McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill

The professional development of researchers through participatory research: The case of the network school initiative

2024-04-15T00:17:48-04:00

This Note from the Field offers a reflection on the unpredictable professional development of researchers who conducted a participatory research for some fifteen years. Working with a number of previously produced key texts, we identified traces of transformation in the activity of academic researchers throughout three major phases of the research. These traces were then organized following the activity theory model. The flexibility with which we conducted the research, particularly in taking into account the participants’ context, generated learning at different levels.

Addressing pre-service teachers’ mathematical reasoning through reverse engineering

2025-02-12T15:26:44-05:00

In this Note from the Field, I show how undergraduate pre-service teachers exercised mathematical reasoning when they were required to find the rules determining their score in successive rounds of an iterative game. The rules were hidden from them, and therefore they needed to use mathematical reasoning to reverse engineer the rules based on their scores. The teachers generated similar conjectures as they worked to decipher the rules, even as, with each iteration of the game, pre-service teachers learned the rules to maximize their scores. Reverse engineering, as a pedagogical strategy, would seem to offer a promising avenue for teaching mathematical reasoning in teachers — who can then teach their students.

Editorial

2025-12-09T13:50:25-05:00

Éditorial

2025-12-09T14:00:19-05:00

Éditorial : mini-numéro spécial sur le projet de Loi 23

2025-12-09T12:20:37-05:00

Editorial: Mini-special issue on Bill 23

2025-12-09T12:27:32-05:00

Lessons from the street: Using street art to disrupt misrepresentations and invisibility of Indigenous women and girls in Canadian mass media

2023-04-05T15:52:34-04:00

This article discusses the potential of street art to counter misrepresentations of Indigenous women and girls in Canadian mass media, where common tropes of being incompetent mothers or criminals, amongst others, are pervasive. In this article, I look at examples of street art that showcase Indigenous women as caring, empowered, and knowledgeable individuals. These examples of street art generate not only alternative narratives on Indigenous mothering, agency, and knowledge but also provide visibility, as research shows the stories of Indigenous women and girls are not consistently seen in Canadian mass media. Negative representations of Indigenous women and girls have been connected to the violence they experience in Canada; therefore, disrupting these misrepresentations and stereotypes is of vital importance.

Teaching the history of scientific racism: A critical imperative for anti-racist pedagogy

2022-10-15T14:23:39-04:00

Drawing from a review of literature that has explored the history of scientific racism, this article considers how understanding the history of race, as an 18th- and 19th-century invention of Western Europe and the United States, can enhance Canadian anti-racist teacher education. I begin with a review of key conceptual building blocks of race — racial categories, racial hierarchies, White male intellectual superiority, and racial purity — and then outline pivotal historical stages that led acclaimed researchers to denounce race science in the mid-20th century. To conclude, I draw from anti-racist theory to discuss implications for present-day Canadian teacher education regarding who benefits from racism, who can be racist, school-based deficit and essentialist racist practices, and K–12 curricular connections.

Confronting critical issues of race and the need for decolonizing education in Canada: Problematizing the implementation of culturally relevant pedagogy, a Nova Scotian story

2023-01-11T15:20:19-05:00

The purpose of this article is to confront critical issues of race and add a missing critical analysis of the attempts to implement culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) within education in Nova Scotia and across North America. This critical analysis addresses the inequitable learning environments facing Black learners. The stories of both pre-service and in-service teachers highlight the need for educators, educational leaders, and policymakers to embed decolonizing steps to implement CRP and overcome systemic racism in education. Their accounts demonstrate that changes in policies have not led to an understanding of CRP, decolonizing, or an interruption to systemic racism. Without decolonizing steps, including giving educators the time and opportunity to decolonize their thinking, efforts to implement CRP will fail.

Ontario cecondary teacher comfort with sexual violence prevention education

2023-04-18T06:57:47-04:00

This study inquires into teachers’ self-identified comfort in teaching about and preventing sexual violence. A Likert-scale survey was used to collect data from 105 secondary teachers from one public school board in Ontario. Findings suggest that participants tend to be more comfortable with teaching about consent and respectful relationships than gender-based and sexual violence, and more comfortable with intervening in more overt and culturally recognizable sexual violence incidents than those that are subtle. Participants overwhelmingly poorly rated the quality of sexual violence education received both pre-service and in-service. Level of comfort, job insecurity, and level of knowledge were all frequently rated as moderate to extreme barriers to teaching about sexual violence. Implications for sexual violence prevention education are discussed.

The professional trajectories of new Quebec teachers: At the intersection of two regime-times?

2022-06-13T12:49:29-04:00

This article aims to contrast Rosa's (2013) theses on identity construction in late modernity with the professional commitment of early-career teachers. Our results suggest the persistence of a traditional, long-term career model alongside more unstable trajectories marked by contingency and openness to other professional perspectives. These results may be explained by the persistence of the industrial regime-time of classical modernity in the Quebec school environment, as well as by the need to inscribe the act of educating in the long term. Distinctions with regard to the gender of the participants are also discussed.

Toward a better understanding of the conceptual foundation of "teacher well-being at work": A critical review of the literature

2022-04-25T11:21:28-04:00

The study of teacher well-being has become very popular in recent years. However, the polysemy of the term "well-being" can be an obstacle, especially when comparing research results. The purpose of this critical literature review is to ground the concept of teacher well-being in contemporary conceptual discussions. After an overview of current trends, we analyze thirteen definitions of well-being used to study this phenomenon among teachers. This non-exhaustive review allows us to exemplify three types of definitions. At the end of this exercise, we note the differences between "well-being", "well-being at work" and "teachers’ well-being".

Montreal Jewish Day School teachers’ real-time experiences during Covid-19 online distance learning

2022-06-04T09:25:48-04:00

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Montreal Jewish Day Schools shifted to online distance learning. This study follows eight elementary and high school teachers in real-time through observations and group interviews. Applying a Community of Inquiry framework, we unpack the social, conceptual, and pedagogical elements of this pedagogical shift to understand its three “modes”: survival, transition, and innovation, distinguished by stability and connectivity. Peer-to-peer and student-teacher connectivity was mostly underdeveloped and fostered feelings of disappointment and frustration. Teachers varied in their engagement with specific Judaic traditions within their online classrooms and relied on school-wide resources to sustain Jewish identity connectivity for students. The ever-changing timeline of the shifts in conjunction with personally- and community- attributed pressures contributed to teachers’ experiences of anxiety.

A pre-service teacher’s view on emergency remote education in rural Nova Scotia: A scoping review of literature on digital equity as illuminated by COVID-19

2022-08-17T11:35:09-04:00

This article presents a scoping review of literature on the impact of emergency remote education in low-income rural settings to contextualize the experiences in rural Nova Scotia during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initial literature reviewed included 37 articles across Western nations, the majority subscribing to an investigative methodology with participant interviewing, field observations, and in-depth reviews of literature as the most common sources of data collection. Due to the unprecedented nature of COVID-19, little is known about this topic. This review provides insights into the experiences of emergency remote education in low-income rural communities from the perspective of students, pre- and in-service teachers, and rural education stakeholders, and suggests a need for integrating pandemic-informed rural pedagogy into teacher education programs.

Supervising teaching internships at a distance: Mobilizing cognitive presence using digital technology

2022-05-12T13:13:32-04:00

In teacher training programs, internship supervision can be done online, while promoting a remote presence thanks to digital devices, which are now essential. However, how do university supervisors (US) adjust their practices to ensure a cognitive presence that supports trainees supervised via digital technology? A few answers emerge from interviews conducted with US in Quebec. The thematic analysis of their remarks, based on indicators of cognitive presence, indicate that the mediatization of supervision can promote collaboration between peers, accentuate the mediating role of US (towards higher levels of cognition), and open up parallel avenues of socio-emotional support.

Adolescents’ point of view on weight-based bullying and potentially effective intervention strategies

2022-06-18T10:02:40-04:00

Weight-based bullying is frequently observed among high-school students. The objective of this study was to explore adolescents’ point of view on this phenomenon and on the strategies to counter it. To this end, focus group interviews were conducted with 19 adolescents, aged 14 to 17 years old. The interviews explored this specific type of bullying, the explanatory factors, the consequences, and the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of interventions strategies. The adolescents interviewed suggested that weight-based bullying is subtle and has significant consequences. They mentioned that strategies aiming at mobilizing adults and peers toward those who are bullied and at providing them with emotional support should be prioritized. However, sanctions and surveillance should be avoided.

Didactic approach to the introduction of an industrial partner in two design teaching-learning situations

2022-10-28T10:24:40-04:00

This paper studies the impact of the introduction of the “operational” dimension within the design teaching-learning situations of two groups of students facing the same task proposed by an industrial partner. To understand the joint action identified, a typology of the knowledge at stake in the two didactic situations allows us to characterize the expected outcome of the situations: the development of a design skill through a design experience. The study closely analyzes the students’ activity, which focuses on the operational brief against the didactic contract. The presence of the industrial partner and the “operational” dimension invest the didactic environment, modify students’ representations and experiences, and create an "elsewhere of the didactic".

The transition from preschool to primary education: A look at children’s executive functions, as well as teachers’ perceptions and expectations

2022-03-08T15:38:57-05:00

During the transition toward the first year of elementary school, children must develop several skills related to executive functions that ensure their socio-emotional, behavioural, and cognitive success. Because this transition represents a pivotal moment, it seems essential to question ways to support the development of executive functions and to study teachers’ perceptions of and expectations towards related skills. The objective of this study is therefore to measure children’s executive functions during the transition to the first grade and to collect teachers’ perceptions and expectations of children’s socio-emotional, behavioural, and cognitive skills.

Hyper-regulation and performance-based accountability focused on practitioners in the field: The risky choices of bill 23

2024-03-13T11:54:42-04:00

In this critical essay, we reflect on the risks that Bill 23 poses to Quebec schools. It centralises governance and strengthens results-based management in schools through increased statistical monitoring of performance and a scientific legitimisation of teaching practices by a central body (INEE). It therefore promotes hyper-regulation of teaching practices and places all responsibility for student success on teachers and schools. The multiplicity and complexity of the sources of educational effectiveness and inequalities in achievement are overlooked. This ill-conceived policy is likely to have a number of adverse effects in the long term, particularly on the attractiveness of the teaching profession.

When will the water boil? Neo-institutional isomorphism in education in Quebec

2024-05-16T12:27:32-04:00

In Quebec, Law 40 and tabled bill 23 (PL23) reflect a centralizing trend, which is particularly evident in education where the distribution of decision-making power is increasingly centralized. This article puts forward the thesis that Law 40, adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec in February 2020, and PL23, currently under study, are part of a neo-institutional lineage which, to use the words of Lemire (2022), reflect the evolution of Quebec nationalism. Law 40 and PL23 are now seeking popular support, which requires a substantial level of social cohesion; inevitable product of neo-institutionalism, and its phenomenon of isomorphism of which this article provides concrete examples taken from gray literature.

Bill 23: Monitoring, standardizing and punishing

2024-04-09T11:49:27-04:00

The passage of Bill 23 aims to improve academic success and excellence in education. However, it is part of a legislative continuum which has led to a growing surveillance and control of the Quebec education system in the hands of the minister of education. This centralization opens the door to ideological management which undermines the education of young people, the training and work of school staff, science, and academic freedom. Borrowing the idea of the panopticon from Foucault, and from James C. Scott’s analysis of the eye of the state, this article presents the risks of authoritarian control with the aim of modernizing, monitoring, standardizing, and punishing.

Book review: Poitras Pratt, Y., & Bodnaresko, S. (Eds.). Truth and reconciliation through education: Stories of decolonizing practices. Brush Education. 2023.

2025-06-16T10:56:08-04:00

POITRAS PRATT, Y., & BODNARESKO, S. (Eds.). Truth and reconciliation through education: Stories of decolonizing practices. Brush Education. (2023). 264 pp. $39.95 (Paperback). (ISBN 978-1-55059-933-6).

Book Review: Rosén, A. P., Salovaara, A., Botero, A., & Søndergaard, M. L. J. (Eds.). More-Than-Human Design in Practice. 2024.

2025-06-13T12:31:22-04:00

ROSÉN, A. P., SALOVAARA, A., BOTERO, A., & SØNDERGAARD, M. L. J. (EDS.). More-Than-Human Design in Practice. Routledge. (2024). 254 pp. $52.99 (Paperback). (ISBN 9781032741208).

Book review: Melo-Pfeifer, S. (Ed.). Linguistic landscapes in language and teacher education: Multilingual teaching and learning inside and beyond the classroom. Switzerland: Springer. 2023.

2025-05-27T06:14:39-04:00

MELO-PFEIFER, S. (Ed.). Linguistic Landscapes in Language and Teacher Education: Multilingual Teaching and Learning Inside and Beyond the Classroom. Switzerland: Springer. (2023). 356pp. $169.99 (paperback). (ISBN 978-3031228698).