Linda LaRocque

Critical Practice in Elementary Schools: Voice, Community, and a Curriculum of Life

This paper examines the differences andsimilarities in approaches to community, voiceand curriculum among three Canadian elementaryschools with respect to their potential toenact central aspects of a critical pedagogy:to extend voice to students and community;foster participatory, democratic education; andto cultivate critical reflection. The threeschools offer different conceptions andpractices. In one, a deficit model ofeducation seems to dominate; in the second, wefound an individual growth model of education;and in the third, a critical practice model ofeducation was the foundation for moredemocratic educational practices. We argue thatnot all change initiatives and approaches areequally valuable, and that the latter modelprovides a more profound and just educationalexperience for students.

Reaching out: Instructional leadership in school districts

Abstract This study of the Superintendents Office in a group of school districts in British Columbia, Canada, examines the similarities between the activities of superintendents in a group of high‐performing districts, and the contrasts with the activities of superintendents in other districts. The activities are defined inductively in terms of “reach,” which consists of the “vision” (norms underlying activities) of the superintendents, and the “range” (focus and intensity) of their activities. An explicit and coherent vision incorporating norms of consensuality and accountability underlies the activities of superintendents in high‐performing districts; the balance between these norms slightly favors the latter. The activities, diverse in topic and location, follow from the norms and seem designed to objectify and model them. The “reach” of the superintendency constitutes a personal professional ethos, which may help to shape district ethos, and hence may be related to district performance in student ach...

A Secondary School Career Education Program for ESL Students

Abstract Using Bourdieu’s theory of different types of capital and social “fields,” this paper analyzes one curriculum model, the ESL Co-op program, which is designed to meet the needs of immigrant adolescents who are primarily dependent on their first language. The program couples instruction in English as a second language (ESL) with work experience. ESL Co-op is offered in two secondary schools in a suburban Vancouver school district that is the most rapidly growing district in British Columbia. More than 30 percent of the approximately 50,000 students enrolled in the district speak a language other than, or in addition to, English in the home. A collaborative team of university researchers and district curriculum consultants inquired into the program’s success in helping recent immigrant students become aware of possible future career and job opportunities and any other aspects of the program’s operation deemed salient by the interviewees. We wondered if the folk theory of success embedded in federal, provincial, and district policy discourse, which emphasizes work experience, was in fact setting the stage for educational and occupational success of these young people. Interviews with 44 parents, 43 students, and six staff members from a total of 10 different language backgrounds revealed that staff perceive the program as a unique opportunity for students to gain exposure to Canadian work environments and to develop survival, language, and job-related skills or, in Bourdieu’s terms, embodied capital. Students’ and parents’ overriding concern is that the program precludes the possibility of graduation with the grade-12 diploma (institutional capital) available from the mainstream program.Using Bourdieu’s theory of different types of capital and social “fields,” this paper analyzes one curriculum model, the ESL Co-op program, which is designed to meet the needs of immigrant adolescents who are primarily dependent on their first language. The program couples instruction in English as a second language (ESL) with work experience. ESL Co-op is offered in two secondary schools in a suburban Vancouver school district that is the most rapidly growing district in British Columbia. More than 30 percent of the approximately 50,000 students enrolled in the district speak a language other than, or in addition to, English in the home. A collaborative team of university researchers and district curriculum consultants inquired into the program’s success in helping recent immigrant students become aware of possible future career and job opportunities and any other aspects of the program’s operation deemed salient by the interviewees. We wondered if the folk theory of success embedded in federal, provincial, and district policy discourse, which emphasizes work experience, was in fact setting the stage for educational and occupational success of these young people. Interviews with 44 parents, 43 students, and six staff members from a total of 10 different language backgrounds revealed that staff perceive the program as a unique opportunity for students to gain exposure to Canadian work environments and to develop survival, language, and job-related skills or, in Bourdieu’s terms, embodied capital. Students’ and parents’ overriding concern is that the program precludes the possibility of graduation with the grade-12 diploma (institutional capital) available from the mainstream program.