Education Commons^™

Interdisciplinary Doctoral Research Supervision: A Scoping Review, Meredith Vanstone, Kathy Hibbert, Elizabeth Anne Kinsella, Pam Mckenzie, Allan Pitman, Lorelai Lingard

Education Publications

This scoping literature review examines the topic of interdisciplinary doctoral research supervision. Interdisciplinary doctoral research programs are expanding in response to encouragement from funding agencies and enthusiasm from faculty and students. In an acknowledgement that the search for creative and innovative solutions to complex problems is best addressed through interdisciplinary collaborations, research-intensive universities are increasingly encouraging interdisciplinary projects and programs. The expansion of interdisciplinary research to the context of doctoral research may impact several core components of the doctorate: the enactment of the student–supervisor relationship, the process of forming and working with a supervisory committee, and the process and outcomes …

Preparing Teachers To Become Lifelong Learners: Exploring The Use Of Fiction To Develop Multiliteracies And Critical Thinking, Patricia A. Gouthro, Susan M. Holloway

Education Publications

Drawing upon research from a SSHRC grant entitled Creating a Canadian “Voice”: Lifelong Learning, the Craft of Fiction Writing, and Citizenship, we examine how multiliteracies and critical thinking can be fostered using a framework of lifelong learning for teachers. We provide examples from authors and key informants who discuss learning and fiction writing to argue that there are benefits for diverse learners in using wider, more inclusive definitions of literacy associated with multiliteracies. We also provide examples of how multimodal technologies can foster learning connected to critical thinking and multiliteracies.

India's Right To Education Act: Household Experiences And Private School Responses, Prachi Srivastava, Claire Noronha

Education Publications

This study aimed to shed light on the early phase of implementation of India’s landmark Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), effective as of April 2010, with special attention on the role of the private sector (i.e. private unaided schools). This working paper reports on the household- and school-level results of a larger project conducted in a Delhi slum. Data in this working paper were collected between June 2011 and April 2012 by a survey of 290 households in the selected slum area, semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of 40 households, semi-structured interviews with …

Private Sector Research Study: Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Prachi Srivastava, Claire Noronha, Shailaja Fennell

Education Publications

This research study was commissioned by the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in India to provide a broad overview of key issues associated with how the role of the private sector in education has evolved over the last ten years of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the Government of India’s flagship programme for universal elementary education. The terms of reference set the focus of this study on broadly covering public-private partnerships (PPPs) and the emergence of low-fee private schooling. Additionally, the end of the first decade of SSA dovetails with the implementation of the RTE Act, bringing important changes to …

Online Tutorial For Beginning Teachers: Storytelling For Professional Practice, Karen Roland

Education Publications

Mentoring teacher candidates to successfully navigate the complex and intersecting roles of student and beginning teacher is a core component of teacher education. The online Professional Practice Tutorial for Beginning Teachers created in 2011 consisted of seven case studies which invited teacher candidates to critically analyze and reflect on the application of the Ontario College of Teachers Ethical and Professional Standards of practice. The tutorial was successful with 26% (540 invited) teacher candidates responding, and 52% of these respondents completing the tutorial. In 2012 the tutorial was enhanced to include video learning objects to accompany case studies based on teacher …

Lifelong Learning And Canadian Writers: Fiction Writing, Citizenship, And Learning Around Identity Issues, Patricia A. Gouthro, Susan M. Holloway, Erin J. Careless

Education Publications

This paper draws upon research from a Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada study that looks at lifelong learning, citizenship, and fiction writing, to explore how individuals might learn to become Canadian fiction writers. The paper considers how the identity of becoming a writer may be shaped by involvement in writing communities. It explores issues pertaining to identity as well as challenges and supports, with regards to becoming a Canadian writer. The paper concludes by considering how learning in connection to fiction writing may help adult educators to reflect upon issues of identity, diversity, and citizenship.

Plurilingualism In Tesol: Promising Controversies, Shelley K. Taylor, Kristin Snoddon

Education Publications

The idea for this special issue grew out of the editors' involvement in TESOL's ESL in Bilingual Education Interest Section (BEIS). As we respectively took leadership roles within BEIS. While Shelley co-conducted a survey of TESOL members regarding the need for a multilingual language policy within TESOL; Kristin spearheaded a resolution regarding Deaf learner's language rights that subsequently became a TESOL (2009) Position Statement. These activities were rooted in the belief that learners' linguistic repertoires have a crucial role to play in learning English. This special issue's focus on plurilingualism, or multilingualism at the level of the individual is intended …

Preparing Politically Savvy Principals In Ontario, Canada, Sue Winton, Katina E. Pollock

Education Publications

Purpose

We argue that principal preparation programs should help candidates: 1) recognize the political role of the school principal; 2) develop political skills (including the ability to strategically appropriate policy); and 3) understand that the political approach of the principal influences teaching, learning, relationships, governance, and reform efforts. In addition, we report findings of our analysis of Ontario’s Principal Qualification Program guidelines to determine if they require principal preparation programs to develop aspiring school leaders’ political skills.

Design/methodology/approach

We reviewed theoretical arguments and empirical studies from the fields of school micropolitics, business, educational leadership, and critical policy studies to establish …

Implementing The Common European Framework Of Reference For Languages And The European Language Portfolio: Lessons For Future Research, David Little, Shelley K. Taylor

Education Publications

Since its publication in 2001 the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages has established itself as a key reference in international discussion of proficiency in second and foreign languages. The CEFR represents the culmination of three decades of collaborative research, and it unites two apparently opposed tendencies in the Council of Europe’s work on language teaching and learning. On the one hand, its definition of proficiency in terms of the individual user-learner’s capacity for communicative task performance goes back to its roots in the adult education projects of the 1970s. The Council’s first work in modern languages was carried …

Finding Wisdom In Practice: The Genesis Of The Salty Chip, A Canadian Multiliteracies Collaborative, Kathryn Hibbert

Education Publications

Using a narrative approach of ‘scenario building’, this paper documents the author’s quest to find her own wisdom in her professional practice and considers that quest in light of recent theorizing in the area of New Literacies research. Through the telling of four critical incidents and a subsequent analysis drawing on theories of cultural studies, critical literacy, critical pedagogy and critical disabilities studies, the author explores the process that led to the development of the Salty Chip: A Canadian Multiliteracies Collaborative. The network challenges outdated institutional frameworks that privilege developmentalism and practices rooted in intellectual measurement and standardization, and considers …

Re-Generating Research Partnerships In Early Childhood Education: A Non-Idealized Vision, Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw, Fikile Nxumalo

Education Publications

This chapter provides a challenge to positivist notions of partnership in early childhood education, and instead proposes a re-generative posthumanist perspective, based on relationality of partnerships. Specifically, the chapter addresses the troubles and struggles inherited in research partnerships through a non-idealized vision of research partnerships. It experiments with the notions of regenerating ‘change’ and regenerating ‘relationality’. It also addresses the multi-layered aspects of knowledge-in-the-making; non-innocent relations; difficulties of thinking change in research; and the potentialities of conflict and dissension. However, no certainties and closures about research partnerships are provided.