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Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons™
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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Teachers’ Work: Communicating On Difficult Knowledge In Ontario Schools, Zsofia Agoston Villalba
Teachers’ Work: Communicating On Difficult Knowledge In Ontario Schools, Zsofia Agoston Villalba
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
This thesis examines how K-12 teachers in Ontario navigate the complexities of teaching "difficult knowledge"—topics such as racial and ethnic injustices, Indigenous perspectives, immigration experiences, and gender issues—within the parameters of the school and the curriculum. Utilizing an institutional ethnography approach, the study examines the curriculum as an institutional text that coordinates and shapes teachers’ practices. Working with and against the curriculum, teachers find innovative ways to engage their students on difficult knowledge topics. Based on interviews with 12 K-12 teachers, this research explores teachers’ work and pedagogical approaches. They employ diverse teaching methods like storytelling, open dialogues, and collaborative …
A Language Barrier To Human Capital Development: The Case Of Guatemalan Students, Fidel Pérez Macal
A Language Barrier To Human Capital Development: The Case Of Guatemalan Students, Fidel Pérez Macal
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
Not being proficient in a school’s predominant language of instruction can represent a language barrier for students’ human capital development. In Guatemala, 24 languages are spoken apart from Spanish, which is the language of instruction in the majority of schools, and about 40 percent of the total population has a non-Spanish language as a mother tongue. National standardized tests show that non-Spanish mother tongue (non-SMT) students are outperformed by SMT students in elementary and secondary schools.
My thesis analyzes whether non-SMT students face a language barrier and traces its source. Two main findings emerge. First, non-SMT students are not yet …