Ailie Cleghorn

• Concordia University

Background: The judicious use of worksheets ought to contribute to the establishment of literacy, with a special significance for multilingual classrooms where neither teachers nor learners are mother tongue speakers of the instructional language. Disparity between the pedagogical intention of the worksheet and learners’ interpretation of the messa...

This chapter reflects on the methodological challenges inherent in insider-outsider positionings during research processes in comparative, micro-ethnographic illustrative case studies of early childhood teacher education (ECTE) programs in three distinct contexts: a university-based bachelor of education program located on five different campuses i...

Teacher Education in Diverse Settings presents a study of initial educator preparation in three social contexts: a training program for immigrant child care educators in Canada, a pre- and lower primary specialization in a teacher education program in Namibia, and a partnership between the Misak indigenous communities in Colombia and the University...

This study examines the use of PowerPoint as a teaching tool in a workplace- embedded program aimed at bridging immigrant/refugee early childhood educators into post-secondary studies, and how, in the process, it shapes students’ “habits of mind” (Turkle, 2004). The premise of the study is that it is not only the bodies of knowledge shaping teacher...

Increasing diversity in cities in North America in general and Canada in particular requires recruitment and training of early childhood educators representing those groups, including immigrant and refugee women who see child care work as accessible to newcomers. In the context of Canada where multiculturalism has been an official federal policy si...

Early childhood teacher education (ECTE) and programs for children in Colombia have long been underpinned by a dominant discourse of early childhood that originated in the global north and still circulates globally. More recently, however, national early childhood policy documents have argued in favour of including local indigenous knowledges and p...

Namibia stands as an excellent example of a country in the global south to have been on the receiving end of the spread of dominant early childhood teacher education (ECTE) concepts from the global north. As this chapter shows, the situation is very much in flux; however, there is little to suggest that local or indigenous traditions infuse or unde...

In each of our research settings, tensions between global ideas and local understandings of childhood and education were clearly seen to impact early childhood teacher education (ECTE). In some instances, the space for diverse worldviews was quite limited. In Namibia, for example, views are contradictory: policy documents value diversity, but a tea...

Teacher Education in Diverse Settings presents a study of initial educator preparation in three social contexts: a training program for immigrant child care educators in Canada, a pre- and lower primary specialization in a teacher education program in Namibia, and a partnership between the Misak indigenous communities in Colombia and the University...

Canada is a major player in the process of globalization, and its role in the early childhood teacher education (ECTE) field can be seen as one of spreading dominant ideas and practices from the global north / minority world to the global south / majority world, thus increasing tensions with local practices within ECTE programs in contexts such as...

Teacher Education in Diverse Settings presents a study of initial educator preparation in three social contexts: a training program for immigrant child care educators in Canada, a pre- and lower primary specialization in a teacher education program in Namibia, and a partnership between the Misak indigenous communities in Colombia and the University...

In this article we report and reflect on the responses to a questionnaire survey administered to 600 parents/caregivers, whose Foundation Phase children attend a former Afrikaans-medium primary school where English is now the sole medium of instruction, although English is not spoken as home language by either teachers or learners. We explored reas...

This study currently in progress focuses on two early childhood teacher education programs in contexts where the participants are undergoing rapid social and personal change: a program in Namibia, and a program for immigrant childcare educators in Canada. The objective is to provide in-depth understanding of the ways in which differing ideas about...

This study currently in progress focuses on two early childhood teacher education programs in contexts where the participants are undergoing rapid social and personal change: a program in Namibia, and a program for immigrant childcare educators in Canada. The objective is to provide in-depth understanding of the ways in which differing ideas about...

Discussions about what constitutes a quality early childhood (EC) environment rarely focus on visual or spatial aspects, except to provide background information for talking about EC practice and children's development in the preschool years. There is a need to look beyond the usual quality indicators, which tend to focus on poverty and children's...

Comparative research in multilingual urban primary schools indicates that the pedagogical and political goals of schooling may operate at cross-purposes. Classroom observations and teacher interview-discussions were conducted in classes for immigrant children in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where the language of instruction is French, and in classes i...

Turn on the radio or television in a South African establishment and chances are you will have to flick the remote in order to find a channel you understand. Such is the linguistic diversity of this country. One hears many languages in most countries worldwide. At present, most countries have more than one official language. South Africa, however,...

Decisions about your [educational ideal] turn on the value-saturated business of sorting out what you think is the best way to be human, the best way to live — as Plato put it ... it is only from some such a conception that we can derive educational principles. (Egan, 2002, p. 182) In Chapter One the reader found an historical account of how South...

In this chapter, we use the lens of visual ethnography to reflect on what we actually saw in, and outside, the classrooms we visited.i Visual ethnography allows the researcher to analyse how the organisation of space, the use of materials, and the teachers’ and learners’ physical and linguistic interactions work together to make meaning. Visual eth...

In this chapter we first trace the history of education policies in South Africa, especially as they concern linguistic and cultural matters of diversity in schools and classrooms. Language and other education policies are often established by powerful people who have little day-to-day contact with the contexts in which these policies are to be imp...

We begin this chapter with a general discussion of global change, in particular as it concerns the challenges and opportunities of teaching in South Africa’s multilingual school settings today / The discussion then moves on to the hegemony of English, and to matters relating to English-only examinations, curriculum and technology.

This chapter draws on the findings of comparative research carried out in two very different locations: urban Pretoria in South Africa and the large city of Montreal in Canada/ Methodologically, in line with research in the field of comparative and international education, this study within the larger study that this book is based on, sought to ill...

An ad hoc committee (SIG Review Committee) was formed with an aim to study the status of 18 Special Interest Groups (SIGs) of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) from 2010-2011. The main objectives of the SIG Review Committee included: (1) to survey CIES membership and leaders to gain insights on possible ways of improvements...

This article stems from an on-going qualitative study of the ‘environment’ of Montreal’s elementary level welcome classes for new immigrant students (classes d’accueil), including teachers’ language attitudes and actual language practices in the classroom. Since the official language of instruction in Quebec is French, the classe d’accueil provides...

This article is concerned with language use in mathematics lessons in settings where the language of instruction is a second language for all or most of the learners. Four lessons taken from primary schools in Montreal and in Zimbabwe are compared, illustrating ways in which teachers in each setting couple development of the target second language...

This article reports on the initial observation phase of a larger, longitudinal project that explores complex language encounters in grades R (Reception) to 3 classrooms in South Africa. Complex language encounters refer to teacher-learner exchanges that take place when neither teachers nor learners are first language speakers of the language of in...

This article provides vignettes from teaching practice site visits in linguistically diverse South African Foundation Phase classrooms. The purpose is to point to the complexity of encounters between student teachers and learners when neither are first language speakers of English, the instructional language. The vignettes presented here suggest th...

This paper draws on the comparative and qualitative data from a triple case study carried out in three semi-rural early childhood education centres in Canada, India, and South Africa. The primary objective of this four year study was to provide in-depth understanding of the ways in which policy, practice, and culture intersect in semi-rural context...

From the Eskimos of the past…who were very intelligent, who had good perception, who had good memory; this has been going on for a long time among the Eskimo, from our ancestors. And today, they are like our books, those kinds of people. The ones very intelligent, the ones with good memories, the ones who are very perceptive, because they are like...

The objective of this first chapter is to provide an understanding of the ways in which educational systems, structures, and processes connect with various aspects of society, including dominant values, political goals, and ideologies. Key terms, major concepts, and theories in sociology of education will be introduced so that the reader is equippe...

This chapter explores some key issues relating to the language-ineducation debate, with special reference to sub-Saharan anglophone Africa.1 The issues to be discussed are pedagogical, economic, and political in nature; they are looked at in terms of the problems that language can pose for teachers and learners as well as in terms of some possible...

While analysing data gathered for a study investigating current primary school mathematics learning environments and instructional practices in Zimbabwe, we made an incidental but interesting observation that Zimbabwean primary school mathematics lessons have a common and seemingly invariant structure. That structure can be summarized schematically...

This article explores the way in which two, quite distinct, visions of early childhood (EC) education were manifested in selected rural and urban centers in India and Zimbabwe. Elements of a pediatric orientation existed along with aspects of a pedagogical model that emphasizes a western form of school preparation. The article concludes that the po...

This article discusses sociocultural and other theoretical aspects of the language-in-education debate in the light of their practical implications for language policy and teacher education in linguistically diverse school settings. We draw on studies carried out in African classrooms where subjects such as science were being taught via English, an...

The article draws together three strands of a cross-national program of research into the quality, use and improvement of primary science text material: i) a sociolinguistic study of the Teacher-Learner dimension carried out in linguistically diverse school settings in Montreal, Canada; ii) a phenomenographic study of the Teacher-Text dimension in...

This article1 discusses the views that education students in Zimbabwe, Canada and England hold about the nature of science and science education for children. The data stem from a 32 item questionnaire that was administered in each setting. Students’ attitudes towards science lie in contradiction to their more contemporary, constructivist views abo...

This article looks at teachers’ views of the role of text in science education in three different linguistic school settings in Quebec: English, French and French Immersion. Extensive discussion/interviews with grades five and six teachers as well as observations of science lessons provided the data. The findings suggest that the linguistic culture...

Recent trends in early childhood teacher education in Zimbabwe are reviewed in the context of overall teacher reform. Social tensions which stem from the current system of early education and care are described, together with a survey of beliefs regarding early education held by parents, teachers, and primary school headmasters. The results point t...

This article is concerned with the effects of national and educational language policies on the quality of primary level instruction in Kenya. It argues that national language policies need to be disentangled from educational matters so that the language used for instruction more directly meets the social as well as the academic requirements of lea...

This article is concerned with the use of English and indigenous languages in creating contexts for understanding primary level science in Kenya. Through an ethnographic study of instruction in three rural schools, it was found that important ideas were more easily conveyed when teachers did not adhere strictly to the English‐only language of instr...

Individual multilingualism in a multilingual society is often associated with a mass education system. The Kenyan situation illustrates the intertwined complexity of the pedagogical and socialising aspects of language contact in such a system. Using ethnographic observation of classroom interaction in three primary schools, determinants of teachers...

Since bilingual school programs are part of the fabric of society, they reflect major social patterns and processes that characterize society at large. Thus, an understanding of the social objectives and outcomes of bilingual education programs requires an understanding of both the broad sociocultural context of which they are a part and the relati...