In this study the author investigates the nature of compassion, ways of developing compassion within ourselves, and ways of bringing compassion into schools. The author sees an imbalance and disconnection in the current Ontario public school system, between education of the mind (to have) and education of the heart (to be). This is demonstrated in the heightening violence in schools, because violence in schools means that students do not feel connected to and are not happy in their schools. To accomplish this purpose, the author explores the different ways we can connect—within ourselves, with classroom subjects, with students in the school, and with the community at large—through life stories of four holistic educators, including herself. Three have taught in Buddhist, Waldorf, and Montessori schools, which all foster compassion not only through empathy, caring, and love, but also through emotional and moral components of heart education, such as intuition, creativity, imagination, joy (Miller, 2006), and moral education (Noddings, 1992). The enquiry uses qualitative research and narrative method that includes portraiture and arts-based enquiry. The findings in the participants’ narratives reveal that compassion comprises spirituality, empathy, and caring. We can develop compassion through contemplation in an awareness of interconnection between the I and the Other. In conclusion, we can foster compassion in schools if we use holistic education’s basic principles of balance, inclusion, and connection (Miller, 1981, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2010), and if we bring in different ways of fostering compassion that the author has explored through four holistic teachers’ narratives in this study. By nurturing and connecting to students’ hearts, rather than forcing knowledge into their heads, it is possible to create schools where students are happy and feel connected to their learning.

In 2012 clashes between Catholic canonical law and Canadian common law regarding sexual minorities continue to be played out in Canadian Catholic schools. Although Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms ensures same-sex equality in Canada, this study shows that some teachers in Alberta Catholic schools are fired for contravening Catholic doctrine about non-heterosexuality, while Ontario students’ requests to establish Gay/Straight Alliances are denied. This study seeks to uncover the causes and effects of the long-standing disconnect between Canadian Catholic schools and the Charter by comparing the treatment of and attitudes towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (lgbtq) teachers and students in publicly-funded Catholic school systems in the provinces of Alberta and Ontario. I employ a multi-method qualitative research framework involving: 1) semi-structured interviews with 20 participants (7 current and former teachers and 13 former students), 18 of which are re-presented as condensed narratives; 2) media accounts that illustrate the Catholic schools’ homophobic environment; and 3) two key Alberta and Ontario Catholic policy and curriculum documents. The central question driving this study is: How does power operate in Canadian Catholic schools? Is it exercised from the top down solely, or are there instances of power rising up from the bottom as well? To answer this question, I draw upon the critical theories of Gramsci (1971), Althusser (1970/2008), Foucault (1975/1995), and Giroux (2001) in order to explain the phenomenon of “holy homophobia” in Canadian Catholic schools. The chief finding of this study is that contradictory Catholic doctrine on the topic of non-heterosexuality is directing school policy and practice regarding the management of sexual minority groups in Alberta and Ontario Catholic schools, positioning these schools as potential hotbeds for homophobia. Hopefully, this thesis can one day serve as a resource for anti-homophobia education researchers and practitioners, school administrators, educators and students who are interested in eliminating religiously-inspired homophobia in school settings.

In this study the author investigates the nature of compassion, ways of developing compassion within ourselves, and ways of bringing compassion into schools. The author sees an imbalance and disconnection in the current Ontario public school system, between education of the mind (to have) and education of the heart (to be). This is demonstrated in the heightening violence in schools, because violence in schools means that students do not feel connected to and are not happy in their schools. To accomplish this purpose, the author explores the different ways we can connect—within ourselves, with classroom subjects, with students in the school, and with the community at large—through life stories of four holistic educators, including herself. Three have taught in Buddhist, Waldorf, and Montessori schools, which all foster compassion not only through empathy, caring, and love, but also through emotional and moral components of heart education, such as intuition, creativity, imagination, joy (Miller, 2006), and moral education (Noddings, 1992). The enquiry uses qualitative research and narrative method that includes portraiture and arts-based enquiry. The findings in the participants’ narratives reveal that compassion comprises spirituality, empathy, and caring. We can develop compassion through contemplation in an awareness of interconnection between the I and the Other. In conclusion, we can foster compassion in schools if we use holistic education’s basic principles of balance, inclusion, and connection (Miller, 1981, 1993, 1994, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007, 2010), and if we bring in different ways of fostering compassion that the author has explored through four holistic teachers’ narratives in this study. By nurturing and connecting to students’ hearts, rather than forcing knowledge into their heads, it is possible to create schools where students are happy and feel connected to their learning.

The city of Toronto is one of most racially diverse places in the world, with almost half of its population identifying as being a “visible minority” (Statistics Canada, 2010). As a result, the field of education faces the question of how to meet the needs of their transforming student demographics. Numerous researchers and institutional policies have responded to these changes by endorsing the hiring of a teaching staff that is reflective of the racially diversifying student population (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009; Ryan, Pollock, & Antonelli, 2009; Solomon, & Levine-Rasky, 2003). The assumption, however, that racialized educators will automatically be effective teachers or role models for racialized students homogenizes their social differences and reduces the multiplicity of their identities to the colour of their skin (Martino, & Rezai-Rashti, 2012). What is urgently lacking from these dominant discourses are the voices of racialized individuals, whose inside perspectives and lived experiences can provide valuable insights about the roles of equity and race in education. Using an anti-racist theoretical framework to guide my research methodology, this study examines how racialized teachers understand their classroom practices, school relationships, and institutional policies with respect to race, equity, and the expectations that are cast to them as “visible minority” educators. A document analysis of educational statements that discuss race, equity, and anti-racism reveals that while policy has progressed, the presentation of these issues remains largely superficial and does not provide enough information or transparency to adequately communicate their importance. Nevertheless, the power of these dominant discourses has been vastly significant in shaping the lived experiences and feelings of racialized teachers, 21 of whom were individually interviewed using a qualitative, semi-structured method. The inside perspectives of these teachers demonstrate the complexity of race and its inadvertent impact on their roles as educators; their feelings and reactions illustrate the ongoing gap between policy and practice, the ignorance that is embedded in notions of racial matching between teachers-students, and the persevering call for a professional community where individual differences are viewed as opportunities to learn rather than obstacles that need to be overcome.

The city of Toronto is one of most racially diverse places in the world, with almost half of its population identifying as being a “visible minority” (Statistics Canada, 2010). As a result, the field of education faces the question of how to meet the needs of their transforming student demographics. Numerous researchers and institutional policies have responded to these changes by endorsing the hiring of a teaching staff that is reflective of the racially diversifying student population (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2009; Ryan, Pollock, & Antonelli, 2009; Solomon, & Levine-Rasky, 2003). The assumption, however, that racialized educators will automatically be effective teachers or role models for racialized students homogenizes their social differences and reduces the multiplicity of their identities to the colour of their skin (Martino, & Rezai-Rashti, 2012). What is urgently lacking from these dominant discourses are the voices of racialized individuals, whose inside perspectives and lived experiences can provide valuable insights about the roles of equity and race in education. Using an anti-racist theoretical framework to guide my research methodology, this study examines how racialized teachers understand their classroom practices, school relationships, and institutional policies with respect to race, equity, and the expectations that are cast to them as “visible minority” educators. A document analysis of educational statements that discuss race, equity, and anti-racism reveals that while policy has progressed, the presentation of these issues remains largely superficial and does not provide enough information or transparency to adequately communicate their importance. Nevertheless, the power of these dominant discourses has been vastly significant in shaping the lived experiences and feelings of racialized teachers, 21 of whom were individually interviewed using a qualitative, semi-structured method. The inside perspectives of these teachers demonstrate the complexity of race and its inadvertent impact on their roles as educators; their feelings and reactions illustrate the ongoing gap between policy and practice, the ignorance that is embedded in notions of racial matching between teachers-students, and the persevering call for a professional community where individual differences are viewed as opportunities to learn rather than obstacles that need to be overcome.

I learned to authentically connect by observing the pedagogues who mentored me. My lived experience with them inspired me to base my pedagogical approach on the constructs of community and engagement that youth dismantled by displaying increasing disengagement, which transferred into disaffected relationships. This reflexive/narrative autoethnography investigates the problematic phenomenon affecting youth: the loss of authentic connectivity. I critically examine my professional journey with pre-digital, digital, and post-digital university students by analysing our common, cultural context, thereby interpreting my behaviour, thoughts, and experiences in relation to them. Hermeneutic phenomenology’s framework deepens the inquiry, as it involves a broader cultural, political, and social understanding to uncover deeper meaning in changing behaviours by reflecting on what is the lived experience of authentic connectivity for youth. My comprehensive research evidences that youth’s technological addiction has influenced rapid brain evolution, and exploded their visual and multimodal skills. Neuroscience has broadly concluded that the new forms of learning technology offers are changing the way the brain processes information. I suggest that youth are experiencing a biological conflict, the brain’s rapid evolution overwhelming more slowly evolving physical responses, effectively interfering with the flow of affective information that requires hemispheric transfer. Neither moving beyond the premise of intelligence as being predominantly brain-based, nor acknowledging the cooperative role our bodily intelligence plays, as the latter is embedded in our lived experience, the greater understanding of the whole of learning, and its ally, authentic connectivity, cannot be achieved. I submit that moving beyond the absoluteness of a purely scientific approach to the brain, and integrating both human and cognitive sciences are key in moving toward a more holistic, autonomous learning pedagogy, so to layer our understanding of the ‘person process’, that which includes whole thinking and whole being. To counter the affective devolution, which is detrimental not only to learning, but to being a well-adjusted person, this paper proposes a foundational shift in teacher training curriculum design by suggesting tools that foster an observational pedagogy, which seeks to teach those navigational skills that support higher-level analytical processes that can counteract the excessive reactions that impede learning, and teaching.

A major thrust in assessment reform is the instructional use of assessment (Ministry, 2010). Assessment for learning (AFL) has, however, proven challenging for teachers to implement (Brookhart, 2004; Swaffield, 2011; Tierney, 2006). Researchers have called for studies of classrooms that show how AFL works in practice (Bennett, 2011; Shepard, 2000). This study gathers images of practice from classrooms where teachers have been implementing a structure-based approach called Question Structure. Although a key premise of AFL is that assessment can be used instructionally to support learning, Question Structure’s constructivist-information-processing approach is rooted in educational measurement traditions usually juxtaposed to AFL theory and practice (Broadfoot & Black, 2004). Images of practice were drawn from classroom observation, teaching artifacts, and interviews from teachers who had been implementing the system for three to six years in three Ontario school boards. Data were analyzed through sub-questions emerging from the literature and through grounded theory. The study found that Question Structure supported AFL principles and practices. It also supported a Tylerian, backwards-design approach to program design, but not to excess. Technical revisions tended to evolve into significant change in practice, including program reconceptualization and increased focus on students’ learning. The structure-based approach functioned in a variety of ways, for example to support task clarification, (re)reading and comprehension of text, writing process, open-ended collaborative work, and student-generated questions. Teachers were able to clarify the meaning of ‘structure,’ to distinguish structures from instructional and cognitive strategies, and to use universal structures and strategies as subject-specific pedagogy in Language Arts/English. The role of the technical interest and implications for professional learning are also discussed.

A major thrust in assessment reform is the instructional use of assessment (Ministry, 2010). Assessment for learning (AFL) has, however, proven challenging for teachers to implement (Brookhart, 2004; Swaffield, 2011; Tierney, 2006). Researchers have called for studies of classrooms that show how AFL works in practice (Bennett, 2011; Shepard, 2000). This study gathers images of practice from classrooms where teachers have been implementing a structure-based approach called Question Structure. Although a key premise of AFL is that assessment can be used instructionally to support learning, Question Structure’s constructivist-information-processing approach is rooted in educational measurement traditions usually juxtaposed to AFL theory and practice (Broadfoot & Black, 2004). Images of practice were drawn from classroom observation, teaching artifacts, and interviews from teachers who had been implementing the system for three to six years in three Ontario school boards. Data were analyzed through sub-questions emerging from the literature and through grounded theory. The study found that Question Structure supported AFL principles and practices. It also supported a Tylerian, backwards-design approach to program design, but not to excess. Technical revisions tended to evolve into significant change in practice, including program reconceptualization and increased focus on students’ learning. The structure-based approach functioned in a variety of ways, for example to support task clarification, (re)reading and comprehension of text, writing process, open-ended collaborative work, and student-generated questions. Teachers were able to clarify the meaning of ‘structure,’ to distinguish structures from instructional and cognitive strategies, and to use universal structures and strategies as subject-specific pedagogy in Language Arts/English. The role of the technical interest and implications for professional learning are also discussed.

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