This paper presents case studies of teacher union-government relationships in three Canadian provinces -- British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta -- where teacher organizations have undertaken divergent strategic positions relative to educational reform. It identifies critical factors that may lead teacher unions to challenge government reforms,…

This paper explores the value of using a practice lens to explore how leadership happens in a rural school. I contend that examining leadership-as-practice provides an alternate means of understanding the phenomenon of rural school leadership, which transitions the focus of study away from the traits and behaviors of individual school leaders, by…

This paper presents a case narrative of a university dean who is charged with instituting change within her faculty in order to resolve the faculty's financial issues. The case narrative explores academic conceptualizations of entrepreneurship and describes the dean's context in terms of: her executive leadership team, the financial issues she was…

This case study traces the initial investigations in developing a culturally responsive intervention in museum education and curation entitled Elusive Desires. I explore the ways in which curatorial and pedagogical work in an art museum may disrupt traditionally held notions of "Canadian art," the archive, and belonging. Embracing an…

This article contends that the 'go-along' contains more technical and ontological agility as a methodology for social research than is often assumed. After distinguishing the central spectrums of technical and ontological agility rooted in different research designs and philosophical orientations, I examine how researchers can nourish it while…

To contribute to the 50th Anniversary Issue, this scholarly article will review the literature on Canadian higher education tuition fees over the past 50 years, focusing on the major theme of higher education planning, and the role higher education research has played in the policy-making environment. Examining both the French and English language…

This paper explores Ontario's international education policy landscape through illuminating the discursive struggles to define international student funding policies, in particular the international doctoral students' Trillium Scholarship. Adopting Hajer's (1993, 2006) Discourse Coalition Framework, the study engages with three research questions:…

Interest in international student identity has grown considerably over the last few years. In the context of international education, the emphasis on identity and the individual student may also be seen as an emerging response to the tendency of discussing international students and their identity-related experiences in homogenising ways. While…

This article compares and contrasts the use of mental testing and the formation of educational streaming in Denmark and Ontario during the interwar years. In this sense, the article adds nuances to the meaning of internationalism as well as contributing to our knowledge about how ideas of testing practices circulated among countries and…

This paper is based on a phenomenologically oriented exploratory case study. It focuses on Bea, one of the many fascinating individuals the author met at a unique educational site who had an invaluable impact not only on the refinement of the initial guiding question of inquiry, but also on the author as an educator and educational researcher.…

Whole system improvement--where the vast majority of schools improve--is difficult to achieve. Some jurisdictions use what turns out to be "wrong" policy drivers like testing and evaluation. Rather, success turns out to depend on changing the culture of schools and their relationship to the infrastructure of policies and regulation. I…

This article argues for a more nuanced view of mobility through education within an era of increased globalisation. We explore questions of transnational mobility through the lens of underexplored Bourdieusian concepts, specifically transnational habitus and habitus clivé. Our analysis shows how one's perception of a "better life" and…

The development of the modern nation-state was an inherently centralising process. Education policy and the institutionalisation of mass public schooling played a key role in this process, facilitating industrialisation and the generation of mass loyalty toward the state. In almost all federal systems, however, education policy remained an…

Western nations are becoming increasingly socially and ethnically diverse. National policies aim to address this diversity through policies such as multiculturalism in Canada, which promotes appreciation for cultural pluralism. However, policy rhetoric can hide social issues related to increasing diversity. Using Canada as a case study discussion,…

Worldwide, policymakers, health system managers, practitioners and researchers struggle to use evidence to improve policy and practice. There is growing recognition that this challenge relates to the complex systems in which we work. The corresponding increase in complexity-related discourse remains primarily at a theoretical level. This paper…