© 2026 McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l’éducation de McGill. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

EDITORIAL

With electronic access and advance publication, the journal issue is almost becoming an anachronism. Whereas at one time, readers might have sampled an entire issue in the same way they would have perused a compelling book, we now tend to seek out the one article that interests us. To read other articles adjoining that one would be browsing, a behaviour that we can still do in some libraries and now even electronically, with the depiction of what a shelf might look like if all the books and volumes were arranged physically. But do we have time for that, or inclination? Special journal issues we might read in a way similar to a good book because the articles, even if various and diverse, address the “same” topic that interests us. Because The McGill Journal of Education is a generalist journal in education, the topical reach of its articles in any given issue is often quite wide. One of the most frequent words used in MJE editorials for general issues is that of “range”: the issue highlights a wide range of subjects, concerns, questions, research communities, research methods. If a MJE general issue constitutes a book, it is an eclectic one, where the main connection that links these articles in this issue is date of article acceptance. However, like other general issues published in the journal, the present one (60:2) is no exception in containing articles and Notes from the Field that offer rich and deep insights for educational theory, practice, and policymaking. We invite you to sample them! And not just the one article/topic you were looking for but another one as well. In short, in this editorial, we want to celebrate the serendipity that the journal issue represents. Serendipity is a word that captures the elation that readers might have in stumbling across the unexpected.

Each of the 11 articles in this issue (six in English; five in French) along with three Notes from the Field (two in French; one in English) offers something distinctive, coming from a particular process, place, position, argument or concern. As with other MJE general issues, we have fallen back on arranging these pieces as we might if they were on a bookshelf by subject — this to encourage browsing. So, the first three address Indigenous issues in education (Indigenous witnessing, Indigenous literature in the classroom, culturally appropriate and attuned practices). This last article also focuses on bilingualism, and its next three neighbours on this issue’s shelf likewise tackle questions of language (plurilingualism and writing practices; linguicism and discrimination towards international students; and contesting commemorations along linguistic lines). Three articles then follow, each addressing a different focus or question in teaching and learning: student well-being, the teacher-student relation, and explicit teaching of students with special needs. The final three articles might seem to be only tangentially related: one sharing a promising multimodal strategy/assessment for the classroom, the second one asking us to revisit Covid and blended classroom environments as a “break boundary” experience that cannot be undone, and the third one inviting us to re-look at the home as a place of rich learning, especially as a site of metacognitive development. However, if read together, they could speak to one another. The three Notes from the Field could not be more different: one on generative AI as bullshit; one advocating for organizations to make room for pedagogical accompaniment and support; the third on the (creative) value of a shifting, winding road in undertaking a Master’s thesis (or PhD). Short summaries of these 11 articles and three Notes follow. We hope that, in reading 60:2, you might be able to experience serendipity by sampling (more than) one article or Note. Turning now to the summaries…

Louie and Poitras Pratt developed Indigenous witnessing to respond to the urgent need for Indigenous teaching practices in Indigenous courses, which are increasingly compulsory in university programs. Louie is Dakelh, Poitras Pratt is Métis, and they worked in collaboration with a Dakelh Knowledge Keeper, Terry Lynn Luggi. Louie, Poitras Pratt, and Luggi first address the appropriateness of using Indigenous knowledges in the classroom, here especially as Dakelh-inspired witnessing was being taught on Blackfoot territory; more, that students tend to be non-Indigenous. What follows is how they worked through the tensions of using Indigenous knowledges in the classroom and then their elaboration of developing an Indigenous education course centred on Dakelh-inspired witnessing practices, what they learned in the process and what all took away and to heart.

The next article addresses the dearth of research on teaching to Indigenous literature that is locally-specific, here within the unceded and unsurrendered territory of the Mi’kmaq, Mi’kma’ki in Atlantic Canada. Written as a braiding of life stories and reflections among three co-authors (Downey, Legge, and Smith), who took part in a graduate course called “Indigenous Literatures in the Classroom” taught by the first author, Adrian M. Downey (of Indigenous and settler ancestry), we hear their métissaged conversations concerning: identity, colonialism, decolonization, Indigeneity, anxieties, ethically-informed choices. The conversations traverse three strands: who the co-authors are; reading and learning; and teaching, with discussion threads picked up by each in turn such as the notion of “enough” when Downey mulls over the meaning of the Mi’kmaw concept of netukulimk. The article ends on a note of humour and the importance of laughter in the classroom, especially when amidst stories involving trauma.

The study conducted by Prévil and Arias Ortega focuses on a pedagogical dyad composed of a lead teacher and a traditional educator, as part of a bilingual intercultural education program in Chili. This article presents the validation of a questionnaire administered to 50 lead teachers and 105 traditional educators to measure perceptions of informal training within the pedagogical dyad. In addition to this validation, the results contribute to the revalorization of the shared-time implementation approach in order to provide Indigenous communities with socially and culturally relevant education through the development of new skills in cooperation and intercultural communication.

Against the backdrop of Quebec schools' welcoming a growing number of students from immigrant backgrounds, Renaulaud’s study examines the role of writing identity-related texts in shaping the relationship to writing (RW) among allophone elementary school students. Based on interviews with linguistically diverse sixth-grade students, the author explores the four dimensions of RW (affective, axiological, conceptual, and praxeological) as outlined in the work of Blaser et al. (2015). The results show that writing texts that explore identity have the potential to change not only the relationship that multilingual students have with writing, but also that of French-speaking students in regular classrooms.

Skelton reviews research on the issues facing internationally educated teachers (IETs) in Canada, including recertification, linguicism, discrimination, diversity, and inclusion. Following an overview and analysis of these issues, Skelton explores the financial, academic, linguistic, and acculturative support the IETs can access and the push to diversify the teaching force. The final part of the article maps the gaps in the literature including the lack of symmetry among provincial recertification processes throughout the country in addition to calling on scholars to undertake studies to understand the IET experience and include these teachers in more significant numbers in the Canadian school system.

The title speaks eloquently to the subject of the article: “Engaging contested minoritized commemorations: A métissage inspired inquiry into a vandalized bilingual (French-English) stop sign.” The article takes the form of a three-way conversation (a métissage, in three-columned portioned text) among three authors: Scott, an Anglo-Canadian man (of Scottish and Franco-American descent), Gani, a Franco-Québécois man of Berber descent and Gobran an Anglo-Canadian woman of Coptic Egyptian descent. The pretext? The French word “Arrêt” painted out (erased) in seven of 18 bilingual (French/English) stop signs in Calgary, Alberta. The article probes what such events mean for relational classroom pedagogies while navigating difficult conversations around minorities and contested commemorations.

Beaudoin and Barbeau-Hénault’s study examines the reported perceptions of teachers and boys regarding the teacher-student relationship (TSR) in secondary school in the Centre-du-Québec region. Using an interpretive qualitative approach, the thematic analysis of the data highlights the roles that emotionality, conflictual relationships, attraction, active listening, and violence may play in TSRs. Although the authors believe that attachment theory offers little explanation for certain dimensions that may influence the TSR, they emphasize the need for further research to better understand the motives behind violent or intimidating behaviours directed toward teachers, especially women.

Beaulieu, Ruberto, Jolicoeur, Dupuis-Brouillette, Moreau, and Labrosse-Noury’s article follows up on their previous research on adapting an integrated approach to teaching speaking, reading, and writing through children’s literature to the individual characteristics of students with severe to profound intellectual disabilities. The objective of the study is to provide an overview of the practices implemented by the participants. A descriptive and qualitative methodology was employed, and workshops designed in accordance with adapted principles were offered to the participating teachers. The results indicate that student progress is observed when teachers are more explicit, focused, flexible, and individualized in their instruction.

Distinctive about “It’s not just a picture book” by Ahn, Evans and Chin is how these two teacher-researchers and their former student used a multiliteracies framework with secondary English teacher candidates, drawing on a picture book (called The Cow Book) to invite students to create a digital storybook. Teacher candidates then used a video platform to assess their own creations. There is a very visceral sense to how theoretical understandings of multiliteracies and multimodalities translate into meaningful teaching, learning, and assessment. The article is distinctive, too, in foregrounding the conversation that took place among the three during their narrative inquiry process. They conclude that a multiliteracies pedagogy involves far more than using technology and that it can contribute in vital ways to teachers’ becoming more critical and creative thinkers.

McGuire invokes Marshall McLuhan’s borrowing of the phrase “break boundary” (when one system changes into another to the point of no return) to name what students and teachers were undergoing during and after Covid in rural education in New Brunswick. While a similar phenomenon (i.e., blended environments) happened nationally and globally, the New Brunswick context afforded a situation in which to study students’ and teachers’ experiences of these changes up close. McGuire was both a doctoral student and the school’s technology subject coordinator at the time. The article provides an inside look at how teachers and students experience changes that turn out to be not temporary but enduring, thus affording a glimpse into what living inside of a break boundary might mean for education.

The collaborative research conducted by Viola, Tremblay-Wragg, Vincent, and Dumont shows that homeschooling, often viewed as an alternative option, can become a rich environment for metacognitive development. By supporting five families in carrying out open-ended projects that engage metacognitive strategies, the researchers highlight the evolution of the children’s strategic knowledge and autonomy. Furthermore, the study reveals a shift in the role of mothers as educators, which is now more focused on guidance than on the transmission of knowledge. The findings underscore the importance of supporting families in creating environments conducive to independent learning.

The Note from the Field proposed by Éthier, Lefrançois, Desormeaux, Deschenaux, and Péloquin stems from the need to account for the effects of using a generative artificial intelligence (genAI) system in research and education. It is based on an intensive self-study, involving approximately 100 hours of dialogue and more than 500 exchanges with ChatGPT-4. The approach does not gloss over the unexpected events and failures of the process but treats them as scientific data, revealing the need for a rigorous approach in the age of genAI. The authors introduce the concept of generative bullshit and demonstrate that genAI is not a partner but an opaque system that must be brought under control.

In a context where higher education faculty members are facing an increasing workload and a proliferation of reforms, supporting pedagogical innovation represents a major challenge. Duval, Perret, and Brey-Xambeu’s Note describes “pedagogical residencies”, an initiative launched in 2019 in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté to support teaching teams in their innovation projects. Based on administrative data collected between 2019 and 2024, the analysis shows that participation in these programs varies depending on institutional resources and the motivations of those involved. This reflection underscores that pedagogical innovation is not solely a matter of individual will but also depends on organizational conditions that enable sustained engagement despite growing professional overload.

We don’t often hear about what it feels like for graduate students to complete long research works, like a thesis or dissertation. Gishen is now a second-year PhD student. However, she takes this opportunity — before she forgets, as new memories (of the PhD journey) take their place — of looking back on the experience of her Master’s. “The long and winding road” could have been an alternate title for this Note, as Gishen re-visits in turn several challenges she encountered. Challenges became shifts. Shifts opened the way for insights. In attesting to the uncertainty and mutability of the process, Gishen draws attention to the importance of creativity. Being creative became her key resource in aspiring to reach the journey’s end.

TERESA STRONG-WILSON, VALDIN TEAGUE TSOPGNY, JUSTINE CASTONGUAY-PAYANT, JULIE LACHAPELLE, VANDER TAVARES, AND MARTINE DE GRANDPRÉ