Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (JCACS)
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Exploring Gender and Identity in Ontario’s Early Years Curriculum Documents
Get PDFUnderstanding how Ontario Ministry of Education (OME) early years’ curriculum and framework documents, such as The Kindergarten Program (OME, 2016), How Does Learning Happen? (OME, 2014) and ELECT (BSEPEL, 2007) set the expectations for fostering gender and identity formation is increasingly vital in contemporary society. Educators need to understand how the mandated documents feed their practice and influence what is understood by educators as “appropriate” gendered practices and identities. Drawing on a poststructural feminist perspective (Blaise & Taylor, 2012), the authors examine these early years’ documents for systemic or structural aspects that suggest the formation of specific gender identities. Specifically, this study explores the language and systemic gender beliefs contained in the three documents identified above. The study also examines how specific ideologies may influence gender identity formation in young children. The authors expect to find that these curriculum and framework documents do not support educators in fostering the formation of gender identities, particularly those which are outside of heteronormative expectations
The Role of Indigenous Knowledge Practices Within Transformative Reconciliation
Get PDFThis métissage explores scholarly relations among local Indigenous communities, school districts, teacher-learners and Simon Fraser University’s graduate diploma program titled Indigenous Education: Education for Reconciliation. Through our collective attending to the role of Indigenous knowledge practices and making within transformative reconciliation, a powerful resurgence of Indigenous ways of knowing and being emerged. This resurgence came about through participatory pedagogies of making and through the sharing of Indigenous knowledges, cultural practices, ceremony and language revitalization. The focus on Indigenous knowledge practices, circle processes and artmaking, as well as Indigenous worldviews, knowledges and perspectives, provided an enactment of rigorous resurgence and transformative reconciliation (Ash et al., 2018). Opportunities to be involved in Indigenous making and land practice with Indigenous Knowledge Holders provided occasions for teacher-learners to embody and embed Indigenous pedagogies and “two-eyed seeing” (Bartlett et al., 2012) within their educational practice. Throughout the program, teacher-learners were invited into Indigenous making, creative and critical conversations, exploring circle pedagogies, participatory processes, place-based explorations and intercultural dialogues with Indigenous Knowledge Holders and Elders. The teachers acknowledged and experienced Indigenous protocols and ceremonies, and they actively explored Indigenous teachings through Indigenous participatory pedagogies. An emphasis was placed on creating authentic Indigenous-learning pathways and to do so in relation to knowledge practices within a particular place, peoples and their unique cultural ecology. This Indigenous Métissage (Donald, 2012) weaves together narrative threads into a story of collaboration between teacher-learners and Knowledge Holders. They stand as a family stands, together to share and give witness to the profound learnings that have emerged from the journey
Examining How Expectancies and Values Can Overcome the Costs of Innovation: A Systematic Review of Environments and Approaches
Get PDFMaking innovation more likely is a common goal of numerous educational initiatives ranging from the makerspace movement to high-skills majors and innovation incubators popping up across Canada. However, there has been limited cross-pollination across different disciplines towards a truly interdisciplinary understanding of what makes innovation more likely. This systematic review study examines the expectancies, values and costs that have been found to be involved in approaches and environments that promote the act of innovating. A systematic approach integrating an all-databases search in EBSCOhost (n=375 databases) yielded 115 full-text papers for data extraction. A majority of papers were found to be from business settings and predominantly using a survey methodology. There were limited considerations for implementation in schooling and education more broadly. Persistent trends for building expectancy tend to be supportive environments or approaches that make it safer for the aspiring innovators to practice and develop self-efficacy. Aspiring innovators tended to find intrinsic and utility value rather than attainment value as their principal task values, which suggests possibilities for maximizing their effect. Costs of innovation followed a similar pattern to costs as noted in other expectancy-value theory (EVT) studies. These findings point to a need for those interested in promoting innovation, especially educators, to focus their energies on creating a supportive environment and a needs-supportive approach
Exploring Language Learning Experiences of Kurdish and Turkish Asylum Claimants in Canada Through Arts-Informed Research
Get PDFAccording to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the highest level of displacement on record was reached in 2019 with 79.5 million people being forced to migrate (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2020). Although there is a significant influx of asylum seekers arriving in Canada from Turkey, there have been no studies completed in Canada that focus on the experiences of Kurdish and Turkish refugee claimants. Asylum seekers’ lived experiences need to be further investigated because their precarious legal status together with changing governmental policies may limit their access to language education and resettlement programs. Grounded in the arts, this paper analyzes the role of languages and language-learning experiences on Turkish and Kurdish asylum seekers and their integration into Canadian life. Participants were given the opportunity to document their challenges, needs, concerns and successes related to their integration and language-learning experiences by creating different art forms. Analysis of the data is made through the lens of Cooper’s (2011) Bridging Multiple Worlds Theory and Freire’s (1972) concept of critical consciousness. This research will be informative for educators and policy makers involved in the education of young adults from refugee backgrounds
Go Hence; Have More Talk of These Sad Things: Reading and Relationality in the English Language Arts Classroom
Get PDFDrawing upon my own experiences as a high school English Language Arts teacher, I seek a satisfying response to offer students when they ask, “Why are we reading this?” Such a query often leads teachers and students to consider broader questions of the purposes of literature. This paper presents a hermeneutic exploration of the practice of teaching (with) literature in the high school classroom. Using the writings of Gadamer (1989/2013) and Sumara (1996, 2002), and their conceptualizations of aesthetic (literary) experience, I outline a process of engaging with students in their desire to understand their roles as readers in the classroom. In doing so, I make an argument for playful and dialogic interactions between reader and text—an approach that both retains the integrity of aesthetic experience, and also invites a relational pedagogy among those who share a literary reading
School Science Students Developing and Mobilizing Eco-Just Engineering Products
Get PDFIn many contexts worldwide, educators are encouraged to integrate aspects of the traditionally-isolated disciplines, science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Among variants of STEM education, promotion of engineering design and consciousness of engineering processes, products and services seem particularly prevalent. Innovations/inventions from STEM are said, for instance, to improve people’s lives and to contribute to jurisdictional economic competitiveness. While there are numerous defenders of such foci, several scholars suggest that many STEM education initiatives minimize or alter students’ consciousness of harms to living and nonliving things associated with influences of powerful people (e.g., financiers) and groups (corporations, think tanks, trade organizations, etc.) on fields of science and technology and on many other entities. Accordingly, we report findings from action research involving a secondary school science teacher’s effort to educate students about such problematic relationships and, for areas of their concern, and to encourage them to design and implement STEM-based engineering products that perform intended functions and also addressed matters of social and/or ecological justice. Students developed, for example, a candle recycling device made from waste material, 3D-printed athletic shoes made from biodegradable material and 3D-printed paralletes supports (also biodegradable) for calisthenics training. At the same time, work still seems necessary to help students with abstract concepts like immutable mobiles and techniques for mobilizing such more eco-just technologies across multiple context to perhaps generate an assemblage of co-supportive living, nonliving and symbolic actants. Claims from Science and Technology Studies, such as sociotechnical imaginaries, show great promise in this regard
Considérant le rôle des médias documentaires dans l’éducation de l’environnement
Get PDFEnvironmental issues continue to be a growing global concern. Many curricular documents have added environment-related topics into a variety of grade levels and subjects with the hope of increasing student awareness at a time when environmental stewardship is a top priority. Traditional approaches to environmental education often include engaging students with the outdoors, and while this is an integral part of developing students’ environmental awareness, much of what students learn about the environment is from the media, which includes visual imagery. As we contemplate how best to engage students in reflecting on what it means to live in a sustainable fashion, it is also important to consider the merits of visual rhetorical modes in environmental communication, such as documentary film. This paper draws upon findings from a study that explored how viewers react to particular visual imagery. The data revealed the most powerful rhetorical effect was observed when participants drew links between the visual content of the video clips and a personally significant outdoor place, demonstrating that a personal connection to place may make a direct impact on viewers’ reactions to visual rhetoric in environmental documentaries, thus possibly causing the viewer to develop a deeper awareness of the issues.Les problèmes écologiques continuent d’être un souci croissant et mondial. Plusieurs documents qui se rapportent au cursus avaient inclu sujets concernant l’environnement dans une variété de niveaux de classes et de sujets, avec l’espoir d’augmenter le savoir des élèves, à une époque où la gérance de l’environnement est de la priorité absolue. Souvent, les approches traditionnelles à l’éducation de l’environnement incluent impliquer les élèves en plein air; et comme ceci est une partie intégrante du développement de la conscience environnementale des élèves, la majorité de ce que les élèves apprennent sur l’environnement vient des médias, qui incluent des images visuelles. Pendant que nous envisageons comment mieux impliquer les élèves de réfléchir à la pertinence de vivre d’une manière durable, il est aussi important d’envisager les mérites des modalités rhétoriques visuelles dans la communication environnementale. Une forme de la communication environnementale qui dépend beaucoup sur les images, et qui est croissant en popularité, est le film documentaire. Cet article fait usage des conclusions d’une étude qui a exploré comment les spectateurs et spectatrices réagissent aux images visuelles particulières. Les données, collectées et analysées, ont révélé que l’effet rhétorique le plus puissant était observé quand les participants ont établi des liens entre le contenu visuel des clips vidéos et un lieu à l’éxtérieur personnellement significatif, démontrant qu’un lien personnel à un lieu peut avoir un impact direct sur les réactions des spectateurs et spectatrices à la rhétorique visuelle des documentaires environnementaux, ainsi développant éventuellement une conscience plus profonde des problèmes
Understanding the Use of Academic Research in Science Education Practitioner Journals
Get PDFThis bibliometric study investigated the extent to which science education practitioner journals (SEPJs) cite science education research journals and other resources, and in what proportions. The study found that articles in SEPJs rarely cite the leading science education research journals; the average citation rate per article is well below one. This result was not affected by article type and remains stable across 2013 to 2017. While results indicate the article purpose in the SEPJs affected the proportion of science education research journal citations, the proportion remains low with—in the best case—about 8% of all citations in The Science Teacher from 2013 to 2017. The presentation discusses the role of SEPJ authors of different roles/backgrounds in science education and their use of references. Implications for pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) development and the translation of research to practice are described
Teachers’ Perspectives on Building Spaces for Students To Be Change Agents
Get PDFThis research project is centered around five participating elementary teachers and how they created space for multimodal, literacy-based curricula in their classrooms using culturally responsive teaching (Nieto, 2017, 2018) for social justice. This presentation is a reflection on this focus. For example, Cassidy, a grade three teacher in a diverse urban school, shared that her pedagogy is “always social justice because I want my kids to be change agents if they can be. If I can just teach them how to be more understanding of each other and of humanity; and just be able to see people as humans.” The teachers shared how attending professional development workshops on oppression and discrimination helped them build resources that focused on inclusion and equity. Comprehensive interviews and analyses of pedagogical tools and designs provided knowledge about the multimodal resources, tools and activities that helped the teachers build effective social justice-focused curriculum. The interviews and analyses also provided insight into their struggles and successes as well as their ongoing pedagogical goals. A New Literacies perspective (Coiro et al., 2008) helped reveal how these teachers collaborate, plan and create equitable learning spaces and opportunities in their classrooms. The study also highlights how these teachers built opportunities for multimodal teaching and learning and how they developed their culturally responsive teaching practices
Développement d’un profil stratégique du leadeurship en aménagement linguistique et culturel pour le système d’éducation francophone du Nouveau-Brunswick : une approche collaborative
Get PDFLes défis de l’apprentissage dans les écoles francophones en milieu minoritaire au Canada sont bien documentés et nécessitent une réflexion profonde afin de les appréhender. Face à une diversité ethnoculturelle et linguistique grandissante observée, dans ces écoles, les leadeurs scolaires sont interpelés à exercer un leadeurship particulier pour répondre à la double mission des écoles francophones (Lapointe & Langlois, 2002). Au Nouveau-Brunswick, seule province officiellement bilingue du Canada, cette situation impose certaines exigences au travail des directions d’école qui doivent réussir là où les familles et l’ensemble des communautés n'y sont pas parvenus. Les directions d’école sont ainsi directement interpelées à exercer leur rôle non seulement pour assurer la réussite scolaire des élèves, mais aussi pour renforcer leur fierté et leur identité francophone et acadienne (MEDPENB, 2014). Toutefois, celles-ci soulignent un manque d’outils qui leur permettraient d’atteindre ces objectifs (Boudreau, 2014). Cette communication présente les résultats d’une recherche appliquée visant à développer un modèle d’accompagnement permettant à ces directions d’écoles de mieux remplir leur rôle en aménagement linguistique et culturel dans l’atteinte de la double mission de l’école francophone