Volume 17, Number 1, 2023

EN:

Social and emotional learning (SEL) is a crucial part of student wellness and academic achievement, but teachers’ own SEL is often overlooked. This qualitative study examines educators’ perceptions of their own university-level teacher preparation programs to better understand the ways in which teacher educators can support pre-service teachers’ well-being, preparedness, and longevity in the field. Findings reveal that teachers saw their own transformative SEL—a form of SEL committed to equity and social justice (Jagers et al., 2019)—as a key factor for their success, highlighting the importance of critical and holistic preparation that focuses on the social–emotional development of teachers themselves. Implications focus on practical ways transformative SEL can be infused into teacher preparation programs including redefining success beyond student academics alone, focusing on teacher well-being in a way that does not ignore systemic oppression and school-level barriers, preparing teachers for the realities of roadblocks and ethical dilemmas they may face, and examining syllabi and coursework for the development of transformative SEL competencies.

EN:

Classroom sociology is a powerful discipline that helps students develop a sense of identity, achieve success, and experience well-being while building a strong community in the classroom. Teachers who can see beneath the surface and are aware of classroom sociology create a better and more just learning environment for learners, especially in primary education. This study focuses on improving teachers’ classroom sociology and social justice awareness. Researchers designed a four-week in-service classroom sociology program for primary school teachers. The program aimed to improve the teachers’ awareness and behaviours in terms of classroom sociology and social justice. This applied research was conducted using an in-service program intervention with 12 primary school teacher participants. Data was collected from in-class observations, teacher ethnography notes, participant evaluations, and classroom observations. Initially, participants were more focused on academic performance and teaching routines and largely ignored the social context of the classroom. At the end of the study, teacher participants’ awareness of classroom sociology and social justice increased, and both their attitudes towards their students and their teaching methods changed in a positive manner.

EN:

The Ontario Human Rights Commission’s (OHCR) Right to Read Report calls for school districts to implement early literacy interventions that have been scientifically proven to be effective for young children with reading difficulties. The acknowledgment of early intervention as an essential service for young children experiencing reading difficulties is a strong and welcome message in the report. However, the report recommends a narrow course for reading interventions in Ontario, drawing on discourse from the Science of Reading community, which questionably frames current interventions, such as Reading Recovery, as unscientific, ineffective commercial programs. In this response, the authors contest the one-sidedness of these recommendations based on a paradox in the report between what constitutes an effective early literacy intervention supported by science and the standards for effectiveness the OHRC requires of interventions it endorses versus those it discredits. Rather than dismissing one approach or the other outright, a call is made for school leadership to consider broader reading science and the strengths of various approaches instead of narrowing the menu of effective literacy interventions that may support diverse learners.

EN:

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated school closures across Quebec. Educators shifted to online learning and complied with COVID-19 safety measures for in-person teaching, impacting the implementation of Quebec’s Sexuality Education program. Drawing on responses from a sample of 165 in-service teachers working in English school boards across Quebec, this study discusses the challenges that characterized teaching sexual health education (SHE) during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data analyzed in this study consist of teachers’ responses to one qualitative question: How has the COVID-19 situation affected your teaching and incorporation of Quebec’s comprehensive sexual health education curriculum in your classroom? The results indicate that educators taught less SHE during the COVID-19 pandemic due to a lack of time and other core curriculum subjects taking precedence. Other challenges were present, including a lack of clarity from school administrators on how SHE should be implemented, reduced ability to supplement SHE classes with guest speakers, difficulty facilitating discussions due to students’ home environments, and decreased student engagement. Despite these barriers, teachers felt that teaching SHE during the COVID-19 pandemic was important and expressed the need for more pedagogical development and training opportunities to improve SHE both online and in person.

EN:

One pathway to creating more equitable schooling is through schools becoming trauma sensitive. Students exposed to trauma are more likely to struggle in school compared to their non-trauma-exposed peers. Changing the school environment allows trauma-exposed students more opportunities to access academics. This qualitative study explores the practices and strategies employed by one elementary school (K–5) to become trauma sensitive. Based on the data, five subthemes emerged that coalesce around the overarching theme of creating a caring community to achieve a trauma-sensitive school. For the purposes of this study, a caring community is defined as a group of people sharing a common workplace who have a true interest in the well-being of others in the community. The five subthemes include (1) the faculty’s commitment to creating a safe school, (2) intentional school design to foster support (covered in Ballin, 2022), (3) a commitment to engaging families, (4) a desire to make school fun, and (5) the principal’s support of the school community. By embracing practices aligned with trauma-sensitive schooling, this small school changed the learning environment to give more children chances for success despite current and past traumatic experiences.

EN:

As more alarming truths are being revealed around the horrors of the residential schooling system in Canada, educators are being called to decolonize and Indigenize their teaching practices. As post-secondary teacher educators working in Indigenous education who have gained valuable insights around this difficult teaching, the authors offer readers a conceptual model of reconciliatory education. The model invites educators to move beyond colonial schooling practices to embrace decolonizing and Indigenizing approaches and the powerful potential of relational teaching and learning. Envisioned as an ethical space residing between Indigenizing and decolonizing practices and animated by truth-telling and critical thinking, the extended infinity model, presented in this article, shows the dynamic nature of teaching and learning that occurs when relating together through commitments to decolonizing and Indigenizing. While purposefully engaging in an ethos of ethical relationality, the model carries transformative potential for teaching and learning.

EN:

This paper extends discussion of the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) (2022a, 2022b) report entitled Right to Read, which recommended significant changes to both reading instruction and special education programs aimed at providing equitable opportunities for all children to develop strong reading skills. In a critique of the OHRC report (Cummins, 2022), I endorsed the report’s call for the establishment of an identification and intervention infrastructure to support students who are struggling to develop reading skills. However, I also critiqued the report’s misrepresentation of the strong reading achievements of Ontario students and the scapegoating of “balanced literacy.” Klein (2022) disputed this characterization of the OHRC report, highlighting the important contributions of the report to special education policies. In continuing this dialogue, I argue that the OHRC report has omitted consideration of significant dimensions of literacy acquisition and development that are directly relevant to preventing reading difficulties among Ontario children. Specifically, I argue that beyond the systematic teaching of phonics and other foundational literacy skills, which the OHRC report emphasizes almost exclusively, literacy policies should ensure that all children experience extensive opportunities for literacy socialization, which must involve active engagement with print, in both the preschool and early elementary years.