Search

This paper provides an overview of the recursive process of initiating an action research project on literacy for students-at-risk in a Canadian urban elementary school. As this paper demonstrates, this requires development of a school-wide framework, which frames the action research project and desired outcomes, and a shared ownership of this vision by school community and staff. Preliminary understandings provide information and considerations that serve to inform discussions about school/curriculum reform and related concerns about critical literacy. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

As a result of educational policies emanating from issues relating to globalized societies, schooling is becoming increasingly standardized, not only in terms of assessment and evaluation, but also in terms of processes, policies and procedures. Two issues, "zero tolerance" and "full inclusion" policies are discussed as representative of well-intended but exclusionary policies that do little to advance social justice within schools. Truly inclusive educational practices represent a form of social justice that is much needed within the school edifice and focuses on how policy is understood and implemented at the school level, bringing the relationship between school leaders and educational policy into sharp focus. This presentation advocates the de-institutionalizing of "educational factories" in order to gain greater clarity surrounding some of the advantages afforded by creating more socially just schools. The focus is on the perspective of the school leader as the individual who is in a key position to support socially just strategies for inclusive schooling.

In this article, the author writes from the vantage point of a teacher-educator who has been engaged in the process of formal education all her life. While she has always loved the learning process itself, she has often felt a deep sense of alienation on many of the educational landscapes she has traveled. Her own alienating experience of schooling, and her discomfort with the "technically correct" model of teacher education that leaves compassion outside the classroom door have been the impetus for her finding ways to build a learning community within her pre-service teacher education classes. In this article, she discusses the following: (1) why teachers should be concerned about building classroom community; (2) how a learning community is defined; and (3) how teachers can create a learning community.

Educational leadership in Canada has traditionally been conceptualized as a solo activity. However, in recent years, there has been a growing interest in the distributed character of leadership. Like any other theory or concept, distributed leadership has attracted praise as well as criticism. In this chapter, we conceptualize distributed leadership as concerted actions that happen in everyday practices in schools and through relationships among various partners such as principals/heads and teachers. The chapter is divided into four sections. In Section 1, we trace historical and theoretical antecedents of distributed leadership in general with respect to questions of representation, legitimation and praxis, with specific references to social impetuses. Section 2 considers Canadian educational contexts in terms of current conditions and trends in distributed leadership. The third section deals with the global perspective in terms of social, political and aesthetic forces. The fourth section speculates upon the future of distributed leadership in terms of utopian/dystopian possibilities. In this final section, we experiment with what philosophical hermeneutics may offer to a re-conceptualization of distributed leadership. Through Gadamer's notion of praxis, we discuss concerted action of distributed leadership. We highlight the importance of this form of leadership in an era of unprecedented global interconnectedness, and how it may facilitate teachers' professional learning and development.

This article provides an overview of the integrative process of initiating an action research project on literacy for students "at risk" in a Canadian urban elementary school. As the article demonstrates, this requires development of a school-wide framework, which informs the action research project and desired outcomes, and a shared ownership of this vision by school community and staff. Preliminary understandings provide information and considerations that serve to inform discussions about school/curriculum reform and related concerns about Critical Literacy.

This action research project on critical literacy in a high poverty area in Toronto, Canada becomes the practical backdrop for examining how critical literacy can be developed and applied in regular classroom situations. Educators identifying patterns within classrooms that prevent students from participating fully in all aspects of a democratic society may find models presented in this article useful for making curricula more inclusive. (Contains 1 figure.)

Investigated reasons for tensions among stakeholders, such as Ontario's ministries of education, teacher associations, local school districts, and university teacher education programs regarding the meaning and implications of professional development. Interview data clarified stakeholders' perspectives and priorities and noted that effective professional development must start from the point of commonality, with stakeholders working together toward the shared moral purpose of enhancing student learning. (SM)

Articulates a theoretical framework to help teachers and children reflect on and respond to their experiences of anger and sorrow in the classroom, describing how third grade teachers and students discovered the power of becoming storytellers in their own lives through "sensible reflection" and asserting that understanding sensible reflection as a reconciliation of sense and reason can create possibilities for responding to challenges in one's daily life. (SM)

Interviewed parents and caregivers to assess perceptions of their child's transition from kindergarten to Grade 1. Themes identified included: anxiety about preparing and protecting children in a system viewed as curriculum-driven; apprehension about changes in the parent/caregiver role; escaping from the school's stereotypes of the family; and developing strategies for effective parent-school involvement. (KB)

As noted by Zygmunt Bauman, the father of postmodernity, things are not like they used to be. Neoliberal sentiments have succeeded in changing society, world-wide. Consequently, more and more people struggle or are abandoned due to cultural values, practices and policies that alienate those who are most vulnerable within the society. Institutes of higher education are important and significant reproducers of current society. Consequently, we ask, 'Is wellbeing essential to educational administrators?' This article explores the importance of having educational leaders develop agency in institutes of higher education and learning by moving towards a practice of wellbeing. The article speaks to those who teach and learn in institutes of education, who may influence or are influenced by neoliberal practices. Such influence is as true of higher education as it is of society in general, as universities increasingly invite influential business leaders to their boards of governors and as courses become increasingly taught by contract staff. These changes and their effects impact the wellbeing of everyone in higher education and beyond. Although North American cultures have traditionally 'outperformed' many countries, economically speaking, this is changing as well. People have become more fearful and less trusting, not only of governments and institutions, but also of one another and of differing cultures. This is becoming increasingly less healthy and more subject to societal, structural and human flaws. To move beyond these issues, we introduce a conceptual framework that provides a modicum of agency. Individual agency may be key in overcoming or mitigating fear, apathy and hopelessness. However, before agency can be brought to the attention of students, wellbeing must first be established within the repertoire of educators at institutes of higher education and of learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]