There is a crisis in mathematics education (National Research Council, 1989). This crisis has caused stakeholders to question the purpose of mathematics education. Teaching mathematics for social justice is a pedagogy that uses mathematics as a tool to expose students to issues concerning power, resource inequities, and disparate opportunities between different social groups to illicit social and political action (Gutstein, 2006). This study uses action research to explore the effects of incorporating social justice issues in mathematics with affluent, middle school students. Findings indicate that integrating social justice issues into mathematics affected some students’ cognitive and affective domains and in some cases led to empowerment and action. The study also found that students’ perception of responsibility, their age and personal connections along with the amount of teacher direction may have affected students’ development of social agency. These findings help to inform teachers’ practices and contribute to literature on critical mathematics.

The focus of this research is to examine the book club as a social context for literacy development. Students in book clubs perceive literature authentically in ways of reading, writing and talking through a variety of interactions. Meanwhile, teachers, by observing students’ learning in book clubs, reflect on their language teaching and lead to an innovation of literacy instruction in schools, which can bridge to a community instructional change for language teachers. In this research, I observed, videotaped, audio-taped, and interviewed high school students and the teacher in an urban Canadian high school, who were involved in English classroom book clubs which replaced the traditional instructional mode of teaching literature, trying to figure out a structure for a classroom book club by comparing to an extracurricular book club and by analyzing the diverse reading experiences of students both in and outside of school.

Traditionally, kindergarten programs have been offered in various ways across the province of Ontario (e.g., half day every day; all day, alternate day). Starting in 2010, the Ontario Ministry of Education began implementing full day, every day kindergarten in all publically funded schools. This large-scale innovation has resulted in a number of important changes. The kindergarten teacher is experiencing a variety of these changes. This qualitative study focuses on reactions and concerns of kindergarten teachers as they begin to implement full day kindergarten. Semi-structured interviews and classroom observations with five kindergarten teachers provide information about these reactions and concerns. The Stages of Concern framework, one aspect of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), will be used to discuss these findings and how full day kindergarten has impacted the kindergarten teacher.

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, renowned for its academic rigor, is also committed to forwarding the larger organization’s mission of creating “a better and more peaceful world” through education. This qualitative case study explores the conceptions of peace education held by three IB Diploma English A1 teachers, the factors that shaped those conceptions, and possible obstacles to teaching for peace in an international school. A framework of peace education as distilled from an extensive literature review and Johan Galtung’s definitions of peace provide the study’s theoretical foundation. Using observations, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews, this study examines teachers’ concepts of peace, pedagogical practices, and approaches to peace education within the context of an A1 classroom and an IB World School. The findings conclude that teachers’ conceptions of peace education are shaped by personal factors such as prior experiences and pedagogical content knowledge, and not by official IB documents.

“Studying the Shoah (Holocaust) forces students to consider what it means to be human and humane by examining the full continuum of individual behavior, from ultimate evil to ultimate good” (Lindquist, 2011, p. 26). The Pebbles for Peace project was created with the intention to explore these character extremes and to provide tangible examples of choices that can be made in life. This thesis is an autoethnographic exploration of the Pebbles for Peace project that will include the researcher’s narrative reflection on her personal journey through education, specifically Holocaust education, as well as observations of the impact on classroom participation in the project.

“Studying the Shoah (Holocaust) forces students to consider what it means to be human and humane by examining the full continuum of individual behavior, from ultimate evil to ultimate good” (Lindquist, 2011, p. 26). The Pebbles for Peace project was created with the intention to explore these character extremes and to provide tangible examples of choices that can be made in life. This thesis is an autoethnographic exploration of the Pebbles for Peace project that will include the researcher’s narrative reflection on her personal journey through education, specifically Holocaust education, as well as observations of the impact on classroom participation in the project.

The thesis is a case study that seeks to understand the democratic coaching style by observing the practices of a specific democratically-minded girls’ varsity hockey coach at a private secondary school in the Greater Toronto Area. The study first characterizes a democratic coach by comparing the democratic leadership style with other styles of leadership; the study then offers a clear understanding of the methods and practices of the case study coach by organizing the findings of the study into four categories: communication techniques, organizational structure, coaching decisions and strategies, and the environment created. Within these four categories, themes emerged that helped answer the following research question: How is democratic coaching understood and practiced by a democratically-minded coach?

This formative case study sought to explore the effectiveness of a remedial intervention based on Tier 2 word meanings for students whose primary deficit is phonological. Within the framework of a formative design research study, collaboration between a special education teacher and the researcher allowed for adaption and delivery of content while providing an opportunity to develop teacher capacity as well as student ability. The study found that focusing on the teaching of word meaning enhanced the remedial program due to the inclusion of a greater range of teaching strategies. Too few words were taught in order to bring about a significant improvement in vocabulary knowledge or spelling skill; however, most of the students believed they had improved in spelling and their attitude to writing was more positive at the end of the study. Several students showed improvement in written expression.

This formative case study sought to explore the effectiveness of a remedial intervention based on Tier 2 word meanings for students whose primary deficit is phonological. Within the framework of a formative design research study, collaboration between a special education teacher and the researcher allowed for adaption and delivery of content while providing an opportunity to develop teacher capacity as well as student ability. The study found that focusing on the teaching of word meaning enhanced the remedial program due to the inclusion of a greater range of teaching strategies. Too few words were taught in order to bring about a significant improvement in vocabulary knowledge or spelling skill; however, most of the students believed they had improved in spelling and their attitude to writing was more positive at the end of the study. Several students showed improvement in written expression.

One of the challenges that Caribbean immigrant parents and children face as they settle into their new environment is interacting with teachers using their variety of English. This study seeks to explore the experiences of Caribbean immigrant parents and their children in their interactions with teachers in Toronto and the perceptions that they have about these interactions. The author’s purpose is to bring voice to their language encounters. Qualitative analysis is utilized throughout the general discussion of the study. Using Colaizzi’s (1978) phenomenology approach, data was collected through semi-structured interviews from a sample of six immigrant parents and seven children within Toronto. The central themes that emerge from the data are organized under the four research questions. The results of the research may assist policy makers, educators, teachers, and support staff who plan and implement programs geared towards enhancing the interaction between themselves and Caribbean immigrant students and parents.