this inquiry found a number of disturbing silences and ambiguities in the personal development orientation. On the one hand, the lessons acknowledged the significance of emotions in students’ lives and the possibilities for students to learn from family, community and the wider society. On the other hand, the emphasis on individual responsibility and a heroic orientation to transcending adversity reflects the dominant neo‐liberal ideology wherein future employment depends on having the ‘right’ attitude and making the right choices – contextual and systemic factors fall away. Life skills curricula, like the one examined in this project, are important sites of investigation for they reveal the major shifts that have occurred in the political economy of career and worker education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rationale: Public health and preventive medicine (PHPM) has been recognized internationally as a physician specialty, but national parallels and differences exist between training contexts. This paper reviews PHPM training and employment in Canada, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Methods: Information gathered from relevant accreditation bodies and literature searches was used to create descriptive profiles of national training demographics and structure and a narrative outlining trends and challenges facing the specialty. Results: Notable similarities and differences exist between national contexts. Key themes were differences in training strategies and practice scope, specialty stakeholders, certification structure, and funding. Recognition challenges faced the specialty across all six countries. Other challenges included unclear competencies and training strategies and a need for PHPM specialists to highlight their role in combating population health threats. Additional differences existed between comparator countries on the structure of training, funding sources for training programs, availability of training posts, and linkages with other physician specialties. Conclusion: Highlighting these themes is a first step to fostering training collaborations between PHPM specialist physicians to augment transnational action on global public health challenges and also supports PHPM physician educators with innovative solutions from abroad that might address domestic specialty challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the hidden gendered curriculum concealed in the texts, exhibitions and other structural devices of museums and what they teach visitors to see and think. Grounded in conceptualisations of culture, representation, and language, past feminist studies of museums and applying feminist visual discourse analysis (FVDA) we found hiding in plain sight in public museums in Canada and England a diversity of 'languages' that subversively aggrandised masculine power and privilege and (re)inscribed negative or limited understandings to women which we argue as feminist adult educators have epistemic, identity and agency consequences. We also argue that whilst museums are trying to address often centuries old exclusionary gendered practices progress is slow because these practices are so embedded and unconscious and reflect pervasive social notions of 'common sense'. Our study makes an important contribution to feminist museum studies by rendering visible a web of complex structural and textual gendered biases and to adult education. By adding museums to our curricula we can provide our students with a visual and immersive way to hone the critical visual literacy skills needed to understand more fully how both seen and unseen languages operate not just in the museum, but across society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper inquires into the experiences of an early childhood educator named Claire who taught a young girl with a chronic illness at East Willows Elementary School, a western Canadian elementary school. Using narrative inquiry as the methodology, Claire’s experiences in her curriculum making alongside Madeline a young girl with Turner syndrome were explored and analyzed. In navigating through this curriculum around chronic illness, Claire negotiated liminal spaces between health and unhealth, sickness and wellness, capability and desire using stories of playful curriculum making. Through these liminal spaces, Claire created forward-looking stories of a new curriculum; a curriculum defined by playfulness, counterstories of play, the lived and planned curriculum, and the sharing of authority. This playful curriculum, this curriculum of play, became the negotiated story to live by for Claire and Madeline at East Willows Elementary School. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper highlights the authors’ experiences of negotiating a curriculum of narrative inquiry identity explorations in pre-service teacher education. Attending to both teacher education students’ evolving stories to live by, as well as our stories to live by as teacher educators, shapes a meeting place for, and of, shifting identities. The authors offer autobiographical narrative accounts of narrative inquiry practices in two Canadian teacher education programs and, as a result, foreground a curriculum of narrative inquiry identity explorations as an important aspect of teacher preparation programs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aims: As individuals grow older they are more likely to experience health-related changes that affect driving. Concerns for both older drivers and public safety necessitate rigorous and valid occupational therapy screening processes for evaluating fitness to drive. This paper focuses on the current level of clinical training for addressing the issue of medical fitness to drive in Canada. Methods: A survey was sent to all 14 university occupational therapy programs to determine the level of training offered for screening medically at-risk older drivers. Data were analyzed using NVivo 8 and several themes emerged. Results: Types of training and learning resources to address this issue varies considerably across programs. Faculty reported graduating students have sufficient competency to perform brief office-based screening but not a comprehensive evaluation. Conclusions: Standardization of curriculum across occupational therapy programs on this topic is needed as well as development of training opportunities for advanced levels of competency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the process involved in creating a community-based training curriculum designed to build capacity and foster new knowledge in support of HIV/AIDS education. Highlighted are the challenges and triumphs incurred while working with community and academic partners to ensure the production of an adaptable curriculum designed to accommodate diverse teaching and learning styles. The curriculum provides teachers, community leaders and peer educators with knowledge and skills to competently deliver HIV/AIDS information, regardless of previous training in sexual health education. Educators are encouraged to adapt the curriculum according to community/classroom needs. Also highlighted is the need for creating further opportunities that enable teachers, community practitioners and researchers to collaborate around issues that influence learners' lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kaupapa Māori theory was conceptualized in the 1980s in New Zealand as a framework for revolutionizing Indigenous education. Its success marks it as a transformational praxis beneficial to educators beyond the shores of Aotearoa. This theory propounds a practical, proactive stance that enables a shift in thinking away from the psychology of de-colonization towards a “conscientization” or consciousness raising which Friere says can occur when a people take action against the oppressive elements in their lives. In this paper I provide an overview of the current state of Aboriginal education in Canada, citing examples of Canadian instructors who envisage similar self-empowering pedagogy. In addition, I highlight a Canadian case study to demonstrate the process of critical consciousness underway at a First Nations school in Aklavik, NWT, where teachers are employing Kaupapa Māori theory and culture-based curriculum for positive outcomes. This focus serves as a critical lens to educators, policy makers, and other stakeholders who might want to draw more from the transformative power of the Māori framework as counter strategy to Eurocentric curricula and colonial paradigms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Given that the health of the nation is often interpreted in and through the health of the nation's youth, the threat of the ‘childhood obesity epidemic’ garners much attention and it is hardly surprising that physical education has been recruited in the ‘war on [childhood] obesity'. This paper explores how students aged 13–15 years, at a secondary school in Toronto, Canada, make sense of, negotiate and embody the health messages embedded within the obesity-informed Health and Physical Education (HPE) curricula. A post-structural analysis of student narratives reveals the ways in which notions of biocitizenry constitute a visibly ‘healthy’, gendered, engaged, normalized body. The ‘good’ HPE student negotiates health discourse in productive and responsive ways, constructing a virtuous subjectivity and alienating the unruly or undisciplined, unhealthy body in HPE. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper explores how the anti-oppression framework in the curriculum of schools of social work in Canada is co-opted into the neo-liberal and post-colonial structures of the wider society. First, the authors critically examine why an element of oppression either becomes essentialized as an autonomous site, that is, de-historicized, or understood in binary or dichotomous ways (i.e. black/white, gay/not gay) within the anti-oppressive framework. Second, the authors show how forms of safe knowledge are produced in the academy as faculty draw on their privileged social locations of teaching, while engaging in critical and progressive social change work that reflects their scholarship interest areas. Third, the authors suggest ways in which the anti-oppression framework itself can be challenged to make it a more viable and useful approach in social work classrooms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper discusses five work-related secondary school courses in Canada, providing an empirical account through which a new way of conceptualising vocational education is developed. Using a case study approach, we identify the mutually reinforcing dimensions of education – from policy to the course experience – that supported the enactment of an education–industry dialogue. We propose that, by constructing a metaphorical bridge between school and work, such a dialogue with a vocational community of practice is what made these courses ‘vocational’. The concept of dialogism allows us to characterise vocational education in a way that accounts for the flexible and dynamic qualities of the enacted curricula which were observed and interpreted across the case studies. In this conceptualisation, the teacher with prior industry experience embodies the dialogue and constructs a dialogic curriculum. The analysis builds on existing research which highlights the importance of teacher identity and background by situating the mediational role of teacher identity within a multi-dimensional framework. The different dimensions of a course, such as pedagogy and assessment are not lost in this conceptualisation, but rather become the loci for the dialogue. The potential implications of this conceptualisation for vocational education are discussed in the conclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I explore the shifts that occurred early in my writing pedagogy while teaching high school in a small, aboriginal community in Canada's Northwest Territories. In three narratives, I highlight the moments that precipitated changes from which responsive writing practices emerged. I consider the narratives in light of the possibilities for the metaphor of 'habitable space'. Following Heidegger, I think of this space as a mode of existence rather than as an independent entity. The narratives serve as pedagogic entry points into an exploration of English language arts curriculum and as a description of the experiences of trying to live out theory and to write about teaching and learning experiences with an understanding that is never comprehensive and permits multiple interpretations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses some results of a qualitative study that explored both student and educator viewpoints regarding the inclusion of spirituality in social work pedagogy. A grounded theory research methodology was used to analyze data obtained from semi-structured individual interviews completed with eighteen participants-eight educators and ten students. Data analysis uncovered the following pedagogical issues: delineating between spirituality and religion, the marginalization of spirituality, creating contexts for discussions about spirituality, making connections with theories and practices, and utilizing class exercises. The research analysis supports the need to become more intentional about including spirituality in social work pedagogy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses two primary issues that arose from cataloging educational sites as part of the Cataloguing Internet Resources Project in Canada. First, the complex hierarchies in which many education-related resources are found is discussed-along with the need for new policies to determine ''extent'' for documents embedded in the interlinked bibliographic universe. Second, the concept of and the need to re-evaluate the definition of the ''edition statement'' in the Web environment are discussed. Overall, further communication is needed between the educational and cataloguing community to provide access to educational resources in the electronic environment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Regional geography courses have declined in status and number at many North American universities. Yet it is regional courses which students with limited geographical education at the high school level may identify as typical geography, and thus regional courses may play a significant role in recruitment of geography majors. Regional courses on the students' country or state/province offer an excellent opportunity to showcase how geographic perspectives can enrich our understanding of the familiar, both in terms of place and discipline. This paper discusses the pivotal role a regional geography course has been given in a new university's geography curriculum, and the innovative structuring of the course so as to avoid some of the deficiencies of common instructional patterns which may deter some students from pursuing further geographic education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A robust occupational perspective can fortify an occupational therapist's professional identity, which is especially important as occupational therapists can struggle with professional identity. Occupational therapy curricula are critical to the development of an occupational perspective. Recent graduates can offer valuable insights on an occupational perspective, having transitioned from occupation-centred curricula into often medicalised practice settings. This study explored how recent graduates from Canadian entry-level occupational therapy master's programs understand the concept of occupation. Using an interpretive descriptive approach, rooted in constructivism, 13 English-speaking graduates (2017, 2018, 2019) from Canadian entry-level occupational therapy master's programs were purposively recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyse data, informed by reflexivity and member-checking. Four themes were described: (1) occupation: more than doing, (2) occupation is broad, abstract, and context-dependent, (3) occupation is not well understood: the fall out, and (4) navigating the challenge of describing occupation. Participants' experiences aligned with much of the previous literature, including the challenges of describing occupation and frustrations with navigating this in practice. Yet, participants described how flexible and critical understandings of occupation facilitate the use of an occupational perspective across practice settings, supporting professional resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of religion in public education remains contentious in many countries, including Canada. As multiple religions fill the public sphere, some religious education is necessary if Canadians are to understand each other. Social studies is seen as an appropriate subject to include such education given its foci on diversity and citizenship. In this paper, I examine the degree to which the four western Canadian provinces address religious diversity in their social studies curricula. While religion is not absent from these curricula, the specific content expectations lack a sustained engagement with religious diversity. By contrast, European governments and intergovernmental organizations are considering whether religious education might facilitate peaceful coexistence in religiously plural societies. To emphasize this point, I highlight a recent European study entitled "Religion in Education: A Contribution to Dialogue or a Factor of Conflict in Transforming Societies of European Countries?" (REDCo). REDCo suggests there is a connection between the inclusion of some form of religious education in public education and a greater willingness of students to dialogue about important issues with people who hold a variety of religions and worldviews. Applying the relevant findings of REDCo to the western Canadian context, I conclude that the lack of religious education in social studies obstructs the implementation of a multicultural society by maintaining a secularist bias in public schools, contributing to the marginalization of religious minorities, failing to address the instrumentalization of religion and ignoring the connection between religious education and the promotion of citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent COVID-19 pandemic drew a sharp focus on existing inequities for racialized communities in Canada and globally. A paucity of research-informed transformative learning models in social work has resulted in the persistent centering of Western ways of knowing. Current efforts do not adequately address the nuances of systemic and structural racial inequities, leaving students unprepared to deal with these issues in the classroom and in practice. We propose critical race pedagogy as an essential framework to promote and enrich social work learning environments where students can engage in courageous conversations about race, racism, power and oppression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author questions what 'English' mightmean in the context of Canadian secondary school English classes, particularly given increased immigration and the variety of Englishes currently spoken in the country. Insights from research with internationally educated female teachers who have immigrated to Canada inform the discussion. Such insights serve to interrupt the taken for granted discourse of the Canadian-born (monolingual) English speaker, a discourse that is prevalent in Canadian English (as a subject) classes. Issues of power in relation to 'English' are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between September 1990 and June 1995, the Canadian province of Ontario experienced its first ever social-democratic government. This paper examines the record, in terms of both process and policy, of that government on educational equity at the elementary and secondary school levels. It reviews the government's record in educational equity and measures that record against the agenda the party had set for itself before the 1990 election. The government's policy-making on educational equity offers a rarely equalled case study of cross-purposes, non-communication, ostensibly wilful ignorance and crossed wires. The results have gone far to discredit educational equity as a meaningful (rather than symbolic) educational goal in Ontario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching courses that contain potentially high-emotional impact such as interpersonal violence (IV), have been noted as challenging. This is exacerbated during a pandemic when rates of IV are on the rise and requirements for physical distancing result in many courses being taught online. Although scholars have identified inherent challenges to teaching IV content online, additional considerations and necessary precautions in terms of student physical and emotional safety have not been adequately examined. Nor has the issue of instructor burden during the isolating restrictions of a pandemic been addressed. In this article, three Canadian social work scholars reconsider the challenges of online teaching environments involving IV course content and provide recommendations with an emphasis on risks related to the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor learning offers clear physical, cognitive, social-emotional and academic benefits for children and yet, it is considered a grassroots approach to teaching and learning in elementary schools. We examined teachers' perspectives on barriers and supports for outdoor learning in public elementary schools. Thirty-six teachers in (urban and rural) British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario (all female; Mean age = 43.84, SD = 10) participated in one of five virtually administered, semi-structured focus groups. Questions/prompts facilitated a discussion on teachers' experiences with barriers and supports for outdoor learning. Thematic analysis was used to identify main themes. Four interrelated themes and further sub-themes were found: 1) Teacher characteristics: interest/motivation to teach outdoors, preparedness, confidence in handling risks; 2) Systemic factors: principal support, school/district policies, funding/resources, curriculum, school schedule; 3) Culture: school culture, societal beliefs about education, family backgrounds; 4) Environmental factors: weather, built/natural environment, hazards. Systemic support is needed to integrate outdoor learning in schools. The findings in this study are relevant to health education specialists particularly focused on elementary school education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a rapid transition to online teaching for universities during the current and ensuing years. Graduate social work students need advanced knowledge and skills in leadership and supervision to become future leaders in human service organizations. However, social workers are often promoted to management from direct service positions without adequate skills and training and schools of social work may not formally educate students for leadership and administrative positions. Scholarly literature and research about leadership training for social work students, specifically online training, is also scarce. This article examines how two Canadian schools of social work addressed this gap through the development of graduate master of social work courses on leadership and supervision as mandatory components of their curriculum, through on-campus and online formats. Varying course approaches, topics, instructional strategies, assignments, and themes collected and analyzed from online surveys of student feedback are described, emphasizing strengths (satisfaction, relevance, benefits, course design), challenges (content, timing), and lessons learned (importance, new learning, confidence, future roles). Recommendations for similar educational disruptions, future courses, and practice implications, including teaching resources and instructor adaptability to support the rapid transition to online and blended learning formats, are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding of the alignment of key concepts in both evidence-based dentistry and information literacy could lead to greater collaboration between librarians and dental faculty. To identify these areas of partnership, a group of dental librarians from across North America created a rubric aligning information literacy concepts with competencies from dental education groups in the United States and Canada. The process included identifying relevant competencies, determining information literacy concepts for each competency, and adding learning outcomes scaled by Bloom's Taxonomy. The resulting rubric is useful for advocating librarian involvement in dental education curriculum, communication with dental faculty, and instruction planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC) has begun the transition to Competency by Design (CBD), a new curricular model for residency education that 'ensure[s] competence, but teaches for excellence'. By 2022, all Canadian specialty programs are anticipated to have completed the CBD cohort process which includes workshops facilitated by a Royal College Clinician Educator. Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, was granted approval by the RCPSC to embark upon an accelerated path to competency-based medical education (CBME) for all our postgraduate specialties. This accelerated path allowed us to take an institutional approach for CBME implementation and ensure that all specialities were part of a system-wide change. Our unique institution-wide approach to CBD is the first of its kind across Canada. From both a theoretical and practical perspective we undertook CBME using a systems approach that allowed us to build the foundations for CBME, implement the change, and plan for sustainability. This has created opportunities to bridge and connect the various programs involved in the implementation of CBME on Queen's campus. The systems approach was an essential part of our strategy to develop a community dedicated to ensuring a successful CBME implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of "professionalism" is core to many health professions including Physical Therapy (PT), and the development of competence in professionalism is a key requirement of entry-to-practice PT programs. However, the actual curriculum, teaching methodologies, and evaluation methods currently used to develop professional competence during PT training programs in Canada are unclear. This study explored current teaching practices, evaluation and curricular content related to professionalism in Canadian entry-to-practice PT programs. Results showed that teaching practices related to professionalism were not necessarily congruent with methods promulgated by educational theory and relied heavily on lecture, while more appropriate strategies such as simulation and role play were under-utilized. The numbers of different teaching methods utilized for specific aspects of professionalism were variable. Emphasis on different curricular areas related to professionalism also varied: communication was given the most emphasis while change management was under-represented. It is posited that teaching methods related to professionalism could be improved and curricular content and emphasis should also be reconsidered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What do secondary school students in Ontario, Canada, need to know about the world in which they live in? How did a secondary school 'World Politics' course that emerged in Ontario in the 1960s address this question? The 'World Politics' course that emerged in the 1960s clearly came about as a result of societal and educational developments. Educators in nineteenth-century Ontario felt no need for such a course. In more recent times, post-Second World War, the discipline of history underwent dramatic upheavals. The opportunities for new courses meant possibilities to reach out to new groups of students. Simultaneously, with this change, the importance of international relations in the history curriculum was reduced but this also allowed for its re-emergence elsewhere. Finally, 'World Politics' emerged as one of the responses to the need for an understanding of a much more complex world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Primary objective: This study represents the first large-scale research on high school philosophy in a public education curriculum in North America. Our objective was to identify the impacts of high school philosophy, as well as the challenges of teaching it in its current format in Ontario high schools. Research design: The qualitative research design captured the perspectives of students and teachers with respect to philosophy at the high school level. All data collection was structured around central questions to provide insight into the dynamics of their shared process of teaching/learning. Methods and procedures: We conducted semi-structured with interviews philosophy teachers (n = 9), classroom observations (n = 142), and student focus groups at 16 diverse high schools. Transcripts were coded according to themes. Results: Our findings reflect the complicated nature of philosophy as a discipline characterized by abstract thinking. Participants found it mind-opening, yet challenging, providing educational opportunities that are largely absent in conventional schooling. They saw multiple connections between philosophy and other subjects, but also appreciated its distinctive benefits. Teachers relied primarily on textbooks and contemporary media to deliver the curriculum. We found that a teacher's background in philosophy may influence what is taught in philosophy courses and how, especially given the flexibility of the provincial curriculum. Conclusions: The findings suggest that philosophy is a unique, beneficial subject that teachers enjoy teaching and students greatly value, characterizing it as both difficult and rewarding. Our study revealed that considerable differences exist in how philosophy is taught and learned around the province. The flexibility of the provincial curriculum appears to be an invitation for creative and responsive teaching; however, philosophy teachers' weak preparation can, by their own admission, be a hindrance to effective curriculum delivery. Studying philosophy enhances students' thinking about other academic areas of study and in some cases opens them up to new ways of thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose:Youth with disabilities are under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) in school and in the workforce. One encouraging approach to engage youth’s interest in STEM is through robotics; however, such programs are mostly for typically developing youth. The purpose of this study was to understand the development and implementation of an adapted robotics program for children and youth with disabilities and their experiences within it. Method:Our mixed methods pilot study (pre- and post-workshop surveys, observations, and interviews) involved 41 participants including: 18 youth (aged 6–13), 12 parents and 11 key informants. The robotics program involved 6, two-hour workshops held at a paediatric hospital. Results:Our findings showed that several adaptations made to the robotics program helped to enhance the participation of children with disabilities. Adaptations addressed the educational/curriculum, cognitive and learning, physical and social needs of the children. In regards to experiences within the adapted hospital program, our findings highlight that children enjoyed the program and learned about computer programming and building robots. Conclusions:Clinicians and educators should consider engaging youth with disabilities in robotics to enhance learning and interest in STEM. Implications for RehabilitationClinicians and educators should consider adapting curriculum content and mode of delivery of LEGO® robotics programs to include youth with disabilities.Appropriate staffing including clinicians and educators who are knowledgeable about youth with disabilities and LEGO® robotics are needed.Clinicians should consider engaging youth with disabilities in LEGO® to enhance learning and interest in STEM. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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This article examines two recent sets of public school curriculum standards—the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS), and Québec’s Ethics and Religious Culture program (ERC)—and their implications for religion and education. I argue that the ERC and the TEKS constitute radically different responses to growing religious diversity, as well as radically different answers to two crucial questions: how religion should be taught in public schools, and who should decide. This article compares and evaluates the two sets of curriculum standards and argues that the approach taken in Québec, though imperfect, is far superior to that taken in Texas. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Many students enter the Canadian college system with insufficient mathematical ability and leave the system with little improvement. Those students who enter with poor mathematics ability typically take a developmental mathematics course as their first and possibly only mathematics course. The educational experiences that comprise a developmental mathematics course vary widely and are, too often, ineffective at improving students’ ability. This trend is concerning, since low mathematics ability is known to be related to lower rates of success in subsequent courses. To date, little attention has been paid to the selection of an instructional approach to consistently apply across developmental mathematics courses. Prior research suggests that an appropriate instructional method would involve explicit instruction and practising mathematical procedures linked to a mathematical concept. This study reports on a randomized field trial of a developmental mathematics approach at a college in Ontario, Canada. The new approach is an adaptation of the JUMP Math program, an explicit instruction method designed for primary and secondary school curriculae, to the college learning environment. In this study, a subset of courses was assigned to JUMP Math and the remainder was taught in the same style as in the previous years. We found consistent, modest improvement in the JUMP Math sections compared to the non-JUMP sections, after accounting for potential covariates. The findings from this randomized field trial, along with prior research on effective education for developmental mathematics students, suggest that JUMP Math is a promising way to improve college student outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine current approaches and challenges to teaching ethics in entry-level Canadian physiotherapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) programs.Methods: Educators responsible for teaching ethics in the 28 Canadian PT and OT programs (n = 55) completed an online survey.Results: The quantity of ethics teaching is highly variable, ranging from 5 to 65 h. Diverse obstacles to ethics teaching were reported, relating to the organization and structure of academic programs, student issues and the topic of ethics itself. Specific challenges included time constraints, large class sizes, a lack of pedagogical tools adapted to teaching this complex subject, a perceived lack of student interest for the subject and a preference for topics related to clinical skills. Of note, 65% of ethics educators who participated in the survey did not have any specialized training in ethics.Conclusion: Significant cross-program variation in the number of hours dedicated to ethics and the diversity of pedagogical methods used suggests that there is little consensus about how best to teach ethics. Further research on ethics pedagogy in PT and OT programs (i.e. teaching and evaluation approaches and effectiveness of current ethics teaching) would support the implementation of more evidence-based ethics education.Implications for RehabilitationEthics educators in Canadian PT and OT programs are experimenting with diverse educational approaches to teach ethical reasoning and decision-making to students, including lectures, problem-based learning, directed readings, videos, conceptual maps and clinical elective debriefing, but no particular method has been shown to be more effective for developing ethical decision-making/reasoning. Thus, research on the effectiveness of current methods is needed to support ethics educators and programs to implement evidence-based ethics education training.In our survey, 65% of ethics educators did not have any specialized training in ethics. Ensuring that educators are well equipped to support the development of necessary theoretical and applied competencies can be promoted by initiatives including the creation of tailored ethics teaching and evaluation tools, and by establishing communities of practice among ethics educators.This survey identified heterogeneity in ethics teaching content, format and duration, and location within the curriculum. In order to be able to assess more precisely the place accorded to ethics teaching in PT and OT programs, careful mapping of ethics content inside and across rehabilitation programs is needed – both in Canada and internationally. These initiatives would help advance understanding of ethics teaching practices in rehabilitation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Architects as teaching artists working with teachers in Montreal public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditionally in Canada, attention to political or civic education has been at the primary- or secondary-school level. This study focuses on the place of civic engagement in introductory Canadian politics and government university courses in Canada by surveying instructors on their attitudes and approaches to civic engagement in the classroom. Surveying 28 instructors from across the country from large and small, English and French institutions, we compared survey results to collected course syllabi from the participants. In our study, we found that there is a clear disconnect between what instructors believe is the most effective way to foster civic engagement and what they are assigning their students to complete for course requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within an era of change to early childhood education and care, this case study of kindergarten classroom literacy curricula sought to understand the production and effects of the curriculum within one urban, Canadian full-day kindergarten that included culturally and linguistically diverse children. Central was a concern for the place of children’s interests and funds of knowledge within this production and what opportunities the curriculum provided for children’s literacy and identity options. Theoretically, the study drew on actor-network theory and multiliteracies. Using ethnographic tools, the study found that the curriculum diverged significantly from what might have been expected. It was comprised of literacy events characterized by educator attempts to control a dynamic classroom through the management of the children’s bodies and voices. Findings suggest that this constrained children from being curricular informants and limited their literacy and identity options. Major actors in the network that produced the classroom literacy curriculum were class size, materials and space with a surprising relative absence of the programmatic curriculum and assessment. The case demonstrates what can happen when a network of actors come together and other actors are not in place to promote literacy curricula that create opportunities to expand children’s communication and identity options. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background:Ed's Story: The Dragon Chroniclesis a verbatim play based on the journal of a 16-year-old with advanced cancer and transcripts from 25 interviews conducted after his death with his family, friends and health care team. After cross-country performances directed at health professionals and the general public, a viewing was incorporated into core undergraduate medical curriculum at our institution. We collected and compared responses of trainees who viewed the play voluntarily in extra-curricular settings and those who viewed a mandatory curriculum performance.Methods: Trainees completed confidential, online surveys within one year of viewing. A total of 46 trainees from five Canadian medical schools completed surveys after voluntary extra-curricular viewings (60.9% female, 39.1% male, mean age 26.2 ± 3.2 years). Of 84 eligible second-year medical students, 60 students completed surveys after mandatory curricular viewing (68.3% female, 31.7% male, mean age 26.0 ± 2.9 years, response rate 71.4%).Results: In both cohorts, a majority of trainees agreed that the play was a good learning experience (84.8%, 93.3%), should be experienced by all medical students (75.5%, 84.5%) and taught lessons they will use in their careers (71.1%, 84.7%). Trainees highlighted the play's realism, the insight gained into patient experiences and that they preferred the play to other teaching modalities. A greater percentage of trainees in the mandatory curriculum cohort agreed that a viewing should be incorporated into medical curriculum (86.7% vs. 45.3%, χ2 = 20.3,p<  0.001).Conclusions: Medical trainees responded positively to this verbatim play in both extra-curricular and curricular settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background:The CanMEDS-Family Medicine (CanMEDS-FM) framework defines the expected terminal enabling competencies (EC) for family medicine (FM) residency training in Canada. However, benchmarks throughout the 2-year program are not yet defined.Purposes: This study aimed to identify expected time frames for achievement of the CanMEDS-FM competencies during FM residency training and create a developmental benchmarks scale for family medicine residency training.Methods: This 2011–2012 study followed a Delphi methodology. Selected faculty and clinical teachers identified, via questionnaire, the expected time of EC achievement from beginning of residency to one year in practice (0, 6, 12, […] 36 months). The 15–85th percentile intervals became the expected competency achievement interval. Content validity of the obtained benchmarks was assessed through a second Delphi round.Results: The 1st and 2nd rounds were completed by 33 and 27 respondents, respectively. A developmental benchmarks scale was designed after the 1st round to illustrate expectations regarding achievement of each EC. The 2nd round (content validation) led to minor adjustments (1.9 ± 2.7 months) of intervals for 44 of the 92 competencies, the others remaining unchanged.Conclusions: The Laval Developmental Benchmarks Scale for Family Medicine clarifies expectations regarding achievement of competencies throughout FM training. In a competency-based education system this now allows identification and management of outlying residents, both those excelling and needing remediation. Further research should focus on assessment of the scale reliability after pilot implementation in family medicine clinical teaching units at Laval University, and corroborate the established timeline in other sites. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Contemporary sexual health curricula in Canada include information about sexual diversity and queer identities, but what remains missing is any explicit discussion of anti-racist sex education. Although there exists federal and provincial support for multiculturalism and anti-racism in schools, contemporary Canadian sex education omits crucial anti-racist work, and foundational anti-racist education frameworks are silent about the sex education curriculum. To show how race is discussed in sex education, a content analysis based on a keyword search of Ontario public secondary school health provincial curricula and federal sex education policy was conducted. English language curricula created within the same nine-year range (1999–2008) were selected from Ontario and Canada to maximise the congruency of politics and country of origin. Content analysis findings point to major deficiencies and provide the basis for future anti-racist sex education policy recommendations. As anti-racism critically examines the institution of education, and sexual health curricula are an increasingly politicised example of potentially transformative education, anti-racism must be incorporated into future sex education work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that social communication (verbal and non-verbal) plays a key role in students' and teachers' elementary-school experiences. Within the framework of sociocognitive developmental theory, this qualitative study investigates teachers' experiences and perceptions of children's talking and listening habits within the elementary-grade school classroom. Five Canadian elementary-school educators (three female, two male) discussed their perceptions of young children's talking and listening behaviours in the classroom. Results indicate that the actions of both talking and listening play a key role in students' and teachers' learning experiences in the classroom. Implications for inclusive and developmentally appropriate curriculum are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]