This study explored teacher candidates' perceptions of the potentialities and challenges associated with the integration of Aboriginal perspectives into mainstream education. Participants in this study were 2nd-year teacher candidates of a two-year teacher education programme who have completed a course on Aboriginal education. Using a qualitative…

This paper reports on a theme, the intrusion of the Traditional Western worldview, emerging from an ongoing study of the impact of teachers' engagement in the Transreform approach to the teaching and learning of mathematics on students' affective and cognitive responses to and achievement in mathematics. Newly theorized (Russell & Chernoff,…

Western cultural approaches to teaching science have excluded Indigenous knowledges and culturally favored many non-Aboriginal science students. By asking the question "What connections exist between Western science and Indigenous knowledge?" elements of epistemological (how do we determine what is real?) and ontological (what is real?)…

Offering an Indigenous perspective, this commentary discusses collaborative research, shared meaning making, and knowledge building specific to child development, and reflects on social, cultural, and historical aspects that influence these processes. Drawing upon experiences of developing a collaborative research approach with which to engage…

One explanation for our failure to close the educational gaps that separate Indigenous and non-Indigenous learners in Canada is to see it as a byproduct of mainstream pedagogy, which has ridden roughshod over the epistemic differences--different ways of knowing--that set Indigenous knowers apart from their non-Indigenous counterparts. Persons…

This paper proposes a framework for the development of culturally responsive practices in beginning teachers to meet the needs of diverse students in multicultural classrooms. The framework describes the trajectory beginning teachers undergo toward becoming culturally responsive and discusses how teacher educators in liberal arts colleges can…

One way to integrate indigenous perspectives in junior science is through links between indigenous stories of the local area and science concepts. Using local indigenous stories about landforms, a teacher of Year 8 students designed a unit on geology that catered for the diverse student population in his class. This paper reports on the…

Curriculum reforms with a focus on helping students "learn to learn" are now an established global educational phenomenon. China has been implementing such curriculum reform and this poses challenges to teachers as they need to develop new pedagogical skills and knowledge to deal with new educational demands that arise. This ethnographic…

Method-in-use (Nunn, Describing classroom interaction in intercultural curricular research and development, University of Reading, 1996, International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching 37: 23-42, 1999) is a description of the method actually being enacted through classroom interaction in a particular context. The description is…

Generally speaking, environmental education teaching, research, and practice have been informed by the traditions of western, Euro-centric culture. In this context indigenous perspectives are often marginalized, maligned, and perceived to be unscientific and therefore inferior. This essay adds to the growing body of literature exploring aboriginal…

The Swan Valley Cluster of Schools for the Make it Count project identified the professional learning of teachers as a key factor in improving the numeracy outcomes of urban Indigenous children. Two mentor teachers were assigned to support cluster teachers in planning and teaching mathematics during 2011. This paper reports on the initiative and…

This article introduces the idea of Africentric schools to the Toronto School Board as a counter alternative to promote the idea of including the myriad identities of students in the learning process. The sociological and philosophical tenets of Africentric schooling are presented under the headings of: The Afrocentric Idea; Groundedness in the…

This paper reports on a study exploring ways in which five experienced teachers interpreted and responded to a curricular initiative in Alberta calling for teachers to help students see social studies through multiple perspective lenses representing Aboriginal (and Francophone) communities. Over the course of the study, which focused primarily on…

The goal of implementing a culture-based curriculum that draws upon indigenous knowledge, traditions, and language is currently in competition with demands placed on schools by high stakes educational reform to implement a standards-based curriculum in schools. Though often left out of the policy conversation, Native teachers in particular have…

Over-reliance on prescriptive pedagogies, such as explicit instruction, could hamper students with learning difficulties from sense-making and thus limit their acquisition of conceptual understanding. To help them in constructing mathematical knowledge, manipulative and drawing could be used to solve problems in a meaningful context. Using a case…