Online Remote Proctoring Software in the Neoliberal Institution: Measurement, Accountability, and Testing Culture

As COVID-19 spread in early 2020, a lockdown was implemented across Canadian provinces andterritories, resulting in the shuttering of physical post-secondary campuses. Universities quicklypivoted to remote learning, and faculty members adjusted their instructional and assessmentapproaches to align with virtual environments. Presumably to aid with this process, a number ofinstitutions acquired licenses to remote online proctoring services. This paper examines theresearch around online remote proctoring, examining the justification offered for the adoption ofonline remote proctoring, and contemporary research on assessment practices in higher education.Throughout the paper, I demonstrate a lack of research that speaks to the efficacy of this mode ofassessment while also acknowledging shifts in the testing environment, and an increase in studentanxiety. I argue that online remote proctoring is not only embedded within neoliberalism and auditculture, but supports a continued reliance on testing culture. It concludes with a discussion ofassessment culture, offering some alternative assessment approaches that might disrupt the veryneed for online remote proctoring. Keywords: Online remote proctoring, assessment, testing

“Gratitude to Old Teachers”: Leaning into Learning Legacies

Amongst a group of poet-scholar friends, all of us students of the American poet Robert Bly, often speak of our “gratitude to old teachers,” the title from one of Bly’s (1999) poems. We cherish a meditative awareness of deeply rooted presences holding us up, buoying us as we stride across “Water that once could take no human weight” that now “holds up our feet / And goes on ahead of us ….” What is this mystery? Through the love and support of “old teachers,” we are held, led, and supported, into an unknown future that, without their guidance, we might never have reached. Many of Bly’s students (myself included) refer to how meeting him “changed” or even “saved” their lives. Similarly, I could say this of meeting and studying with Canadian curriculum scholar and poet Carl Leggo. Practicing gratitude to old teachers fosters vital pedagogic engagement and personal connection in a world often fraught with isolation and despair. Reflecting on how these poetic influences have inspired and guided my own personal and professional life, this essay ruminates on grateful legacies within literary and curriculum studies, and beyond. Keywords: gratitude, curriculum studies, mentorship, poetry, poetic inquiry

A Review of French Immersion Ideologies in Canada by Sylvie Roy

A review of Sylvie Roy's (2020) French Immersion Ideologies. Lexington Books. 220 pages ISBN-10‏ :‎ 1793612714

Editorial

Editorial for the Autumn 2021 issue of in education

A Review of Social Theory for Teacher Education Research: Beyond the Technical- Rational by Kathleen Nolan & Jennifer Tupper, J. (Eds.)

A Review of the book Social Theory for Teacher Education Research: Beyond the Technical-Rational by Kathleen Nolan & Jennifer Tupper, J. (Eds.) Bloomsbury (2019) ISBN 9781350086395

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy – A Diffusion Model for District-Wide Change to Address Systemic Racism

Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) has been implemented in classrooms and schools across Canada and the United States to address the inequity that has caused an academic achievement gap between Black and Indigenous students and those students who self-identify as White. The purpose of this paper, which draws upon a larger instrumental case study that investigated CRP as a district-wide change, is to demonstrate an effective model for sustainable, deep-level educational change to address systemic racism through CRP. The primary research question from the larger study was: How do people with different roles throughout the hierarchy of the school district make sense of CRP? In this paper, I highlight two of the key findings from the larger study. First, in order for CRP as a district-wide reform mandate to be implemented effectively, the steps of the reform must be diffused throughout the district rather than decreed from the top of the hierarchal chain of a typical public school system. Second, in order for change that impacts an entire school system to occur, there must be a mechanism for deep learning prior to and during the implementation stage for members of the district. Keywords: culturally relevant pedagogy, second-order change, decolonizing, sensemaking, university-school partnerships

A Rationale for the Junior-Senior Secondary Mathematics Curriculum 2.0

This paper proposes a rationale that supports a renewal of our predominantly 19th century curriculum for Grades 7–12, identified as Mathematics 1.0. It was originally established in the mid 1800s to prepare learners mostly from upper-class families to succeed in a post-industrial society. Today’s digital revolution has changed society remarkably, and the variety of learners has certainly broadened, but Mathematics 1.0 fundamentally remains the same Plato-based (Platonist) curriculum due to its social-political power, which is documented in the article. The major changes to society’s culture and the composition of learners have caused faults in Mathematics 1.0 (e.g., a relevance deficit). For the majority of learners, school mathematics has mostly become an obsolete, inequitable, and harmful rite-of-passage into adulthood, to varying degrees. A renewed curriculum, Mathematics 2.0, is rationalized and specific suggestions are offered. The minority of learners who successfully pursue mathematics to varying degrees would experience small changes in their new Mathematics 1.2. Keywords: school mathematics, humanistic, curriculum differentiation, relevance

Investigating the Reading Strategies Used by French Immersion Pupils as They Engage With Dual-Language Children’s Books: A Multiple Case Study

As dual-language children’s books are becoming increasingly popular in language and literacy education, scholars are starting to zero in on how students construct meaning as they read these books. In this paper, in light of the previously mentioned body of literature, we present a qualitative study focusing on the reading strategies that three Grade 3 French immersion pupils schooled in Saskatchewan deployed when they read two types of dual-language books: translated, where the entire text appears in both English and French, and integrated, where passages in French organically complete those in English without providing the exact same information. This multiple case study highlights three distinct reading profiles, and shows how monolingual and cross-linguistic reading strategies can be used by the same student as they read a dual-language book. It also shows that some students were able to adapt their reading strategies as they engaged with different types of dual-language books, whereas others more frequently utilized the same strategies. Keywords: dual-language children’s books, reading strategies, French immersion Résumé Alors que les livres bilingues deviennent de plus en plus populaires en didactique des langues, la recherche commence à s’intéresser aux comportements cognitifs de l’élève qui s’engage dans la lecture de ces œuvres. Dans cet article, à la lumière de ces études, nous relatons les résultats d’une recherche qualitative visant à décrire les stratégies de lecture que trois élèves de 3e année scolarisés en Saskatchewan en immersion française déploient lorsqu’ils lisent deux types de livres bilingues : le livre traduit, dans lequel tout le texte apparait en français et en anglais, et le livre intégré, dans lequel le texte en français complète celui en anglais, sans toutefois offrir au lecteur la même information. Cette étude de cas multiple relève donc trois profils distincts de lecteur et, par son entremise, nous montrons comment des stratégies de lecture monolingues et translinguistiques peuvent être utilisées par un même élève lorsqu’il lit un livre bilingue. Nous révélons en outre que certains élèves sont à même d’adapter leurs stratégies de lecture selon le type de livre bilingue lu, tandis que d’autres font fréquemment usage des mêmes stratégies. Mots-clés : livres bilingues, stratégies de lecture, immersion française

Pay Attention to This: A Knowledge Translation Study of ADHD and its Brain Basis to Preservice and In-Service Teachers

The purpose of the present study was to develop a knowledge translation (KT) activity for educators about the brain in children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The goal was to increase our participants’ knowledge about ADHD and its brain basis. In addition to neuroscience content, the KT activity included the personal story of the lead researcher’s lived experience with ADHD to provide context, and to inform the participants’ perceptions of ADHD. Framed in an action research paradigm, our study undertook three cycles of reflection, planning, action, and observation to develop and improve a knowledge translation activity. The knowledge translation activity was presented to 48 preservice and in-service teachers and members of the public across Canada, with a mixed methods approach to evaluate the outcomes. The findings demonstrated that this knowledge translation activity was effective in enhancing participant knowledge about ADHD. Quantitively, a non-significant trend was observed that participants shifted their perceptions from social and behavioural causes to brain-based causes of ADHD. Qualitatively, the participants indicated making connections between the personal story and neuroscience. Effective KT requires a review of context vocabulary and opportunity for teacher interaction. Teachers are aware of several behavioural management strategies but do not have a clear idea of how or why they work. Teaching neuroscience to teachers allows for a discussion of neurodiversity and a strength-based approach to programming and accommodation. This research could help guide future knowledge translation research into the benefits of combining personal lived experience with neuroscience content. Keywords: knowledge translation, neuroscience, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, lived experience, storytelling, action research, neurodiversity

The French Play: An Ethnodrama About Applied Theatre for Social Justice Education in Middle School

In this study, I investigate the use of applied theatre with French Immersion Grade 8 students to better understand social justice issues. Through unstructured interviews, four participants were asked to recall their past experiences participating in applied theatre projects as a learning experience and as a process to better understand social justice issues. Participants’ words and feedback were then used to create an ethnodrama script, performed by the participants and me via video conference. Findings are grouped under five categories; Doll’s (2013) 4Rs: Richness, Rigor, Recursion, and Relations and Freire’s (2000) concept of conscientization. Participants in applied theatre reported they had a space to tell authentic stories in their own words, became more self-confident, and work towards being catalysts for change. The purpose of this article is to inform educators of the possibilities in using applied theatre and problem-posing education for social justice education and to share the process of ethnodrama as a methodology in arts-based research. Keywords: applied theatre; ethnodrama; problem-posing education; social justice education