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As the world went into a swift lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sending individuals to their homes and shutting businesses and institutions, the closing of schools posed big problems. The majority of the world’s children were out of school leading to the largest period of school closures in history. We saw educators turning towards responses, not aimed at collegial and community-engaged strategies for education in an emergency but to online learning cast as education/business as usual. This study explores the logic driving this global response through the policy papers released by three key global education actors: 1) the OECD and its paper A Framework to Guide Education Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020; 2) UNESCO’s Global Education Coalition #LearningNeverStops; and 3) the World Bank’s Guidance Note on Education System’s Response to COVID-19; and Guidance Note: Remote Learning and Covid 19. We draw on Bacchi’s post-structural policy analysis to make visible the key concepts and binaries used within policy texts and to understand the technologies of saving that were invoked in each policy response, locating the education programs, activities and actors within knowledge practices in educational reform. This article explores the World Bank, OECD, and UNESCO responses using an analysis of knowledge harmonization and difference among these institutions as well as their location as key norm setters and governing actors in the field of education.

© 2018 Elsevier Ltd Basic numerical skills provide an important foundation for the learning of mathematics. Thus, it is critical that researchers and educators have access to valid and reliable ways of assessing young children's numerical skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the concurrent, predictive, and incremental validity of a two-minute paper-and-pencil measure of children's symbolic (Arabic numerals) and non-symbolic (dot arrays) comparison skills. A sample of kindergarten children (Mage = 5.86, N = 439) were assessed on the measure along with a number line estimation task, a measure of arithmetic, and several control measures. Results indicated that performance on the symbolic comparison task explained unique variance in children's arithmetic performance in kindergarten. Longitudinal analyses demonstrated that both symbolic comparison and number line estimation in kindergarten were independent predictors of 1st grade mathematics achievement. However, only symbolic comparison remained a unique predictor once language skills and processing speed were taken into account. These results suggest that a two-minute paper-and-pencil measure of children's symbolic number comparison is a reliable predictor of children's early mathematics performance.

There are a growing number of older adults with age-related vision loss (ARVL) for whom technology holds promise in supporting their engagement in daily activities. Despite the growing presence of technologies intended to support older adults with ARVL, there remains high rates of abandonment. This phenomenon of technology abandonment may be partly explained by the concept of self-image, meaning that older adults with ARVL avoid the use of particular technologies due to an underlying fear that use of such technologies may mark them as objects of pity, ridicule, and/or stigmatization. In response to this, the proposed study aims to understand how the decision-making processes of older adults with ARVL, as it relates to technology adoption, are influenced by the negotiation of identity. The study protocol will justify the need for this critical ethnographic study; unpack the theoretical underpinnings of this work; detail the sampling/recruitment strategy; and describe the methods which included a home tour, go-along, and semistructured in-depth interview, as well as the collective approach taken to analyze the data. The protocol concludes by examining the ethical tensions associated with this study, including a focus on the methods adopted as well as the ethical challenges inherent when working with an older adult population experiencing vision loss.

BACKGROUND: Teaching is an important professional role for most faculty members in academic health sciences centres. Careful delineation of educational workload is needed to foster and reward teaching efforts, and to facilitate equitable allocation of resources. AIMS: To promote recognition in teaching and facilitate equitable resource allocation, we developed, piloted, and qualitatively assessed a tool for delineating the educational workload of pediatric faculty in an academic health sciences centre. METHODS: A prototype educational workload measurement tool was developed. Between 2002 and 2004, three successive phases of pilot implementation were conducted to (1) assess the face validity of the tool, (2) assess its feasibility, and (3) develop and assess the feasibility of a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) version. Participants were interviewed regarding strengths, weaknesses, and barriers to completion. Data were analyzed for recurrent themes. RESULTS: Faculty found that the tool was usable and represented a broad range of educational activities. The PDA format was easier to use and better received. Technical support would be imperative for long-term implementation. The greatest barriers to implementation were skepticism about the purpose of the tool and concerns that it would promote quantity over quality of teaching. CONCLUSION: We developed a usable tool to capture data on the diverse educational workload of pediatric faculty. PDA technology can be used to facilitate collection of workload data. Faculty skepticism is an important barrier that should be addressed in future work.

A striking feature of psychosis is its heterogeneity. Presentations of psychosis vary from transient symptoms with no functional consequence in the general population to a tenacious illness at the other extreme, with a wide range of variable trajectories in between. Even among patients with schizophrenia, who are diagnosed on the basis of persistent deterioration, marked variation is seen in response to treatment, frequency of relapses and degree of eventual recovery. Existing theoretical accounts of psychosis focus almost exclusively on how symptoms are initially formed, with much less emphasis on explaining their variable course. In this review, I present an account that links several existing notions of the biology of psychosis with the variant clinical trajectories. My aim is to incorporate perspectives of systems neuroscience in a staging framework to explain the individual variations in illness course that follow the onset of psychosis.

With the implementation of mandatory reporting of all immunizations in the Northwest Territories (NWT) in 2012, the Department of Health and Social Services’ (DHSS) Disease Registry Unit was working toward the implementation of a new immunization registry similar to those implemented across the country. However, the current immunization registry was in the format of an Excel workbook. The DHSS noticed several issues with the quality of the data maintained in the spreadsheets. As part of Janet’s practicum, she conducted an audit of the immunizations for the cohort of children born between 2012 and 2014, inclusive, within the registry. Community health centres are required to submit immunizations they have administered via a monthly spreadsheet. The Disease Registry team then validates and cleans the information submitted and consolidates all the data into the immunization registry on one master Excel workbook. It is important to note that the original data submitted to the DHSS from the health centres is only added to the immunization registry after the Disease Registries Officer has confirmed that the data are clean. To assess the validity and reliability of the data, the community health centres were contacted and asked to submit all paper immunization records for children in this cohort, which were then entered into another spreadsheet. The cohort spreadsheet and the immunization registry were compared to determine the number of errors across various variables. To summarize, the audit was a comparison of the original community spreadsheet submitted to the DHSS with the paper immunization cards, which Janet entered into a separate spreadsheet to easily compare the two datasets.

The aim of this study was to determine the effect of reducing the number of image guidance sessions and patient-specific target margins on the dose distribution in the treatment of prostate cancer with helical tomotherapy. 20 patients with prostate cancer who were treated with helical tomotherapy using daily megavoltage CT (MVCT) imaging before treatment served as the study population. The average geometric shifts applied for set-up corrections, as a result of co-registration of MVCT and planning kilovoltage CT studies over an increasing number of image guidance sessions, were determined. Simulation of the consequences of various imaging scenarios on the dose distribution was performed for two patients with different patterns of interfraction changes in anatomy. Our analysis of the daily set-up correction shifts for 20 prostate cancer patients suggests that the use of four fractions would result in a population average shift that was within 1 mm of the average obtained from the data accumulated over all daily MVCT sessions. Simulation of a scenario in which imaging sessions are performed at a reduced frequency and the planning target volume margin is adapted provided significantly better sparing of organs at risk, with acceptable reproducibility of dose delivery to the clinical target volume. Our results indicate that four MVCT sessions on helical tomotherapy are sufficient to provide information for the creation of personalised target margins and the establishment of the new reference position that accounts for the systematic error. This simplified approach reduces overall treatment session time and decreases the imaging dose to the patient.

Minority groups, such as Indigenous peoples, people with disabilities, and people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB), are more likely to experience victimization. To date, most scholars have drawn on the lifestyles and routine activities frameworks to explain victimization patterns. A key issue with these approaches is that they tend to explain victimization through the behaviours and lifestyles of victims, thus taking the motivation of offenders for granted and contributing to an ideology of victim-blaming. This study explores whether minority groups are at an elevated risk of victimization, regardless of their lifestyles or routine activities. This paper also investigates intersectional disadvantage by analyzing the interaction effects of gender and other minority identities on the risk of victimization. Using data from the 2014 Victimization cycle of the General Social Survey, this paper finds that Indigenous peoples and those with disabilities are more likely to be victims of crime, net of lifestyle and routine activities factors, like education, income, employment, marital status, area of residence, alcohol and drug consumption, childhood maltreatment, and evenings spent outside the home. These findings bring the lifestyles and routine activities frameworks into question, suggesting that these minority groups are suitable targets because of their marginalized identities rather than their lifestyles.

Decolonization, equity, and well-being in K-12 education have become pivotal aims for educational leaders in the province of British Columbia, in Canada, and around the globe. By dismantling coloniality in pedagogical praxes and learning leadership structures within school and district systems, this paper maps a bold and essential journey for change and presents a disruptively anti-colonial amalgam of theory and practice for well-being and equity. In the central Problem of Practice, these complex system leadership goals are investigated through the case of a small and innovative BC school district. Learners—both student and adult—are at the centre of this powerful vision for educational transformation as empowered community change makers, and as beneficiaries of anti-colonial, equitable, and flourishing learning environments articulated in the plan for change. The wisdom of Indigenous and critically oriented epistemologies undergird action. Complex Adaptive Systems organizational theory supports emergence, responsivity, and interconnectedness. Leadership lenses of adaptive leadership are deepened by decoloniality, relationality, and systems thinking. Compassionate Systems Leadership and collaborative inquiry grow capacity for change hand in hand with students, parents, Elders, Indigenous families, community, teachers, and school and district leaders. Well-being and human flourishing are cultivated through networked collaboration, relational accountability, and systemness. These transformative elements cradle a coherent change vision, support solutions, and ultimately embrace an anti-colonial plan for system change focused on decolonizing pedagogy and learning leadership structures. This paper presents vision and action for collective difference-making, so critical for education now—and for a sustainable future. Transforming together is powerful alchemy.

School disengagement is a significant problem experienced by many students and may be an indicator of or resultant from underlying difficulties. Indeed, the first onset of mental health difficulties typically occurs during childhood and adolescence. Utilizing large clinically referred samples of elementary and secondary school students at intake into community and inpatient mental health service agencies across the Province of Ontario, Canada, school disengagement was explored as associated with physical and mental health as well as peer and familial relationships, other and self-directed harm, and service intensity need. Age and sex differences were explored across studies to inform the development and implementation of targetted prevention and intervention programs for promoting school engagement and circumventing life-long consequences across the lifespan. Findings from the first paper indicated that physical and mental health distress were associated with school disengagement, while individual and relational strengths were associated with school engagement among clinically referred elementary and secondary students. Distinct predictive profiles of school disengagement were revealed for school-age children (ages 4 to 11 years) and youth (ages 12 to 18 years). Results from the second paper indicated that school disengagement was strongly associated with other- and self-directed harm among clinically referred elementary and secondary students. Notably, male youth were more likely to be at risk for harm to others, while female youth were more likely to be at risk for harm to self. Findings from the third paper indicated that students who are disengaged in school are two to four times more likely in odds to require high-intensity as compared to low-intensity services at intake into clinical services. Although service intensity need tended to decrease across development, this relationship was more stable for male students as compared to female students. Taken together, findings across the three papers highlight the necessity for early identification of student distress and provision of timely access to intervention. Further, the requirement of service integration across sectors working directly with students and their families is underlined. When school engagement problems are identified early, both immediate and long-term consequences, such as the manifestation of acute distress requiring crisis supports, can be prevented.

This paper examines the differences of educational attainment levels of adult children of immigrants. Our research question is: What are the educational attainment differences among children of immigrants? Additionally, do educational attainment differences across generational status vary by gender and race? We use the 2016 Census public file from Statistics Canada, and estimate linear regression models to examine education levels. Our data supports optimism theory, and does not support straight-line and accommodation/selective assimilation theory. Our data also finds that third-generation females have higher education compared to third-generation males. Furthermore, we find that third-generation Asian’s have an advantage in education, while third-generation Black’s and Latin American’s experience a disadvantage in education.

Existing research that has been conducted on telephone and internet voting in Canada has focussed almost exclusively on large, urban municipalities. Yet in Ontario, local governments of all sizes have adopted these modes of voting. As a result, very little is known about the effects of telephone and internet voting in rural municipalities and this is problematic. This paper attempts to address this gap in the literature by examining telephone and internet voting in the context of rural municipalities in Ontario. It relies on a qualitative multi-case cross-sectional design to generate exploratory findings on the effects that the adoption of telephone and internet voting has on election administration in rural Ontario municipalities. The data are drawn from semi-structured interviews held with key election administration staff within two rural municipalities in Ontario and are compared using interpretive methods. Analysis of the data suggests that there are nine different themes present in the experiences of rural municipalities. Each of these themes is treated as a different effect of adopting telephone and internet voting, and overall the findings suggest that the adoption of telephone and internet voting has tended to be a positive experience for election administrators in rural municipalities in Ontario.

While there is an abundance of literature on the labour outcomes of immigrants, there is limited research on the earnings of former international students. This study uses the 2016 census to compare the earnings of new labour market entrants who were international students, and are now permanent residents, to those of domestic students and foreign-educated immigrants in London, Ontario. The results found that former international students had slightly lower earnings than domestic students, despite being more likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree, have studied a STEM field, and be working in a NOC skill level A occupation. Former international students fared considerably better than the foreign-educated group. This study illustrates that further efforts should be made to ensure the successful transition of international students to the workforce once they have completed their studies. This paper is significant in that it contributes to the literature on international students’ labour outcomes, which is integral in a country and city that heavily rely on international student enrolment.

Introduction Rwanda healthcare insurance coverage aims to help Rwandans with access to healthcare. However, some individuals face difficulties with obtaining healthcare insurance. This paper provides a critical analysis of policy factors hindering the attainment of total coverage. Methods A critical policy analysis framework devised from discourse theories by Taylor informed this paper. Results This paper illustrates the context and antecedents associated with the issue of uninsuredindividuals. The paper highlighted competing factors and discourses contributing to persistent gap in healthcare insurance coverage in Rwanda. An example of factors is a limited income of individuals assigned to the second Ubudehe category. It further identifies the nature of the issue and corresponding economic and social consequences, along with priority action steps required to attain total healthcare coverage. Conclusion To address the issue of uninsured individuals, the Government of Rwanda should target segments of population with the lowest rates of coverage, regardless of their income. ________________________________________________________________________ Keywords : Rwanda, Healthcare coverage, uninsured, Ubudehe category

Objectives To synthesise evidence on the acceptable identification and initial response to children’s exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV) from the perspectives of providers and recipients of healthcare and social services. Design We conducted a thematic synthesis of qualitative research, appraised the included studies with the modified Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist and undertook a sensitivity analysis of the studies scored above 15. Data sources We searched eight electronic databases, checked references and citations and contacted authors of the included studies. Eligibility criteria We included qualitative studies with children, parents and providers of healthcare or social services about their experiences of identification or initial responses to children’s exposure to IPV. Papers that have not been peer-reviewed were excluded as well as non-English papers. Results Searches identified 2039 records; 11 studies met inclusion criteria. Integrated perspectives of 42 children, 212 mothers and 251 professionals showed that sufficient training and support for professionals, good patient-professional relationship and supportive environment for patient/clients need to be in place before enquiry/disclosure of children’s exposure to IPV should occur. Providers and recipients of care favour a phased enquiry about IPV initiated by healthcare professionals, which focuses on ‘safety at home’ and is integrated into the context of the consultation or visit. Participants agreed that an acceptable initial response prioritises child safety and includes emotional support, education about IPV and signposting to IPV services. Participants had conflicting perspectives on what constitutes acceptable engagement with children and management of safety. Sensitivity analysis produced similar results. Conclusions Healthcare and social service professionals should receive sufficient training and ongoing individual and system-level support to provide acceptable identification of and initial response to children’s exposure to IPV. Ideal identification and responses should use a phased approach to enquiry and the WHO Listen, Inquire about needs and concerns, Validate, Enhance safety and Support principles integrated into a trauma-informed and violence-informed model of care.

Collaborative partnerships are critical to achieving health equity. As such, it is important to understand what contributes to the success of such partnerships. This paper describes the Alaska Fourth R collaborative, a multisectoral group of agencies (including education, health and human services, the violence against women sector, the governor’s council on domestic violence, and an external evaluator) that successfully planned, implemented and evaluated a multi-focus health education program statewide. The purpose of this paper was to explore the ways in which seven pre-identified factors contributed to the successful achievement of the collaborative’s goals. This project was grounded in community-based research principles, and collectively, the group chose to use Roussos and Fawcett’s (2000) seven-factor model as the basis for the project. Using this model as a guide, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five leaders from the key organizations in the collaborative. In interviews, stakeholders described how each of the seven factors functioned in the Alaska collaborative to contribute to project success, with a particular focus on the critical role of relationships. Three specific relationship facets emerged as cross-cutting themes: flexibility, transparency, and prioritization. In sum, taking the time to build deep and authentic relationships, and then developing a shared vision and mission within the context of relationships that are flexible, transparent and prioritized, provided a strong foundation for future success in this collaborative.

As costs rise, the Ministry of Education and school boards have cut costs by closing schools. The social fabric and economic growth of rural areas are negatively affected by school closures. On the basis of an examination of recent school closure processes in the Upper Canada District School Board in eastern Ontario, this paper recommends explicit incorporation of economic impacts in closure studies, reform to the distribution of provincial education funding, and greater public engagement.

Though the topic of student transition into the culture and practices of higher education has been the subject of considerable investigation by scholars, the transition literature has been largely silent on the epistemological challenges that new students face in the context of the university classroom. The purpose of this paper is to look at student transition from this unique perspective. The paper reviews recent empirical research in the area of “personal epistemology,” which establishes the facts regarding what students actually believe about knowledge and knowing as they enter university. The paper also provides an analysis of the epistemological beliefs of university teachers, and the influence that these beliefs have on the teachers’ educational practice. A key issue discussed here is the conflict between students’ conception of knowledge (as certain and possessed by authorities) and their teachers’ conception of knowledge (as something constructed through a process of evidential inquiry). Finally, the impact of this epistemological conflict on students’ ability to make sense out of, and find their place in, the new and different learning environment of the university is considered. Bien que le sujet de la transition des étudiants dans la culture et la pratique de l’enseignement supérieur ait fait l’objet de nombreuses analyses de la part de chercheurs universitaires, la documentation sur la transition est en grande partie muette sur les défis épistémologiques auxquels les nouveaux étudiants font face dans le contexte de la salle de classe universitaire. L’objectif de cet article est d’examiner la transition des étudiants à partir de cette perspective unique. Dans cet article, nous examinons la recherche empirique récente effectuée dans le domaine de « l’épistémologie personnelle », qui établit les faits en ce qui concerne ce que les étudiants pensent réellement concernant la connaissance et l’utilisation de la connaissance alors qu’ils font leur entrée à l’université. L’article présente également une analyse des croyances épistémologiques des professeurs d’université ainsi que l’influence que ces croyances ont sur la pratique éducationnelle de ces professeurs. Une question clé discutée dans cet article est le conflit entre la conception qu’ont les étudiants de la connaissance (quelque chose de certain que les autorités possèdent) et la conception de la connaissance qu’ont leurs professeurs (quelque chose qui se construit grâce à un processus d’enquête probante). Pour finir, l’article examine également l’impact de ce conflit épistémologique sur l’aptitude des étudiants à donner du sens et à trouver leur place dans leur nouvel environnement d’apprentissage si différent qu’est l’université.

This paper examines the experiences of visible minority women in leadership roles. Gender and ethnicity intersect to shape the experiences of work and family for minority women. Although participants identified several advantages associated with being visible minority women in the labour force, they also identified several challenges; most notably their career pursuits conflicted with ethno-cultural and gender norms surrounding the maternal role. These expectations hindered career development needed to fulfill leadership positions in the workplace. Nevertheless all women in this study held leadership positions, and they discussed the personal strategies and organizational accommodations that contributed to their success. These visible minority women call attention to the significance of organizational policies and programs for opening up opportunities for minority women in leadership positions.

Poster Presentation This paper engages with the theme of transnational care and responsibility by examining the different ways an international student migrant undertakes ‘doing family’ with their ‘traditional family at home, their siblings and with their friends in ‘host’ country. ‘Doing family’ like ‘doing gender’ involves a construction that is reproduced through repeated performances. The process and performance of doing family is cast against the idea of the ‘naturally’ existing set of relations. The discussion draws on 14 months of fieldwork in Toronto, Canada and New Delhi, India. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 65 respondents: 22 Indian international students studying at universities and colleges in Toronto, 23 family members/parents and 20 return international students in New Delhi. I mounted an online survey to facilitate data collection on the socio-economic background and educational profiles of the past and present students and their families. This paper draws on the interviews and ethnographic research in Toronto and New Delhi. The findings reveal that ‘doing family’ in the transnational context involves the interaction of different groups and individuals – some who would be defined as family in traditional models (parents, siblings) and others who would not (friends). It is a reciprocal process to which all members have to contribute and also receive from the relationship through activities of ‘caring’, ‘supporting’, and feeling responsible for anothers mental and physical well-being. Technology plays an important role in enabling migrants to be able to perform of the activities from afar with the same ease as they did when they were closer to their parents/siblings ‘at home’.

This paper examines the relationship between online voting and voter turnout rates in Ontario municipalities. It uses a longitudinal research design to collect election data from municipalities that used online voting for the first time in 2014, which is compared to election data from the 2010 Ontario municipal elections, and it also uses a survey that was administered to the Clerks Department of randomly selected municipalities. The findings reveal a statistically proven relationship between online voting and increased voter turnout in Ontario municipalities.

This paper examines the local impact of university satellite campuses by focusing on the factors that motivate municipalities to pursue a satellite campus and the benefits they intend to realize with these developments. It uses four case studies – Laurier Brantford, Lakehead Orillia, McMaster Burlington, and University of Waterloo Stratford – as well as a diverse range of literature to gain further insight on the motivations and expected benefits that municipalities seek to accomplish. The findings reveal that municipalities pursue university satellite campuses as a form of development policy, with the expected benefits far exceeding the perceived costs to the community. Furthermore, while all the municipalities in the study view satellite campuses as a valuable investment, the benefits they intend to seek from the establishment differ.

The current paper’s aim is to facilitate the understanding of how cultural norms embodied by society can have incontrovertible effects on the mental health of those who do not conform. Embedded cultural terms of masculinity and femininity remain cognizant in a way which recognizes that these terms are simply created by culture. Internalized homo-negativity studies conclude that internalized homo-negativity is correlated with severe depression on all three clinical scales of depression, overall sexual health, psychosexual maturation, comfort with sexual orientation, peer socialization, comfort with sexual acts and social integration. Narcissistic tendencies in male homosexuals were found to be significantly correlated with homosexuality when considering the Rorschach Reflection scale. Eating disorders were found to be highly correlated with body dissatisfaction, which were more prevalent among homosexuals, where femininity was found to not significantly contribute to body dissatisfaction. Furthermore body dissatisfaction among heterosexuals and homosexuals was found to be related to high body mass index, high pressure from society and peers, low masculinity and from perceived societal and peer pressure due to sexual orientation. Studies investigating suicide attempt prevalence among homosexuals in the United States concluded that those who attempted suicide felt more victimized by peers and society, physically and verbally, and acknowledged more mental health problems. In conclusion, the significance of this paper is to contribute to the understanding, and by extension reconstruction of oppressive attitudes and behaviours towards homosexuals.

This paper presents findings from a study of three Zimbabwean science teachers who participated in the Science Education In-service Teacher Training (SEITT) program. At the turn of the century, the SEITT program was designed to develop science and mathematics teachers into expert masters and resource teachers for Zimbabwe’s ten school districts. The study investigated the successes and challenges faced by the three teachers who were in the process of reforming their pedagogical practices as well as writing and using contextualized science curriculum materials to teach secondary science. Data were collected through telephone interviews. The three teachers reported that the SEITT program helped them to transform their practice as well as that of their peers. They also reported that changing their teaching methods motivated learners to actively participate and this change also resulted in improved teacher efficacy. The paper discusses implications for improving science teaching and suggestions for contextualizing the science curriculum in developing countries.

This study aimed to shed light on the early phase of implementation of India’s landmark Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act), effective as of April 2010, with special attention on the role of the private sector (i.e. private unaided schools). This working paper reports on the household- and school-level results of a larger project conducted in a Delhi slum. Data in this working paper were collected between June 2011 and April 2012 by a survey of 290 households in the selected slum area, semi-structured interviews with a sub-sample of 40 households, semi-structured interviews with principals from the seven most accessed schools in the survey sample, and documentary analysis of offi cial documents including draft versions of preceding RTE bills, the fi nal Act, Central Government model rules, Delhi rules, and associated government orders and notices. We report results on the implementation and mediation processes in schools; experiences of households accessing schooling under the RTE Act, with a focus on their ability to access free school places under the 25 percent free seats provision; and household and school understandings of the Act and its provisions. Results indicate a considerable gap between the offi cial articulation of the Act’s provisions and its implementation in practice by schools in the study. Data also expose that fee-free “freeship” private education for households in the study, was not a reality in the early phase of the RTE Act’s implementation. While the focus of our study was on the private sector and the 25 percent free seats provision, our investigation showed that this was just one facet, albeit important, of the Act. In fact, the Act necessitates fundamental changes, procedural and conceptual, to education as a whole.

While traditionally American fair use has been thought of as broader in scope than Canadian fair dealing, I claim that in 2013 this is no longer the case. I further argue that educational administrators and academic and library associations in Canada have yet to take full advantage of this expansion of users’ rights.In Part I I give a brief and general overview of copyright in Canada and the United States. In Part II I compare the legislation and jurisprudence specifically with respect to fair dealing and fair use, using the fairness factors as a guide. Specifically, this part will examine differences with respect to the fairness factors in general, transformativity, amount and substantiality, market harm and licences, and institutional practice and policy. Part III is a discussion of the advocacy efforts of Canadian and American educational and library professional associations and the development of best practices and guidelines. I conclude that colleges and universities in Canada may now confidently develop copyright policies that reflect the rights of users, but educational administrators and associations in Canada are lagging behind their American counterparts in leveraging this opportunity.This paper was presented as a work-in-progress at the IP Scholars Conference, Cardozo Law School, New York (9 August 2013).

PurposeThe aim of the paper is to argue that principal preparation programs should help candidates: recognize the political role of the school principal; develop political skills (including the ability to strategically appropriate policy); and understand that the political approach of the principal influences teaching, learning, relationships, governance, and reform efforts. In addition, the paper reports findings of the analysis of Ontario's Principal Qualification Program guidelines to determine if they require principal preparation programs to develop aspiring school leaders’ political skills.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews theoretical arguments and empirical studies from the fields of school micropolitics, business, educational leadership, and critical policy studies to establish five political skills principals require. The authors then conducted a content analysis of Ontario's Principal Qualification Program guidelines to determine if they require principal preparation programs to develop aspiring leaders’ political skills.FindingsOntario's Principal Qualification Program guidelines do not explicitly direct principal preparation programs to help candidates develop political skills. However, the guidelines recognize that principals pursue political goals and work in political environments, and they offer opportunities for appropriating the guidelines in ways that promote the development of principal candidates’ political skills.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to analyze Ontario's Principal Qualification Program guidelines to determine if they require principal preparation programs to develop aspiring leaders’ political skills. It also identifies policy appropriation as a political skill that should be developed in principal preparation programs and provides a model of how principal preparation policies themselves may be appropriated to support a focus on developing aspiring principals’ political skills.

This paper discusses the new trend in Chinese higher education reform -tuition reform. To meet the needs of the new market economy which was started in the early 1980s, Chinese higher education is abandoning the old free tuition system. This paper provides a historical review of the tuition system in Chinese higher education by examining the two historical periods: the planned economy period and the market-oriented economy period. An analysis of the 1995 tuition reform is given by using two analytical frameworks: State-centred and citizen-centred frameworks. The paper also discusses the contradiction between the tuition reform and some current policies, and the impact of the tuition reform on Chinese youth's ideas, on higher education, on primary education, and on secondary education.

Objective. To assess whether Indigenous Australians age prematurely compared with other Australians, as implied by Australian Government aged care policy, which uses age 50 years and over for population-based planning for Indigenous people compared with 70 years for non-indigenous people. Methods. Cross-sectional analysis of aged care assessment, hospital and health survey data comparing Indigenous and non-indigenous age-specific prevalence of health conditions. Analysis of life tables for Indigenous and non-indigenous populations comparing life expectancy at different ages. Results. At age 63 for women and age 65 for men, Indigenous people had the same life expectancy as non-indigenous people at age 70. There is no consistent pattern of a 20-year lead in age-specific prevalence of age-associated conditions for Indigenous compared with other Australians. There is high prevalence from middle-age onwards of some conditions, particularly diabetes (type unspecified), but there is little or no lead for others. Conclusion. The idea that Indigenous people age prematurely is not well supported by this study of a series of discrete conditions. The current focus and type of services provided by the aged care sector may not be the best way to respond to the excessive burden of chronic disease and disability of middle-aged Indigenous people. What is known about the topic? The empirical basis for the Australian Government’s use of age 50 for Indigenous aged care planning, compared to age 70 for the non-indigenous population, is not well established. It is not clear whether Indigenous people’s poorer health outcomes and lower life expectancy are associated with premature ageing. What does this paper add? This paper compares Indigenous and non-indigenous life expectancy and prevalence of health conditions. Only some conditions associated with ageing appear to affect Indigenous people earlier than other Australians. The proposition of premature ageing based on this explanatory framework is uncertain. The estimated gap between Indigenous and non-indigenous life expectancy in later life is ~6 years. What are the implications for practitioners? The current rationale for using a lower Indigenous planning age is problematic; however, further research is required to assess the effectiveness of this policy measure. The much higher prevalence of preventable chronic conditions among Indigenous Australians in middle-age groups is clear. The ‘early ageing’ frame can imply irremediable disability and disease. The aged care sector may be filling gaps in other services. The community care services for this group require a more tailored approach than simply lowering the planning age for aged care services.

This paper provides a historical review of the education system in Canada and its impact on Indigenous women. By doing so, I hope to address the inequities that surround current educational policies and practices. Also in this paper, I critically investigate the salient aspects of the educational experiences of the women in a contemporary context, with their voices and experiences at the forefront, thereby challenging all of us to envision a formal education system that creates space in which women of Aboriginal ancestry are treated fairly and equitably.

Recent research on problem solving explores its potential as a pedagogical practice. This emphasis rejuvenates the interest in problem solving as a learning activity. This paper presents the practice of using a selected problem together with its variants in a single lesson. The practice was implemented in middle school classroom settings with gifted students and with mixed ability students as well as in teacher education classrooms. Experiences from practice are used to illustrate that the use of a set of closely related problems is likely to make students more eager to share their solutions, to generate several solution strategies, and to show various connections among the ideas involved. The shift toward exploring multiple math strategies and representations, and big ideas is at the center of innovative and successful approaches to teaching mathematics. The paper is guided by an evaluation of literature that considers teaching through problem solving and of literature on complex professional tasks.

Significant effort has been made in improving global health care over the last several decades, however, there had been a lack of consistency in the delivery of care. This includes a lack of access to safe and affordable surgery and comprehensive care in low- and middle-income countries. Health care organizations require that medical providers are equipped with the highest quality of medical education programs to enhance the provision of patient care. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) examines a global, medical mission-based, Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), that provides highly specialized surgery and comprehensive care locally and internationally through medical volunteers. The Problem of Practice (PoP) discussed is the lack of consistency in the design, development, delivery, and evaluation of medical education curriculum at the organization. A systems theory approach through the lens of authentic and transformational leadership to address the PoP is presented, including the introduction of a global medical education strategy through the implementation of global curriculum standards. Evidence-based, best practices such as balancing both local and global education requirements, a framework as opposed to a prescriptive approach to implementing global medical education, and the importance of competency-based medical education are examined. The OIP incorporates the application of Kotter’s eight-step process for leading change, Kaplan and Norton’s balanced scorecard to monitor and evaluate change efforts, and Klein’s management strategy for developing a robust communication plan. Ethics, equity, and social justice to improve patient outcomes through medical education is woven throughout, and the paper concludes with next steps and future considerations.

Education systems are the formal institutionalisations of the knowledges and values our societies privilege, who they privilege, how, and on what terms. They are imbued with assumptions. These assumptions inform how systems are structured. The pandemic has exposed existing global and local inequalities, non-binary dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, and dysfunctions of education systems. This paper argues that the global scale and severity of the education disruption challenges taken-for-granted distinctions that privilege systems of the ‘West’ as referential for ‘the Rest’. It argues that the existing overarching technicist knowledge regime is inadequate for recovery, and proposes an alternative approach.

Using data from the 2002 Ethnic Diversity Survey (EDS), this paper compares fertility behavior across four groups of generations: recent and long-term immigrants of 1st generation, plus second and third generations. Several important findings emerge from this study: First, consistent with previous studies, we have documented higher current fertility among recent immigrants, but childbearing is lowest in the second generation. Second, although cumulative fertility tends to be significantly higher among long-term immigrants than recent immigrants, it becomes more similar to that of second and successive generations after adjusting for socio-demographic composition. This suggests that it is not generation per se, but compositional characteristics associated with generation groups that underlie fertility differentials. It can be argued that differences in the fertility patterns of long-term immigrants in Canada are likely to diminish as their socio-economic and cultural characteristics converge to those of the Canadian-born. This study also documents ethnic minority and age at arrival differences, suggesting higher fertility for those who are less acculturated or assimilated into the society.

This paper explores the need for innovative leadership in teacher education in the Canadian context, with a particular call for renewed professional development of current teachers. Within a country defined as multicultural, recent demographic shifts, interregional migration, growing ethnic diversity, and the emergence of a paradigm of inclusion, contemporary classrooms are evolving at a pace faster than projected. While inclusive education emerged from the growth of services for children with disabilities, it is now a concept much broader than initially con-ceived. Expanded concepts of learner differences are necessitating an urgent need for leadership in redeveloping effective training for current teachers. This paper argues that ongoing professional development must be characterized by six focus areas in order to empower teachers with pragmatic skills to balance the needs of their diverse classes. The authors conclude that a first step in this process is training for administrators who lead professional development in schools.

ISSN 1918-5227 Pages 7779 Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/eei This Article is brought to you by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Exceptionality Education International by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact jspecht@uwo.ca. Recommended Citation Porath, M., & Richardson, P. (2009) Outside the Lines: Innovations in Researching Giftedness. Exceptionality Education International, 19, 77-79. Retrieved from http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/eei/vol19/iss3/2 Exceptionality Education International 2009, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 77–79 ISSN 1918-5227 77 Outside the Lines: Innovations in Researching Giftedness Guest Editors Marion Porath and Pamela Richardson The University of British Columbia This special issue focuses on the reconceptualization of giftedness. Five papers explore how we define, identify, research, and support gifts and talents. As guest editors, this has been a very exciting project. It began as a symposium at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education in 2008. Our passion for challenging the status quo, questioning what is „inside the lines‟ of current definitions of and research into giftedness, and doing so in forms that are themselves „outside the lines‟ prompted further exploration and writing. The papers highlight the possibilities of plurality in how we approach research and represent knowledge (Eisner, 1997; Shore & Friedman, 2000) both in their form and their content. In hand with this, we resist, as Cross (2003) cautioned, the “correct” conception of giftedness and instead support “understanding of the various ways people think about inquiry or research and how this relates” (p. 77) to our conceptualizations and understandings of giftedness. Present in these papers are poetic analysis; children‟s perceptions of learning identities expressed in drawings, poems, and music; narrative; metaphors; and pedagogical analysis via documentation of learning, all of which provoke thinking about research and education that promote the realization of all children‟s potential. The last two decades of the 20 th century were characterized by efforts designed to encourage the reconsideration and expansion of our definitions of giftedness to allow for the multiple ways in which one can be competent (e.g., Gardner, 1983). As we enter the 21 st century, these efforts have broadened to include „gift creation‟ rather than identification (Hymer, 2009; Hymer, Whitehead, & Huxtable, 2009); the role of the learner in defining directions for education (Hymer et al., 2009); questions about the construct of „giftedness‟ (Balchin, Hymer, & Matthews, 2009; Borland, 2003; Horowitz, Subotnik, & Matthews, 2009); and the role of the learning environment in provoking and realizing potential (Barab & Plucker, 2002; Borland, 2003; Hymer et al., 2009). Now, more attention is directed to cultural influences on valued competencies (Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2004), factors important to extraordinary competence that move “beyond knowledge” (Shavinina & Ferrari, 2004), and the role of rich, complex environments in the determination and support of competent behaviours (Barab & Plucker, 2002). Intelligence is situated in context, demanding multiple views of giftedness consonant with our pluralistic society and global community, recognition and support of “nontraditional” talents, and multiple representations of what it means to realize and understand competence. Porath and Lupart‟s paper presents gifted children‟s perceptions of themselves as readers, writers, mathematicians, and other identities of their choice (e.g., artist, athlete). These perceptions of learning identities are represented in a variety of forms, highlighting the multiple ways in

While conceptualizations of giftedness have been broadened to include many forms of giftedness, a reconceptualization of gifted programs has not followed. The paper argues that the Reggio Emilia approach to early childhood education, combining important features of the fields of early childhood education and gifted education, is a good fit for gifted young children. This approach is proposed for gifted young children because of its view of children as competent and full of po-tential, its emphasis on the development of symbolic languages early in life, and its conduciveness to higher-level thinking. The paper suggests that the Reggio ap-proach not only enhances intellectual development, but also nurtures multiple forms of knowledge representation in early childhood, thus laying foundations for diverse talent development.

The changing nature of our classrooms in terms of students’ racial population demands an understanding and validation into the different ways in which various ethnocultural and Aboriginal students respond to schools, classroom environments, curricula, and teaching strategies to ensure academic success. This paper is part of a larger study that examines literacy and diversity in relation to the educational challenges in Ontario schools. The focus of this paper is on a qualitative case study involving twenty educators. The study’s findings reveal educators’ articulations with regards to the connections between equity, diversity and multiple literacies. La nature changeante de nos salles de classe en termes de la population raciale des étudiants exige une compréhension et une validation des différentes manières auxquelles les divers étudiants ethnoculturels et indigènes répondent aux écoles, aux environnements de salle de classe, aux programmes d’études, et aux stratégies d’enseignement pour assurer le succès scolaire. Ce travail fait partie d’une étude plus large qui examine la littératie et la diversité dans les écoles ontariennes par rapport aux défis éducationnels. Le travail met l’accent sur une étude de cas qualitative impliquant vingt éducateurs. L’étude révèle les articulations des éducateurs en ce qui concerne les liens entre l’équité, la diversité et les littératies multiples.

This paper has two purposes: first of all, we examine grandmothers' role and views of child feeding practices in northern Malawi, and their influence on younger women's practices. Secondly, we consider the implications of these findings for health promotion activities and models of health education. Data were collected from semi-structured interviews, focus groups and a participatory workshop. Findings demonstrate that, to address child feeding practices which have an effect on nutrition, attention must be paid to the broader context that influences child nutrition, including extended family relations. Paternal grandmothers have a powerful and multifaceted role within the extended family in northern Malawi, both in terms of childcare and in other arenas such as agricultural practices and marital relations. Grandmothers often differ in their ideas about early child feeding from conventional Western medicine. Some practices have existed in the area at least since colonial times, and have strong cultural significance. Despite the important integrated role, older women have within households and communities in this part of Malawi, hospital personnel often have disparaging and paternalistic attitudes towards 'grannies' and their knowledge. Health education rarely involves grandmothers, and even if they are involved, their perspectives are not taken into consideration. Hospital staff often reject grandmother knowledge as part of a broader modernization paradigm which views 'traditional knowledge' as backward. Grandmothers view current child health conditions within a broader context of changing livelihood conditions and a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS. The paper concludes by discussing the challenges of involving grandmothers in health education, and the difficulties of incorporating local knowledge into a medical system that largely rejects it.

A number of different countries and states have or are in the process of developing formal or informal guidelines to govern gambling advertising and marketing of gambling. There is a growing consensus that gambling advertising should not mislead the public, be fair, provide information on the odds of wining and there should be provisions in place to protect vulnerable groups, such as, children. In the development of these guidelines by different countries or states there has been no real consideration of the need to engage with different indigenous and ethnic populations to ensure that they are protected as vulnerable populations. Further there is a need to engage with these populations within countries and across countries to ensure that indigenous and ethnic minority cultural icons, values, religious practices and music are not used without their permission or exploited in the business of promoting and marketing different forms of gambling products. New Zealand’s experience of marketing and advertising of gambling is discussed in this paper. It is outlined the development of casinos in New Zealand and how Maori were actively encouraged to participate in the opening of these establishments and therefore, legitimate their existence as a safe place for Maori, the indigenous population of New Zealand to frequent on a regular basis. Since then other ethnic minority populations have been targeted to engage in different forms of gambling by recognising their significant cultural events, importance of family events and celebrating and promoting the success of important sport role models. Gambling advertising can be direct or subtle, however, little research has focussed on the third person effect associated with gambling advertising. New Zealand has adopted a public health approach to reduce gambling related harm. One of the key strategies introduced to reduce gambling related harm has been the development and implementation of harm minimisation regulations. Research conducted in New Zealand regarding individuals’ attitudes and behaviour to gambling, highlights that Maori have a high recall of gambling advertisements alongside other ethnic populations. The paper suggests that as part of a public health approach to reduce gambling related harm that it is now timely in New Zealand, for consideration to be given as to how much exposure, if any, New Zealanders should be subjected to gambling advertising.

This paper is part of a larger study looking at the issues involved as two large urban Canadian school boards, in Winnipeg and Toronto, responded to the demands of poor, inner city areas over the last thirty years of the twentieth century. In this paper we focus our attention on the broader stage on which education policy takes place. We draw from our data three overarching themes that we believe are critical for understanding change in inner-city education over this period. These are: 1) The diminishing role of school boards, as provincial governments took more control of education policy and limited the scope of school boards, 2) The importance of unique, and sometimes unexpected local events, and 3) The powerful implications for schools and education policy of increasing population diversity in cities.

Thi s paper will explore the place of assessment in a culturally define d paradigm of inclusive education. Given the global trend towards inclusive classrooms, defi ne d by a social justice view of learner diversity, the diagnostic/prescriptive medical view of special education is becoming increasingly antiquated. What is emerging is a growing preference towards empowering the classroom teacher with the knowledge and skills to identify the authentic needs of students and to diffe rentiate instruction to respond to those needs. In a contemporary Canadian society characterized by shift ing demographics, and increasing linguistic and cultural diversity, this perspective holds particular relevance. In fact, the history of inclusive education parallels, in many ways, the history of aboriginal1 education, as typifi e d in the territory of Nunavut where a stated commitment to establishing a broader view of diversity is creating a system in which children celebrate diffe rence. Thi s paper explores the wealth of literature on this issue and establishes a Canadian context to present Nunavut’s model as being exemplary within this global debate. ISSN 1918-5227 Pages 3- 34

This paper explores the ways in which narratives of the "real world" and narratives of resistance collide in teacher preparation programs. The author suggests that in this collision acts of resistance serve to perpetuate and reproduce the very systems these acts seek to interrogate and challenge. How then does this disconnect, between very different ways of seeing and engaging with the educative process, manifest not only for ourselves, but for our students? This paper seeks to address how teachers of teachers grapple with, and even embrace, the contradictions of powerlessness and empowerment that come from the mindful engagement embedded in this path.

ISSN 1918-5227 Pages 129134 Follow this and additional works at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/eei This Article is brought to you by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Exceptionality Education International by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact jspecht@uwo.ca. Recommended Citation Kirby, J. R. (2007) Higher Education Students with Readingand Writing Difficulties. Exceptionality Education International, 17, 129-134. Retrieved from http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/eei/vol17/iss2/1 EDITORIAL SPECIAL THEME ISSUE Higher Education Students with Reading and Writing Difficulties John R. Kirby Queen’s University The papers in this special issue address research and practical issues surrounding the growing number of students in higher education with literacy difficulties. This introduction raises some of the salient issues and provides a road-map to how the issues are woven into the papers. Two factors are contributing to an increase in the number of students in higher education with difficulties in reading and writing. First, as universities and colleges raise their goals to attract a greater proportion of the population as students, more and more students who would previously have not been seen as suitable will be coming to campus. At least some of these “new” students will have lower reading and writing skills. Improved elementary and secondary education may counteract this to some extent, through improved literacy education. Second, and more central to this special issue, is the growing realization that some students with serious reading and writing difficulties, those termed reading disabled or writing disabled or learning disabled, have enormous talents that are constrained or even hidden by relatively specific difficulties with literacy. We are still coming to grips with the idea that it is no more fair, or just, to deny these latter students a place in higher education than it would be to deny a place to students with, for instance, mobility difficulties. Broadly speaking, the six papers in this issue address three overlapping themes: (a) the identification and description of the students with literacy difficulties, (b) theories about the causes and mechanisms of their difficulties, and 129 Exceptionality Education Canada 2007, Vol. 17, No. 2, pp. 129-134 (c) issues about how such students compensate with their difficulties and how institutions should accommodate them. Identification and Description Who are the students with literacy difficulties, what are they like, and how should we identify them? It is not even clear whether we should describe them as having a disability or a difficulty, the former suggesting a more permanent trait, the latter a more malleable characteristic. The traditional approach, often enshrined in law, is that learning disabled individuals must show a discrepancy between their cognitive ability (e.g., IQ) and achievement (e.g., reading scores), and that the formal assessment process should be in the hands of a certified psychologist. This can be an expensive and slow process, and is often omitted – see the results of A. Harrison, Larochette and Nichols in this issue, who point out that students without formal diagnoses are usually not eligible for special treatments or accommodations. Are the formally-identified individuals different from those who are described by teachers as having reading or writing difficulties, or for that matter, different from those who self-report having those difficulties? How, and what are the implications? Two papers in this issue explore the nature of those who describe themselves as having literacy difficulties, often in the absence of formal diagnoses: McGonnell, Parrila and Deacon, and Parrila, Georgiou and Corkett. The provocative suggestion is that self-report may be a valid way to identify reading disabled students, especially those who have compensated to some degree for their difficulties. Several of the current papers examined the issue of diversity in students with literacy difficulties. Parrila et al. and McGonnell et al. both found evidence for considerable diversity in strengths and weaknesses in students with reading difficulties. G. Harrison and Beres explored writing difficulties, a topic of central importance to many university instructors. Writing difficulties were not explored in the other papers, but we can assume that this is another dimension of variability. Each of the papers in this issue shows that individuals in higher education with current diagnoses, and those who report having had difficulty learning to read, continue to demonstrate weaknesses in various aspects of reading and writing, though the results are far from consistent. Some of the key characteristics of reading disability in children, such as phonological awareness and naming speed (Rapid Automatized Naming) are less apparent in these adults. 130 Exceptionality Education Canada, 2007, Vol. 17, No. 2 Kirby

This paper examines the impact of higher education on the management of police services in Ontario and whether education has a direct impact on the retention of officers in their police organizations. A survey administered to sworn police officers from three Ontario police services – Strathroy-Caradoc, Chatham-Kent, and the Niagara Region – was conducted. The findings reveal that officers with higher levels of education seek different career rewards and are harder to retain because they are much more willing to leave for job opportunities elsewhere.

Changes in immigration policy and legislation have the power to shape and alter the gendering of migration in significant ways, and can have a dramatic effect on the lives and relationships of the men, women and families involved. In this paper, we examine the provisions of the new Immigration Act introduced in South Africa in 2002. The Act, which replaces the outdated Aliens Control Act of 1991, gives considerable cause for concern on gender grounds. Foremost, the Act entrenches a system of male-dominated regional labour migration that has its origins in the 19th-century discovery of gold and diamonds. The male bias in the work permit and other employment-based categories along with the limits to family reunification for those entering for work are likely in effect to discriminate against women to a greater extent than men. While similar gender concerns are common to most immigration policy regimes around the world, the particular circumstances of the South African case, where both skilled and unskilled migration streams are heavily male-dominated, makes them especially acute here. This paper contextualizes migration regimes in South Africa and examines in detail the likely implications of the new Immigration Act.

In the past five years, there have been some very significant political and legal developments in relation to the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. On 1 April 1999, Nunavut emerged as a new territory in the central Arctic, under the de facto control of the Inuit residents who comprise about 85 percent of the population. The previous August, the Nisga'a Agreement was initialed in British Columbia after almost twenty-five years of negotiations. This is the first modern land-claims agreement to be signed in a province where most of the land is claimed by Aboriginal peoples by virtue of their Aboriginal title. On 7 January 1998, the Canadian government announced a new policy of reconciliation with the Aboriginal peoples, aimed at strengthening Aboriginal governance and economic development, and healing some of the wounds caused by the tragic legacy 0f the residential school system. This policy initiative was in partial response to the massive five-volume Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, released in the fall of 1996, that condemned Canada for its past treatment of the Aboriginal peoples and recommended a fundamental restructuring of the relationship based on principles of mutual recognition, respect, sharing, and responsibility. These political arrangements and policy initiatives have been matched by equally dramatic developments in the law of Aboriginal rights by the Supreme Court of Canada. In a series of important decisions, the Court has come to grips with a number of issues that it did its best to avoid in the past, involving the identification and definition of Aboriginal rights, the content of Aboriginal title to land and the requirements for proving it, and the relevance of the law of New France to Aboriginal rights today. This paper will focus on these recent developments in the law, as well as attempting to identify areas where the law of Aboriginal rights is incomplete and so requires further judicial elucidation. Constitutionalization of Aboriginal Rights and the "Integral to the Distinctive Culture" Test Prior to three decisions released by the Supreme Court in August of 1996, which are collectively known as the Van der Peer trilogy, there were no clear legal guidelines for identifying and defining Aboriginal rights. Those rights were generally known to arise from the precolonial presence of Aboriginal societies in Canada and their occupation of lands but, prior to 1996, the Court had not laid down any rules for determining which practices and traditions qualified for protection as Aboriginal rights and which did not. This matter became particularly important when Aboriginal rights were accorded constitutional protection (along with treaty rights, which will not be discussed in this paper) at the same time as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was introduced in 1982. This protection was provided by section 35(1) of the Constitution Act, 1982, which states that "The existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed." [1] The intention was to i dentify and define Aboriginal rights by political means and, possibly, by further constitutional amendment. But even though four constitutional conferences were held in the l980s to accomplish this task, the talks foundered over the issue of Aboriginal self-government. As a result, identification and definition of Aboriginal rights were relegated to the legal forum of the courts by default. [2] The Supreme Court first considered the effect of the constitutionalization of Aboriginal rights in the Sparrow case, decided in 1990. [3] In that case the right in question--the right of the Musqueam Nation in British Columbia to fish for food, societal, and ceremonial purposes--was accepted by the Court without the need to formulate a test for identification of Aboriginal rights generally. The Court focused instead on the issues of extinguishment and infringement of Aboriginal rights, holding that the rights constitutionalized in 1982 are those that were "existing" in the sense that they had not previously been extinguished by clear and plain legislation or treaty. …

This paper examines the potential for school board websites to engage the public by promoting a greater understanding of school board issues and accepting feedback and recommendations from the local community. An analysis of school board websites in Ontario was conducted to measure the effectiveness of existing websites as a method for communication. The findings reveal that until school boards provide an incentive for citizens to visit their websites on a regular basis, they will not become a strong way to connect to the community.

My thesis studies the impact of weather shocks in developing countries. Each chapter of my thesis focuses on a different outcome variable that may be affected by weather shocks: migration, agricultural GDP, and education. The first two are analyzed in the context of Eastern Africa, with data from Kenya and Tanzania, and use data spanning several decades. The third studies a specific tropical storm in Guatemala using data for several years before and after the storm. My first chapter addresses two questions: What is the inter-regional migration response to weather in Kenya and Tanzania? And does this response vary depending on geography, socio-economic factors, and the time period under consideration? Using a combination of census, satellite, and climate model data, this relationship is estimated with a gravity model of regional bilateral migration. Results show that geography is a significant and robust source of heterogeneity. A region's baseline level of aridity can change the direction of the effects of rainfall measures. Warm arid regions experience higher out-migration as a response to ideal temperatures and are also the regions that are most influenced by weather variables. Most regions show a trend of restricted migration in the short-run in response to bad weather but increased migration over longer periods of time. The spatial and temporal heterogeneity found in this chapter builds a foundation for understanding some of the contradictions found in previous literature. The next chapter uses the same climate model data as Chapter 1, as well as nighttime lights satellite data as a proxy for GDP, to study the relationship between weather shocks and agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) in Kenya and Tanzania. It focuses on finding spatial heterogeneity in the relationship to identify which areas are most sensitive to shocks and how the reactions differ by physical geography. Results show that ideal temperatures for crops cause a significant boost to TFP growth and extreme temperatures decrease TFP growth. Spatial heterogeneity exists between geographic zones. Warm arid regions have positive TFP growth after extreme rainfall conditions, warm humid regions see a decrease in output with extensive dry periods, and cool arid regions have a different reaction to temperature from other regions. The regional differences found in this chapter show that averaging weather shocks at the national level does not fully capture the relationship between weather and TFP growth. The third chapter is co-authored with Fidel Perez Macal and examines how Tropical Storm Agatha affected test scores for high school students in Guatemala. Using student and school surveys and satellite rainfall data, we match test scores for math and reading with a full set of personal and educational controls and continuous, non-linear measures of exposure to Agatha. Panel data techniques allow us to estimate this relationship while controlling for school-level fixed effects. We find that exposure to Agatha significantly reduced test scores and that the main mechanism through which this happened was health vulnerability. Agatha affected students heterogeneously, most notably for vulnerable students who suffered disproportionately and had lingering effects years after the disaster. Ultimately, this paper shows that disasters, education, health, and inequality are inextricably linked and that the true cost of a disaster is highly complex.