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Aboriginal learners represent a growing demographic in Canada. Despite changes in diverse educational systems that support their learning, few scholars, practitioners, and administrators understand the worldviews and epistemologies governing learning. These foundations are held by the Elders and the traditional teachers. It is the purpose of this essay to distill the foundations of Aboriginal learning, programs where these principles operate, and instructive teachings for how the knowledge our Elders and traditional teachers hold may be applied informal learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - To understand ageing well, one needs to study not only those who are ageing but also the places within and with which people are ageing. In the past, much ageing-well research has been focused on ensuring individuals have the "right" resources and are engaged in the "best" types of activities. However, recent theorizing has prompted the study of ageing well as a process of making sense of self amid later-life changes. Building on Rowles' attachment-to-place work, the purpose of this paper is to consider how the "thick concreteness" of place influences later-life meaning making. Design/methodology/approach - This is a theoretical paper on ageing. Findings - The paper draws on Casey's phenomenological conceptualization of places as imprinting themselves on bodies and selves, much as humans shape the places they inhabit. Data from interviews with older rural women in western Canada illustrates how this conceptualization can enhance understanding of ageing well relative to place as a physical, socio-cultural and temporal phenomenon, In a place that has been depicted as inhospitable, participants have chosen to stay even as practically invisible kin and community "keepers" on the "frontier". Originality/value - This original paper suggests that to age well is to age locally and to make sense not only for self about self and one's own ageing but also for ageing in mutually compatible ways in that place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes a macro-level approach to examine knowledge characteristics of small, medium, and large cities of Canada. These characteristics are used to evaluate knowledge intensity of the three classes of cities. As expected, large Canadian cities performed well with respect to knowledge intensity rankings. These large cities possess the greatest number of local, national, and international knowledge links. Results suggest that medium sized cities have performed favourably as well. This deviates from previous findings and suggests that medium Canadian cities should not be dismissed as being unable to prosper in a knowledge economy. Finally, knowledge intensity results indicate that this segment of the economy makes less of an impact on small cities. However, small cities performed well in terms of average income and demographics, suggesting that they remain competitive today, even while not possessing high levels of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes the concept "distributed literacy" in order to move beyond the still common preoccupation in educational history and sociology with literacy as a technical capacity and attribute of individuals. Invoking the concept involves an appeal to a conceptual move and an analytic strategy that are well established in other branches of enquiry. The article begins by introducing the concept and then provides a sketch of its application in the case of the British North American colony of Lower Canada (the southern part of the current Canadian Province of Quebec) in the first decades of the nineteenth century. Its empirical materials are found in the correspondence files of the main state information agency, the Civil Secretary's Office, with a focus on issues of schooling and local government in the 1820s and 1830s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many ecofeminists see women's subordination as a result of linking women with nature. Thus one of their tasks has been to unravel the underlying dualistic structure of the categories ‘women’ and ‘nature’ and to argue for a reconceptualization of these categories. However, there exist amongst ecofeminists epistemological differences pertaining to the ways in which the women–nature connection should be addressed. Spiritual ecofeminists argue that the connection between women and nature is worth reclaiming and celebrating. In contrast, social ecofeminists contend that the connection represents a patriarchal artifice that reinforces oppression. In support of both perspectives, ‘Western’ ecofeminists have invoked the cultural beliefs and histories of Aboriginal peoples. Such use of Aboriginal beliefs and experiences within much of Western ecofeminist discourses is partial and uninformed. In this article an alternative approach is offered—one that emphasizes the importance of listening to Aboriginal voices describing contemporary connections to nature. Aboriginal voices are presented in the context of in-depth interviews conducted with Anishinabek (Ojibway and Odawa peoples) living in one First Nations community and three cities in Ontario, Canada. The interviews highlight the importance of listening to Anishinabek describe their connections to Mother Earth (nature) as they reveal counter-narratives that offer the potential to reconcile spiritual and social ecofeminism and to reconceptualize nature (Mother Earth) as an active and dynamic agent. Such counter-narratives may improve current understandings of gender–nature connections within Western ecofeminisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the discourse on non-native writings for Canadian literature in relation to technological innovations. Explanation of Kimberly Blaeser on the need of constructing epistemologies; Description on the Web site of E. Pauline Johnson; Implication of World Wide Web on shaping Canadian culture.

Examines representations of the `rainforest' and `nature' in British Columbia including `buried epistemologies' through which neocolonial relations are asserted in the region. Comparison of nature and culture; Positive aspect of colonialist practices and rhetorics of Canadian history; Fate of temperate rainforests.