This paper's purpose is to extensively review the historical understanding of conscience and the current juridical interpretation of freedom of conscience under section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (1982). It then briefly notes that given the challenge faced by Ontario's Catholic schools in providing for…

What should be the continuing role of founders in schools supporting self-directed learning? To answer this, the founders' views of two North American schools for self-directed learners will be compared. One school is exam-focused and private; the other is, test-free and public. The founders of both schools have comparable beliefs regarding…

After the Kosovo conflict ended in June 1999, Kosovo educational authorities, backed extensively by international technical assistance, introduced educational changes for the first time after a decade of isolation. Educational policy documents started to shift rhetoric of teaching and learning practices from traditional, largely content-based,…

This study provides insight into equity issues in post-secondary education by exploring and assessing the history, the reality and the potential developments in higher education for minority students in China, in comparison to post-secondary education for aboriginal students in Canada. It highlights access to post-secondary education by these…

"Network" is a fashionable and current term in every field of contemporary society and education is no exception. In this paper, the concept of network (and other associated concepts, such as partnership and collaboration) is reviewed. Such revision regards selected theoretical contributions and is explored in terms of the use of the…

Challenging the taken-for-granted status of canonical authors, especially Shakespeare, is difficult, but not impossible. This research offers a glimpse into the inferential processes of a group of grade ten students from diverse backgrounds who read unfamiliar passages from Shakespeare. The findings reveal a complex picture of meaning-making,…

In this study, First Nation community members in Canada's Yukon Territory share their stories about teaching and learning, both in informal and formal settings, in an effort to identify practices that might serve teachers to be more responsive to their First Nation students. In all, 52 community members between the ages of 15 and 82 shared…

Norway ratified the ILO convention 169 concerning indigenous and tribal people in independent countries in 1990. In accordance with the convention the education programs for the Sami shall address their value systems and their cultural aspirations. Our aim is to investigate the implementation of this convention. The focus is on how Sami values are…

This paper examines policy responses across Canada to international student assessment programs such as the program for international student assessment, trends in international mathematics and science study, and progress in international reading and literacy study. Literature reviewed included refereed and non-refereed journal articles,…

Ontario's Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) is reviewed and found not to meet all five criteria proposed for a strong quality assurance system focused on student learning. The QAF requires a statement of student learning outcomes and a method and means of assessing those outcomes, but it does not require that data on achievement of intended…

This paper reports on the development of a science unit for Nunavut students and my collaboration with Louise Uyarak, an early years teacher and a graduate of Arctic College's teacher education program. The unit addresses light outcomes in the "Canadian Common Framework of Science Learning Outcomes, K-12". More importantly, it incorporates…

With the rapid development of the social economy, the ideologies, ways of thinking, psychological qualities, and values of contemporary university students have changed significantly. This poses new challenges for traditional teaching administration. Importance has been attached to the humanity issue in university teaching, which attracts wide…

Neoliberalism is a loosely knit bricolage from economics, politics, and various forms of reactionary populism that can be envisioned as a kind of epistemic frame in which largely counterrevolutionary forces engage in the "creative destruction" of institutional frameworks and powers, forging divisions across society that include labor and social…

Critical multicultural education and its promise of cultural inclusion face a crisis induced by powerful neoliberal forces that view education as an economic enterprise rather than open dialogue and inclusive pedagogies. With this in mind, this article uses interpretive phenomenology to examine how US American preservice teachers engage in the…

Eastern philosophies of education such as Confucianism and Taosim advocate the use of silence in the teacher-pupil tradition of pedagogy. We investigate contemporary classrooms in Korea, and study whether teachers in Korea today incorporate this method implicitly or explicitly in their classrooms. Empirical data in the form of video-taped…