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The learning ministries in Ontario have made a concerted effort to underscore Aboriginal learners' needs and preferences in publicly-funded and assisted schools and training services throughout the province. Through a trilogy of policy documents, the Ontario Ministry of Education (OME) and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU) have addressed expanded definitions of learning and sought to unfold the socio-cultural and epistemic values related to Aboriginal student and community worldviews. The policies in many respects represent a poised effort on the part of the learning ministries to improve educators' awareness of culturally-responsive pedagogy, as well as to bring Aboriginal peoples' socio-historical traditions to the fore. While the policy initiatives by Ontario's learning ministries undoubtedly represent a collective attention to Aboriginal learners, the author's line of inquiry is revealing some noteworthy initial findings that are deserving of further analysis. The policy documents reflect a dominant discourse of an assumed normative educative stance; more precisely, the jargon of data-driven outcomes and evaluative statements throughout all three policies seem to implicate upon normative educative paradigms that, in turn, creates a conceptual tension with the self-declared intentions of the policies themselves.

Based on 20 semi-structured interviews with faculty members from a mid-sized university in Western Canada, this paper offers an examination of research participants' experiences and perceptions of classroom incivility, particularly those that are shaped by social factors such as identity markers (race, ethnicity, gender) as well as cultural beliefs regarding what is considered politically sensitive subject-matter (in this case, indigeneity). Data analysis reveals that when research participants detect instances of incivility expressed as resentment around race, gender, and indigeneity, they struggle to find a balance between taking up the teaching moment and maintaining safe space. This paper offers a reflection on the extent to which research participants choose to assume intellectual candor when making sense of incivility. Pedagogical responses are highlighted in an effort to recognize the importance of a critical consciousness about social positioning, race relations, power, and privilege.

In 1967, The Tanglewood Symposium was convened in the United States to address the multifaceted issues in music education. The discussion in the Symposium led to the creation of the Tanglewood Declaration, which includes eight statements of implications and recommendations for the music curriculum and has been considered a critical part of the music education profession. Although it was produced 56 years ago, the insight into pedagogical and curricular adjustments is still deemed to be needed in music classrooms across both the United States and Canada today, as the issues in music education in these two nations were found to be similar. In Alberta, the most recent junior high music curriculum was designed in 1988, 21 years after the announcement of the Tanglewood Declaration. This study investigated whether the ideas in the Tanglewood Declaration have permeated the current junior high instrumental music curriculum in Alberta from three aspects: (a) musical multiculturalism, (b) individualization, and (c) technology. It is evident that parts of the ideas in the Declaration could be traced in the Alberta curriculum. This paper concludes with recommendations for future curriculum development made through the perspectives of the Tanglewood Declaration.

Computer Science (CS) education is an emergent growth area in schools worldwide. This paper explores how CS education has evolved at the high school level (grades 10-12) in the Canadian province of Alberta over the past decade after a reorganization and curriculum redesign of its Computing Science Education (CSE) program. In partnership with Alberta Education, a complete list of course records was obtained for high school students who had taken CSE course credits between 2009 and 2019. These course completions were analyzed for overall growth trends and then further examined with respect to course level, urbanicity, and gender. We found that growth in course credit completion has been consistent over the 10-year study period (annual average growth rate of 33.5%). Advanced course credits have grown faster than introductory course credits, urban areas have grown faster than rural areas, and gender growth rates have been similar for males and females. Understanding the growth rates of CSE course enrollments at the high school level will contribute to identifying some of the challenges encountered during the implementation of the CSE program of studies in Alberta.

With prevailing global neoliberal ideology, teachers and teacher unions must respond to market-driven governmental policies intended to undermine public education. In Saskatchewan, Canada, teacher activists feel compelled to both counter neoliberal discourses and proactively advocate for equitable, high-quality public education. To explore acts of resistance, semi-structured interviews with four teacher activists were employed to understand how teachers enact advocacy within their union and through grassroots activism. Harding et al.'s (2018) framework of alliances, assemblages, and affects informed data analysis, which included the creation of narrative vignettes characterizing teacher voice. This paper specifically discusses findings which suggest that affect, or how emotions do things, presented teachers with new potentialities for shaping educational policy.

This paper reports on a preliminary Australian adoption and adaptation, in the North Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, of the Townsend and Adams' model of leadership growth for school improvement in Alberta. The Australian adaptation of this Alberta model has been named the North Coast Initiative for School Improvement (NCISI). The participants comprise nine university academics and almost one hundred regional school leaders. Leadership is developed through continuing and regular collaborative-inquiry and generative-dialogue meetings between the academics and school leaders. The aim is to improve school leadership with the primary purpose of improving student outcomes. Provisional evaluation records significant positive changes in school leadership across the region. Convergence and divergence of the Australian and Canadian models are explored. The Australian adaptation requires some modification to suit local education processes and context. In particular, there has been the development of some divergence in approaches, especially in working in individual schools or clusters of schools. While the program has only been running for a comparatively short time, and therefore formal program evaluation is only commencing, preliminary evidence suggests significant traction and success in the Australian context. The paper concludes with some tentative implications for the future development of this model in the Australian context: how can the model be conceptualised and delivered to a wider audience in the years ahead.

This research analyzed the University of Manitoba (UofM) Strategic Plan to both quantify the occurrence of specific keywords and make inferences about the purpose, messages, and effects being communicated by those keywords. In the first section of this paper, we provide an overview of the historical development and purpose of the neoliberal university. Second, we engage with content and critical discourse analysis to understand how academic work and academic identities are established by the strategic plan, a document that few faculty members consult regularly, and fewer still have a hand in developing. The foundational ideals of the UofM, cited at the beginning of the Strategic Plan are tracked through the document, and keywords as determined by frequency count are then similarly tracked. The findings reveal that most of the foundational ideals are not well-represented in the strategic plan; others, like sustainability, are euphemized. Keywords related to increasing workload are found over 60 times in the document, all in the context of decreased funding. We conclude that the strategic plan is a clear mandate for more to be completed with less. We refer to this aspect of workload creep as the need for "magic time."

This paper draws on data collected as part of a study of the discourses of teacher professionalism amongst union active teachers in the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Ontario. Interviews revealed a triad of influences on the professionalism discourses of participants: engagement in teacher associations, the larger policy environment, and teacher agency. The manner in which this triad played out in each case, however, was unique to the particular political and organizational contexts framing the spaces in which such discourses were created. Using cross-case analysis, this paper specifically highlights the complex and contextualized nature of teachers' conceptions of professionalism, paying particular attention to the nuanced enabling and limiting conditions identified between the cases.

Although the contemporary research environment encourages knowledge generation through research collaboration rather than individualized projects, limited scholarly attention has been devoted to the practice of collaboration within research teams. This paper presents a qualitative analysis of team dynamics and learning opportunities within four social science research teams. The findings reveal similarities and differences in leadership style and interaction approaches that affected how research was undertaken and the possibilities for team members to learn from each other. The snapshots provide models for other research teams that extend situated learning theories and the existing research base about collaboration, research teams, and research leadership.

This paper explores the different approaches and instructional strategies of five instructors who have taught a mandatory Aboriginal Education course in a Canadian teacher education program. The findings are drawn from a broader study that examined the impact of self-reflective practices in Indigenous Education. Through semi-structured interviews, five course instructors shared what they believed to be meaningful instructional strategies in the course. Although each instructor shared their personal approach to the course, the four broad themes of story, land, art, and reflection emerged from their examples. These are discussed in relation to what is reported in the literature about the approaches and instructional strategies of Indigenous Education course instructors (Aveling, 2006; Dion, 2007; McInnes, 2017); this expands the conversation on meaningful pedagogies for Indigenous Education courses in initial teacher education.

This paper describes an ethnographic case study of eleven First Nations adult learners in a Northern Ontario community attempting to earn secondary school equivalency through the General Education Development (GED) program. The paper maintains a focus on the power differentials at work in both the learners' prior educational endeavours and their experiences while working inside of the GED program. Based on the data, we argue that, despite appearances to the contrary, First Nations learners are subjected to a system of education that is failing to empower those learners to take advantage of educational opportunities that are available in mainstream Canadian society.

This paper is a response to an article, "Creepy White Gaze: Rethinking the Diorama as a Pedagogical Activity" (Sterzuk & Mulholland, 2011), published in the "Alberta Journal of Educational Research," in which Sterzuk and Mulholland critiqued a heritage fair entry, "Great Plains Indians." I report on a school-university collaborative research project that examined the ways in which out-of-school practices and knowledges of Canadian Aboriginal students might provide these students with access to school literacy practices. Grounded in a "funds of knowledge" approach, this paper presents an alternative reading, explaining how students' linguistic and cultural resources from home and community networks were utilized to reshape school literacy practices through their involvement in a heritage fair program.

This paper presents the results of interviews with 12 Manitoba and Alberta rural teaching principals regarding their leadership practices in small schools. The overwhelming theme mentioned by these teaching principals was the joy and sense of purpose they found in the relationships they cultivated with children, staff, and community members because of the "advantages" they had working in small schools. The paper details the small schools context within which teaching principals are working in these two provinces and outlines the role of reciprocal relationality that is central to their leadership efforts in small rural schools.

This paper focuses on the educational experiences and narratives of women of African ancestry in Canada, and is based on a number of women who were interviewed over a two-month period. The literature review examines the ways in which today's experiences of formal education, which were shared by the women, are shaped and circumscribed by much broader historical social conditions. Overall, this paper recounts the participants' challenges and frustrations, as well as their joy and satisfaction in navigating the educational system in Canada from kindergarten through to post-secondary schooling. However, more work needs to be done to ensure that formal education and learning are meaningful for women of African ancestry and other systemically marginalized peoples in Canada. This research found that the women have a strong sense of self despite many negative educational experiences. While some of the findings support existing literature, the interviewees themselves also recommended ways in which the educational system could be improved. This work should encourage more women of African ancestry to share their stories, and for educators, school administrators and policymakers to take notice.

This paper explores the increasingly prominent role of research brokering organizations (RBOs) in strengthening connections between education research, policy and practice across Canada. This paper is organized in three sections. First, it provides a literature review of research mediation--exploring terminology, models and empirical work (albeit sparse) across health, business, education sectors. The second section provides three conceptual contributions to the field: RBOs' roles in knowledge mobilization occurring in the white space of broader public service systems, a typology of Canadian RBOs that exist in education using four broad categories: governmental, not-for-profit, for-profit and membership RBOs, and a knowledge brokering framework along seven dimensions: mission, resources, staff roles, political affiliation, autonomy, message and linkages. The third section provides empirical data about the frequency and types of RBOs that exist across Canada.

As co-editors of this theme issue of this journal, the authors have accepted that knowledge systems and teacher education programs are deeply interconnected. Further, they claim that teacher education programs must incorporate in theory and practice the fact that knowledge systems are a determining factor in the effectiveness of a teacher education program. In this article, the authors use the term "knowledge systems" to refer to those systems of knowledge and information that are connected to physical locations or places. The work is a process of conversation as a scholarly endeavor based on the authors' understanding of the importance of dialogue as an educational praxis that takes them into the conflicting and often liminal spaces of identity, inclusivity, bordering, and belonging. Their intention is to provide a critical engagement with these issues through their own experiences and theoretical positions. The authors found after numerous conversations that they were delving into complex intellectual challenges to what they had learned about the meaning of "knowledge" in academic settings and what this term meant to everyone as individuals and cultural beings. (Contains 1 note.)

This article provides a critical reflective analysis of my life growing up in Jamaica where I attended colonial school, to making the transition to high school in the Canadian context. I examine the elements that have influenced my cultural/racial identity as a person of African ancestry living in the diaspora. I ask questions such as how has colonial education influenced my cultural identity and how I see myself? I address the complexity of my racial and gender identity drawing on a Black feminist theoretical framework and anticolonial thought to inform this work.

Data from ESL students' records in Vancouver are examined in the light of the BC Ministry of Education's claim that ESL high school students are more successful than students whose first language is English. We argue that the academic achievement of well-to-do students whose parents are skilled workers or entrepreneurs may mask the completion rates of students who entered BC through the family and refugee classes. The latter students, like their counterparts throughout Canada, are disappearing through the cracks in the education system. We maintain that it is time for provincial ministries, school boards, postsecondary institutions, and other stakeholders to work together to improve the current situation, which prevents many immigrant youths from achieving their educational aspirations.

This article examines how academic knowledge and power have shaped the discourse on human classification and how political authorities use academic knowledge producers to legitimize public policy. Specifically, the article draws on the role of John M. MacEachran, a former academic at the University of Alberta, in the implementation of the Alberta 1928 Sexual Sterilization Act. The article argues that political authorities use academics and their knowledge in social policy when there is consistency with the interests of broader sociopolitical forces. Drawing on critical pedagogy, the selective use of academic knowledge-producers and the implications are discussed with reference to the relationship between educators and learners and university-society relations in general.

In this article I explore the gendered assumptions in the new generation of dress codes that have swept through North American schools in response to how girls are dressing these days. Through a feminist poststructural examination of a particular case in Langley, British Columbia, I locate three contradictory discourses in one school's dress code policy that positioned girls as irresponsible, deviant, and in need of help. I argue that these discourses reproduce dominant and oppressive forms of gender and sexuality. I conclude by suggesting that much work remains to be done on the minutiae of school policies such as dress codes given that they contribute to how the student('s) body is thought about, looked at, and treated.

Accountability structures and processes have become such an integral part of education policy development and implementation that Ranson (2003) argues, "accountability is no longer merely an important instrument or component within the system, but constitutes the system itself" (p. 459). This argument is supported by the growth of an orientation in public education reforms toward the premise that more accountable schools are better schools. Canada fits the global trend that levers educational reforms through accountability measures.

The current bureaucratic model used in administering public education in Canada displays a systemic gender bias that results from sociopolitical-cultural assumptions concerning gender roles, capitalism, hierarchy, and patriarchy. A proposed neo-bureaucracy would replace individual ownership of success with an accent on teamwork and group achievement while retaining enough current administrative infrastructure to ensure stability. (Contains 45 references.) (TD)

Analysis of three Canadian grade 10 social studies textbooks illustrates how the discrimination and persecution endured by Japanese Canadians have been marginalized. As long as textbooks present perspectives of the dominant social group, inequalities embedded in society will remain hidden. Using textbooks critically to interrogate biases inherent in dominant narratives will deepen students' understandings of society. (Contains 27 references.) (TD)

A School Advisor Association is proposed in Canada as a vehicle for recognizing and advancing the contribution that exemplary school advisors (cooperating teachers) make to the professional development of student teachers. Such an association could accredit school-based teacher educators and facilitate university-school cooperation in establishing local agenda for teacher education practices. (Contains 34 references.) (TD)

Case studies of nine Alberta charter schools examined the role of charter schools in educational reform. The real promise of charter schools resides less in fostering innovation and efficiency in public education, and more in providing parental school choice and addressing diverse values and goals of education. (Contains 28 references.) (Author/TD)

An account of three researchers' efforts to make sense of preservice teachers' assessment practices reveals how methodologically diverse investigations emanated from the context of a single study. Developments, findings, and warrants that characterize this inquiry are presented, as well as arguments describing this study as exploratory, mixed-method, and non-foundationalist research. Contains 26 references. (Author/SV)

Comparison of teaching practices of grade 7-8 science teachers in Ontario, Alberta, and Singapore found an implicit "formula for success" related to high scores on the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Recent Ontario curriculum guidelines aimed at boosting TIMSS scores ignore provincial educational values that support an inquiry approach to learning. Contains 45 references. (Author/SV)

Presents highlights of a panel discussion on workplace literacy at the Literacy in the 21st Century Research Conference (Edmonton, Alberta, October 1997). Participants from business, government, and university discussed Syncrude Canada's Workplace Literacy Program, implications of the International Adult Literacy Survey for the labor market, and literacy utilization in Canadian workplaces. (SV)

The Early Development Instrument (EDI) is a widely used teacher rating tool to assess kindergartners' developmental outcomes in Canada and a number of other countries. This paper examines the measurement invariance of EDI domains across ESL status and gender by means of multi-group confirmatory factor analysis. The results suggest evidence of measurement invariance for physical health and well-being, social competence, emotional maturity and language and cognitive development domains. Moreover, the communication skills and general knowledge domain did not show acceptable fit in terms of RMSEA. The results and potential explanations are discussed.

This study addresses the pressing need for attending to teacher e-professionalism, that is, the appropriate application of information and communication strategies when using digital media. The authors examine data patterns related to 113 pre-service teachers' perceptions of e-professionalism, attitudes towards existing technology-related professional guidelines, and current behaviours on Facebook. The results from the online questionnaire suggest that these Western Canadian pre-service teachers are uncertain about what online behaviours should be restricted and whether maintaining e-professionalism was possible. Integrated findings are discussed in light of communication privacy management theory. The paper concludes by advancing implications for informing e-professional education for teachers.

In this paper we perform a critical discourse analysis on the policy document Ontario's Equity and Inclusive Education Strategy (2009). We examine the three core priorities the policy outlines: improve student achievement, reduce achievement gap and increase public confidence in public education. This document is approached from the context of new managerial educational reforms, to understand how the teacher is positioned within this policy. This policy, while laudable in intention, excludes the voice of the teacher. The policy offers much in the way of enhancing the students' experience yet says little about the role of the classroom teacher or how the policy might be translated and facilitated into schools/classrooms across the province.

This paper utilizes an exploratory case study method to examine the factors that attract and motivate teachers to stay in a remote, northern Canadian community. Bakan's (1966) framework of agency and communion, provides a lens for exploring and understanding teachers' experiences of working in the north where the term "the North" is understood not simply as one of two geographical poles, but also represents a consciousness of place. Subsequently, this study expands the conceptualization of Bakan's notion of communion to include both the effects of emotion, which can be understood specifically as public, social, and in relation to others; as well as socio-spatial factors that illustrate the ways in which space is conceived, perceived and lived. Given the amount of human and financial capital required to recruit and retain teachers, as well as the negative implications that high levels of teacher attrition have on student success and emotional well-being, it is important to understand teachers' perspectives on their experiences working in communities that are perceived as hard to staff.

This paper explores the role of literacy coaches in Ontario schools. This case study uses qualitative research methods to provide a picture of what literacy coaching looks like in practice in three schools. The literacy coaches had three main roles: to act as school literacy organizers, literacy leaders, and to provide support to teachers and principals. Unlike the role of literacy coaches presented in the literature, the coaches in this study did not generally participate in observation and demonstration lessons and spent the majority of their coaching time performing organizational tasks. This study makes recommendations for future research and provides suggestions for school boards implementing literacy coaching.

This paper discusses findings from an exploratory study on the nature, extent, and impact of cyberbullying experienced by 121 faculty members at one Canadian university. We situate cyberbullying in university on a continuum between cyberbullying in K-12 education and cyberbullying in the workplace and also take into account the power dynamics that characterize the post-secondary context. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of online survey data revealed that 17% of respondents had experienced cyberbullying either by students (12%) or by colleagues (9%) in the last 12 months. Gender differences were apparent plus racial minority status also appeared to render faculty members more vulnerable to cyberbullying. These findings suggest a rights-based lens could be used to analyze and respond to the vulnerabilities of women and other marginalized faculty in cyberbullying situations. This study contributes to the dearth of research on cyberbullying at the post-secondary level and raises the need to consider factors of difference, such as gender and race, in policy development and practice.

This study contributes to applied and theoretical research for schools and districts by helping inform programs and policies directed at school improvement, raising student achievement, and high school completion. The paper features recent results of ongoing research on student orientation to school that was assessed via a multidimensional Student Orientation to School Questionnaire (SOSQ). The SOSQ was initially used by a Canadian school district to better understand the reasons for dropping out of school. Since then the project has grown into a multi-organizational collaboration. This study demonstrates persistent associations between student orientation to school, academic achievement, and high school completion and makes the case for integrating valuable non-cognitive components within comprehensive student information and assessment systems.

Teachers are one of the most important factors in successful inclusion of students with a learning disability in mainstream classrooms. Attitudes towards inclusion of certain students in classrooms have been mixed, and many attitudes are often developed during the pre-service training and early teaching years. This study investigated the attitudes of trainee teachers towards students with learning disabilities by analysing their attributional responses to hypothetical students. Accordingly, 181 graduating Canadian trainee teachers were surveyed and the results indicated that as students' ability levels decrease, teachers' sympathy levels rise, and the expectation of future failure increases. Moreover, as students' expended efforts increase, the teacher feedback becomes more positive, the frustration decreases, the sympathy levels rise, and the expectation of future failure decreases. With regards to differences between students with and without a learning disability, as students' ability levels increase the difference in trainee teachers' sympathy level increases. Furthermore, as students' expended efforts increase, the difference in teacher feedback given to students with and without a learning disability decreases, the difference in frustration and sympathy levels decrease, and the difference in expectations of future failure increases. Implications and recommendations for practice and research conclude the paper.

Effective and appropriate communication is critical for the successful integration of newcomers in Canada. In this paper, we describe the intercultural communicative competence beliefs and practices of 70 adult English as a second language (ESL) instructors. Responses to an online survey indicated a strong belief in the value of integrating intercultural communicative competence into their instruction; however, instructors' reported classroom practices revealed that culture was addressed in varying degrees and that intercultural communicative competence was not systematically developed. Findings suggest that enhanced instructor education, appropriate materials development, and research investigating the effective pedagogical development of intercultural communicative competence in the language learning classroom are needed.