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Many post-secondary common book programs purport to increase a sense of community on campus. This study explored whether a common book program at a Canadian university was able to create a sense of community among students. Results indicate that in-class discussions about the book, liking the Facebook page, attending the author lecture, and watching the author lecture on YouTube had significant impact on the sense of community among those who read the book. However, the program did not create an overall effect of a sense of community among first-year university students. Implications and recommendations for common book programs are discussed.

This paper explores the potential of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), to provide new insights into community service-learning (CSL) in higher education. While CSL literature acknowledges the influences of John Dewey and Paolo Freire, discussion of the potential contribution of cultural-historical activity theory, rooted in the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky, is noticeably absent. This paper addresses this gap by examining four assumptions associated with activity theory: the rejection of a theory/practice divide, the development of knowledge as a social collaborative activity, the focus on contradictions in and across activity systems, and the interventionist approach aimed at transformation.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe how community involvement in school is associated with the social relationships existing/lacking within a bedroom community. Thirty-five interviews with school council members, teachers, and community members highlighted that traditional forms of community involvement in school generate connections between educators and community members, while the proximity of the city negatively affected the community's social cohesion. Theoretically, bonding and bridging social capital fosters trust, which enables community involvement. Implications are that traditional forms of community involvement in school are catalytic springboards for developing additional forms of community involvement in school.

In 2007 the Cancer Care Ontario Hepatobiliary-Pancreatic (HPB) Community of Practice was formed during the wake of provincial regionalization of HPB services in Ontario, Canada. Despite being conceptualized within the literature as an educational intervention, communities of practice (CoP) are increasingly being adopted in healthcare as quality improvement initiatives. A qualitative case study approach using in-depth interviews and document analysis was employed to gain insight into the perceptions and attitudes of the HPB surgeons in the CoP. This study demonstrates how an engineered formal or idealized structure of a CoP was created in tension with the natural CoPs that HPB surgeons identified with during and after their training. This tension contributed to the inactive and/or marginal participation by some of the surgeons in the CoP. The findings of this study represent a cautionary tale for such future engineering attempts in two distinct ways: (1) a CoP in surgery cannot simply be created by regulatory agencies, rather they need to be supported in a way to evolve naturally, and (2) when the concept of CoPs is co-opted by governing bodies, it does not necessarily capture the power and potential of situated learning. To ensure CoP sustainability and effectiveness, we suggest that both core and peripheral members need to be more directly involved at the inception of the COP in terms of design, organization, implementation and ongoing management.

The article uncovers the complex process of educational policy enactment and the impact this process has on teachers as policy actors as they undertake the task of introducing a new mathematics curriculum in a Canadian secondary school. The three year study based on in-depth qualitative interviews adopts a classic grounded theory approach of concurrent iterative cycles of data collection, conceptual categorisation and analytical abstraction, to identify six emergent concepts indicative of policy actor engagement with the policy process: (1) Professional and Emotional Investment; (2) Decisional Legitimacy; (3) Hierarchical Trust; (4) System Integrity and Viability; (5) De-professionalisation; and (6) Identity Safeguarding. Further, and significantly, the grounded theory analysis identifies the core concept of "Affective Disruption," conceived as an interruption to an individual's emotional equilibrium resulting from interference to their cognitive sense-making in relation to policy. It is proposed these six emergent concepts and "Affective Disruption" as a core concept are precipitated within policy actors in response to the tensions created by the process of policy enactment; the research findings moving towards what might be tentatively termed a policy social psychology.

This piece recounts personal changes I underwent while collecting data for my dissertation. Stemming from my own personal experiences of anomie and feelings of not belonging to the languages and cultures of either Canada or Israel, this inquiry examined the collusion of my attitudes with the attitudes of advanced Hebrew learners of diverse backgrounds and beliefs in a Canadian undergraduate university class. As the themes of claims and ownership of the Hebrew language emerged between clashing sub-groups in the classroom, I examined my own biases and stereotypes regarding language, and ultimately grew into a peaceful acceptance of my position between languages and cultures. (Contains 3 footnotes.)

The concept of diaspora describes the dispersal of persons from their traditional homeland, across national and cultural borders. We explore diasporic (dis)location as it disrupts and recreates teacher identity. The nomadic movement across borders in professional development is best understood through narrative; hence we examine the self-constructed narratives of three participants in a graduate class representing diverse cultural backgrounds who traced their complex and shifting teacher stories as a construct to understand the complex shifts in their identities. In a rapidly changing global migration, these narratives provide insight into the navigations and negotiations of diasporic journeys and shifting, evolving perceptions of teacher identities.

In this article, we present the results of two studies that evaluated an experiential intersectionality awareness activity, "C'est La Vie: The Game of Social Life." For Study 1 (N = 55), we content analyzed students' short answer responses about inequality written before and after playing "C'est La Vie." Study 2 compared a "C'est La Vie" treatment group (N = 179) to a lecture-as-usual control condition (N = 64). Across both studies, playing "C'est La Vie" was associated with an expanded awareness of privilege and structural inequality. Follow-up analyses with a subset of Study 2 control participants (N = 27) established that participants who were originally in the control group experienced gains in awareness of privilege and structural inequality (relative to pretest and the lecture-as-usual) only after being exposed to "C'est La Vie." The results are interpreted within the context of an intersectionality framework.

In this companion piece to the article "A Tale of Two Metaphors: Storylines About Mathematics Education in Canadian National Media" (this issue), we further explore constructed meanings through the use of positioning theory. In our examination of 71 articles in the two Canadian national newspapers ("The Globe and Mail" and "The National Post"), we focus primarily on communication acts and further our investigation into storylines and positionings concerned with mathematics education. Elaborating on aspects of two more metaphors, those of war and competition, we highlight the production of dichotomies and the shared aspect of taking sides. An investigation of the ramifications and effects that are brought to the fore in the articles we examined involves two general themes: the purpose of education and the point of mathematics education itself. We draw on David Labaree's framework identifying social efficiency and social mobility as different patterns of educational goals and highlight its parallels with the storylines in the articles we examined. The messages of the storylines feed the continued production of culturally shared narratives surrounding the purposes of mathematics education and education in general.

Public perception about mathematics education is developed and sustained by the Canadian news media. Our goal is to understand better the nature of this public discourse by identifying what is being communicated and how it is presented. We examine a data corpus of 71 online national newspaper articles (published between 2013 and 2015, a period that included the release of the 2012 Programme for International Student Assessment [PISA] results) and use text-analytic tools to analyze how meaning is conveyed in them. Drawing on the social psychological theory of positioning, which focuses on a general study of the manufacturing and management of meanings, we identify storylines, positions, and communication acts that are at play in how Canadian mathematics education is depicted. The data reveal that there are two connected core metaphors in relation to mathematics education. One posits mathematics education as being at war, whereas the second suggests that the war is over territory marked by two ways of teaching school mathematics. Along with the strategic positioning of certain individuals, we identify storylines that are problematic, conveying fictitious meanings about mathematics teaching and learning.

Social psychologists have suggested that language-based ideologies related to "stereotype threat" (i.e. variations in performance-based on ability perceptions of language groups) may affect students' academic achievement regardless of school language support. However, it is unclear whether efforts to support students' first language development, particularly for large populations of students whose primary language is not the dominant language, is sufficient for "levelling the playing field" in terms of academic achievement. We analysed subsets of data from the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study and the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment to investigate the by-country effects of officially recognised languages on reading performance. Participants represent countries with only two official languages (e.g. Canada, Israel) and primarily used one of these languages at home. Preliminary findings from hierarchical linear modelling show that the dominant official language predicts reading performance unless the minority language reflects a language internationally valued and revered by local stake holders (e.g. English in the United Arab Emirates). Implications suggest that educational resources and programmes should be sensitive to the historical context of country-specific language ideologies and related stereotypical perceptions that favour the dominant language within the school context.

The well-established socio-educational model of second language learning motivation developed by R. C. Gardner was adapted and applied to study instrumental music learning motivation. The similarities between music and language suggested that the adaptation might lead to new insights in the study of music motivation. At the heart of the proposed model is a multifaceted description of the relationships among motivation, attitudes, anxiety, support from others, perceived competence, and achievement. A sample of 107 high school band students was selected to participate in this study. Results of a path analysis of questionnaire responses indicate that the adapted and expanded socio-educational model fit very well with the present data and described key motivational structures. The key support for motivation to learn was supplied by integrativeness (an interest in taking on the characteristics of musicians, positive attitudes toward learning instruments, and an interest in music learning), plus attitudes toward the learning situation (music teacher and course). (Contains 3 notes, 1 table, and 2 figures.)

This article reports on perceptions of meritocracy and support for education-based meritocracy in 26 countries. Using the International Social Survey Program Social Inequality III (1999) survey, we investigate the impact of education on perceptions and support, at both the individual and the country level. At the individual level, education strengthens support for education-based meritocracy but has less impact on perceptions of meritocracy. National indicators are also associated with perceived and preferred meritocracy. Perceived meritocracy is correlated with the expansion of the education system, while the support for education-based meritocracy is correlated with average returns to education. We also find that perceptions and preferences may be affected by such national characteristics as inequality and the average wealth. (Contains 3 figures, 2 tables, and 19 footnotes.)

This article details a narrative inquiry journey between a novice pretenured professor and an experienced tenured professor from 2005 to 2009 to illustrate collaborative mentorship. The authors examine the importance of storied inquiry in studying mentoring and describe how their narrative journey as collaborators informed their relationship and respective understandings of the tenure process. Data were collected from written narratives, correspondence, and conversations within a mentorship program. Three dimensions of narrative inquiry are used to explore the themes of writing as nurturing the mentoring relationship and the assimilation into the academy: fear and anxiety along the tenureship path, building community and a collaborative mentorship, and balance between life and academia.

This study was conducted in a Reggio inspired child care classroom of 4-year olds where the fundamental principles of Reggio Emilia preschools are interpreted for a Canadian context. Qualitative case study methodology was employed to investigate how social interaction plays a role in young children's learning processes. Drawing on social constructivist views of children's learning and socialization, children's discussions and interactions within a preschool learning group were examined. Examination of children's discourse is valuable not only for understanding individual and group learning experiences but also for illuminating children's agency and their active roles in their own learning. The study focused on the in-depth study of six children's activities during a "Shades of Pink" project. As the project, "Shades of Pink" unfolded, the children faced cognitive conflict while they were talking about the details of Monet's painting, but worked toward building common understandings. In this study, children are considered to be meaning makers and active participants in their own learning processes. In addition, the relationships between children became a context in which the co-construction of theories, interpretations and various understandings of reality took place. Small group work became a basis for creating unity, a space in which thoughts took shape as well as a way to compare interpretations; with the result that new thoughts and meanings were produced.

The debate over whether intelligence is largely fixed or malleable is not over. What is most exciting, however, is the research from social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience that is highlighting just how malleable intelligence is. Differences in achievement among racial, ethnic, or gender groups have often been seen as evidence that intelligence is largely hereditary and fixed. However, there is now very strong evidence that when testing conditions are altered, the racial, ethnic, and gender gaps in achievement tests are greatly reduced. A recent study with college students testifies to the continuing plasticity of intellectual ability. Researchers are rapidly learning more and more about the foundations of intellectual ability, and as they do, they are learning more and more about how to foster it. In the past, giftedness tended to be portrayed as a global and stable attribute. As a result, experts in the field sought more to measure giftedness than to develop it. The emerging view, in stark contrast, recognizes that giftedness or talent is often very specific, that it can wax and wane over time, and that one of the most exciting questions facing educators today is how to encourage and sustain it. If intelligence can in fact be fostered in students, how do teachers go about it? This article offers some suggestions. (Contains 3 notes.)

The mere presence of students with learning disabilities in general education classrooms is not inclusion. Inclusion involves meaningful participation by these students, achievement in accordance with their abilities, and social acceptance by teachers and peers. Teachers who view these students as a challenge rather than a burden, who believe that they are able to impact the students' peer relationships, and who implement evidenced-based strategies to prevent peer victimization, enhance social status, and lead to the formation of meaningful friendships, will help students with learning disabilities become fully included in the general education classroom. (Contains 12 notes.)

This article asks whether a school improvement programme in three provinces in Canada could have any implications for schools in England. Based on experience in a failing school that "turned around", a key feature of the programme was its emphasis on developing respectful social relationships at the same time as strengthening the teaching of curriculum subjects. We summarise the key features of the programme. Next, we discuss questions arising from projects in schools in very diverse provinces in Canada. Finally, we discuss the potential implications for the development of more positive relationships, and improvements in educational progress, in schools in England. (Contains 1 figure.)

As a Turkish Muslim White woman teaching in Western Canada, the author relates how she struggled to convey to her students how these identities come together, and how they facilitate a pedagogy of anti-oppression in her practice. To disrupt Orientalist assumptions or stereotypes about Muslim women, the author relates that she developed the following teaching principles: (1) the principle of self-focus; and (2) perspectives detectives. The principle of self-focus demands that students practice seeing themselves as products of individual as well as social-group acculturation. On the other hand, perspective detectives is a principle that focuses on the understanding of heterogeneity within any particular group.

In this paper, we shed light on the dynamic nature of "diversity" in higher education from the perspectives of four Japanese women graduate students seeking possibilities through different ways of knowing. Using an autoethnographical methodology embedded in a dialogue format of "zadankai", we examine the stereotypes of Japanese women that are activated both inside and outside of academic institutions. Stereotyping propagates racist, patriarchal and heterosexist norms. The examination of the mechanisms in which stereotyping silences Japanese women reveals the micro and macro politics of identity. Our collective dialogue demonstrates the processes in which silenced Japanese women graduate students reclaim their holistic agencies to peel the layers of superficial notions of diversity and address the creative and flexible nature of "difference" and "diversity" in knowledge production. We hope this paper will encourage minority groups amongst students, educators, and administrators to engage in various ways of knowing and address the issues of "diversity" in higher education.

In Canada, current federal learning-and-work policy is focused on individual learner-worker development using an iteration of lifelong learning as cyclical. This policy aims to enhance the social as an effect of enhancing the economic. In this neoliberal milieu, cyclical lifelong learning has become not only a norm but also a culture and an attitude. Still, a current Canadian phenomenon indicates that increasing numbers of young adults are disengaging from participation in such learning that the federal government considers being a preventive measure. In discussing their withdrawal from what might be perceived as cyclical lifelong learning for control, I consider a particularly challenging case: the predicament of young adults in the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. To help us think about adequately addressing the dislocation they experience in life and work, I offer a Freire-informed vision of a critical social pedagogy of learning and work. This pedagogy calls for re-engendering the social in lifelong learning by revitalizing critical social concerns with historical awareness, hope, possibility, ethics, justice, democratic vision, learner freedom, critique, and intervention. (Contains 4 notes.)

This article was inspired by the authors' attempts to impact student responses to feminist theorizing in a third-year social psychology course. It was grounded in their participant observation, over a three-year period, as instructors at York University in Toronto, Canada. In their respective roles as professor and tutorial assistant, the authors enjoyed a friendly, collegial relationship that was characterized by a collaborative approach to teaching and research. During the course of the three years described in this article, the authors were able to implement a number of pedagogical techniques to facilitate the teaching and learning of feminist theory. The course outline is presented as Appendix A of this document. Appendix B gives an example of the type of reflective questions that were used in the course. (Contains 8 endnotes.)

Not being listened to, or having their advice mistrusted, is a daily problem for teachers and parents, as well as for doctors, scientists, technologists and other experts. It is also a serious dilemma in applied social psychology (Eiser, 1986) as well as in education where educators talk persuasively with strong evidence about not taking drugs, not being racist, changing dietary life-style, and not smoking, with plenty of supporting evidence, but often to little effect. One might say that they are not listening, so as not to have to act. There are several reasons why science education should be interested in the question of risk. One is that that the risks associated with new technologies--nuclear power, cloning, and recent diseases on the farms--are all a part of what a citizen may need to know (Irwin, 1995). STS (Science Technology and Society) was started in the early 1980s in Holland, Canada, and Britain because it had come to seem obvious that students should be taught about topics that were relevant and important to everyone. STS is now clearly back in the curriculum: in England it is a part of "science for citizenship." There is another, almost unconnected reason. The concept of risk links together the cognitive and the affective domains: it advocates not only thinking but also empathising. This indicates that the topic lies in a boundary region between science and the humanities, and so could usefully become an important part of teaching, in an age when science seems too dry and mathematical to catch the imaginations of most students. In this short article the author will identify four rather different ways in which educators might conceptualise giving and accepting advice about risk. They arise out of complementary perspectives, all concerned with the social world in which advice and its reception both exist. (Contains 1 note.)

Describes a study using self-report measures of students' responses to auditory and visual stimuli to measure distractibility in task performance among 224 Canadian undergraduates. Findings show the absence of any link between self-reported distractibility and actual performance. Study shows correlations between personality type and distractibility. (NL)

Examines negative emotional response in 124 Canadian college students. Using sad stories and music, tests how information about others' responses influences their casual attributions. Shows subjects informed they had reacted more negatively than others made more internal casual attributions. Suggests consensus information does not influence affect intensity. (DB)

Reports results of a 1984-85 study involving 261 Canadian undergraduates and their degree of sympathy for victims in each of 20 world disasters. Finds culpability singularly influential in determining degree of sympathy. Determines females showed greater empathy and recommended more financial aid than did men. (DB)

Outlines a structured training program based on the social skills model that may be of use in working with juvenile delinquents. Called the Social Interactional Program (SIP), it has been developed at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education for use as a general purpose counselling strategy. (Author/ABB)

Fourteen articles on the education of the gifted child in Canada are presented. Topics addressed include the giftedness construct, Canadian law and policy, integrative program policy, program planning and evaluation, teacher training, disabled gifted students, psychosocial dimensions of giftedness, the Ontario experience, innovative and idiosyncratic programs, and counseling. (TJH)

Demonstrates that within a group of highly actualized individuals, the degree to which "own death" is integrated into constructs of self is a far more powerful predictor of fear of death than actualization. Findings suggest that actualization and integration are independent in their overall effect on fear of death. (Author)

Reports the results of a survey of interdisciplinary courses in psychology and literature in Canada and the United States. The survey indicated that most of the courses were taught in literature departments and that psychoanalysis was the dominant theoretical orientation. (Author/JDH)

Several studies have shown that a high proportion of criminal delinquents have learning disabilities. In a study started in 1993, Correctional Services of Canada examined learning disabilities as a negative element in the social reintegration of inmates. It was determined that corrective treatment of learning disorders could help the inmates reenter society. (Author/TD)

One's health security (i.e., the ability to minimize risks and respond to public health threats) is a conferred right of citizenship but individuals construct identities during the process of securing their health. However, how this occurs, in relationship to the state, remains largely implicit or taken‐for‐granted. The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID‐19)' provided a unique opportunity to explore the relationship between oneself and governing social norms of health citizenship. We drew on secondary analysis of data from a previous (published) qualitative descriptive study that was conducted during May to September 2020 of COVID‐19, to explore 72 immigrants' experience (from 21 countries) of health security in the Greater Toronto Area, Canada. Data were collected through semi‐structured interviews and analysed using critical realism. The majority of participants were women. We demonstrate how individuals implicitly engaged in 'extra' work—gendered and driven by mechanisms of good citizenship—connected to the will to health, against ethopolitical work to regulate risks, of and for themselves, in public discourse. Public discourse tended to follow racialized hegemonic norms, which also reproduced systemic cultural racism. We argue that empathetic understanding of this process is conducive to enhancing one's resistance to stereotypes, and to bolstering immigrants' resilience to seeking health security during public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaboration is an early emerging component of successful cooperative relations that produces a cascade of positive social preferences between collaborators. Concurrently, robust preferences for affiliated others may restrict these benefits to in-group peers. We investigated how in-group affiliation (based on minimal group markers) and interpersonal affiliation (based on shared preferences) influence children's collaborative partner choice. We asked whether children prefer to collaborate with affiliated peers and if highlighting interpersonal affiliation with out-group members reduce in-group bias in partner choice. In Study 1, we assigned children (4–9 years, N = 124, 62 female, two nonbinary) to either a group or interpersonal affiliation condition and gave them a choice of collaborating with either an affiliated (in-group or same preference) or unaffiliated (out-group or different preference) peer. While children preferred affiliated peers in both conditions, interpersonal affiliation had a greater influence than group affiliation on collaborative partner choice among younger participants. With age, the difference between children's preference for affiliated peers in the interpersonal and group affiliation condition declined until they were similar in middle childhood. In Study 2, we assessed whether shared preferences would override in-group bias when these factors were directly contrasted. Children (4–9 years, N = 62, 33 female) chose between an in-group/different preference or out-group/same preferences peer. Younger children preferred the out-group/same preference peer, a preference that diminished with age to chance levels in middle childhood. These findings suggest that affiliation is an important determinant of collaborative partner choice and that shared preferences can override in-group bias in children's collaborative partner choice. Public Significance Statement: In-group prejudice is a barrier to cooperation with significant real-world consequences. It has long been hypothesized that collaboration between groups may be a way of mitigating in-group bias and encouraging cooperation. The current studies reveal that while children prefer to collaborate with in-group peers, highlighting shared preferences may be a way of encouraging collaboration with out-group peers, particularly in young children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Under dentistry's social contract with the public, dental professionals have a social responsibility to address the oral health needs of the population at large. However, dental education places little emphasis on such moral commitments. By ascertaining dental students' stance regarding these notions, we may be able to inform changes in dental education. This paper thus explores dental students' comprehension of dentistry's social contract using the concepts of moral inclusion, moral community and empathy. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey collected information from undergraduate dental students at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto (N = 430). Moral inclusion was assessed through the breadth of students' moral community by computing a "moral inclusion score" (MIS) from Likert scale responses to statements that asked students about their duty of care for different population groups, wherein a higher MIS indicated a broader moral community and in turn greater moral inclusiveness. Empathy was assessed using Likert scale responses to statements that gauged the extent to which students understood the effect of social determinants on people's health. Association of the MIS with environmental, institutional and student-related factors was also investigated using non-parametric tests and linear regression. Results: The survey yielded a response rate of 51.4% (n = 221). Overall, students in this sample were morally inclusive and displayed empathy. Regression results showed that the MIS was most strongly associated with choosing a small town/rural area as a future practice location (β = 4.76, 95% CI: 0.52, 9.01) and viewing patients as consumers (β = -3.71, 95%CI: -7.13, -0.29). Conclusion: Students in this sample made morally inclusive choices, which implied that they had a basic understanding of the obligations under dentistry's social contract. Improving knowledge and experience with regards to addressing the social and economic determinants of oral health and access to oral health care may positively influence students' perceptions of their professional duties under the social contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological change has two first-order effects on the nature of work. First, new technologies can cause changes within workers' occupations, and second, it can push workers to move between occupations. To quantify these effects, we match detailed occupational data from the 2006 and 2016 Canadian censuses to detailed data that associates each occupation with sets of tasks, activities, and skills required for that occupation. Our results show that the importance of attributes related to social interactions and non-routine cognitive tasks has increased significantly. Moreover, most of the increase occurred within narrowly defined occupations. Men were more affected by the observed changes than women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is considerable research showing that economic threat influences people's social and political views. There are two prevailing perspectives on threat and political attitudes, broadly defined as the Conservative Shift Hypothesis and the Entrenching Hypothesis. The former predicts that threat induces change in the conservative direction (for both conservatives and liberals), whereas the latter predicts that threat causes people to adhere more strongly to their prexisting political perspective. In two experimental studies (one pre‐registered replication), we find evidence in support of the Entrenching Hypothesis. Conservatives responded to Economic Threat with increased endorsement of the conservative moral foundation Purity, whereas liberals responded to Economic Threat with decreased endorsement of the Purity foundation. Economic Threat appears to increase commitment to one's pre‐existing political ideology and not conservatism specifically. Implications for psychological theory and future directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]