Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (JCACS)
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Les mathématiques à l’école et miyō-pimōhtēwin
Get PDFWe want mathematics to be a process of miyō-pimōhtēwin (walking in a good way). Using a narrative inquiry methodology, we share our experiences working alongside two Cree elementary school teachers and the students in their mathematics classroom. The teachers taught principles that balance kohtawān (our spiritual being) and make curriculum into a relational space. The principles invite school mathematics to be learned and taught in a way that foregrounds self-awareness, doing things properly, learning new ways, being thankful, being humble, leaving problems behind you, helping yourself and keeping trying. This paper also demonstrates a promising practice of Indigenization in the mathematics classroom by providing a contextual way in which Cree students and teachers engaged in school mathematics in relational ways.Nous voulons que les mathématiques soient un processus de miyō-pimōhtēwin (marcher dans la bonne direction). S’appuyant sur une méthodologie d’enquête narrative, nous partageons nos expériences de travail aux côtés de deux enseignants cris de l'école primaire et des élèves dans leur classe de mathématiques.. Les enseignants ont dispensé des principes qui équilibrent kohtawān (notre bien-être spirituel) et font du programme scolaire un espace relationnel. Ces principes invitent à apprendre et à enseigner les mathématiques scolaires d'une manière qui met l'accent sur la conscience de soi, le fait de faire les choses correctement, d'apprendre de nouvelles façons, d'être reconnaissant, d'être humble, de laisser les problèmes derrière soi, de s'aider soi-même et de continuer à essayer. Cet article démontre également une pratique prometteuse d'autochtonisation dans la classe de mathématiques en fournissant une manière contextuelle dans laquelle les élèves cris et les enseignants sont engagés dans les mathématiques scolaires de manières relationnelles
“Permission to Wonder”: Incorporating Beauty and Aesthetics in the Pre-Service Science Education Classroom
Get PDFWhat happens to pre-service teachers' understanding of science education when they are given the opportunity to explore the wonder and beauty of the natural world? This research explores how a class project titled “Beauty and Aesthetics in Science” (Blades, 2014; 2015) impacts students’ understanding of science curriculum, teaching and learning. Drawing on a hermeneutic (interpretive) framework, the primary research question is: How can pre-service students experience science as a tentative, creative space amidst the content focused curriculum they often experienced in science classes? The assignment asked students to choose something in nature that they were curious about, then to research the science behind the topic and to maintain a journal that recorded their findings and their emotional response to their experience. The students were then asked to prepare an aesthetic expression of their discovery and share their creation with the class in a sharing circle. Results from interviews and analysis of student work showed that some students experienced initial frustration with the open-endedness of the assignment, but once they delved into their topic, they loved the opportunity to creatively pursue their interests. Students realized the complexity of their topic and how their initial question often led to other questions. Many shared how this assignment created a much deeper emotional connection to their topic. Students reported that being given "permission to wonder" within a formal education setting was a foreign experience in their own schooling. Findings also demonstrated that students could articulate a better understanding of the indeterminate and complex nature of science and science education
La Réalisation de la résilience
Get PDFThis special issue contains select refereed conference proposal abstracts of presentations planned for the cancelled Canadian Society for the Study of Education (CSSE) conference at Western University May 30-June 4, 2020. The abstracts represent paper presentations, round tables, symposia and panel presentations from the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (CACS) and CACS’ special interest groups including: the Arts Researchers and Teachers Society (ARTS), the Canadian Critical Pedagogy Association (CCPA), the Science Education Research Group (SERG), the Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada (LLRC), and the Regroupement pour l’étude de l’éducation francophone en milieu minoritaire (RÉÉFMM).Ce numéro spécial contient des résumés des propositions de conférence arbitrées sélectionnés des présentations prévues pour la conférence annulée de la Société canadienne pour l'étude de l'éducation (SCÉÉ) à l'Université Western du 30 mai au 4 juin 2020. Les résumés représentent des présentations sur papier, des tables rondes, des symposiums et des présentations de panel de l'Association canadienne pour l’étude du curriculum (ACÉC) et des groupes d'intérêt spéciaux de l’ACÉC, notamment : la Société des chercheurs/chercheuses et des enseignants/enseignantes des arts (SCEA/«ARTS»), l’Association canadienne de la pédagogie critique (ACPC/«CCPA»), le Groupement des recherches en éducation et des sciences (GRÉS/«SERG»), l’Association canadienne des chercheurs en langue et littératie (ACCLL/«LLRC») et le Regroupement pour l'étude de l'éducation francophone en milieu mineur (RÉÉFMM)
Enhancing Instruction in Inquiry-Based Early Literacy Classrooms
Get PDFOntario’s Kindergarten Program document (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2016) advocates for student-directed and inquiry- and play-based pedagogies to support four- and five-year-old children’s learning. In practice, educators’ understanding and implementation of inquiry-based pedagogies varies considerably. Our study sought to bridge theory and practice through collaboration between a faculty of education and a local school board to support pre- and in-service educators’ understanding of inquiry-based pedagogy. It also sought to help these teachers integrate opportunities for embedded literacy instruction. We used classroom observations, pre- and post-surveys and workshops to determine educator and teacher candidates’ understanding of inquiry and early literacy. Overall, educators expressed a positive inclination towards inquiry-based pedagogy and early literacy instruction; however, their implementation of these varied. Through concrete learning experiences, reflection and facilitation, educators’ understanding improved and they began to implement ideas from the workshops into their practice. Our results highlight the need to improve training and support for kindergarten educators to enable them to implement inquiry-based pedagogies effectively and build vital literacy skills through embedded learning. This has direct implications for local and provincial policy and for children’s ability to learn, build skills and become successful readers
Scientific Inquiry With the Steps to Inquiry Framework Fosters Creativity in an Early Primary Classroom
Get PDFStudent-centred science inquiry, and creative approaches to science, are both recommended in curricula for early years and primary education. In student-centred science inquiry, children learn to design simple investigations to address their own science questions. Creative approaches to science education involve supporting children in self-motivated imaginative activity, which generates knowledge that is of value to the child. Based on the literature, a conceptual framework of seven synergies between the two was developed by Cremin et al. (2015) categorized as Play and Exploration, Student Motivation and Affect, Questioning and Curiosity, Problem-Solving and Agency, Dialogue and Collaboration, Reflection and Reasoning, and Teacher Scaffolding and Involvement. This qualitative study used this conceptual framework as a lens to examine the science activities of children in a grade-one classroom with the Teacher Scaffolding and Involvement aspect engaged via the Steps to Inquiry posters created by Youth Science Canada (n.d.). Results suggest that guidance with the Steps to Inquiry posters resulted in increases in the following categories: Student Motivation and Affect; Problem-solving and Agency; Dialogue and Collaboration; and Reflection and Reasoning. Although the categories of Play and Exploration and Questioning and Curiosity also showed increases, there were limitations on what the children explored and the subject matter for their questioning and curiosity. The results imply that although the Steps to Inquiry posters did reduce “free rein” regarding subject matter, they did maintain the seven synergies between student-centered science inquiry and creative approaches to science. Implications are that the Steps to Inquiry posters are a valuable resource for supporting these pedagogical approaches that are recommended world-wide
High Heels, Empty Bottles and Other Interesting Pedagogical Artefacts Mediating Social Movement Learning
Get PDFHow does individual transformation unfold within social movement learning, a territory that mainly embodies learning as a collective practice? How do the visual and performing arts, as research tools, mediate such individual transformation while simultaneously promoting community engagement and critical dialogue amongst members of social movements and the general public? Interweaving social movement and transformative learning theories along with queer performance theory, this arts–based and participatory study answers these questions by describing and articulating two art interventions and the subsequent discourse and politics that emerged from these two scenarios. The first scenario unfolded during a series of painting workshops facilitated with members of the National Recycling Social Movement (MNCR) in 2017 in São Paulo, Brazil. The second scenario unfolded as a series of drag performances in Edmonton, Canada. By exploring the potentialities of visual and performing arts to understand social movement learning through the arts, people were asked to engage internal and external dialectical relationships that mediate their construction of visual and performative thought. Such creative thinking awakened a higher level of human consciousness, enabling individuals to construct new knowledge. This new knowledge empowered participants and enabled an agency which they later used to promote community development and social change
Poet, Teacher, Acadie: Using Poetic Inquiry as a Tool for Unearthing Identity
Get PDFUncovering an authentic version of self-identity is at once difficult and profound. Our self-identity affects how we (re)present ourselves to the outside world and ultimately how we engage as educators. Through more than twenty years of writing experience, and a decade as an educator at the post-secondary level, I have learned that poetry has power. However, it is only recently that I have come to further appreciate its power to explore the links between place and self-identity (Vincent, 2020). Poetry offers a chance to dwell in the depths of self-identity while simultaneously tapping into the liminal spaces that often unconsciously frame who we are. This presentation focuses on my on-going journey of self-discovery as an Acadian Canadian, and explores how poetry, as a tool for textual analysis and self-analysis, has helped me to unearth previously unexamined parts of my identity. This presentation also includes demonstrations of ways that other educators, whether experienced in poetry or not, can use poetry and/or poetic techniques to begin to explore their own identities as educators
Posthumaniser le programme d’études de McLuhan : Faire des riffs sur La ville en tant que salle de classe (City as Classroom)
Get PDFConditions of the posthuman are hastened by the technologies that now fully mediate our brains and nervous systems, a circumstance anticipated by Marshall McLuhan some sixty years ago. In 1977, McLuhan co-developed a media textbook for Canadian high school students. We expand on a selection of the concepts and themes identified in City as Classroom: Understanding Language and Media and query in what ways we might apply a forty-year-old media curriculum to our present-day circumstances. We riff on Marshall McLuhan’s prognostications on education during the electric age as a recalibration of his remarkably prescient work and conceptualize a hypercity in which to explore our considerations. We enmesh City as Classroom with the materiality of city spaces and theorize a posthuman critical pedagogy as a call to action.Les conditions du posthumain sont accélérées par les technologies qui assurent désormais la médiation complète de nos cerveaux et nos systèmes nerveux, une circonstance anticipée par Marshall McLuhan il y a une soixantaine d'années. En 1977, McLuhan a co-développé un manuel des médias pour les élèves canadien(ne)s du secondaire. Nous développons une sélection des concepts et des thèmes identifiés dans « City as Classroom : Understanding Language and Media » et nous nous demandons de quelle manière nous pourrions appliquer un curriculum des médias de quarante ans à notre situation actuelle. Nous faisons des riffs sur les pronostics de Marshall McLuhan sur l'éducation à l'ère électrique comme un recalibrage de son travail remarquablement prémonitoire et nous conceptualisons une hypercité dans laquelle explorer nos considérations. Nous entremêlons « City as Classroom » avec la matérialité des espaces urbains et nous théorisons une pédagogie critique posthumain en tant qu’un appel à l'action
Hommage à la poésie sans-lieu et la vie poétique de Carl Leggo
Get PDFThis address was written for Carl Leggo and presented June 1, 2019, at the CACS preconference “The Many Faces of Love: Celebrating the Life Work of Carl Leggo”, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. It draws upon Hannah Arendt’s analysis of the three human activities—labour, work and action—that form part of her thesis in The Human Condition. Specifically, I aim to provide a brief description of the role that such activities play in constituting the vita activa (or life of action). This overview then circles around to the ways in which works of art, particularly poetry, help establish a sense of permanence in the world that the activities of labour and action do not. I then identify an intersection between Arendt’s writings on poetry with Carl Leggo’s as relayed in his own writings on the subject. This intersection highlights poetry’s infinite value.Ce discours a été écrit en honneur de Carl Leggo et présenté en prélude de la conférence de CACS 2019 « Les multiples facettes de l’amour : célébration des œuvres de la vie de Carl Leggo » à l’Université de la Colombie-Britannique, de Vancouver, du Canada. Il s’inspire de l’analyse d’Hannah Arendt sur les trois activités humaines – le travail, l’œuvre et l’action – qui constitue une partie de sa thèse sur la condition humaine. Précisément, mon but est de fournir une brève description du rôle que de telles activités jouent dans la constitution de la vita activa (ou vie active). Ainsi, ce survol couvre les différentes contributions des œuvres d’arts, particulièrement la poésie, dans l’établissement d’un sentiment de permanence dans le monde, contrairement aux activités de travail et d’action. J’identifie donc une similarité entre les écrits poétiques de Arendt et ceux de Carl Leggo, comme s’est révélé dans ses propres écrits sur le sujet. Cette similarité met en évidence la valeur inestimable de la poésie
Art Education as Environmental Activism in Pre-service Teacher Education
Get PDFThis presentation explores how art and design education can contribute to the imperative of climate change and help societies adapt to living more sustainably. Drawing on methods from arts-based research and qualitative case study, it reports on a study that investigates what can be learned from creating environmental art installations with pre-service teachers (those training to be K-12 teachers) as part of environmental art education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Data collection methods used in this study are two-fold. The arts-based research methods include journaling, photography and the creation of installations from environmental art-making experiences. Traditional qualitative methods include anonymous online surveys, semi-structured interviews and feedback forms on art workshops. Findings suggest that preservice teachers experience attitudinal and behavioural shifts towards sustainability after engaging in the processes of creating environmental art. Involvement in the workshops also provided opportunities for building community, engaging multiple domains of learning, modeling sustainable art-making practices and prompting environmental activism. Overall, connecting environmental issues with arts-based pedagogy through environmental and sustainability education (ESE) may inspire art educators to reflect on their responsibility to advance climate action and consider what role(s) they can play in environmental activism inside and outside of their educational institutions. This presentation explores how the study adds a new dimension to the current literature because of its focus on generalist pre-service teachers and pedagogical strategies that engage those with little background in art education. The results of this study inform a developing pedagogy for environmental art education in higher education settings