University of Regina Open Journals
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Locating Difference With Teacher Candidates
No full textHow to teach about difference is critical to education. This paper discusses teaching about difference in locations or contexts where the majority of teacher candidates were of the dominant culture. As a teacher educator, I have worked with teacher candidates on becoming aware of the relationships between their subject positions and the subject positions of others. The exploration of those relationships was contextualized by the different physical locations and teaching and learning environments, within which privilege, dominance, and marginalization were constructed and experienced in specific forms. This paper relates my emerging pedagogy for teaching about difference, as well as describing some teacher candidates’ perspectives on learning about difference. It reflects on my experiences teaching courses in multiculturalism and social justice in two specific locations: the teaching and learning department of a small American university in North Dakota and an education faculty in Manitoba. For teacher candidates positioned within dominant culture, difference can be uncomfortable. Teaching about difference meaningfully and navigating this discomfort is central to teacher education oriented to equity.Keywords: Teacher education, difference, equit
Landscapes of Literacy: The Challenges of Reading Cree-English Dual Language Picture Books as a Decolonizing Strategy
No full textThe article theorizes the possibilities of a decolonizing methodology in a reading of David Bouchard’s Cree-English dual language picture books Nokum is My Teacher and <em >The Drum Calls Softly. Paulo Freire’s (1971) call to educators to become teacher-learners and Luis Urrieta Jr.’s (2007) concept of figured worlds as they relate to forms of identity work to inform the reading. The article suggests that not only can dual language picture books be read as social documents, but also that reading these texts as a decolonizing strategy provides opportunity for dialogic engagement across cultural boundaries.Keywords: Cree; education; decolonizing pedagogy; dual language texts; picture books; language revitalizatio
Deepening Knowledge to Inspire Action: Including Aboriginal Perspectives in Teaching Practice
No full textDeepening Knowledge Project, through Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), undertook research within the Initial Teacher Education program to explore the relationships between teacher candidates and Aboriginal content. Our research question was, "Which strategies used within OISE’s Central cohort are most powerful in increasing teacher candidates’ willingness and readiness to incorporate Aboriginal knowledges and pedagogies into their classroom practice?" Data consisted of surveys administered to approximately 70 teacher candidates at three key points in their program as well as two rounds of interviews with five purposively selected participants. We found that teacher candidates most appreciated the inclusion of First Voice perspectives, in-depth instruction on current and historical events, and a continuous examination of privilege as means to prepare them for incorporating Aboriginal content into their future practice. While most students reported feeling more confident and willing to include Aboriginal perspectives near the end of their program, there are three commonly stated questions, reported on preprogram surveys that lead to inaction on Aboriginal inclusion. Addressing these questions directly should help encourage more teachers to take up Aboriginal perspectives in their classrooms. Keywords: Indigenous knowledge; teacher education; teacher resistanc
Engaging Literacies Through Ecologically Minded Curriculum: Educating Teachers About Indigenous Education Through an Ecojustice Education Framework
No full textIn this article, we conceptualize curricula through an EcoJustice Education (EJE) framework to educate teachers about Indigenous and environmental education. The primary tasks of EJE are to engage learners in a cultural analysis of the ecological crisis and in the identification of diverse cultural methods that can bring about eco-democratic reforms that emphasize sustainable ways of living. An important method to infuse Indigenous knowledge into curricula is to invite local Elders to share stories that are Indigenous to place. In this paper, however, we consider methods of developing literacies through an engagement with the places within which learners live. We highlight the importance of developing a relationship with food and place, and an understanding about language through an eco-hermeneutic lens (Kulnieks, Longboat, & Young, 2010; 2011). We demonstrate how an aesthetic teaching form, in this case a poem entitled "Remembering Your Work," can help to foster important connections with local places and the cultural origins of food. Asking students to engage with both oral and literary traditions can promote an important dialogue about intergenerational knowledge, and foster the development of their relationships with food and place. Keywords: EcoJustice Education; Indigenous teachings; intergenerational knowledge; curriculum; literacie
Comforting Discomfort: A Review of "Warrior Women: Remaking Postsecondary Places Through Relational Narrative Inquiry"
No full textA review of Warrior Women: Remaking Postsecondary Places Through Relational Narrative Inquir
Reflections on School Engagement: An Eco-Systemic Review of the Cree School Board’s Experience
No full textThe parameters are readily interesting: The Cree School Board experience over the past 25 years represents one of the first occurrences worldwide of a society having globally acknowledged that a curriculum, as a whole, did not necessarily fit a specific group, rather than the individuals not performing within a curriculum. As such, this represents a characteristically eco-systemic experiment where a move has been made from the simple—and not-so-unusual observation of poor school performance from a community as a whole—to the conclusion that a curriculum was poorly matched to the group it was set to serve. This assessment has led most notably to the adoption of Cree as the language of instruction in order to increase performance. Statistics for the Cree School Board (CSB), however, are not showing convincing signs of improvement and Cree parents appear increasingly divided in their assessment of how the curriculum now serves their children. The purpose of this article is to throw some light on factors that may explain the difficulties Cree students are facing within school in its present format. The highly topical aspect of this assessment and review is that the characteristics that supposedly make some Cree children difficult to teach in a Western style classroom are attributes often assimilated to children with Social, Emotional, and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD) in mainstream schools: restlessness, inability to stay indoors, short attention span, rejection of classroom etiquette, and rules. The study suggest that, far from being distinct and dependent on variables that are unique, outcomes such as those recorded in Cree schools, highlight challenges in student engagement encountered by many school environments in the 21st century, particularly inner city schools. Keywords: Cree Nations; eco-systemic analysis; Native education; Social, Emotional, and Behavioural Difficulties (SEBD
Life and Mortality: A Teacher\u27s Awakening
No full textThis paper is a collection of pieces that contemplate life and mortality in the realm of education. A terminally ill, eight-year-old boy named Kole and his struggle within the confines of formal schooling inspires it. This piece of poetic inquiry gives voice to questions that need to be addressed in schools today, such as: In the face of mortality, what matters each day in classrooms? Why do terminally ill children need to come to school to prepare for the future? What does it mean to live well with children each day? This writing is a story that attempts to illuminate within each of us the recognition that mortality is nearer than one thinks, even for those of us without a terminal condition.Keywords: education; life and mortalit
Here, There, and Everywhere: A Review of DIY U by Anya Kamenetz
No full textBook Review: Here, There, and Everywhere: A Review of DIY U by Anya Kamenet
Social Media and Learning Environments: Shifting Perspectives on the Locus of Control
No full textIn the past, centralised technology departments had major influence over the choices of learning applications in higher education. With the emergence of freely available Web 2.0 and open-access tools, instructors and designers have been given greater ability to customize e-learning. This paper examines the historical roots of the impacts of authority from centralised technology units to an emerging user-centric control over learning environment design in higher education. A case study is used to illustrate the potentials and pitfalls in this more decentralised configuration for both learning and organization.Keywords: learning applications; higher education; Web 2.0; e-learning; open-access tool
Walking Our Talk About Assessment With Preservice Teachers
No full textIn this reflective study, six members of a Faculty of Education implemented or adapted research-informed assessment practices in their university Bachelor of Education teaching. These practices included aligning university course outcomes to assessment, separating achievement on university course outcomes from achievement of non-academic outcomes, collaboratively creating achievement indicators for provincial curriculum outcomes, co-constructing criteria with university students for assignments, setting up opportunities with university students for peer feedback before an assignment is submitted for marking, and administering and marking a test according to research-suggested practices. This article describes the implementation of these practices and analyzes the challenges and successes experienced as these teacher educators strove to model assessment practices that are expected of preservice teachers when they enter the profession. The primary goal of implementation was to increase congruence between teaching and practice in terms of assessment. Keywords: assessment; preservice teacher learning; self-stud