Commemorations are events or actions that honour and memorialize significant events, people, and groups from the past. In recent years there have been numerous contentious debates about commemorations of historical events and people in countries around the world, including Canada. In this article I argue that commemoration controversies should be an essential part of teaching and learning history in K–12 schools because they have the potential to be meaningful and relevant for students, they address civic education competencies central to history and social studies curricula in Canada, and they provide rich opportunities for advancing students’ historical consciousness and historical thinking. In the final section of the article I describe how six second-order historical thinking concepts can be used to invite students to think historically about commemorations.

Mental health literacy (MHL) for pre-service teachers seeks to improve knowledge and help-seeking behaviours and decrease stigma. Increased MHL may also change perceived stress and self-efficacy for inclusive practices. This cohort study evaluates the impact of an online MHL resource for educators, embedded within a mandatory Bachelor of Education (BEd) course, on pre-service teachers’ MHL, perceived stress, and teacher efficacy toward inclusive practices. Seventy-one pre-service teachers completed the course as well as pre- and post-surveys. Results demonstrated significant and substantial improvements on knowledge, help-seeking, and perceived efficacy for inclusive practices. Increased MHL may be an effective approach in meeting the requirements of inclusive education.

Parent engagement is often promoted as a remedy for reducing achievement gaps between students from high socio-economic and low socio-economic backgrounds. However, researchers have found mixed results when examining parent engagement and student outcomes. Drawing on a study investigating the effectiveness of summer literacy camps offered by schools in Ontario, I compare the influence of parent engagement on two outcomes: (1) spring snapshot of cumulative learning, and (2) summer literacy growth/loss. In considering summer learning in regression analysis, I aim to investigate the effect of parent engagement without the influence of schools during the academic year. Out of 14 parent engagement measures, I find only three (parents’ aspirations, home resources, discussions of school with children) are positive predictors of spring literacy outcomes and that none predict summer literacy growth/loss. Family socio-economic status remains a powerful predictor of achievement for both outcomes. I interpret my findings within three proposed mechanisms of parent engagement: cultivation ethic, realist reaction, and expressive logic.

Realisee aupres de six enseignantes du primaire, cette recherche-action visait a coconstruire et a mettre en oeuvre des pratiques differenciees d’enseignement de l’ecriture aupres d’eleves de milieux defavorises. Cet article presente les resultats du volet formation (Guay et Prud’homme, 2018) de cette recherche-action et decrit les effets de la participation d’enseignantes a cette etude sur leur developpement professionnel. Les resultats montrent des acquis dans toutes les dimensions du modele de Clarke et Hollingsworth (2002). L’analyse du rapport couts/retombees et de la perennite des acquis met en perspective la conclusion sur l’efficacite de ce type de dispositif de developpement professionnel.

La redaction de la these est problematique pour nombre de doctorant[e]s. Pour les soutenir, la retraite de redaction structuree semble une strategie interessante, mais peu de recherches ont tente de la decrire. Cet article presente des resultats issus d’une etude mixte (N = 210), combinant questionnaires et entretiens pour mesurer et comprendre les effets des retraites Thesez-vous en vue 1) d’en recenser les benefices, soit favoriser la productivite, legitimer la redaction et vivre une experience plaisante, et 2) d’identifier les conditions qui favorisent ces benefices. Ultimement, cet article contribue a l’identification de strategies pour repenser et ameliorer l’encadrement de la redaction de these.

The involvement of refugee parents in their children’s education is crucial for academic success and social integration. However, school personnel often seem to struggle to find approaches that will increase recently arrived refugee parents’ involvement with the school. While refugee parents are not a homogenous group, many face uniquely similar and intersecting challenges. Using a qualitative research approach, specifically semi-structured interviews, this study examines the perceptions of one group of Arabic-speaking, recently arrived refugee parents’ perceptions of being and becoming involved in their children’s education after their arrival in Canada. The findings suggest the following factors act as barriers to their involvement: (1) limited language proficiency, (2) competing basic needs, (3) lack of homework, (4) teachers’ limited cross-cultural and interreligious understanding, and (5) sexual health education being a contested shared space. While the findings illuminate what some recently arrived refugee parents regard as barriers, the discussion challenges educational leaders and policy makers to critically question the dominant, normative model of parental involvement that is employed and recommends they reframe their conceptions of parental involvement as social engagement with a school community. Such a reframing may better support recently arrived refugee parents’ integration into their new home country.

Politicians are pushing school boards to do more to ensure students leave school with the financial literacy skills they will need to navigate an increasingly complex financial marketplace. Financial literacy education must start early to achieve this goal, yet there has been very little Canadian research on financial literacy education at the elementary level. This exploratory study used an anonymous, online survey to gain a preliminary understanding of full-time Ontario elementary teachers’ perceptions, attitudes, and practices with respect to financial literacy education. Respondents overwhelmingly favour teaching financial literacy in elementary school. Almost half of respondents currently incorporate financial literacy into their classroom practice. These teachers rely primarily on free, online resources. With respect to barriers to teaching financial literacy, respondents cited the lack of an appropriate curriculum and lack of support from schools and school boards. Respondents identified professional development as the main type of support they would like to see schools and school boards provide to support them in teaching financial literacy going forward.

Des enseignants du postsecondaire constatent que de nombreux etudiants qui pourraient beneficier du soutien des centres d’aide disciplinaires de leur etablissement pour reussir leurs cours ne s’y presentent pas. Des moyens de motiver les etudiants a utiliser ces services sont en developpement et devront etre evalues. Cet article presente le processus d’elaboration et de validation de l’Echelle de perception d’un centre d’aide en francais du postsecondaire (EPCAFP). L’instrument comporte trois sous-echelles (interet, utilite et controlabilite). Des collegiens (n = 1324) provenant de quatre cegeps du Quebec ont participe a son evaluation. Les analyses factorielles exploratoire et confirmatoire revelent une structure qui distingue bien les dix items de l’echelle en fonction des trois dimensions conceptuelles representant les sous-echelles. De plus, les resultats sont satisfaisants quant a la consistance interne, la validite discriminante ainsi que la validite criteriee de l’instrument. Les resultats de cette etude sont discutes en fonction de la problematique ayant justifie sa conduite.