A new Federation project: The Role of the Humanities and Social Sciences

The Federation is launching an ambitious new project to help the humanities and social science community articulate the value of their scholarship. Our objective is to develop a renewed, evidence-based account of how the humanities and social sciences affect people’s lives in the 21st century and to communicate this effectively to key audiences in government, the media, the higher-education sector and the general public.

Have your say
We are committed to developing this project in collaboration with the humanities and social sciences community and we invite scholars and students in these disciplines to share their insights with us between May and July, either in writing or by participating in one of the round table discussions the Federation will be hosting throughout May and June 2018. Your input will help us develop the key messages featured in a major report to be published in 2019. Visit www.ideas-idees.ca/issues/role-HSS to select an option that suits your schedule. If you have further questions, contact the project lead, Peter Severinson, at pseverinson@ideas-idees.ca.

Congratulations to Stephanie Anderson , winner of the 2018 R.W.B. Jackson Award, which is given for the most outstanding English language article in each volume of the Canadian Journal of Education. Dr. Anderson’s article was published in Volume 40 Issue 1, and is entitled “The Stories Nations Tell: Sites of Pedagogy, Historical Consciousness, and National Narratives.” Dr. Anderson is a post-doctoral scholar at the University of Pennsylvania (PennDesign), and an instructor at the University of British Columbia.  She holds a Ph.D. & M.Ed. in Curriculum and Pedagogy (The University of British Columbia) and a B.Ed. and B.A. (Honours) in History and French (Queen’s University). Her research and teaching interests include museum studies, public history, heritage studies, decolonization, national identities, history education, and historical consciousness. 

The CSSE conference app is now available. Please scan the QR code with your smart device to access the app.

News from Statistics Canada

News release:
Study: The transition from school to work – the not in employment, education or training (NEET) indicator for 15 to 19 year olds in Canada
http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/180222/dq180222d-eng.htm?CMP=mstatcan

Eurydice Publications – 22 February 2018

New Eurydice Publication :: Teaching Careers in Europe: Access, Progression and Support

Eurydice is delighted to announce the publication of a new report, Teaching Careers in Europe: Access, Progression and Support.

At a time when the importance of teachers is becoming increasingly apparent, what are the main challenges in the teaching profession related to supply and demand? How do education systems address these issues? How does one qualify to be a teacher? What support is available once qualified? What are the career opportunities in this profession?

Read the report to discover the answer to these questions and more.

The main themes include: forward planning and main challenges in teacher supply and demand, entry to the teaching profession and teacher mobility, continuing professional development and support, career development, and teacher appraisal.

The OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation is launching a new project on “fostering and assessing students’ creative and critical thinking skills in higher education”. The project is about institutional development in the area of teaching and learning and invites higher education institutions interested in developing their capacity in teaching and learning to participate in it. It would be very helpful if you could share information about this opportunity with colleagues and other institutions that may be interested. One of the area of work will be

The project builds on work that has been implemented in the past 3 years at the primary and secondary education levels. The basic idea is that there is still a lack of clarity about what creativity and critical thinking mean in the higher education contexts and how higher education faculty and institutions could support their students in developing these skills. Based on existing and suggested pedagogical practices, the project will develop tools for the higher education sector to improve the quality of its teaching, learning and assessment of these skills – while continuing to develop students’ technical and analytical skills.

As part of its strand on higher education, the project will work on teacher education: what kind of teacher education programmes and pedagogical activities for teacher students will help them develop their creative and critical thinking skills and become better teachers who can review critically the resources provided by education publishers and be creative in their teaching practices? What kinds of courses and resources could be developed to support faculty and institutions to equip teacher students with creative and critical thinking skills while they develop their teaching skills? An international network of teacher education institutions/programmes will explore these questions as part of a community of practice coordinated by the OECD.

Call for participation:
http://www.oecd.org/education/ceri/innovation-strategy-for-education-and-training-call-for-participation.htm

The organizing committee for the 2018 CSITE conference has extended the deadline for proposal submissions to Friday, February 23rd.

http://csite2018.nipissingu.ca/call-for-proposals/
The Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University, in partnership with Nipissing First Nation, wish to invite you to the 6th Annual Canadian Symposium on Indigenous Teacher Education from April 30th to May 2nd, 2018.

Schedule:

April 30th (evening): Welcome and Keynote address followed by reception.

May 1st – 2nd: Research presentations, traditional teachings and small group discussions.

Our conference theme is “Maamwistoong neniizh akiin”, an Anishnaabemwin phrase that translates to “…when we bring two worlds together”. In this new era of reconciliation, Indigenous and non-indigenous educators are asked to engage in Indigenous cultures, knowledge and histories in respectful and culturally appropriate ways. For some, this could be described as “two-eyed seeing”, a phrase used to describe how people bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing together, “…to use all our understandings so that we can leave the world a better place and not compromise the opportunities for our youth” (Bartlett, Marshall, Marshall, & Iwama, 2012). In many instances, educators enter pedagogical transitional spaces to explore how traditional understandings connect and relate to western pedagogies. These ‘ethical spaces of engagement’, as Willie Ermine (2008) describes them, are opportunities for individuals to respectfully reflect on these transitions, finding pathways of exploration to personally and professionally connect diverse knowledges and practice.

We invite proposals that highlight the various and diverse pedagogies reflective of Indigenous culture and perspectives including but not limited to land-based education, revitalization of Indigenous languages and cultures, decolonization of pedagogy, reconciliation, traditional technologies, skills, crafts, arts, and music that engage and inspire connections among knowledges, languages, social relations, and identities.