Susan M. Holloway

Teaching resistant novice educators to be critically reflective

Drawing upon our experience as university faculty in teaching novice educators, we explore the issue of resistance from students around learning that entails critical reflection. By novice educators, we refer to pre-service teacher candidates and graduate students in Education faculties, particularly graduate students in adult education/lifelong learning programs, who often do not have prior Education degrees or extensive experience as educators. We believe novice educators should be taught to be critically reflective, regardless of whether they teach in schools, government, the not-for-profit sector, or business sector.

Reclaiming the radical: Using fiction to explore adult learning connected to citizenship

Abstract Traditionally, adult education has had a focus on learning connected to social purpose. In the current neoliberal climate, lifelong learning is increasingly defined as an endeavour whereby individuals must situate themselves in a competitive position in order to succeed in the global marketplace. Radical educators who believe that education should have a broader mandate need to explore alternative pedagogical approaches that will challenge adult learners to think critically about social issues, political and economic structures and cultural concerns. Drawing upon the research from a SSHRC funded study on lifelong learning, citizenship, and fiction writing, this paper argues that using fiction may be one way to disrupt the pervasive, in Habermasian terms, ‘worldview’ that limits the focus of adult learning to a narrow, market-oriented mandate. Instead, educators can use fiction reading and writing as a means to explore challenging issues pertaining to lifelong learning and citizenship.

Investigating Teacher Candidates' Mentoring of Students at Risk of Academic Failure: A Canadian Experiential Field Model.

In this study, the authors explore a Canadian field experience model in a bachelor of education program that focuses on mentor‐based relationships between teacher candidates and students at risk of dropping out of high school. They examine teacher candidates’ and at‐risk students’ attitudinal approaches. The model emphasizes praxis and social justice, and the authors argue that it would benefit from a greater emphasis on critical literacy theory. Data were collected through triangulation of Ministry of Education documents, a literature review, program coordinators’ informal reflections and field notes, and interviews. Interview participants were two teacher candidates, three at‐risk students, and three Student Success teachers. The mentoring improved human relations and attendance more than grades for the at‐risk students. The results indicate that at‐risk students feel individually empowered through the mentor‐based model and teacher candidates demonstrate insights into their mentoring relationships.

Preparing Teachers to Become Lifelong Learners: Exploring the Use of Fiction to Develop Multiliteracies and Critical Thinking

Drawing upon research from a SSHRC grant entitled Creating a Canadian “Voice”: Lifelong Learning, the Craft of Fiction Writing, and Citizenship, we examine how multiliteracies and critical thinking can be fostered using a framework of lifelong learning for teachers. We provide examples from authors and key informants who discuss learning and fiction writing to argue that there are benefits for diverse learners in using wider, more inclusive definitions of literacy associated with multiliteracies. We also provide examples of how multimodal technologies can foster learning connected to critical thinking and multiliteracies.

Visual Literacies: An Ecology Arts-based Pedagogical Model

The study explores visual literacies and critical literacies students may experience utilizing photography aimed at engaging youth in thinking more deeply about their relationships to the environment and the communities they live in. This is a case study based on interviews with a total of 5 participants. I argue that visual literacy expands students’ opportunities to build productively upon print-based literacy practices, evens the playing field to some extent for English Language Learners, and connects youth in creative ways to think about being citizens in their communities and the world.

Learning to Be Critically Reflective: Exploring Fiction Writing and Adult Learning.

ABSTRACT Many educators in adult, community and higher education contexts are concerned with fostering reflective learning amongst their students. This paper explores the concept of critical reflection and considers how engaging with fiction may be an innovative pedagogical approach to support critical learning opportunities. Drawing upon interviews with fiction writers, ways in which critical reflection may be encouraged in connection to reading and writing fiction are taken up by exploring three different thematic areas that relate to a Habermasian framework of knowledge constitutive approaches to learning. These different areas can be categorised as (a) technical-rational, (b) humanistic and (c) critical or emancipatory. The first of these considers critical reflection as a way to develop technical capacities as a creative writer. The next section takes up a humanistic framework to explore the value of individual and collective learning opportunities to enhance personal growth and critical reflection. The third area of discussion considers a deeper critical or emancipatory framework of learning through critical reflection which may lead to social change. The paper concludes by considering the value of arts-informed adult education approaches, such as those related to fiction writing, to enhance the development of critical reflection amongst adult learners.

A Foucauldian analysis of literary text selection practices and educational policies in Ontario, Canada

Like schools, curricula are socially constructed and constituted within broader social, political, and historical relations of power, powerfully shaping students’ beliefs and attitudes about themselves and their relationship toward the world. In light of this, the importance of literature selection cannot be overstated. School-sanctioned texts often provide the core curriculum, and secondary school English teachers rely on them heavily. The self-regulatory practices a teacher engages in will shape not only how the teacher begins to understand the self, but also works to construct an ‘appropriate’ teacher identity. Using a Foucauldian theoretical lens, this paper draws upon findings from a synthesis of school board policies and interviews with English teachers and department heads in Ontario, Canada, to explore the discursive practices that shape literary text selection.