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What is social justice-informed co-teaching? Why is it important? How can social justice pedagogy deepen co-teaching practices? What are the key challenges and possibilities open to teachers and learners involved in a social-justice informed co-teaching experience? These questions are useful to ask as they begin to address new pedagogical approaches in teacher education, which engage with the current diverse student population. Each of these questions is discussed in this qualitative research paper. This narrative inquiry adds to the literature on social justice-informed co-teaching in an innovative way. It also critically examines the purposeful endeavor of two professors who used a social justice framework to guide their co-teaching practice and pedagogy. At once, this paper is a lived experience, a story, and a research study. In deconstructing two narratives, the authors articulate outcomes and implications of social justice informed co-teaching practice and pedagogy. Further implications for research and practice in teacher education programs, teaching practices and field experiences, and co-teachers themselves are shared in the closing segment of the paper.

The vocabulary research of the 1980s and 1990s brought a breath of fresh air into the language classroom. Teachers in many remote EFL locations had long suspected that vocabulary was their learners' main challenge, but there was little research evidence to confirm this or say what to do about it. Then, suddenly, work by Nation, Laufer, Meara, Schmitt, and others suggested a range of highly promising and usable ideas: the sequencing and testing of vocabulary by frequency; the distinction of basic vocabulary from advanced, academic, and technical; the interaction of vocabulary and grammar knowledge -- these were all frankly revelatory. After a decade of applying and, we hope, contributing to these developments in developing countries (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Hong Kong), we returned to Canada wondering what, if any, of this work would be usable here, what would have to be modified, and what could be added to it. Would ideas that made eminent sense in a development context make any sense in a developed country? Our paper describes the vocabulary scene we found in Canada on our return, what we attempted to add to it, and suggestions for next steps.

This conceptual article emerges out of a research project--including a systematic literature review and autoethnographic study--on social justice-informed co-teaching. The authors collaborated on two Faculty of Education courses at a mid-sized Canadian University to analyze their own experiences as well as research patterns in a pool of studies that explore ways in which co-teaching and social justice learning are defined and applied as a practice. The systematic literature review provides a foundation for this conceptual study. In particular, the authors discuss how the connection between co-teaching and using a social justice perspective provides educators an opportunity to create: (1) more engaging discussion about equity issues and schooling, (2) learning experiences that are reflective non-traditional teaching structures at a post-secondary and public education levels, and (3) professional growth for colleagues while participating in co-teaching with a social justice perspective.

An often-used idiom states: "you can't lose what you never had." Yet contrary to this expression, it "is" possible to lose what you never had--at least when special education support is concerned. In Ontario, as in other jurisdictions, special education exists as a codified system. An ever-changing nexus of discourses and documents--including normalisation, legislation, regulations, and memoranda--set out how special education is to function in the province. The documents themselves articulate how learners' needs are to be formally identified, as well as how students are to be supported. Within this network a phenomenon of "non-identification" has arisen whereby some students do not get identified and yet would have qualified for special education support had they gone through the process. Yet what leads to this phenomenon? To what does the phenomenon itself lead? Should Ontario's special education system be readjusted to address the phenomenon of non-identification, or is identification itself an inherently flawed practice? To explore these three questions, this paper will analyse Ontario's identification policy, examining what it allows, what it dictates, as well as the challenges it creates.

What happens when children are asked to give up their right to special education in order to access a French immersion program? By examining one mother's efforts to secure gifted support in a French immersion program, this critical inquiry offers a parental perspective of the special education issues of accessibility and inclusion. The two children at the center of Beatrice's narrative, Julie and Liz, initially received attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD) diagnoses and were subsequently identified with a gifted exceptionality. After outlining Beatrice's interlocking challenges with special education identification and support in French immersion, key themes are discussed along with their related implications for research, policy, and practice. In Beatrice's experience, a bilingual program proved to be a loophole, where one's legal right to access gifted special education support was circumvented. While the author focuses on a Canadian French immersion setting, the findings outlined in this paper have larger implications for bilingual programs around the world, such as dual language education programs.

Drawing from a critical qualitative inquiry, this case study tells the story of Hana, a Korean-Canadian mother, and identifies barriers that can be encountered in seeking to interact with school professionals in the special education milieu. The case study presents a conceptual model, called the three-legged stool of parental inclusion, which is designed to enhance the way in which parental inclusion is understood and fostered in special education. It is suggested that Hana needed to utilise this model, of knowledge awareness, gathering, and use, in order to take part in her daughter's education in a more meaningful way. This article, by Cam Cobb of the University of Windsor, Canada, adds to the international literature related to cultural and linguistic diversity by sharing a Canadian parent's experience of special education decision-making from this perspective.

If parental involvement in a child's education is generally viewed in positive terms, then it is important to understand what sorts of barriers might hinder it. This article reviews literature on culturally and linguistically diverse parental involvement in special education in the United States and Canada. In analyzing 20 articles published in eight prominent journals between 2000 and 2010, the author considers what research has to say about what influences culturally and linguistically diverse parental involvement. Applying the lens of social-cultural capital led the author to examine three core themes in the literature, namely perceptions, people, and systems. Because these three themes interlock so tightly, the author devised the overarching metaphor of critical entanglement, which is vital to the process of recognizing and addressing barriers that culturally and linguistically diverse parents potentially face. Implications for research are discussed in the recommendation and conclusion segments of this article.

In reviewing literature on culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) parental inclusion and disproportionality, Cam Cobb, assistant professor at the University of Windsor, Ontario, illustrates how CLD giftedness--and especially CLD giftedness in Canadian settings--represents an area in need of further research. In part, this article begins to address that need. Drawing from a larger critical qualitative inquiry, he details the stories of two CLD Canadian mothers as they sought to become involved in gifted identification and decision-making processes. Knowledge and language arose in the data as two core themes of robust parental inclusion. These core themes, along with associated recommendations for policy, practice and research, are outlined in a discussion of the findings. While this article focuses on the gifted domain of special education in Ontario, the findings have wider implications for robust CLD parental inclusion in special education in general.

This study reports on the design and testing of an integrated suite of vocabulary training games for Nintendo[TM] collectively designated "My Word Coach" (Ubisoft, 2008). The games' design is based on a wide range of learning research, from classic studies on recycling patterns to frequency studies of modern corpora. Its general usage and learning effects were tested over a four-month period, with fifty age and level appropriate Francophone English as a second language learners in a Montreal school. A battery of observational and empirical tests tracked experimental and quasi-control groups' lexical development on the dimensions of form recognition, meaning recognition, free production, and speed of lexical access, as well as features of game use. Two months' gaming coincided with gains in recognition vocabulary normally achieved in one to two years, longer oral productions, reduced code switching, and increased speed of lexical access. Further questions are raised about the prior knowledge "Word Coach" assumes, the importance of post-game follow up, and the future of commercial gaming in language learning. (Contains 7 figures, 6 tables and 2 notes.)

Investigated the number of times a word must be encountered in order to be learned and the types of contexts that are conducive to learning in a vocabulary acquisition study with Quebec school-aged English-as-a-Second-Language learners at five levels of proficiency. Learners read text and were tested on new vocabulary and learned and unlearned words were compared for frequency of occurrence and level of contextual support. (Author/VWL)

Abstract: In Canada, the Minister of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans has the federal authority to develop a national approach on marine environmental quality (MEQ). The minister is given this authority by federal legislation entitled the Oceans Act. The department recently published an integrated management framework document under the Oceans Act that situates MEQ within the context of ecosystem-based management. That approach is described here, with suggestions for future options. The history of federal interdepartmental co-operation in developing MEQ concepts is chronicled. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]