This article focuses on the need identified by African Canadian students for a "racial oasis" -- a physical space designed to increase their exposure to positive racial identities -- which can support them in developing a community of support among peers who understand the effects of anti-Black racism, and to identify strategies for…

This article adds to the literature on smart girlhood by exploring the topic through Karen Barad's theory of post-human performativity. We focus on the transcripts of two participants from a larger study on girls and academic success in Canada in order to highlight the material, discursive, embodied, and temporal entanglements that co-produce the…

This article offers an alternative point of view on the perspectives that large-scale literacy surveys provide on refugee women by presenting the case of Darya, a young Afghan woman who moved to Canada as a refugee in 2009. It also presents how a community-based organisation for young people addressed Darya's literacy and identity curation…

In this paper, we develop an information distortion model (IDM) of social class differences in self-beliefs and values. The IDM combines psychological biases on frame-of-reference effects with sociological foci on ability stratification. This combination is hypothesized to lead to working-class children having more positive math self-beliefs and…

Using exploratory case study to assess the learning needs of low income populations in a Canadian city, one key finding was that the majority are wounded learners from their experiences in the schooling system. Compounded by various social and economic factors, these wounds represent various forms of violence, particularly symbolic violence that…

The academic difficulties experienced by many Aboriginal (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) students in Canada have been well-documented. Indicators such as school persistence and post-secondary enrollment are typically far lower for Aboriginal students as a group compared to non-Aboriginal students. Identifying facilitators of success is key to…

Structural equation modeling of data from 4,034 Canadian adolescents yielded a factor composed of academic achievement, extracurricular reading, attitudes toward school and homework, and parental educational expectations that predicted 76% of variance in educational aspirations. Positive family climate and parental involvement fostered a positive…

Youth from single-parent families report lower educational aspirations than those from two-parent families. This study explored the influence of background factors (gender, grade, parental education and SES), parental involvement with education, academic self-concept, and peer influences on educational aspirations. The participants were Canadian…

Based on the evidence and theory that sex-role differentiation increases in salience during those later high school years as students prepare for their imminent transition into young adulthood, it was anticipated that there would be a lower orientation toward achievement among grade 12 girls than grade 10 girls, and, possibly, the opposite for…

The cross-cultural study was conducted under the assumption that intelligence is a learned phenomenon; therefore, if ethnic differences exist, they are not due to differences in intelligence but are due to differences in individual attitudes and social systems. The study was intended to explain educational and occupational aspirations and…

Presented in this document is a cross-cultural study dealing with the role of socialization, self perceptions, and achievement orientation of South Asian and Anglo Sanxon women living in Ontario, Canada. These dimensions are explored within the context of selected cultural, religious, and philosophical variables prevailing in the two cultures.…

One of a series of studies based on data collected from 1,844 eleventh and twelfth grade students in Canada examined educational and occupational aspiration levels of youth relative to selected school-related factors. Rural and suburban youth were compared. An attempt was made to assess the utility of the variables as predictors of aspiration…