Ontario Teachers Research Articles

Barriers to Reporting Teachers’ Abuse of Students

Teachers in Ontario’s schools are responsible for implementing and monitoring anti-bullying programs; in fact, Ontario’s teachers are legally bound to report all bullying incidences (Ontario Safe Schools Act, 2010). However, counter to current initiatives designed to combat school- based violence, recent research has demonstrated that some teachers are the aggressors of their students, yet these behaviours are not always reported. The lack of research into teacher abuse of students may be due to a lack of reporting.

Taproot, rhizome, disappointment, possibility: action research with(in) sociomaterial perspectives

ABSTRACT Inspired by the question ‘how might we do Action Research differently?’, this article provides an introductory diffractive mapping of the concepts and empirical studies intersecting Action Research and sociomaterial theories. After tracing the roots of Action Research, I zigzag to describing how Action Research has grown differently in prior studies informed by sociomaterial theories. I use these theories to disrupt everyday assumptions about Action Research in education and to make thinking visible and unfamiliar. I offer up a series of short vignettes based on a recently completed Action Research project with French as a Second Language (FSL) teachers in Ontario, Canada. I collide these data events with various sociomaterial concepts to open new opportunities for analysis when engaging in Action Research. Specifically, I engage the phases of the Action Research cycle and more-than-human collaboration in a research project to highlight the ways in which these processes are created and unfold uniquely, and how rhizomatic thinking can further open trajectories for transformation within this work.

"You can because you do and you do, because you can": Using interpretative description to examine what it means to be a physically literate adult living with multiple chronic conditions.

Physical literacy is an emerging strategy to increase participation in movement activities for children and youth, however little is known about how to frame physical literacy for aging adults. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how adults with multiple chronic conditions describe physically literacy for adults and to understand the needs, preferences, barriers, and facilitators to acquiring and maintaining physical literacy despite fluctuations in health status. Sixteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with working and retired teachers in Ontario, Canada, with varying self-identified physical activity levels and are living with 2 or more chronic conditions. A semi-structured interview guide was used to conduct the interviews. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Participants identified 5 themes when describing physical literacy for adults: understanding one's body, conscious commitment to movement, access to and knowledge of rehabilitation health resources, valuable physical activities, and confident problem solver. Results indicate that when acquiring physical literacy for adults, there are important new constructs, such as self-management and the awareness of rehabilitation strategies to maintain mobility, that differ from the traditional physical literacy model. To improve function and mobility outcomes for adults living with chronic conditions, programs should be guided by a physical literacy framework that addresses the needs unique to aging adults, such as understanding the changes that occur with aging, self-monitoring mobility changes and participating in rehabilitation strategies.

A Voice for Ontario Teachers in Disaster and Emergency Planning: A Case study of Teachers’ Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic revealed a stark disconnect within the Ontario education system between the decision-makers at the system level (the Ministry of Education and school boards) and classroom teachers tasked with implementing these decisions. Interviews for this study provided primary and secondary school teachers in central and southern Ontario an opportunity to share their experience teaching during an extended public health disaster. The teachers focused the conversation on their frustration at the top-down decision-making from the school board and Ministry of Education and expressed that their needs as teachers were not adequately considered in the planning and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. They explained a range of impacts resulting from the lack of inclusion in the decision-making, including the erosion of their ability to carry out classroom planning, the deterioration of the quality of education delivered, and the harm to their well-being. The findings of this research recommend that one way to address this gap in the Ontario education system and mitigate the damaging effects, such as those experienced during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, is for meaningful consultation between classroom teachers and system-level decision-makers. The sentiments expressed by the participants in this study are a call for emergency practitioners within the Ontario education system to do better when it comes to including the voices and needs of teachers in preparedness and response efforts during extended public health emergencies.

Leadership in times of crisis: Ontario teachers’ perspectives of system leaders during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT Systemic disruptions and uncertainties resulting from the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic have put extraordinary pressure on system-level educational leadership worldwide. Despite often being seen as drivers of thinking and change, system leaders had few, if any, precedents to draw from on how to lead effectively through such crises. This paper examines Ontario secondary school teachers’ (N = 17) perspectives on system-level educational leadership during the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic and considers how these perspectives can inform future approaches to leading school systems through such uncertainty and disruption. Drawing on prolonged semi-structured interviews, six leverage points for systemic change are discussed: actors and elements, feedback, relationships and power, structures and roles, goals, and the overarching paradigm for teaching and learning.

Resentment and Admiration: Public Opinion Toward Teachers and Public Sector Employees in Ontario

Public opinion toward teachers and other public sector workers is an important factor in Ontario provincial politics. This article uses public opinion data to measure, and identify the correlates of, resentment and admiration of these groups, and to identify the relationship between these attitudes and support for political parties in Ontario. Survey data from over 4,000 Ontarians, collected at the time of the 2022 provincial election, show that Ontarians have greater admiration for, and less resentment toward, teachers than toward other provincial government workers. The data also reveal several factors related to these attitudes, including comparative assessments of compensation and workload, and relationships with members of these groups. Finally, the data show that attitudes toward teachers, but not other public sector workers, are related to provincial vote choice, with negative attitudes toward teachers predicting PC Party support. Teachers are clearly a more salient “target” of resentment in Ontario provincial politics. These findings have implications for educational policy and the tactics of teacher unions.

Becoming the music teacher: Stories of generalist teaching and teacher education in music

Teacher preparation for generalist (non-specialist) elementary teachers in Ontario typically comprises one compulsory music class. In entry surveys, many generalists describe themselves as highly apprehensive about and unconfident in their ability to teach music, confirming previous research. Using narrative inquiry, we explore the stories of both preservice and in-service generalist teachers. Data from focus groups with preservice teachers revealed that most participants felt markedly more comfortable with the prospect of teaching music in primary grades after taking our music courses; while fewer expressed confidence in teaching music to junior/intermediate grades. However, preservice teachers are rarely given the chance to observe or teach music while on practicum. Interviews with in-service generalist teachers revealed that a lack of confidence compelled them to take part in intentional, incremental, self-directed learning experiences to further develop their knowledge and skills for the elementary music classroom. The pandemic largely halted music activities, creating new barriers for generalist in-service teachers who teach music. The enduring gaps identified by this research are how to build more opportunities for generalist preservice teachers to practice their newly acquired skills while on practicum; and how to better support generalist in-service teachers to acquire additional skills for teaching music once in the classroom.

Teacher perspectives and approaches toward promoting inclusion in play-based learning for children with developmental disabilities

As school authorities strive toward inclusive models of education for children with neurodevelopmental delay and disability (NDD), many kindergarten curricula have mandated pedagogy centered on learning through play. Children with NDD tend to experience greater social isolation and lower rates of social play engagement compared to typically developing peers. Consequently, issues related to social participation and inclusion may be particularly salient in play-based kindergarten classrooms. The current qualitative study explored how eight kindergarten teachers in Ontario, Canada conceptualized and promoted inclusion in play for children with NDD. Classroom observation and teacher interviews were conducted with a focus on the teacher’s role in play. Teachers endorsed the use of several indirect (i.e., environmental) strategies to promote social participation, alongside proactive teacher support in play. Teachers who shared multiple aspects of an interventionist viewpoint toward disability, and identified the social benefits of inclusion in play for children with NDD, tended to provide more proactive support to all children in play. Teachers also provided reactive support in play to address emerging social conflict. Implications for fostering the meaningful inclusion of children with NDD in play-based learning are discussed.

Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions and Experiences Regarding Social-Emotional Learning in Ontario

Social-emotional learning (SEL) is an essential part of students’ learning journey. Teachers’ perceptions of SEL have been associated with teaching outcomes and the effectiveness of its implementation in classrooms. In Ontario, SEL is a mandated component of some curricular areas. It is important to consider teachers’ perceptions and experiences regarding SEL because a teacher who is confident in implementing SEL strategies may contribute to positive social, emotional, and academic outcomes for their students. This study explored teachers' perceptions and experiences regarding SEL before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Three elementary teachers in Ontario implementing SEL practices took part in a semi-structured interview that followed a modified version of Seidman’s (2019) three-interview protocol, and was informed by the CASEL (2021b) framework. Research findings reveal for the first time in the literature elementary teachers’ perceptions and experiences on SEL during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario. The benefits and barriers of teaching SEL competencies to students were discussed, as were the SEL strategies implemented by the teachers and professional development received on it. Implications for practice were also described.

A mixed method investigation of teacher-identified barriers, facilitators and recommendations to implementing daily physical activity in Ontario elementary schools

BackgroundFewer than 17% of children worldwide are meeting the international recommendations for daily physical activity. Since most children are in school for the bulk of their day, the classroom has been identified as an ideal space to incorporate physical activity opportunities. In Ontario (Canada), the Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy aims to ensure all elementary school children receive a minimum of 20 min of moderate to vigorous physical activity each school day during instructional time. However, a 2015 evaluation found that only half of Ontario teachers were meeting this expectation; this work advocated for additional research to monitor implementation and its predictors and to further identify fidelity recommendations. Thus, the current study investigated contemporary factors influencing DPA fidelity in Ontario elementary schools and provides teacher-identified recommendations to support DPA implementation.MethodsThe first part of the study was a quantitative approach surveying 186 elementary school teachers across Ontario. Descriptive statistics including frequencies and means were used to characterize barriers, facilitators, and recommendations to DPA implementation. Spearman’s correlations were used to assess the relation between the likelihood of DPA implementation and intrapersonal factors of gender, teaching experience, prior DPA training and personal physical activity participation. The second part of the study consisted of a qualitative approach using teacher interviews to explore in-depth teachers’ recommendations to support DPA implementation. A thematic analysis was used to analyze the transcripts and identify recommendations for DPA.ResultsSurvey results showed that only 23% of teachers met the mandated 20 min of DPA per day. Barriers to implementation included space and time constraints, inadequate training, student behavioural issues and low self-efficacy. Gender, teaching experience and prior DPA training were not related to the likelihood of DPA implementation. Teachers who rated themselves as more physically fit were more likely to implement DPA. Teacher interviews elucidated key areas for improving DPA implementation including greater DPA training opportunities, resources, community partnerships, accountability and strategies that support school-wide implementation.ConclusionThe current study demonstrated that fidelity to the DPA policy in Ontario elementary schools is on the decline. This work highlights unique factors implicated in DPA fidelity and brings to the forefront teacher recommendations to improve DPA implementation.

Ontario Teachers’ Policy Leadership During the COVID-19 Pandemic

In this article, we combine theories of teacher leadership, policy leadership, street-level leadership, and policy enactment to inform our novel conceptualization of teachers’ policy leadership. We draw on data collected through a series of 3 focus group interviews with 31 secondary school teachers in Ontario between July 2020 and February 2021 to show how the dynamism of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic impacted this aspect of their work. Specifically, our findings show the influence of administrative support and the shifting external, situated, and spatial contexts on teachers’ policy leadership. The findings also highlight the role of refusal and creative reinterpretation of educators who prioritized student well-being during the pandemic as schooling transitioned from more flexible emergency remote learning to a less flexible “business as usual” approach.

Teaching young people more than “how to survive austerity”: From traditional financial literacy to critical economic literacy education

ABSTRACT Financial literacy education is often narrowly conceptualized as teaching students how to manage their finances. Furthermore, few studies have investigated teachers’ beliefs and approaches to teaching financial literacy beyond whether they have the knowledge and capacity to deliver personal finance lessons. This case study explores the ways in which self-identified critical teachers in Ontario and Québec, Canada swim against the current of traditional financial literacy teaching. I present data from two rounds of in-depth qualitative interviews and one round of deliberative inquiry focus groups conducted in 2019 and 2020. Findings detail the specific skills, knowledge, and pedagogical strategies teachers use to reframe conventional financial literacy toward a critical economic literacy education that asks broader questions about the political economy and intersecting systems of oppression. This study complicates the ways in which financial literacy education is conceptualized and researched and suggests the need for further research with teachers.

We just try to work with the needs in front of us

The Ontario government’s International Education Strategy (2015) establishes goals for international education and the hosting of international students in Ontario schools. Using a critical policy lens, we focus on teachers as key to enacting these policy objectives in local contexts. The article presents findings from four focus groups of Ontario teachers working in schools with large international student cohorts. We found teacher participants were generally unaware of a broader vision or strategic goal for the presence of these students in their schools. They found it difficult to meet the needs of this growing cohort, and they faced this challenge with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Factors that influenced their enactment included personal background and education, as well their ability to collaborate and work in contexts with a professional ethos. Overall, teachers expressed a desire for more information, support, and professional development, including opportunities for collaboration, with regard to educating international students in their schools.

Making STEAM-Based Professional Learning: A Four-Year Design-Based Research Study

This article reports on the evolution of a STEAM-based teacher professional learning program designed to focus on maker pedagogies. Design-Based Research methodology was used to frame three iterations of professional learning sessions, which collectively involved more than 85 teachers in Ontario, Canada. The article describes the three iterations of teacher professional learning related to a maker approach, reports on what we learned from each iteration and how we modified the pedagogical approach based on the findings, and includes discussion on the implications for future professional learning in maker education.

Emergency assessment: rethinking classroom practices and priorities amid remote teaching

ABSTRACT Systemic disruptions from COVID-19 have transformed the assessment landscape in Canada and across the world. Alongside repeated shifts to emergency remote teaching, large-scale assessments and summative evaluations were cancelled in many jurisdictions, and repeated concerns were raised about ensuring equity and access to quality education. This paper investigates the rapid – and in many cases innovative – responses teachers offered to these challenges at the height of the pandemic. Drawing on prolonged semi-structured interviews with 17 secondary school teachers in Ontario, Canada, the paper provides a detailed account of Ontario’s approach to assessment during COVID-19, exemplified by participants’ lived experiences. Results highlight the notion of emergency remote assessment, the vital role of assessment in stemming widening equity and well-being gaps, and emerging consequences from this period. These data offer critical insights into the future of our forever-changed education landscape, and position classroom assessment as a priority player in this work.

“French Teachers Can Figure It Out”: Understanding French as a Second Language (FSL) Teachers’ Work in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic

In 2020, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic forced teachers in Ontario to move online. Since then, teaching online or in hybrid models has been common across the province. To understand how French as a Second Language (FSL) teachers navigated these spaces, four Ontario French teachers were interviewed about their experience using educational technology and teaching online. Findings were analyzed in light of Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2020) reframing of classic understandings of teachers’ work in the context of the global pandemic. Findings show that factors influencing these teachers’ professional capital reflect common concerns among Canadian educators, alongside those specific to the FSL context. Participants' professional marginalization and seclusion demonstrates the importance of both the psychic rewards of teaching and cultures of collaboration. Ongoing efforts to capture ways in which teaching FSL has been shaped by the pandemic experience, therefore, require looking beyond individual classrooms to connected systems and systematic efforts of reform.

Using a Mixed Methods Approach to Study the Relationship Between Mathematics Anxiety, Mathematics Teacher Efficacy, and Mathematics Teaching Anxiety in Preservice Elementary School Teachers in Ontario

Preservice elementary school teachers are under ever increasing pressure to deliver quality mathematics instruction to their students. Mathematics anxiety and mathematics teacher efficacy are constructs that are commonly measured in preservice elementary school teachers and are used to help identify future challenges these preservice teachers might have when teaching mathematics. Mathematics teaching anxiety is a relatively new construct measured in preservice elementary school teachers. Mathematics teaching anxiety aims to separate the anxiety experienced when doing mathematics from the anxiety experienced when teaching mathematics. This study used a modified version of an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to examine the relationship between mathematics anxiety, mathematics teaching anxiety, and mathematics teacher efficacy in preservice elementary school teachers in Ontario. Participants were preservice elementary school teachers across six teacher education programs in Ontario. Questionnaire data was gathered from 185 participants, 16 of whom were also interviewed. Results indicate that mathematics teaching anxiety is significantly correlated to both mathematics teacher efficacy and mathematics anxiety, but there was a lack of correlation between mathematics anxiety and mathematics teacher efficacy. These results indicate that mathematics teaching anxiety does interact with mathematics anxiety; however, mathematics teacher efficacy and the introduction of mathematics teaching anxiety may disrupt the previous belief that mathematics anxiety and mathematics teacher efficacy are negatively correlated. Furthermore, interview and short answer responses showed that preservice elementary school teachers who were mathematically anxious were aware of their anxieties and developed methods of overcoming their feelings while maintaining effective teaching practices.

Releasing the Caged Phoenix: COVID-19 and the Rare Opportunity Afforded to Ontario's Teachers

This paper addresses perceptions of how Ontario's response to the COVID-19 pandemica has changed the role of teachers. It explores the opportunity for Ontario's teachers to reframe their approach to curricula and pedagogy through their own personal leadership and to use the current pandemic landscape as a gateway rather than a barrier to growth. It chronicles the first wave of the pandemic response in Ontario's education sector, reveals windows of opportunity that have existed and continue to exist within current education policy, and explores scholarly work in the areas of currere, lived curriculum, localized curricula, and leadership in the spirit of learning and living.

The everyday construction of value: A Canadian investment fund, Chilean water infrastructure, and financial subordination

AbstractInfrastructure in several economies in the Global South has rapidly undergone financialization, aided and abetted by governments opening-up their infrastructure assets to global institutional investors in search of stable, predictable revenue streams. This account of financialization could be the end of the story were it not for the fact that Christophers (2015) and others have shown that institutional investors are not simply in the game of ‘finding’ value or ‘harvesting it’ from obliging states, rather they actively construct it. What often catches the eye, however, are the more overt forms of financial engineering (Ashton et al., 2012), whereas what tends to go unnoticed are the ways in which infrastructure assets are routinely ‘worked’ to generate value over time. Here, we draw attention to a slower-paced financialization of infrastructure assets where, following Chiapello (2015, 2020), investors are engaged in a continual process of evaluation and revaluation of their assets to add value over and above prevailing benchmarks. Taking the example of Canada's Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) and its extensive investments in Chilean water infrastructure, this article considers how a global investment fund draws on financial practices developed in the advanced economies to add value to long term infrastructure assets in the Global South. Such practices, we argue, enact a routine form of financial subordination which does not match the familiar image of wholly subservient and dominated dependent economies. Rather, the power asymmetries involved equate less to a zero-sum game and more to a game where the benefits are unequally shared between asset managers in the Global North and states in the Global South, where effectively the latter cooperate in their own submission in ways that are not always acknowledged as such.

Understanding and developing food pedagogies in Ontario pre-service education

Policy documents implore Ontario teachers to integrate environmental education (EE) in the curriculum. Evidence of significant barriers such as lack of time, resources and knowledge, and lack of preparation at the Bachelor of Education level to teaching EE is well documented (Barrett, 2007, 2013; Stevenson, 2007; Thompson, 2004). Food literacy (FL) is often considered a framework from which to understand environmental issues, thus the authors sought to consider its’ usefulness in aiding integration of EE curricula. Using a ‘theory into practice’ approach we asked: Can food literacy be used to make environmental issues more relevant and accessible, thus diminishing the barriers to teaching EE? How do pre-service teachers define FL and do they know enough to use this framework? Qualitative interviews were conducted with thirteen Ontario pre-service teachers to determine their understanding of FL. Findings included a lack of exposure to FL concepts, however, there was an interest to using FL to help teach EE. Some suggestions to improve food pedagogy in the pre-service program and placements included: curriculum changes that made explicit connection to food; clear linkages between environmental issues and food; empowering students to do projects, debates and assignments on food, and experiential learning. Ultimately, there was interest and promise of utilizing FL to integrate EE, but a change of culture at the pre-service level is needed for it to be supported.