A conceptual framework developed in February-March 2024, reflecting on practices from my experience in the Urban Communities Cohort in the Teacher Education Program at the University of Ottawa.
Students 4 Change was a research project undertaken in my second year of teacher's college, for the PED 4220 Enacting Collaborative Inquiry in Professional Practice course. Under the supervision of my associate teacher as well as my practicum advisor Linda Radford, I facilitated and aided in students organizing initiatives to create change within their own communities.
I have had the privilege of never having to question my citizenship in Canada, and of not having it questioned. I’m white, born in an Ottawa hospital only 5 minutes from my childhood home. When asked where I was from, my answer was never met with “no, where are you actually from?”
The act of teaching historically and traditionally, in Western settings, is synonymous with sharing expertise, with being a keeper of knowledge and therefore always the speaker, never asking questions without knowing the answer. As we move into inclusive and culturally-responsive pedagogy, that idea is being dismantled, and the
In an ideal world, all students would have the necessary skills and perform at the standards for their level. English teachers would be able to select one method of instruction, trusting that they would reach every student, and enable them to engage with the tasks and perform their learning. However, this is not the case. Every student has a unique set of skills
In Canadian schools, English and Language Arts are at the core of skill development in nearly every classroom. Math, science, history, technology, business, arts: all of these require foundations in vocabulary procurement, comprehension of instructions, and information processing. However, because so often English class is associated with reading fiction and essay writing, it becomes siloed