We examine an action research initiative focusing on youths who were born and/or began formal schooling in Canada but raised in homes where the societally dominant language was not extensively spoken. Concepts of place and situation were used as heuristics to extend secondary-level students' problem-solving abilities and literacy engagement…

In this study, I reframe the debate on minority parents and their children's educators by moving beyond concerns around student academic achievement and toward the quality of relationships among adult stakeholders. Using an interpretive lens based on Foucault's notion of "discourse," I examine three research vignettes drawn from an…

White Canadian teacher candidates are brought into direct dialogue with urban high school students through a yearlong immersion in a high school with a "demonized" image in the broader community. Interviews with students reveal experiences of school as "my safe space" and the predominance of a student culture not characterized…

This article examines how stereotypes operate in the social construction of African Canadian males as "at risk" students. Cultural analysis and critical race theory are used to explain how the stereotypes of the youth as immigrant, fatherless, troublemaker, athlete, and underachiever contribute to their racialization and marginalization…

This article utilizes interview data to explore how notions of risk operate in a school-university partnership program. Our analysis traces the divergence between conceptualizations of "at-risk" in scholarship, its use in policy, and students' responses to this terminology. Although students targeted in such programs are often…

This article makes the argument for a reframing and a reconceptualization of the urban-suburban divide which can inform the options and possibilities for transformative practices in urban schools. Drawing primarily from a Canadian, and more specifically a southern Ontario context, the article explores the changing realities of urban within this…

Research suggests that community-referenced pedagogy initiatives foster academic inclusion for minority students. However, we know little about such engagements' benefits for teachers. This study provides insights into teachers' dispositions toward school-based parent involvement in education based on ethnographic data collected through…

The current study aimed at exploring the perceived significance of promotional events in secondary schools among Canadian parents, their children, and teachers and at determining the influence of these events on the school-choice process and school life. The findings suggest that both teachers and families displayed apparently contradictory…

Presents a comparative analysis of the influence of American and Canadian teacher organizations, both labor and special interest groups, on educational policy. Reports that the effectiveness of the lobbying organizations surveyed depended upon factors such as wealth, internal stability, ability to focus on particular issues, and political and…

Explored students' perspectives of a university path program situated within a university-school partnership for immigrant and minority students. Responses show that the abstraction of the program lived in concrete, personal dimensions for students moving from high school to college in the same neighborhood. Distinctions were blurred between the…

Uses students' autobiographical narratives to refine current understanding of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' educational and cultural adjustment to high school. Results from 40 former ESL high school students indicate a boom-and-bust pattern of cultural and educational adjustment common to both successful and unsuccessful ESL…