Faculty (CTL)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1807/17340
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item An ECE Instructor’s Action Research: Reflections on an Initiative to Teach Anishinaabemowin(Association of Early Childhood Educators Ontario, 2024-01) Ings, Eugema; Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Esquaga, W; Eisazadeh, NazilaAn instructor of an Indigenous early childhood education certification program who collaborated with two university researchers introduced Anishinaabemowin language teaching activities within an otherwise Western English-dominant program. In this paper, we introduce a collaborative action research study and show the value of action research to early childhood educators’ professional learning as well as provide suggested teaching strategies for teaching Indigenous languages, with examples from Anishinaabemowin that were part of our action research project. Through reading about the story of our collaborative action research, we hope that ECEs will consider taking up action research in their own practice.Item Resistance Literature: Representations of Land and Indigeneity in Indigenous‐Authored, Canadian Award‐Winning Rural Young Adult and Middle‐Grade Fiction(Wiley, 2023-11-27) Eppley, Karen; Wood, Jeffrey; Stagg‐Peterson, ShelleySixty percent of Indigenous people in Canada live rurally and on reserve but are largely absent among young adult and middle-grade fiction. This critical content analysis examines representations of the land and rural places and Indigenous identities in Canadian award-winning fiction written by Indigenous authors for young adult and middle-grade readers. By positioning land, place, and rural Indigenous youth identities and experiences at the center of the analysis, the study contradicts dominant colonizing perspectives of “rural” and “Indigenous” that undervalue and/or disregard the lives, knowledge, and perspectives of rural Indigenous community members. Critical content analysis makes visible the books' complex representations of rural land and identities where Indigenous characters are agentic, resilient, and adaptable in the face of settler colonialism.Item Collaborative Action Research in a Northern Early Childhood Educator Program: Professional Learning of Instructors and Interns(Érudit, 2024-05-29) McDonald, Erica; Simpson, Charlene; McGregor, Sarah; Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Eisazadeh, NazilaThis collaborative action research, carried out by early childhood education interns, with the support of their instructor and two university researchers, shows the empowerment of postsecondary students that occurs when they are responsible for designing and implementing research projects tailored to their placement contexts. The early childhood educator interns took up a stance as reflective practitioners who developed professional skills and knowledge in an area that was meaningful to them—teaching young children their Indigenous language. The interns shared responsibility for their learning with their instructor, who was also conducting research into her practice, gathering data to identify the impact of her new teaching approach on interns’ learning. The simultaneous use of collaborative action research methods at the instructor and intern levels provides research-based information for the larger professional field. Additionally, the college instructor and the student interns are positioned as research-practitioners who use action research to support their professional growth.Item Story Drama in Playroom: Teaching Tłįchǫ Language and Culture in a Northern Early Childhood Education Program(OJS, 2024-06-09) MacKay, Jennifer; Rommel, Janine; Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Eisazadeh, NazilaThe early childhood interns in a northern post-secondary diploma program, used story drama, where the teacher and children take on roles with children in day homes, daycare, and kindergarten classes. The intention was to support young children’s engagement, cultural awareness, learning of Tłįchǫ language, and writing practice. Interns found that children were more engaged when there was animation and opportunity to solve problems. Assigning the characters Tłįchǫ names was an effective way for children to use the language. Writing was supported through different collaborative techniques that involved various writing materials.Item Foregrounding Anishinaabek Culture and Collaborating with Children in their Multimodal Text Creation(2024-05-21) Eisazadeh, Nazila; Girmohanta, Sudhashree; Peterson, Shelley Stagg; Wood, JeffreyIn this paper we examine young Indigenous children’s text creation and identity (re)formations, and the teacher’s multimodal scaffolding within the context of a literacy event that drew on Indigenous pedagogies and traditional land-based cultural practices of their northern Canadian Anishinaabek community. Multimodal interaction analysis methods were used to examine the interplay among the children’s and the teacher’s talk, nonverbal communication modes and use of various sign-making tools in the meaning-making and identity-(re)formation processes.Item Troubling State (of) Affairs: A Critical Analysis of a State-Approved, Elementary Field Trip(ScienceDirect, 2022-10) Brownell, Cassie J.; Wong, DesmondThis article presents an analysis of one docent's discussion of Michigan history to a group of third-grade children as part of a week-long state-sponsored history program. By analyzing the docent's presentation about Indigenous and Fur Trade history at the Michigan History Museum, the authors argue that the docent forwarded a violent, settler colonial worldview. Using a dual lens of Indigenous Studies and critical literacies, the authors detail how these narratives asserted a white supremacist national and state history. The authors offer a critical historical method rooted in the Lands and Waters that constitute Michigan, and propose potential sites of historiographical disruption, contestation, and critical thinking. In turn, they highlight the possibilities for museums as rich spaces for children to examine their relationships to community, nationhood, and social justice through stories told from multiple perspectives.Item Awakening Indigenous Knowledge: Perspectives and Experiences of Indigenous Early Childhood Education Diploma Students(Faculty of Education, McGill University, 2022-02-15) Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Huston, Lori; Ings, Eugema; Mason, Brenda; Falcigno, KimWe draw on a focus group discussion amongst four Indigenous northern Ontario early childhood educators (ECEs) from an Indigenous postsecondary institution’s ECE diploma program, to show the important contributions of programs offered by Indigenous postsecondary education institutes to Indigenous cultural revitalization. We are the Indigenous Elder, two instructors, and senior administrator of the program, as well as a non-Indigenous university professor. We argue for Indigenous community-generated curricula that embody local Indigenous cultural knowledge, values, and practices, drawing on themes arising from analysis of focus group data: participants felt that they brought limited knowledge of their Indigenous language and culture to their program, and participants experienced an awakening of Indigenous knowledge through their participation in Indigenous practices outside the core curriculum.Item The Niichii Project: Revitalizing Indigenous Language in Northern Canada(TESOL in Context, 2021-11-30) Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Manitowabi, Yvette; Manitowabi, JacintaTwo Anishnabek kindergarten teachers discuss four principles of Indigenous pedagogies in a project with a university researcher that created a context for children to engage in activities to learn their Anishnabek language and culture, and create positive identities. The university researcher sent a rabbit puppet named Niichii (Friend), who was assigned the role of an Anishnaabek child whose family was from their Indigenous community but had moved away. Taking the role of Niichii’s Kokum (Grandmother), the university researcher asked the child to teach Niichii the community’s language and traditional ways. The teachers describe and interpret the learning activities of the Niichii project in terms of four elements of Indigenous pedagogies: intergenerational learning; experiential learning; spiritual learning involving interconnections with the land; and learning about relationality. Implications for other bilingual and multilingual contexts include creating role play contexts where children are positioned as teachers and helpers to support an imaginary character’s language and cultural learning, building on children’s funds of knowledge and highlighting cultural connections to the local community.Item Representations of Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Rural Ways of Being in Picture Books for Children(Athens: University of Georgia, Dept of Language and Literacy Education, 2022) Eppley, Karen; Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Wood, JeffreyThis critical content analysis examines representations of rural life in a sample of 52 picture books by Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors and illustrators. While the United States and Canadian governments use quantitative measures to designate rurality, in this study rurality is conceptualized more broadly as an interaction between geographical, cultural, and social characteristics. Three sets of findings about the representation of rural people in Indigenous and non-Indigenous picture books are offered: the representation of human-to-human relationships, the relationships between people and the natural world, and the problems and challenges faced by rural people in the books. While there is increasing attention within children’s literature scholarship about the importance of culturally relevant picture books and representations of diversity, less is understood about representations of rurality in children’s literature and still less is known about textual representations that engage the intersection of rurality and minoritized groups such as Indigenous peoples.Item Rural and Indigenous Families' Support of Young Children's Writing(2021-07-01) Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Grimes, Ashley; Sky, KathyIn this study, northern Canadian rural and Indigenous parents provided valuable information about the self-initiated writing that their two- through nine-year-old children do at home. In interview responses, participating parents told stories about the writing materials and spaces they make available to children for writing. They talked about how they support their children’s writing: informally—by demonstrating that writing is important; and formally—through direct teaching of letter forms and sound-letter relationships. Parents provided examples of their children’s self-initiated writing, which includes types of texts that are not usually valued in mainstream spaces such as school. They explained that the writing is usually for the purposes of expressing feelings and informing family members. Our study adds to the literature on family literacy practices by validating the knowledge and experiences that northern rural and Indigenous children bring to their formal schooling. Recommendations for teachers include initiating conversations with parents about the writing that their children do at home, finding spaces in the classroom schedule for children to present and talk about their self-initiated writing with the class, and providing specific information about how parents can support their children’s writing. A “Tips for Parents” sheet is provided.Item Assessing Four- and Five-Year Old Children’s Play-Based Writing: Use of a Collaboratively-Developed Assessment Tool(Taylor and Francis, 2022-01-17) Friedrich, Nicola; Stagg Peterson, ShelleyWe assessed young (4- and 5-years old) children’s authentic texts using categories and criteria from the Assessing Young Children’s Marks/Drawing/Print tool, a research-based, classroom assessment we co-created with teachers and early childhood educators. In this paper, we contextualize our numerical findings by describing patterns in the social purposes, content, spelling, and conventions of 104 texts young children created in preparation for or as part of their play within six themed centres in three kindergarten classrooms in a small northern town in Ontario. We then demonstrate how teachers might use the tool by assessing one child’s play-based text.Item Northern Rural and Indigenous Canadian Children’s Responses to an Open-ended Writing Task: Comparisons of Children in First and Second Year of Kindergarten(Faculty of Education, University of Alberta, 2021-12-02) Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Portier, Christine; Friedrich, NicolaIn this study, we offer a unique perspective of time spent in kindergarten and young children’s writing by presenting a multi-dimensional analysis of the writing of 72 children (5-years-old) living in northern communities in two Canadian provinces. We administered the Drawing, Writing, Talking Task (DWTT), a research-based classroom tool, in the fall and spring to children attending kindergarten in seven (six rural and one First Nations) schools. We assessed their writing in terms of their use of letters to write words, their spelling stage, and their intended content. Although the fall writing samples of children in their first year of kindergarten were significantly less developed than those of similar-aged children beginning their second year of kindergarten, by spring, the children’s writing was comparable. Our research adds to the literature on children’s learning and time spent in kindergarten by focusing on characteristics of young children’s writing, rather than test scores.Item Viewing Young Children’s Drawing, Talking, and Writing through a “Language as Context” Lens: Implications for Literacy Assessment(Taylor and Francis, 2021-07-22) Stagg Peterson, Shelley; Friedrich, NicolaWe report on our analysis of talk during an assessment task where we asked children living in northern Canadian communities to draw and write about activities they share with family and friends in their daily lives. We introduce a language as context approach to assessing young children’s (ages 4–6 years) literacy and sociocultural knowledge, defining context as understandings of the demands of creating texts through drawing and writing, the genre of classroom assessment, and the values and worldviews of their local community and family. From our inductive analysis of children’s (n = 64) talk during the assessment tasks in the fall and spring of one school year (n = 128), we conceptualise relationships between children’s oral language strategies and their understandings of the conventions of an adult-initiated, one-on-one classroom assessment, their strategies for carrying out the task, and of social meanings in everyday experiences with family and friends in their northern communities. We argue this form of assessment provides a comprehensive picture of children’s meaning-making that encompasses social and cultural practices of a diversity of contexts, including school and community.Item Sustaining Indigenous Languages and Cultures: Māori Medium Education in Aotearoa New Zealand and Aboriginal Head Start in Canada(Taylor & Francis, 2021-05-16) Rameka, Lesley; Stagg Peterson, ShelleyIn this paper, we examine stakeholder initiatives to revitalise Indigenous languages in two countries, Aotearoa New Zealand and Canada, the countries in which we live and conduct research. We provide a brief overview of the history of systematic Indigenous language and cultural suppression within our two countries, situating Māori Medium Education in Aotearoa New Zealand and Aboriginal Head Start in Canada; initiatives designed to revitalise and sustain Indigenous languages and cultures through the education of children within their generally parallel historical, social and political contexts. We draw on semi-structured interviews and focus group conversations to highlight perspectives of Māori family members and students in Māori Medium Education and of Anishnaabek early childhood educators in northern Ontario Aboriginal Head Start programs. Participants indicate that these programs are making a difference in revitalising and sustaining Indigenous languages and cultures. Our comparison of positive outcomes and challenges that need to be addressed, based on stakeholders participating in initiatives in two countries, can inform broader conversations about Indigenous language revitalisation through initiatives focusing on early childhood educationItem Peacebuilding Education to Address Gender-Based Aggression: Youths’ Experiences in Mexico, Bangladesh, and Canada(Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies, 2022-06) Bickmore, Kathy; Kishani Farahani, NajmeBuilding durable peace through education requires addressing the gender ideologies and hierarchies that encourage both direct physical aggression and indirect harm through marginalization and exploitation. Although formal education systems are shaped by gendered patterns of social conflict, enmity, and inequity, schools can help young people to build on their inclination, relationships, and capability to participate in building sustainable, gender-just peace. In this paper, we draw from focus group research conducted with youths and their teachers in public schools in Mexico, Bangladesh, and Canada to investigate how young people understood the social conflicts and violence surrounding them and what citizens could do about these issues, and how their teachers used the school curricula to address them. The research revealed that gender-based violence was pervasive in students’ lives in all three settings, yet the curriculum the teachers and students described, with minor differences between contexts, included few opportunities to examine or resist the gender norms, institutions, and hierarchies that are the roots of exploitation and violence.Item Why discuss sexuality in elementary schools?(Rowman & Littlefield, 1999) Bickmore, KathyElementary schools are one place where young people's identities are formed, as individuals and as citizens. As public institutions, schools touch nearly every child and provide powerful sanction for certain knowledge. Elementary teachers have the capacity to help children learn how to share public space with people similar to, and different from, themselves. This chapter discusses why homosexual people should be included in these elementary conversations, then identifies places in the curriculum where teachers might help children to learn such inclusivity. One reason to discuss sexuality in elementary school is that it is already present in students' lives.Item Constructive Conflict Talk in Classrooms: Divergent Approaches to Addressing Divergent Perspectives(2014) Bickmore, Kathy; Parker, ChristinaDialogue about social and political conflicts is a key element of democratic citizenship education that is frequently advocated in scholarship but rarely fully implemented, especially in classrooms populated by ethnically and economically heterogeneous students. Qualitative case studies describe the contrasting ways 2 primary and 2 middle-grade teachers in urban Canadian public schools infused conflict dialogue pedagogies into their implemented curricula. These lessons, introducing conflict communication skills and/or content knowledge embodying conflicting viewpoints as learning opportunities, actively engaged a wide range of students. At the same time, even these purposively selected teachers did not often facilitate sustained, inclusive, critical, and imaginative exchange or deliberation about heartfelt disagreements, nor did they probe the diversity and equity questions surrounding these issues. The case studies illustrate a democratic education dilemma: Even in the classrooms of skilled and committed teachers, opportunities for recognition of contrasting perspectives and discussion of social conflicts may not necessarily develop into sustained democratic dialogue nor interrupt prevailing patterns of disengagement and inequity.Item Citizenship Education in Canada: ‘Democratic’ Engagement with Differences, Conflicts, and Equity Issues?(2014-09) Bickmore, KathyRecent research on multi-faceted citizenship education policy and practice in Canada illustrates five enduring themes of interest to educators around the world. First, citizenship education policy mandates reveal diverse goals for ‘good’ or ‘active’ citizen engagement, critical and inclusive awareness, and skills. Students from different social identity and status locations tend to have unequal citizenship learning experiences, and school education is often disconnected from their lived experiences and concerns. Second, intersecting questions of national and ethno-cultural identity and social justice are prominent in Canadian curricular rhetoric, although achievement of inter-group equity, mutual understanding and justice is elusive. Third, although transnational issues and perspectives are increasingly included, some Canadian curricula seem to reinforce ignorance and stereotypes about other nations and peoples and about the causes of global problems such as war. Much of the global citizenship education activity in Canadian schools seems to be focused on co-curricular activities, often emphasizing charity fundraising, leaving the causes of human misery largely uninterrogated. Fourth, curriculum policy discourse in civics, social sciences, language and media literacy emphasizes the importance of student-centred pedagogy for development of critical thinking skills, while typical classroom practice seems often to retain teacher-centred transmission approaches. Last, implicit citizenship education is embedded in day-to-day school-related activities and relationships: patterns of discipline and conflict management, community service activities, and student voice and leadership roles. Thus active, engaged citizenship, attentive to multicultural diversity, is a prominent goal in recent Canadian citizenship education policy and programming – yet in practice, Canadian students (especially those from less privileged backgrounds) have few opportunities to practice democratically relevant citizenship learning in school.Item Peacebuilding Dialogue Pedagogies in Canadian Classroom(2014) Bickmore, KathyConstructively critical and inclusive dialogue about conflictual issues is one necessary ingredient of both democratic citizenship and peacebuilding learning. However, in North American classrooms populated by heterogeneous and nonaffluent students, pedagogies involving discussion of conflicts are rarely fully implemented, sustained, or inclusive of all students’ voices. This article reports the results of a study describing contrasting ways in which teachers actually did implement (or attempt) dialogic pedagogies on difficult issues in Canadian public school classrooms. Based on a series of observations and interviews in 11 public elementary, intermediate, and secondary classrooms (linked to three different professional development initiatives), the article examines key elements—in the content of the conflicts discussed; in the processes and task structures for classroom discussion; in the norms, skills, and relationships established; and in the school contexts—that make such dialogic classroom activities more (or less) feasible to implement and sustain, more (or less) inclusive of previously marginalized voices, and more (or less) constructive for democratic and peacebuilding education.Item Immigration and emigration: Canadian and Mexican youth making sense of a globalized conflict(2017) Nieto, Diego; Bickmore, Kathyin underprivileged surroundings in one large multicultural city in Canada and in a moderately large city in Mexico, examining their understandings and lived experiences of migration-related conflicts. Canadian participants framed these conflicts as a problem of racist attitudes towards immigrants in an otherwise welcoming city. Mexican youth understood emigration as a questionable individual dream to overcome precarious economic conditions, bringing about violence to those travelling and family fractures for those who stay. We identify tensions between these dominant narratives about mobility and conflict – usually also present in intended curriculum – and students’ first-hand, every day experiences with migration in each setting. We point out to youths’ contrasting imaginaries of citizenship – sense of agency and identity positions – with regards to migration in each setting, showing the limited opportunities they have to make sense of their lived (globalized) conflicts beyond their own localized cultural explanations. We argue that connecting the recognition of cultural differences in the world with the power imbalances, unequal positions, and historically structured global inequities revealed by issues such as migration, must become a crucial effort in citizenship education on global issues.