Foreword to the EEGSA-SEGSA Conference Proceeding: Exploring Horizons

The 14th Annual Graduate Student Showcase was held by the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education on April 30, 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic has continued to impact the way in which we gather and share our research. This year, we continued to meet in a hybrid synchronous/asynchronous space with our keynote speakers, presenters, and attendees. This format allowed for graduate students from around the world to share and participate.  This year, our showcase theme, Exploring Horizons, speaks to looking forward, keeping our heads up, and navigating what lies beyond. Despite numerous challenges to this academic year, as a graduate student community, this research showcase demonstrated that graduate student research in education is attuned to the possibilities that might lie on or on the other side of the horizons.  Exploring Horizons also represents an invitation to think and rethink differently and creatively. Currently, the field of education is in the midst of dealing with some serious challenges. Yet, when we simply glance at this showcase special issue, it is easy to see that our graduate students in education are rising to the occasion and exploring the horizons of educational research, ready to take on these challenges and to open new possibilities for imagining the future(s) of curriculum, pedagogy, teacher education, and educational philosophy and thought. This year’s theme of Exploring Horizons asks participants and attendees to visualize and imagine the unknown and all that becomes possible by thinking, creating, and imagining new ways of knowing and understanding. To all of our authors in this special issue, we want to thank you for putting your important work out into the world and for sharing it with others. Additionally, this special issue Exploring Horizons celebrates the diversity of our graduate student research in education.  Beyond presentations from graduate students, we featured Dr. Cathryn van Kessel, a keynote speaker in the morning session and an associate professor for the Department of Secondary Education, as she shared her experiences with “Exploring Horizons” in knowledge dissemination and research mobilization. Dr. Jacqueline Filipek, an alumna of the Department of Elementary Education and assistant professor at The King’s University, shared valuable insights about the process for applying and interviewing for academic jobs in the afternoon session. She offered generous advice on how graduate students might prepare their application packages and think about potential interview processes in academia. On behalf of the EEGSA/SEGSA Graduate Student Research Showcase Committee, Katherine Koskie, Kimberly Edmondson, and Yina Liu, we wish to thank you for reading this special issue as you explore new horizons together with our authors. We hope you find your reading thought-provoking as you consider what is on the horizon of educational research

Do we have a problem in rural educational research? A literature review of the past decade of The Journal of Research in Rural Education

Classified as populations less than 1000, 16.1% of Alberta’s population lives rurally (Alberta Government, 2016, p. 3). Rural education research addresses an underserved minority in educational structures, policy and practices. However, much of the research is approached in a way indicating the rural is somehow deficient. Well cited researchers in the field of rural education research, Howley and Howley (2014) state, “the most prevalent impulse in rural education research is to address the problem of rural schools, namely that they are deficient and need to be improved. Variations on this theme implicate the deficiencies of rural children, rural families, rural teachers, rural school facilities, rural culture, and so on” (p. 10). As someone who grew up rural and remains deeply tied to it, I have witnessed variations of these themes in theory and in practice. In order to see what possibilities lay ahead for rural education research, we ought to consider where we have been. Howley and Howley’s (2014) assessment is a call to do rural research differently. Being focussed on the problem can obscure or preclude what is important or valuable within rural communities regarding educational research. In part due to Howley & Howley’s assessment and in part because of a curiosity that drives my own present and future forms of research, I present a literature review of The Journal of Research in Rural Education. I examine the abstracts covering the years between and including 2012-2020, where I determine whether their pronouncement rings true over the past decade. Since Howley and Howley published their assessment, the continuing research in JRRE has remained fairly consistent with the prevalent impulse to problematize the rural in an educational capacity. In my findings I do the following, 1) assess the proportion of research problematizing some aspect of the rural in rural education research, 2) contextualize reasons for and against the impulse to address “the problem of rural schools,” and 3) optimistically look to studies that are not framed by assumptions of deficiency in rural communities. I look to the latter in order to envision new possibilities for doing rural educational research for rural communities rather than on rural communities.   References Alberta Government. (2016). 2016 Census of Canada – Population and dwelling release. https://open.alberta.ca/dataset/7d02c106-a55a-4f88-8253-4b4c81168e9f/resource/e435dd59-2dbd-4bf2-b5b6-3173d9bd6c39/download/2016-census-population-and-dwelling-counts.pdf Howley, C. & Howley, A. (2014). Making sense of rural education research: Art, transgression, and other acts of terroir. In S. White & M. Corbett (Eds.), Doing educational research in rural settings: Methodological issues, international perspectives and practical solutions (pp. 7–25). Routledge

The hummingbird & me: Experiences with shattering as a settler educator and emerging scholar

I explore my experiences as a settler teacher and emerging scholar by unpacking time and place in the short children’s story The Little Hummingbird by Michael Nicoll Yahgaulanaas. I demonstrate my understanding with a hyperlapse video of traditional beading, a skill taught to me by local Indigenous Elders. I begin to unpack myself and others by centering myself as the hummingbird, the protagonist of the short story who continues to put drops of water on a raging forest fire, even though it will not put out the flames. In this retelling, I problematically view myself as a settler hero who is doing “good”, ignoring the ongoing nature of colonialism and the benefits I gain from the hierarchy of relations in Canada. In the second retelling, I become the fire destroying the forest. I recount the shattering of my settler-as-hero self-proclaimed identity, and begin to accept how I am complicit in colonial violence towards Indigenous peoples. By watching my hands work the pattern and beads, I physically depict the slow work necessary for arriving at the actualization of bigger possibilities for settler teachers and emerging scholars, like a hummingbird with a drop of water to douse fire

Canadian School Administrators\u27 Statistical Reasoning about Probability, Effect, and Representativeness: Statistical Literacy of Canadian School Administrators\u27

How do Canadian school leaders interpret data to inform their decisions? How do they reason with probability concepts? These are the questions we are investigating in the first year of this longitudinal bilingual project conducted in Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario. Our theoretical framework is inspired by the semiotic perspective of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) which suggests that interpretation is a triadic process integrated in a social context that puts in relation a sign, an object, and an interpretant. To this end, we conducted two individual interviews in which we asked 10 English-speaking school leaders and 9 French-speaking school leaders some questions about data presented in a tabular form (mock data on class level student performance and school level health data), line graph (PISA 2018 report on reading scores from 2009 to 2018) and box plots (mock data on student performance in reading in different countries). Our preliminary results reveal that principal’s reason abductively when it comes to interpreting statistics and want to know the context or the story behind the numbers before making any decisions. Also, they prefer to interpreting data collaboratively with their colleagues and feel more comfortable with data grouped in tables and line graphs. They considered themselves "data-driven" but not statisticians and use verbal terms rather than ratios or percentages (e.g., high probability, high likelihood, high odds) to express probabilistic ideas. In the next years, we will study how their professional experiences influence their conceptions of causality and how they reason about sampling and representativeness

The Silence of Digital Practices in Contemporary Fiction Picture Books

Contemporary childhood exists in a rapidly changing literacy context in the digital age, where digital devices and technology are progressively used at home (OECD 2019). In the global context, digital technology is greatly emerging in children’s lives, including the way of their play, learning, communicating and entertainment (Marsh et al. 2016). In this paper presentation, the author who is a researcher in the intersection of digital literacy and children’s literature, engages in autobiographical narrative inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly 2000), where she tells and retells her stories of reading contemporary fiction picture books, focusing on digital practices in both written text and illustrations. Such experiences are reflected and compared to her experiences of reading contemporary academic articles and reports on digital literacy studies in early childhood education. She noticed that there is a significant missing of digital lives and practices in contemporary fiction picture books, which contrasts with the prevalence of children’s digital usage in the contemporary post-typographic era. As children’s fiction is infused with ideology, the text instills values and beliefs in young readers, which, further, will shape children’s sociocultural development (Stephens 1992). For this reason, it is critical for future research to examine the ideological message and cultural discourse in relation to digital literacy practices in children’s fiction work. Because the gaps and differences between the ideologies of digital usage in children’s literature and children’s digital literacy practices reality could cause confusion to our young readers. This article highlights the silence of digital lives and practices in today’s fiction picture books and this research urges writers, illustrators, educators, and parents to pay attention to the gaps between digital practices in today’s children’s real lives and the contemporary fiction picture books

Identifying the Predictors of Mathematics Anxiety AND Performance in Canada: An Educational Data Mining Approach

Over the last decade, Canadian students have exhibited insubstantial improvements in mathematical scores compared to other countries as indicated by large-scale educational assessments such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In relation to students’ mathematical performance, math anxiety - the feeling of fear or nervousness when performing math-related tasks - was found as an associated factor. However, no previous study has explored math performance and math anxiety, specifically among Albertan students. We present a work-in-progress that identifies significant predictors of math performance and math anxiety among Canadian and Albertan students, using the PISA 2018 and TIMSS 2019 datasets. This study has three phases: first, a list of predictors will be selected from the data set based on existing theories regarding students’ math performance and math anxiety. The initial list of predictors will be presented to domain experts (i.e., math teachers) for refinement based on their practical experience. A predictive model for math performance and math anxiety will be developed with Educational Data Mining techniques in the second phase. Results from the model will be presented to the domain experts for their inputs as the qualitative component, and variable importance metrics of the model will be consulted for the quantitative component. Findings from both components will be integrated consulted with the domain experts to derive actionable recommendations that would inform various stakeholders (e.g., educators, school districts, and Alberta Education) of ways to improve math performance in Alberta students

The Discerning Process of Song Selection

Songs that were once considered standard repertoire in elementary music programs across Canada are now being identified as including derogatory, misogynistic, and/or harmful texts. While there has been research and findings compiled on the text of songs (Bailey, 2020; Ellingsen, 2019; Kelly-McHale, 2018; McDougle, 2021), this is still a relatively new field, particularly regarding how information about texts of songs is shared with teachers. How can existing music education programs provide learning opportunities around repertoire selection for both in-service and preservice teachers? The Orff Level Certificate Program of Carl Orff Canada works with both preservice and in-service music teachers. The Orff program occurs on a yearly basis, with approximately 25 teacher educators and 250 teachers enrolled across the country. With the majority of elementary educators being “white, middle class, female, heterosexual teachers” (Holden & Kitchen, 2019, p. 27), there is a need to acknowledge the social hierarchy present in the classroom, that is, the power and privilege held by music educators. By working with music teachers to think critically about what musics to include, Orff Level Teacher Educators can provide the tools for music educators to “shape a curriculum and a pedagogy that purposefully places classroom musics alongside students’ own musics, experiences and interests (Hess, 2017, p. 71). In March 2021, an online survey, including a combination of multiple-choice and open-ended questions was sent to 25 Orff Level Teacher Educators in Canada. Responses were received from 17 teacher educators. The following questions guided the investigation: (a) How are songs selected for inclusion in the program? (b) Have there been changes to the repertoire list over the last five years? If so, what is driving these changes? (c) How do teacher educators see their selection process of repertoire impacting teachers’ choices of repertoire? Using thematic analysis, I analyzed the responses looking for common themes. These findings have served as a foundation for dialogue with Orff Teacher Educators. The next phase of the study will begin in spring 2022 where I will be interviewing three to five participants to further clarify findings from the survey portion of the research.   References   Bailey, P. (2020, April 27). Reclaiming kumbaya! https://www.decolonizingthemusicroom.com/reclaiming-kumbaya   Ellingsen, A. (2019, October 30). Jump Jim Joe. https://www.decolonizingthemusicroom.com/jump-jim-joe   Hess, J. (2017). Equity in Music Education: Why equity and social justice in music education? Music Educators Journal, 104(1), 71–73. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432117714737   Holden, M., & Kitchen, J. (2019). Equitable admissions in Canadian teacher education: Where we are now, and where we might go. In J. Mueller, & J. Nickel, (Eds.) Globalization and diversity in education: What does it mean for Canadian teacher education? (23-60). Canadian Association for Teacher Education.   Kelly-McHale, J. (2018). Equity in music education: Exclusionary practices in music education. Music Educators Journal, 104(3), 60–62. https://doi.org/10.1177/002743211774475

Every pandemic has a silver lining: Examining Covid-19’s effect on digital pedagogy using the Cynefin Framework.

“They (pandemics) are the original social and political disruptors, and sometimes that can be really positive” Brown (2020) in University of Hawai\u27i News. Most active teachers, in the past year, have taught both in-person and on-line. Using the Cynefin Framework, a decision-making framework which is based in complexity science (Snowden & Boone, 2007, p.70), I examine the pedagogical changes made by teachers in the emergency teaching situation brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. When using the Cynefin Framework, issues facing an organization can be categorized in one of five possible contexts, simple, complicated, complex, chaotic and disorder, depending upon the severity of the disruption. In a regular classroom most disruptions would be in the simple or complicated context and teachers will solve those problems by making decisions based on prior practice. In the complicated contexts, the same teachers may seek advice from senior teachers, or experts, to solve situations. A problem in the complex context would require the teacher or administrator to find an emerging path through the situation. The disruption I am examining is, according to Brown, the original disruptor—a pandemic, namely COVID-19 which caused school instruction to move from face-to-face to emergency on-line teaching. While much of the beginning on-line teaching began in a chaotic context, that is not the only category that is identified by use of the Cynefin Framework. With data drawn from three interviews given by teachers or administrators recorded on YouTube for the Global Teacher Prize dating from March 2020 forward, I examine how both teachers and schools are changing their use of technology. I look at changes and modifications to pedagogy that the teacher has instituted and have determined work. I will then determine if the change is primarily beneficial for the teacher, student, or another party—uncovering the silver linings and innovations in the ways that teachers have changed their use of technology and their pedagogy during the emergency on-line teaching of COVID-19. Reference Snowden, D. J., & Boone, M. E. (2007). A Leader’s Framework for Decision Making. Harvard Business Review, 1–25. University of Hawai\u27i News. https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2020/04/07/covid19-vs-spanish-flu

An Analysis of the Boiler and Heat Exchanger Manufacturing Industry in the US Using Porter\u27s Five Forces Framework

As global trade expands and technological progress is being made in developing countries, manufacturers of boilers and heat exchangers in the United States (US) are facing increasing import competition while industry profitability is competed away from industry rivals, market entrants, as well as by the growing number of available choices for buyers, and by suppliers with larger clientele and differentiated products and services. The forces that influence profitability in this industry is an essential part of strategic planning for any boiler and heat exchanger manufacturer that aims to control competition risk and optimize profitability. This research aims to break down and analyze the influences that industry manufacturers, market entrants, purchasers, component and raw material suppliers, foreign imports, technological advances, government policies, industry organizations, and future trends have on the profitability of industry players. While it was found that the level of competition in the industry is moderate, rapid advances in technology, increasingly stringent government policies on emission standards and boiler and heat exchanger efficiencies, as well as growing import competition may catalyze industry competition in the near future. The use of Porter’s five forces in this analysis suggests the need to consider the significance of technology and the challenges posed by imports through increasing globalization, as these factors could substantially change and disrupt the industry by reducing barriers to entry and by raising the threat of substitutes. As a result, the boiler and heat exchanger manufacturing landscape in the US could become much more competitive, which in turn, could diminish returns for industry operators. This could also change the structure of the industry with the inception of industry players that offer differentiated products and services. The question for industry groups and policy-makers is to what extent should these five forces be influenced, since the degree of support for or of counteraction to these forces will guide the future competitiveness and marketization of the boiler and heat exchanger manufacturing industry in the US.

Conceptualizing Meaningful Physical Education: A Secondary School Case Study

Background and purpose: The research literature in physical education (PE) is placing a growing emphasis on Meaningful PE (Beni et al, 2017) to transform PE to meet the needs of all students. The purpose of this research was to 1) identify the concepts of Meaningful PE that students found to be important and 2) distinguish which concepts have the most potential to provide students with Meaningful PE experiences.   The study: The project was conducted in three PE classes among grade 7 to 9 students in an urban secondary sports academy school in collaboration with their PE teachers. Data was collected using the GroupWisdomⓇ Concept Mapping (2021) platform and group interviews with the objective to have PE students and teachers conceptualize Meaningful PE. Findings: The study found that students’ and teachers’ context specific conceptualizations of Meaningful PE can be identified using GCM. The major tenet of Meaningful PE found was relationships. Student and teacher participants identified important concepts for Meaningful PE as a combination of statements within the clusters of kindness, physical activity, fun, and quality education. The findings call for a broad understanding of students within each school context in order to conceptualize meaningful physical education experiences.   Conclusions: It is my conclusion that involving students in the conceptualization of Meaningful PE by focusing on autonomous and inclusive relationships is of great importance to co-create Meaningful PE experiences. Secondary students were able to identify what is important for meaningful experiences in PE and how inclusive relationships can facilitate Meaningful PE experiences