Educators' Discourses on Student Diversity in Canada:Context, Policy and Practice

Educators' Discourses on Student Diversity in Canada:Context, Policy and Practice
Editor: Diane GĂ©rin-Lajoie
ISBN: 9781551303468
Published: May, 2008
Format: Paperback; 200 pages


This text examines recent changes to the Canadian educational system and their impact on the role of the school “ most significantly how the school must now function as an agent of inclusion for students who are not part of the mainstream school population. Based on the findings of a comprehensive five-year national study sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada “ Current Trends in the Evolution of School Personnel in Canadian Elementary and Secondary Schools “ the contributors examine the daily work activities, working conditions, and the interactions with students in view of recent changes to the educational system and the evolving role of the school. Educators' Discourses on Student Diversity in Canada: Context, Policy and Practice challenges the status quo and provides a timely, comprehensive, and critical overview of education and diversity in Canada.



Editor

Diane GĂ©rin-Lajoie is Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and she is cross-appointed to the Centre for Franco-Ontarian Studies. She teaches graduate courses in the areas of minority education and qualitative research.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: The Issue of Diversity in the Canadian Educational Context
Diane GĂ©rin-Lajoie (Editor), OISE, University of Toronto

Chapter 2: A Cross-sectional Sketch of a Few Demographic Characteristics of Teachers in Canada
Jean-Guy Blais and Soundiata Diene Mansa Ouedraogo, Université de Montréal

Chapter 3: The Discourse on Diversity in British Columbia Public Schools: From Difference to In/Difference
Marianne Jacquet, Simon Fraser University

Chapter 4: Our School Is Like the United Nationsť: An Examination of How Discourses of Diversity in Schooling Naturalizes Whiteness and White Privilege
MĂ©lanie Knight, OISE, University of Toronto

Chapter 5: Student Diversity and Schooling in Metropolitan Toronto: A Comparative Analysis of the Discourses of Anglophone and Francophone School Personnel
Diane GĂ©rin-Lajoie, OISE, University of Toronto

Chapter 6: The Social Function of the School and the Work Performed by Montreal Teachers in the Context of Quebec Student Integration Policies
Louis LeVasseur, Université Laval

Chapter 7: Marking Bodies: Globalization, Neoliberalism, and Inhabiting the Discursive Production of Outstanding Canadian Educationť
Christine Connelly, OISE, University of Toronto

Chapter 8: What Next? Official Discourse and School Reality
Diane GĂ©rin-Lajoie (Editor), OISE, University of Toronto

Features
Examines the impact of educational policies and reforms on students and teachers, and the increasing heterogeneity of the school population.

Presents critical approaches in the examination of the notion of students inclusionť in schools in different areas of Canada.

Reviewers
[This] book provides a useful contemporary snapshot of how educators think and talk about diversity in Canada. It moves beyond superficial and taken-for-granted views of the meaning of diversity to look critically at the significance of educators' descriptions of the diverse educational context in which they work, and what they do in these settings. I don't know of any other books that provide this broad an overview of the country in the area of education and diversity.ť
”Jim Ryan, Professor and Co-Director, Centre for Leadership and Diversity, Department of Theory and Policy Studies, OISE/University of Toronto

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