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This review article focuses on perspectives from Canadian Indigenous literature about decolonizing education on behalf of Aboriginal populations. The research informs accountability, education, and policy in Canada and globally. Components of colonization parsed in sources are tribal injustice, dispossession, discrimination, conflict, and miseducation. Experiential interventions for decolonizing curriculum, classrooms, and communities are described. Colonialism as a systemic problem to be tackled in education is a takeaway. Accountability in support of futurity is a life-sustaining direction.

During the first half of the twentieth century in British Columbia, French language was considered a school subject to be taught as any other using formal classical approaches. Generally, no specific provincial or local policies existed to guide how French was taught and learned. By 1981, however, British Columbia had developed explicit language policies for implementing various programs, such as "core French," "French immersion," and "programme-cadre." It did so despite the fact that fewer than two per cent of British Columbians spoke French as their mother tongue, and only about one-half of one per cent used French to communicate at home. The discussion in this article reconstructs the historical context and events that led British Columbia to embrace French language as a subject of study as well as French as a vehicle for learning and instruction. Why, from the end of World War II to the 1980s, did the province embrace core French, cadre and immersion programmes? (Contains 20 endnotes.)

In this article, I have presented findings from survey data to describe elementary teachers' and teacher-librarians' use of various genres of children's literature and their use of children's literature in specific curriculum areas. Data analysis revealed that teachers and teacher-librarians most frequently used the genres of non-fiction, realistic fiction, and fantasy in their teaching. They used children's literature in language and social studies to a greater extent than in other curricular areas. In general, teachers' and teacher-librarians' use of Canadian literature was limited. I have concluded the article with a discussion of the importance of national literature in Canadian classrooms. (Contains 4 notes.) [Published May 2004]

In a country as diverse as Canada, spread over an incomprehensibly large land mass, the connections between citizens may require more imagination. One way that these connections have been traditionally imagined in Canada is through national myths, including the myth of the wilderness. This myth draws the Canadian identity out of an "untouched" wilderness landscape. As much as there are problems with the wilderness myth of Canada, the land provides a valuable connection between all disparate members of Canadian society. And so, the author proposes a much more inclusive re-imagining of this myth, in which people draw national identity from the land in all the variety of its meanings and uses. In this way, Canadians can work to develop attachments to their specific pieces of land, while acknowledging the interconnections of the national landscape. In this article, the author discusses how to build national identity through place-based outdoor education. She argues that educators need to introduce their students to the places in which they live, and encourage them to find the connections between their selves and their places in addition to fostering an understanding of their connections to others and other people's places.

This paper examines two Canadian (Quebecois) novels for young adults, translated from French to English in Canada: "The Road to Chlifa" by Michele Marineau, and "Pieces of Me" by Charlotte Gingras. We examine the representation of adolescent bodies in space and movement, and how these coming of age narratives play out in relation to discourses about nationality and citizenship. This paper suggests that there are subtle differences in sensibilities in works published in French by Quebecois writers and publishers, and that there is evidence of a lingering solitude in relation to young adult literature in Canada. We argue that we need to understand and continue to explicate the complex set of cultural readings and re-readings engendered by these and other coming of age novels that cross real and imagined boundaries of federation and language; that is, we encourage educators to examine representations of adolescent protagonists in relation to the production and reception of literary works that travel within and across our borders.

This article explores the gendered ways in which issues of ability and exceptionality are presented in Governor-General award-winning Canadian children's literature. In much of contemporary feminist thought, there is a strong focus on intersecting oppressions with gender as a central analytic lens. However, ability is still largely absent. Our aim is to bring ability to the forefront in an analysis of gendered representations in children's literature. We therefore discuss gender, inclusion, and children's fiction; detail our use of feminist discourse analysis; and present findings from our literature analysis, making connections to societal discourses of inclusion and gender. We conclude that educators must assist students in becoming aware of gendered and abled discourses, discussing their meanings, and deconstructing their hegemonic ideals. Without such critical discussions, the marginalisation of girls and individuals with exceptionalities will continue to be pervasive in children's literature and, by extension, society. (Contains 1 note.)

This article explores how Indigenous Canadian children's literature might challenge adult and child readers to consider different meanings and worldviews of the environment as a land-based value system. As three teacher educators from elementary and university classrooms, we use reader-response theory to explore a collection of rich alternative narratives of Indigenous land-based knowledge systems available in the work of Indigenous authors and illustrators of children's literature. Our study considers how Indigenous picture books might serve to decolonize environmental consciousness through offering accessible and immersive Indigenous stories of the land. As we respond to and analyze these picture books, we work from a prior commitment to decolonization as a critical self-reflexive political process in which one's colonized beliefs are explicitly pinpointed, challenged and countered by Indigenous worldviews and perspectives.

In this article, the author seeks to address the present function of Canadian criticism by undertaking a meditation on the contemporary Canadian university and stating his own position as a critic of Canadian literature in this institutional framework. The author asks: What are the connections between neoliberalism and cultural nationalism in Canadian political and academic discourse?; and What does it mean to teach and study a "national literature" in a university environment that sees education and scholarship primarily as economic commodities and commodifiers? The author contends that it does not suffice today to reclaim the university as a public sphere of responsible leadership. It is insufficient to argue, as Heather MacIvor (1997) does in "Castles on the Cortex," that as academic intellectuals "we have deliberately . . .abandoned our responsibility to lead and shape public debate. We speak in tongues, deliberately making ourselves incomprehensible to anyone without a Ph.D.---or, indeed, to anyone with a Ph.D. from another discipline. We have squandered our social mission" Not only is MacIvor's assumption that the gulf between the Canadian university and society once was much narrower doubtful and nostalgic-sounding, it also falls short of recognizing that people need to scrutinize the very notion of the modern academic subject's "social mission" in a state structure of elite-representative democracy. People need to radically reconfigure this very understanding of elite-representative social agency and leadership as an issue of equal access to and participation in particular sites of power. The author argues that the key task of contemporary Canadian critics is not to create a greater public presence for human sciences researchers and scholars, but to recover a sense of "the public" from decades of commercialization, privatization, and de-democratization. This paper suggests that a fundamental level of contemporary political struggle is the struggle over thelegitimacy of concepts such as "liberal education," "the public," and "the democratic nation-state." Critical theory can and does function as an important tool in this struggle, as it does in the struggle over the role of the scholar vis-a-vis broader public issues that arise under the current logics and structures of global power. (Contains 11 notes.)

Presents findings from a children's literature survey that was distributed to elementary school teachers and teacher-librarians in Ontario. Focuses on issues regarding the selection of children's literature and Canadian children's literature. Concludes that the information from the survey underscores the need for the thoughtful selection and inclusion of national literature that reflects a country's diversity. (PM)

Seeks to understand teachers' practices in relation to selecting children's literature for use in classrooms, and to understand the wider issues associated with book selection and in particular with Canadian children's literature. Supports a strong need for rethinking the implications of the literacy events that occur on an everyday basis in classrooms throughout Canada. Presents a list of about 70 Canadian elementary novels and picture books. (SG)

Notes that a rich body of Canadian children's literature exists that reflects the country's literary and socio-cultural values, beliefs, themes and images, including those of geography, history, language and identity. Discusses how Canadians tend to identify themselves first by region or province and then by nation. (SG)

Explores third graders' responses to the question "What's Canadian about Canadian Children's Literature?" Describes 6 picture books and summarizes students' responses to each. Finds students mentioned geographical aspects as characteristic of Canadian literature, and they felt Canadian children's literature should reflect Canadian "experiences." Notes cultural diversity played a minor role for students. (RS)

Takes a look at children's literature over time, and its recent emergence as a respected body of literary work. Discusses what is Canadian about Canadian children's literature. Annotates six picture books. Notes that Canadian literature reflects the diversity of the Canadian population, the vast differences in the Canadian landscape, and the enormous range of Canadian children's interests and experiences. (RS)

Presents Arbuthnot Award winner Ronald Jobe discussing his career specialization in international children's literature. Relates some events of his Canadian childhood that shaped his interest in children's books. Discusses his involvement in children's literature organizations and current issues in international children's literature. Suggests how teachers, librarians, and college literature professors can gain an international perspective. (SC)

Discussion of use of the World Wide Web for literary studies focuses on a course on contemporary Canadian literature offered at the University of Northern British Columbia. Highlights include weekly lectures, discussion forum, assignments, evaluations, Web courses versus other distributed learning media such as videoconferencing, and future directions. (LRW)

Describes a U.S. literature course and a comparative literature course that focuses on Asian, African, Canadian, Caribbean, and Latin American literature. Asserts that students need to be aware of the European impact on the U.S. identity, even where it is unpleasant. Discusses the magical realism in the distinct artistic vision of Latin America. (PRA)

In 2006, the grade 12 program "Headwaters" was initiated and offered the following four courses: (1) Environment and Resource Management; (2) Canadian Literature; (3) Outdoor Activities; and (4) Interdisciplinary Studies. The author has always described the program as simply "school." The teachers teach curriculum courses outlined by the Ministry of Education. They are certified teachers hired by the public school system, and they support students to continue to play sports or music with their home schools. Their integrated programs are not intended to exist in isolation, but rather to support and enhance the educational possibilities for those in their community. The skills and lessons they impart are meant to be "taken back" and used in each student's home school, university or college. The overall theme of the Headwaters program is "A Journey to the Source." They attempt, metaphorically, to journey farther upstream, to the source of environmental and community problems, and to the source of solutions for a sustainable future. (Contains 2 endnotes.) [The full version of this article was first published in "Pathways," vol. 19, no. 3, p14-19 (2007).]

Considers what commonplaces of culture and identity are being, could be, transmitted through the use of children's literature in classrooms. Explores what is Canadian about Canadian children's literature. Describes a study which involved Canadian elementary school children who read Canadian children's books. Concludes that literature plays a fundamental role in developing an understanding of and appreciation for one's own culture and the cultures of others. (PM)

Discusses how Lord Tennyson's poetry and Chief Seathl's writings reflect radically different world views and presuppositions about man's relationship to other animals and the environment. Advocates schools either teach students techniques enabling them to uncover bias or have them read materials more in accord with ecologically sound presuppositions. (NEC)

Describes and reviews the science fiction works of Canadian writer Monica Hughes and discusses how her writing reflects the concerns of Canadian culture. CRH)

Reviews new picture books by Canadian authors. (CRH)

Examines two instances where European based folklore has made its way to Canada via immigrant storytellers, Alice Kane's "Songs and Sayings of an Ulster Childhood," and Eva Martin and Laszlo Gal's "Canadian Fairy Tales." (RBW)

Discusses several issues concerning literature for young people in Canada, including lack of originality and the price of books. (DF)

Discusses trickster tales as a genre, referring to examples from several cultures, especially Canadian cultures. Cites an anthology "Indian Legends of Canada" and annotates six series of tales. Suggests creative teaching projects to complement a trickster tale literature study. (SD)

There is a revivification of national literature in Canada. Writers from Canada's varied cultures are producing works. One such work is "Obasan," which concerns the ostracism of Japanese Canadians after World War II. This vivid novel reveals the fate of those "outsiders" as a social commentary on injustice. (VM)

Discusses the activities and accomplishments of the Canadian Council of Teachers of English (CCTE), especially with regard to its Teacher Education Commission's "Statement on the Preparation of Teachers of English and the Language Arts." (MS)