Nathalie Bélanger

Methodological considerations in child-centered research about social difference and children experiencing difficulties at school

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the ethical and methodological significance for children and university researchers to participate together in data collection and research interpretation. We examine this process in the context of a three-year study with the aim of understanding how children become identified as having difficulties in a diverse, semi-urban minority French-speaking Catholic elementary school in Ontario (Canada). First, we review the literature on child informed consent. Then, we describe the setting and the process of how children in this study became informed participants. We describe how the children became active in exercising their discretionary consent to be observed during the data collection process, then how they progressively became engaged in observing their social context in terms of their own sense-making of the research project. We discuss how the children gave a new direction to the original project proposed by the university research team investigating on identification and special needs children. Lastly, we revisit the ways in which we addressed the various subject positions that became possible for us and for the children as co-researchers within the social relations of the classroom-based research team in a French minority language school. It became apparent throughout the research that informing consent was more than an act on the part of researchers to explain and thus establish a research framework in which collecting data from children would take place. Rather, we found that our research with children involved childrens active participation as co-researchers informing the project from its design to its data analysis.

Les partenariats école-communauté dans les écoles de langue française en Ontario

Partnerships between French language schools and their community actors are more and more common in Ontario. However, we know very little about them. This article aims to understand what partnerships mean to school actors. Based on a literature review, an ideal-typical definition is constructed and four characteristics are identified to guide further analysis of partnerships : the partners’ identification and origin (school or community sectors), the project’s initiative, its length and the roles assigned to each partner. The results of surveys to the school board’s directions and questionnaires to school’s principals show that a variety of activities, mainly for the benefits of students, exist between French language schools in Ontario and their community. The analysis reveals, however, that many of the participant school actors are uncertain about the definition of a school-community partnership. Many of them consider their specific one-shot projects as school-community partnership. In fact, few of the declared partnerships come close to the ideal-typical definition formulated in this article. 1 Cette etude decoule d’un projet de recherche plus vaste commande et finance par le ministere de l’Education de l’Ontario. Nous aimerions remercier les coauteures de cette etude, Phyllis Dalley et Liliane Dionne ainsi que Tina Desabrais, Anne-Sophie RuestPaquette et Helene Leone qui nous ont assistees lors de la cueillette des donnees.

Inclusion on the Agenda in Four Different School Contexts in Canada (Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick and Québec)

Four case studies from four different Canadian provinces (Ontario, Manitoba, New Brunswick, and Québec) are examined in order to better understand meanings given to an inclusive approach in education, as it is defined and experienced by the actors, practitioners, parents, and students. The data examined in this article come from a larger research project which aimed at documenting what are deemed ‘inclusive educational initiatives’, both in Canada and internationally. The article begins with a brief overview of the theoretical literature in which inclusive education has been discussed followed by a brief description of the case studies examined. It goes on to explain the conditions that were put in place following each provinces policies regarding special educational needs and their evolution. The results discussed are school priorities and/or teaching strategies, life in the schools and the involvement of various actors, as well as the resources available and used in each context.