This study is a qualitative action research that I have undertaken with four teachers in the college where I work, for the purpose of improving curriculum delivery and student services to our majority multilingual student body. Based on my research in a public school board with Grades 4 to 12 students where I learned that mother tongues (L1s) are valued by students as scaffolds to their learning of English (L2) I proceeded to explore L1/L2 curriculum delivery with adult community college students whose prior learning is encoded in their mother tongues. I explored the possibility of legitimizing the use of students’ mother tongues in college classrooms as scaffolds to their acquisition of their L2. There were three phases to this study. Through these three phases of the study I sought to understand the impact of this multilingual pedagogical approach on the students’ learning experience, academic engagement and identity formation. In phase 1, I worked with 90 English as a Second Language (ESL) students whom I surveyed to determine their levels of understanding of our English-only curriculum delivery and student services. In phase 2, I worked with three English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students and interviewed them to explore their reaction to their teacher’s allowing them to use their mother tongues in class as part of pedagogy. In phase 3, I worked with 19 EAP students and interviewed them in focus groups to explore more deeply their learning experience, academic engagement and identity formation in two college classrooms where their mother tongues were part of everyday pedagogy. On the basis of the findings of this study I argue that the creation of space for students’ mother tongues in college classrooms is an ethical imperative since their mother tongues are integral components of their identities and all of their prior learning and life experiences are encoded in their mother tongues. Overall the findings highlighted bilingual students’ perceptions that their L1s constituted an important scaffold for their learning of English. Students’ comments also expressed their sense of the centrality of L1s to aspects of their identity.

Situated in the holistic education field, this research explores the mind/body experiences of six youth who remained in a drama group from the time they were children to their late adolescence. In the first phase of this research these participants reflected on their experiences of the imagination, thought and felt sensation as they engaged in meditation and mind/body warm-up exercises during the drama years. The participants applied their understanding of mind/body awareness to a question posed by Vivian Darroch-Lozwoski; what happens when we attend to nature feelingly? Over the course of one year, the youth explored the above question, individually and collectively through dreaming, reveries, the imagination, experiences of energy and as they wandered in nature. The inquiry directly addresses the existential, ontological and epistemological implications of holistic mind/body development and outlines approaches for gentling the mind and body to nature.

The purpose of this study is to investigate a college computer course delivered in both online and face-to-face classes. As more online courses and programs emerge, concerns about the quality and comparability of online instruction with face-to-face instruction have arisen. Questions about the relative effectiveness of each mode of instruction are important both at the stage of course development and at the stage of course delivery. Earlier comparative studies have shown that online courses were equal to face-to-face courses. These studies evaluated student services and technological infrastructure, student satisfaction, and learning outcomes. However, few studies have been conducted on computer applications at the community college level. This study seeks to fill in this gap by providing students’ perceptions of computer education for a business program at the three-year diploma level. This study has examined the learning environment and informed practice by presenting differentiation and diversity mainly due to different mode of delivery in a college computer course. This study aims to provide a detailed understanding of the similarities and differences of college students attending online class versus face-to-face class taught by the same professor. It examines students’ perceptions of course design and delivery, their attitudes and beliefs about acquisition of computer applications, and their academic achievement as measured by the test scores. Mixed methods are employed to investigate the research questions both in depth and in breadth. In the Fall of 2009, 60 out of 89 eligible participants filled out the online questionnaire resulting in the response rate of 67% and six students participated one-on-one in-person interviews. Results from both quantitative and qualitative studies show that there is no significant difference between the face-to-face and online students with respect to their perceptions, attitudes, motivation, and learning outcomes. The findings demonstrate that there was no evidence showing difference between online learning and face-to-face learning. The different learning modes provide students with positive learning experiences. This study provides stakeholders such as students, college administrators, and professors with a detailed and meaningful understanding of the important learning environments for the online and face-to-face classes. The implications from the findings will help to enhance, advance, and expand face-to-face and online education at both the theoretical and practical level.

The study examined how 5 adult Korean learners of English developed self-regulated learning (SRL) skills to overcome lexical problems in their English writing. Empirical studies have consistently shown that many of the greatest problems for ESL learners in writing are lexical in nature. The goal of the present study was to help participants to address these problems, first through tutored assistance and then more independently by controlling their uses of strategies through planning, monitoring, and evaluation processes. The study involved two phases: Phase 1 was exploratory in nature, in which I attempted to identify typical lexical problems Korean learners of English encounter in writing. Phase 2 included an intervention in the form of one-on-one tutoring that followed the cyclic model of SRL proposed by Zimmerman, Bonner, and Kovach (1996). I worked with 5 participants through the SRL cycle individually as they wrote and revised 3 argumentative essays. The intervention lasted for 9 weeks, focusing on developing the participants’ SRL skills in writing through the use of various strategies that were devised in Phase 1 and refined throughout Phase 2. I analyzed the participants’ difficulties and uses of strategies, self-ratings on their essays, and several measures of essay quality to examine changes in their SRL skills, self-efficacy, and writing skills. The participants initially encountered various types of difficulties in their English writing and primarily relied on self-employed strategies to cope with their difficulties. Over the course of the intervention, the participants’ attention to their difficulties and uses of various linguistic resources became progressively more focused and specific. Initially, the participants largely depended on their L1 to write their L2 essays, being chiefly occupied with the grammatical encoding of their communicative intentions. Subsequently, the participants displayed unique patterns in developing their SRL skills, which exerted positive influences on building their self-efficacy beliefs as writers and on improving the quality of their essays. Based on these findings, I emphasize the growing need for L2 writing teachers to incorporate language-focused, vocabulary-centered, and corpora-based instruction into their teaching practices. In turn, students require individual support and untimed writing tasks to develop SRL skills in writing.

It has been repeatedly observed that home and local context matter in the education of children. A smooth transition between home and classroom prepares children for enjoyable and meaningful life-long learning. Knowledge building in children is influenced by previous experience, values, beliefs and sociocultural factors associated with community. Against this theoretical background, the thesis examined the integration of local spiritual and cultural values to improve science education in Ethiopia. This autoethnographic research used in-depth interviews, supplementary observations and focus group discussion and my biography to identify the perception and practice of common and unique spiritual and cultural values. The study examined whether these values were included and/or excluded in the school curriculum and explored the possibilities for incorporating values in science education and the anticipated tensions resulting from their inclusion. Students, science teachers, parents, employers, curriculum experts, policymakers, elders, and religious leaders participated in the research, conducted in a randomly selected secondary school in Addis Ababa. The sampling followed a kind of snowball method, with a total of twenty key informants participating in interviews, fifteen classroom observations, and one focus group discussion. The data collection aimed at generating stories, which underlie the autoethnography methodology. Findings indicated that belief in and fear of God animated and sustained the Ethiopian way of life. Although spiritual teachings derived from sacred writings were the initial foundation for Ethiopian cultural norms, the two merged together later, creating a mosaic pervading every aspect of life in Ethiopia. Education was sustained on this merger of spiritual and cultural norms and values. It was also shown that the now century-old system of formal education did not incorporate those local spiritual and cultural values. Current science education also has little relationship to Ethiopian spiritual and cultural norms and is, therefore, in need of restoration. Findings showed that efforts to recapture local spiritual and cultural values in the curriculum may encounter obstacles and tensions. Clearly, the future of a more prosperous Ethiopia depends on the extent to which curriculum stakeholders can overcome these obstacles and put in place a relevant, contextual, and holistic education.

From 1998- 2009, mainland China has been the number one source of immigrants in Canada (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2011). For newcomer families, adjusting to the local school is a major concern, since their children’s education is a crucial factor in families’ immigration decision. In my research, I examined Chinese immigrant parents’ experience with Canadian schooling. The study focuses on four families living in the Greater Toronto area, who have immigrated from mainland China. I employed narrative inquiry to tell the stories of the lived experience of the four families in my study. The data for these stories are mainly drawn from field notes of each of my home visits and my interviews with the family members over a six month period. I found that the challenges and difficulties the immigrant parents face are deeply rooted in the differences between Chinese and Canadian cultures and social systems. The discussion on the features of Chinese culture in its comparison with Western culture provides a reference point for understanding the Chinese immigrant parents’ values and opinions on such matters as schooling, moral education, and parenting practice. Parental involvement in schools is different between China and Canada, and the parents, and school teachers and administrators have different understanding on this issue. What’s more, the language barrier impeded the parents’ involvement in their children’s school life. The acculturation gap between the parents and their children is another major reason for miscommunication over such issues as extracurricular activities, choice of university major, and future career. The less heard voice of immigrant parents will open new venues for the understanding of cross-cultural experiences of immigrant students. I find that instead of mainly using the traditional Chinese practice and Chinese educational values in approaching their children’s education, it is important for Chinese immigrant parents to make efforts to familiarize themselves with the ideas and values that their children are exposed to in the new environment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the teacher change process and extend our understanding of how variability in the ways that primary school teachers in Bangladesh implement innovative pedagogical practices, such as active learning, reflects variations in their understanding, attitude, experience, and skill in the use of those pedagogical approaches. Multiple forms of data gathering were employed based on the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) including an open-ended statement of concern, interviews, and class observations from a purposive sample of ten teachers working in ten different schools. Additional interviews were also conducted with staff responsible for the teachers' professional development. Five main findings emerged from the research. First, there was a split between novice teachers who were committed to following the prescriptive lesson plans and more experienced teachers who adapted their lessons to accommodate differences in student readiness and performance. Second, the majority of teachers appeared to be satisfied with their use active learning methods and the mandated lessons with little projected variation in how they will implement the innovation in the future. Third, the class observation findings indicate that the majority of teachers were rated as ideal users of active learning methods in the classroom. Fourth, findings indicate that professional development and a commitment to building networks among teachers and support staff helped facilitate teachers' confidence and competency. Fifth, among the most influential factors shaping teachers' use of active learning methods were the availability of supplementary learning and teaching resources. Implications for professional development and support for teachers, the applicability of CBAM-based research in low-income country contexts like Bangladesh, as well as future areas of comparative, international, and development education research are discussed in light of those findings.

This thesis is based on an ethnographic study conducted in a split grade five and six classroom in Toronto during the 1985/86 academic year. Data were collected through participatory observation, as well as through individual and focus group interviews. A group of eight activist African-Canadian high school students, as well as 26 Euro- Canadian “drop-backs” were also interviewed. The time during which I conducted the study was a period of intensive education activism of parents and the community in Toronto. I was interested in determining whether or not, and this activism was reflected at the school level, and if it was reflected, how. I also wanted to examine whether or not the historically supportive auxiliary role that parents played during this period was elevated to more substantive and meaningful active involvement in the education of their children during the last half of the 1980s. This study shows that activities in the classroom were driven by pre-packaged curriculum materials and were implemented with very few modifications. Coupled with teacher-centred practice, this closed the door for any diversifying opportunities that could have found their way into the classroom, not only from the homes of the children and the school community, but also from critics of the use of prepackaged material and, most importantly, from the students themselves. Furthermore, teacher-centred classroom discourse pushed students to develop a cynical attitude towards schooling. Having no say in what or how they were taught provided the children with few choices but to develop a coping mechanism of passive resistance. Their short-term survival strategies included appearing as though they were striding along, but not embracing their school experiences fully. By the same token, they were not challenged to think critically, to evaluate or to problem-solve. A link was also established between the students’ passive resistance at the elementary level with ‘fading out’ or ‘dropping out’ and successful resistance at the high school level.

Abstract In 2007 the Ministry of Education in Ontario identified Aboriginal education as one of its key priorities with the release of the First Nation, Métis and Inuit Education Policy Framework (FNMI). Improving educational outcomes and closing the achievement gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students is the focus of this policy. This study examines the policy implementation process in one school board in Ontario by focusing on how teachers in two elementary schools made sense of the policy expectations and how this sense-making impacted their professional practice. In order to examine how implementation was understood and acted upon by these teachers, the sense-making/co-construction model developed by Datnow, Hubbard, & Mehan (2002) provides the starting point for analysis. This study seeks to make visible the sense-making cues that teachers used to notice and select new information and to examine how these cues impacted teacher enactment of the FNMI policy. Sense-making theory supports the examination of change at the micro level of local policy actors; while the co-construction model with its meditational system of individual agency, organizational structure/culture, and environmental messaging contextualizes the individual sense-making of teachers within a larger social environment. The research methodology included teacher interviews designed to collect evidence of teacher sense-making during the policy implementation process, and school visits to observe evidence of school culture and structure. Interview responses of 15 elementary teachers and 2 principals were analyzed for sense-making cues. The findings revealed clusters of sense-making cues connected to three main sense-making frameworks or discourses. These discourses included the teacher as professional, equity and inclusion, and leadership and change. These findings support previous research on sense-making and policy implementation and contribute further insight into the micro processes of policy implementation, which could be leveraged to improve policy implementation. Key Words: policy implementation, teacher sense-making, leadership, co-construction model

Scholars suggest that when students use information and communication technology to complete and present identity texts about their own cultural background, such as self-authored literature, artwork, and multi-media texts, they learn about themselves and others and they can improve literacy skills and proficiency with technology (Chow & Cummins, 2003; Cummins, 2006). In this exploratory case study five middle-school students attending a diverse inner city school, and each representing a different demographic, were asked to complete an identity text project. In question was whether they would consume or critically deconstruct the negative hegemonic discourses they might encounter in the process. Results indicated that student response to these discourses was inconsistent, that students minoritized as black were especially vulnerable to them, and that student-led constructivist projects like this should be preceded by effective inclusive schooling and media literacy pedagogy to help ensure student engagement with multi-literacies is enhanced as intended.