The eight chapters of this theme issue address two broad themes related to the study of school leadership in four countries. The first is the changing role of the principal/headteacher as a result of legislated change and societal expectations. The second is the implications of these changes for the roles of principals and headteachers. (SLD)

Within a university course, a professor and two graduate students explored societal and individual implications of literacy in general and of information and scientific literacies: conceptualizations (or ideologies) of specialized literacies in society, injustices caused by a narrow view of literacy perpetuated by dominant groups, literacy as…

Twenty urban Canadian community health and social workers received six hours of training in family-literacy development-strategies As a result, participants demonstrated a shift in attitudes about literacy, from skills-achievement to sociocultural perspectives on literacy-achievement, and included literacy events more frequently in their own…

In two Alberta elementary schools, volunteer mentors were paired with 27 children, primarily in grades K-2, to provide support for literacy development. After six to eight weeks, interviews with students, mentors, and teachers showed that child-mentor relationships were enjoyable for both parties and that students improved in self-confidence and…

Compares the 1996 Canadian Language Benchmarks for describing English-language proficiency among second-language-learners with the International Adult Literacy Survey. Points to the potential for aligning the Benchmarks with other systems for describing adult competencies to enable more systematic integration of immigrants' experiences, skills,…

Discusses aspects of an ongoing study of Alberta secondary-school teachers of written composition who have been teaching for two to seven years. Examines these "formative-years" teachers' developing responses to the tensions of job insecurity in the 1990s, increasingly diverse student populations, and conflicts between their own pedagogical…

College students judged the credibility of specially constructed news briefs about science. Their credibility ratings were influenced by area of research, plausibility of conclusions, and quality of research methods, but not by the social context of the research. Students justified their judgments with information in reports, prior knowledge, and…

A survey of 21 of the 22 public and Catholic schools in Edmonton (Alberta) examined materials used in 10th-grade English classes. Teachers cited 1,698 titles, but a small number of titles predominated the lists, suggesting a clearcut "school canon." Includes discussion and tables of the most frequently cited novels, plays, films, short stories,…

Various word-recognition tasks were completed by 54 second-grade students from classrooms where reading instruction followed the whole-language approach or the phonics/skill-based approach. A task involving a cloze procedure favored the whole-language approach, but there were no other significant differences between groups. Contains 30 references.…

Presents highlights of a panel discussion on workplace literacy at the Literacy in the 21st Century Research Conference (Edmonton, Alberta, October 1997). Participants from business, government, and university discussed Syncrude Canada's Workplace Literacy Program, implications of the International Adult Literacy Survey for the labor market, and…

In the second phase of a longitudinal study of Internet use in Alberta schools, teachers who were experienced Internet users were partnered with graduate research assistants trained in the use of search engines and search strategies. The partnerships designed a variety of Internet-based school activities. Teachers reported on factors that assisted…

Seventy educators and community members in six northern Saskatchewan Aboriginal communities were interviewed to examine policies and practices related to Native language planning and education. The language circumstances in the six Cree, Dakota, and Dene communities are discussed in terms of Fishman's eight-stage scale of language disruption and…

An Edmonton (Alberta) adult learning center developed a participatory education program that integrated literacy development with health promotion. Low-income women learned skills and strategies to access health information and resources, as well as related literacy and language strategies, and subsequently reported improved eating and exercise…

Reexamination of national Canadian surveys and Ontario surveys, 1979-1993, revealed that confidence and satisfaction ratings for public education followed a wave-like pattern over time for both general public opinion and parental attitudes. In contrast, corporate executives showed declining confidence in schools and strongly supported…

Annual Alberta surveys of parents, high school students, and the public are part of accountability processes and provide public consultation on policy issues and reform efforts. Selected results of the 1995 and 1996 surveys are presented, related to provincial educational objectives, and compared to similar U.S. and Ontario surveys and established…