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

Contribution to a critique of generative bullshit: A self-inquiry into the use of generative artificial intelligence in the teaching of the humanities and social sciences

Marc-André Éthier — 2026-06-08

Research and education place high expectations on generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), yet it fosters rapid and often insufficiently controlled user trust. This note from the field presents a self-inquiry based on many exchanges with ChatGPT, supported by logging, macros, and typologies. It introduces the concept of generative bullshit (plausible discourse that simulates authority, and rigor without sufficient evidence, and without intent to deceive). The analysis connects these deviations to scholarly ethos in the social sciences and humanities (SHS) and to phronesis and shows that GenAI is not a partner but an opaque system that must be disciplined. Its limitations become didactic resources for fostering durable critical practices.

Pedagogical residencies: Who is seizing this new opportunity for experimentation and innovation in higher education in France?

Joanna Duval — 2026-05-09

This note presents reflections on the "pedagogical residencies", an original experimental initiative designed to foster pedagogical innovation in higher education. These reflections are supported by a study using administrative data to provide the profiles of staff engaging with this type of initiative, while also accounting for its various forms. The results reveal a diversity of statuses among the personnel involved and highlight the role of institutional incentives in promoting more collective rather than individual residencies. These findings raise several questions for future evaluation: how can such a scheme be sustained without these incentives? What motivates the individuals who participate? What are the effects of this kind of initiative?

The importance of creative problem solving: Reflections on my Master's thesis journey

Roselyn Gishen — 2026-06-08

This Note from the Field is a reflection on the author’s journey through her Master’s thesis. Drawing on the concepts of pragmatism, creative thinking, and identity formation, this article details the non-linear nature of her research work and the unexpected learning opportunities and insights that arose along the way.

Editorial

Teresa Strong-Wilson — 2026-07-13

Éditorial

Teresa Strong-Wilson — 2026-07-13

Witnessing as pedagogy: Translating Indigenous knowledges into practice

Dustin William Louie — 2025-12-09

We believe Indigenous witnessing provides an impactful exemplar of how to translate Indigenous Knowledges into pedagogy that challenges the normalization of Western knowledge systems. By sharing our Indigenizing process of witnessing with fellow educators within a mandatory post-secondary Indigenous Education course to a foundation of Indigenous Knowledges, we hope to inspire meaningful authentic practices within local context grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing. Our theoretical framework posits that transformational Indigenous pedagogies can emerge from educators’ ethical positioning and ability to see possibilities between the specific educational aims of their course(s) and translating local Indigenous Knowledges into practical pedagogical approaches.

Vitality and teaching Indigenous literatures: A métissage

Adrian Downey — 2026-07-13

Methodologically framed as métissage, this work shares our experiences of teaching Indigenous literatures in K–12 and post-secondary education. Using personal narratives, we situate the research on teaching Indigenous literatures within our geographical context, Mi’kma’ki. We share how we came to this work as teachers and scholars, then discuss our journeys as readers of Indigenous literatures. We then highlight our teaching practices based on our own experiences, such as circlework and centring orality. We conclude by pointing to humour as a pathway to making the classroom a vital space.

Informal education within a pedagogical dyad in intercultural bilingual education: Exploring an evaluation approach

Carlo Prévil — 2026-07-10

The Intercultural Bilingual Education (IBE) program in Chile relies on a pedagogical dyad composed of a lead teacher and a traditional educator responsible for teaching Indigenous language and culture. Shared work within this dyad appears to foster the emergence of forms of informal education resulting from interactions between educational agents. This article explores parameters for evaluating such informal education through a questionnaire administered to educational agents in the Araucania region of Chile. The findings characterize perceptions and self-assessments of informal learning arising from the mentor–learner dynamic within the pedagogical relationship. The analyses also highlight challenges associated with intercultural co-teaching and professional development issues within the pedagogical dyad.

The influence of writing identity texts on the relationship to reading and writing for 6th grade students in Quebec (ages 11-12)

Céline Renaulaud — 2026-07-10

The purpose of our research was to explore the extent to which identity-based writing workshops contribute to a positive transformation of the relationship to reading and writing, defined as the set of meanings constructed about reading and writing, its learning and its uses. Interviews were conducted before and after the implementation of identity-based writing workshops over a period of four months in a linguistically heterogeneous sixth grade class. The interviews were analyzed in order to highlight the evolution of the relationship to reading and writing. Our results indicate that the relationship to reading and writing has largely evolved favorably, and that the meaningful context has allowed the evolution of their writing and reading skills.

Pushed to the periphery: A review of the literature on the salient issues facing internationally educated teachers in the Canadian education system

Lucas Skelton — 2026-02-14

This article offers a review of the research on the issues facing internationally educated teachers (IETs) within the Canadian education system, including recertification and qualifications recognition, linguicism, and diversity, discrimination, and inclusion. Following an overview and analysis of these issues, the financial, academic, language, and acculturative support the IETs can access and the push to diversify the teaching force are explored as ways these educators endure the challenges. The final part of the article includes an overview of gaps in the literature including the lack of symmetry among provincial recertification processes throughout the country and a call for scholars to undertake studies to understand the IET experience and include these teachers in more significant numbers in the Canadian school system.

Engaging contested minoritized commemorations: A métissage inspired inquiry into a vandalized bilingual (French-English) stop sign

David Scott — 2026-02-18

This article examines a case of what we term a contested minoritized commemoration involving the vandalization of multiple bilingual (French-English) stop signs in the Mission District of Calgary (Alberta). We argue that these bilingual stop signs are minoritized commemorations and the vandalization of the French portion of these signs reflects a form of contestation. Drawing on hermeneutic and métissage methodologies, we weave together autobiographical texts stemming from how we individually related to and made sense of this act of anti-Francophone vandalism. Through interpreting our textual braids in relation to one another, we show how such an approach offers relational possibilities for engaging the educational challenges accompanying contested minoritized commemorations.

Teachers’ and boys’ perceptions of the teacher-student relationship in high school: Signs of affectivity, attraction, and violence emerge

Carl Beaudoin — 2026-07-10

This article aims to describe the reported perceptions of teachers and boys regarding the teacher-student relationship (TSR) in high school. Anchored in a qualitative interpretative research perspective, this study thematically analyzes the comments made by teachers and boys. The main results show that some male teachers report difficulty responding to boys’ emotional needs. In addition, some female teachers report experiencing psychological and physical violence from boys. Some of the boy students report feeling attracted to their female teachers. These results raise questions about the roles of affectivity, attraction, and violence in the TSR.

Practices within an integrated approach to teaching oral language, reading, and writing through children’s literature for students with severe to profound intellectual disabilities

Judith Beaulieu — 2026-07-10

The integrated approach to teaching oral language, reading, and writing has been shown to have positive effects on the development of students’ skills (Morin et al., 2005). Beaulieu et al. (2023) proposed an adaptation of this approach, using children’s literature, to align with the personal characteristics of students with severe to profound intellectual disabilities (SPID). When new practices are introduced to professionals, they tend to modify them as they adopt them. This research project offers workshops based on the principles adapted by Beaulieu et al. (2023) to teachers working with students with SPID. The objective is to describe the practices and the modifications made by teachers as they implement the workshops.

“It’s not just a picture book!”: Expanding ideas of multiliteracies through the creation and assessment of a multimodal assignment

Claire Ahn — 2026-07-13

Grounded in a multiliteracies framework, this article interweaves the authors’ experiences through narrative inquiry, exploring the integrating of multimodal texts and multimodal approaches of assessment within their practice. The article is organized as a conversation between two educators and a former student, and is centred around a multimodal assignment in a secondary English teacher education class that asked teacher candidates to create a digital picture book and use video annotation in peer assessment. Our shared conversation highlights the importance of multimodal texts such as sophisticated picture books in the secondary English classrooms, as well as thinking about alternative multimodal approaches to assessment.

The coronavirus as break boundary: Navigating new landscapes in New Brunswick education

Matthew R. T. McGuire — 2026-07-13

The coronavirus caused a break boundary in public schooling. High school teachers in New Brunswick, Canada, were forced to confront a sudden shift in how they educated students — from classroom to computer screen. This qualitative interpretive case study investigated the reshaping of New Brunswick high school pedagogy prompted by an intensive turn toward digital technologies as a response to the pandemic. Data was thematically analyzed from the interviews of eight high school teachers who taught in a blended learning environment during the first full year of the pandemic. By listening to the voices and experiences of teachers, educational scholars and curriculum reformers can better understand how this unique educational event impacted teaching and learning and its implications for public schooling.

Developing strategic knowledge in children who carry out projects in a home-schooling context

Sylvie Viola — 2026-07-10

This article presents the results of partnership research that was conducted to accompany five families introduced to homeschooling for the first time due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Over the course of 12 weeks, these families completed open-ended projects that allowed children to use a variety of metacognitive strategies. Interviews revealed that the children's strategic knowledge evolved during this support process and that the tools used promoted the development of their autonomy, simultaneously changing the way mother-educators viewed their roles.