Bridging Cultures: Preparing Non-Indigenous Teachers to Teach Indigenous Epistemology in a Rural Public School

This Organizational Improvement Plan looks to lay the framework to help non-Indigenous teachers challenge negative Indigenous stereotypes, overcome their fear of unintentionally culturally appropriating an Indigenous culture, and be able to effectively integrate Indigenous content into course curriculum to fulfill the First Nations, Metis and Inuit requirement of the Alberta Teacher Quality Standards. This framework leverages the Anishinaabe Medicine Wheel in conjunction with the ADKAR change model to facilitate a cultural change at Ranchlands Public School, a small rural school situated in Southern Alberta. As the Principal, I intend to implement a transformational change that will institute a shift in mindset by connecting Indigenous Elders with non-Indigenous teachers through a blended online and on-land learning platform. Engaging Indigenous Elders in sharing their knowledge, usually through the traditional art of storytelling and/or mentorship, helps to minimize the potential for cultural appropriation by non-Indigenous teachers. With the Elder stepping into the role of ‘instructor’, and the non-Indigenous classroom teacher assuming the role of ‘pupil’, there will be a natural shift in learning towards recognizing the contributions and knowledge systems of other cultures. It is by interlacing Indigenous and Euro-settler cultures into the educational framework and culture of a class that students will begin to build a respect for other cultures; that our Indigenous students will feel valued as their traditional Indigenous knowledge is being recognized in the school; and in time, both knowledge systems, although distinct, will be used to help students explore the prescribed curriculum at a deeper level

Action Research in Contexts of Change and Inequality

The first purpose of this chapter is to discuss research in education within the international context of change and inequality. In a previous chapter, Atweh and Arias (1991) discussed action research in education both as an appropriate research methodology and as a means of professional development of teachers. Similarly, Atweh (2004) posited action research as a methodology consistent with sociocultural approaches in education. That chapter discussed arguments for the use of action research in the discipline and outlined some of its characteristics. The discussion presented in those chapters did not contextualise their arguments within the international context of countries experiencing rapid changes, nor with regard to countries where poverty and lack of resources are major hindrances for developing research programs in the field. This contextualisation is the second purpose of this current chapter. The next section of this chapter identifies three major current trends in global society and education that impact on the work of researchers in the field. The following section discusses the role of action research within the trends identified in the first section

Your Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It . . . : Taking Law School Mission Statements Seriously

Learning about the process and the results of mission definition in law schools has made palpable the tension between clarity and inflexibility, candor and marketing concerns, and the specificity that fosters accountability as opposed to the generality that embraces a vague multitude of approaches to the law school endeavor. Building on the strong endorsement of the use of mission statements in the original Best Practices for Legal Education, we present some “Best Practices” for both the development and the content of law school mission statements. We hope that this piece hastens further conversation and commentary that will foster a richer and more mindful perspective on this necessary--and potentially transformative--task of legal educators

An evaluation study of the core courses of the master's degree in training and development with alignment of globalization

Includes bibliographical references

Building the New Babel of Transnational Literacies: Preparing Education for World Citizens

The transnational diasporas in a technological world that is postmodern and posthuman mean both exciting diverse communities and challenging problems. On the one hand, globalization brought human beings the convenience of exchanging ideas, doing business, and building a better world together. On the other hand, the political economy of nation states that shaped non-translational ideologies, created at the same time conflicts and misunderstandings among citizens from different parts of the world. Responding to the current transnational clashes in flow (information dissemination) and contra flow (surveillance and control of information flow) of our information age, this dissertation builds up a transnational rhetoric and communication model that can be used to examine the curriculum design, teaching materials, and pedagogy in communication and writing studies, especially in technical communication. In addition, this study investigates the present state of curriculum design, teaching materials, and pedagogies in a southeastern higher education institution. Empirical data was collected from students, instructors, and administrators from different departments of this institution to determine whether and how do curriculum design, teaching materials, and pedagogies frame and teach transnational literacy. Further, to engage the conversation with a national audience, major introductory technical communication textbooks were analyzed based on both the empirical data and the transnational rhetoric and communication model using content analysis. The findings indicate that although curriculum design, textbooks, and pedagogies have transnational components, they generally reply on traditional models and stereotypical examples that cannot meet with students’ needs in order for them to become genuine world citizens with transnational awareness and competence. The transnational rhetoric and communication model helps to fill the gaps in curriculum design, textbook revision, and pedagogies in cultivating world citizens

Creative and performativity practices in primary schools: a Foucauldian perspective

A number of policy texts are present in educational settings at any one time and each influences the power and significance of others. Policy discourses are one of the main means whereby policy texts, in the settings in which they operate, influence the value, the implementation and the embedding of those policies. However, a number of discourses operate at the same time in any given context and they also they influence the interpretation and implementation of them through the way in which practitioners manage policy processes. This research focuses on two such discourses in education, that of performativity and creativity and investigates how primary teachers manage these policies and how they are influenced by them

Come Together: Inclusive Leadership and Public Relations Education

Multiple voices from educational and professional arenas have called for change in the way in which public relations undergraduates are prepared to navigate complex communication challenges in the 21st century. Some scholars have advanced leadership as a way to address this change, identifying the undergraduate public relations curriculum as the ideal place to introduce future practitioners to leadership as a way to better prepare them to initiate and participate in positive social change in complex contexts. However, scholars have neither made in-depth connections with leadership theory and practice, nor provided a framework for designing a curriculum for incorporating leadership into public relations undergraduate programs. The purpose of this research was to examine the practice of inclusive leadership and communication in an exemplary organization in order to answer the question: What would an undergraduate public relations leadership (PRL) curriculum look like? Portraiture was used to uncover and illustrate the key ways in which inclusive leadership and communication manifest at a successful Chicago-based interactive technology firm. Findings support the idea that an inclusive leadership and communication culture is created through direction, alignment, and commitment (DAC). Furthermore, the research provides evidence that inclusive leadership and communication skills can be developed through practice and support. An analysis of sample public relations undergraduate programs was used in conjunction with research findings to bridge the gap between inclusive leadership development and public relations undergraduate education. A public relations leadership (PRL) curriculum was created to help public relations undergraduate students better develop leadership, communication, and relational skills. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA: Antioch University Repository and Archive, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and Ohiolink ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu

Higher Education Exchange: 2007

This annual publication serves as a forum for new ideas and dialogue between scholars and the larger public. Essays explore ways that students, administrators, and faculty can initiate and sustain an ongoing conversation about the public life they share.The Higher Education Exchange is founded on a thought articulated by Thomas Jefferson in 1820: "I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education."In the tradition of Jefferson, the Higher Education Exchange agrees that a central goal of higher education is to help make democracy possible by preparing citizens for public life. The Higher Education Exchange is part of a movement to strengthen higher education's democratic mission and foster a more democratic culture throughout American society.Working in this tradition, the Higher Education Exchange publishes interviews, case studies, analyses, news, and ideas about efforts within higher education to develop more democratic societies