We discuss an innovative course model used in first-year calculus courses at a large North American research university, which we refer to as the "Blended Model." We argue that our model takes the best features of lectures, flipped classrooms, and traditional recitations, and gathers them into a cohesive, robust structure that benefits…

This paper reports on an initial website review of Ministries of Education, provincial teacher associations and select school jurisdictions across Canada with respect to their publically available and visible policy commitments to 21st century educational reforms. This review was conducted for the purposes of drawing conclusions about the current…

Canada's positioning within global sustainable development commitments has shifted: instead of fulfilling visible leadership positions through international accords, Canada is now perceived as an environmental laggard. Against this larger political context of governmental inaction and environmental injustice, we present the results of a systematic…

Many of the policy documents and much of the recent literature talk about "leadership" when discussing the role of headteachers and principals of schools. The word is also used when writing about other senior and middle managers. It is a way of showing the difference between what used to be expected of headteachers and what is expected…

Drawing on 60 qualitative interviews with Canada research chairs (CRCs), we explore their careers in context. We develop a model to understand the intersection of individual and institutional factors that shape the everyday experiences of the CRCs. The model shows the dialectical relationship between faculty identity, research, relations with…

This paper presents the results of a study of interviews (N = 17) conducted with members of a community of practice (CP) comprised of school principals, vice principals, and department heads responsible for teacher supervision in their respective schools. This CP met once a month over the course of 2 years to work on adapting the New Brunswick…

The head of department position has been an integral role in the organisational structure of colleges and universities for over a hundred years. Recently, many institutions of higher education have called on department heads to provide advancing quality management and leadership to academic units in response to an increasingly complex and…

This paper looks at how a series of conversations contributed to the development of a newly formed role at the University of Victoria--Teaching Assistant Consultants (TACs). TACs act as departmental mentors for teaching assistants (TAs) in their respective departments, charged with providing support in the form of discipline-specific workshops…

In this article, we investigate the change forces that act on administrators, subject department chairpersons and teachers as they seek to implement a change in a Canadian secondary school. Using a case study methodology, our analysis of the data uses Sergiovanni's (1998) six change forces: bureaucratic, personal, market, professional, cultural,…

In this article we explore aspects of a dynamic university mathematics department and focus on its undergraduate mathematics programmes. We propose that such a department is vital, exhibits a culture that is mutually supportive and that faculty, teaching assistants and their supervisors, administrative staff and students all work towards a set of…

This article examines the controversy that ensued when the Education Department of the province of Ontario, Canada, granted the tender to publish elementary school readers to the T. Eaton Company, a department store, in 1909. This decision eliminated an important source of income for retail booksellers, who could not compete with the consumer…

There are countless reports stressing the economic and societal benefits to be gained from improved science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for all students. Although there is extensive research on alternative teaching methods that increase student learning and are practical to implement, the combined efforts of federal…

Explores the relationship between (Ontario) secondary-school organizational structures and implementation of legislated change initiatives. Examines the role of individuals responsible for implementing two legislated curriculum innovations: curriculum integration and performance-based assessment. Implementing whole-school or subject-based…

A 1981 report on accounting education in Ontario universities, which was prepared by a study group of the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), is presented. The objective was to advise the COU on the feasibility of establishing a professional school or faculty of accounting in one or more Ontario universities. Attention was directed to the…

The five papers in this special section explore basic middle-management issues at the secondary level in various countries, including subject leader/department heads' range of responsibilities and effects of school cultures. New training standards demand a blending of line management, accountability, leadership, followership, and collegial…