in education Volume 29, Number 3, 2024 Autumn

Editorial

Kathleen Nolan and Valerie Triggs, University of Regina

In this third and final issue of in education for the year 2024, we include six articles and one book review. The featured scholarly works range from a topic focus on reading development, health and wellness, number talks, ecological knowledges and practices, and grit in a high school physics class to a methodological focus on collaborative self-study, autoethnography, Indigenous storytelling through poetic orality, and other qualitative research designs. Our authors and their research studies are situated on Canadian lands from coast to coast to coast, from Nova Scotia to British Columbia to Nunavut. In this issue, we are delighted to feature the work of well-established scholars as well as that of new scholars who are navigating the publication of their master’s and doctoral level work.

In our first article, Exploring Inuit Students’ Responses to Number Talks, by Emily Pope and Jennifer Mitton, the authors introduce a well-known southern mathematics teaching strategy, number talks, to Inuit students in a northern context. Conducting their research in a Grade 1 classroom in Nunavut, the data for Pope and Mitton’s study include participant interviews, classroom observations, and artefacts generated in response to number talk routines. The authors propose an innovative merging of number talks with Nunavut Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ) principles. Even though they recognize that their approach may not “disrupt Eurocentric teaching methods,” they are encouraged by the evidence “that this research helps interrogate a southern strategy in a new, culturally relevant light” (Pope & Mitton, this issue).

The second article, “Self” in Self-Study: Alongside Stories as Indigenously Understood Inquiry, follows the thread of Indigenous-focused research. Authors Cher Hill, Awneet Sivia, Vicki Kelly, Paula Rosehart, and Kau’i Keliipio conduct a collaborative self-study inquiry into the ways in which Indigenous pedagogies and worldviews extend understandings of self within self-study research. As they engaged in their collaborative inquiry, the authors noted a shift in orientation toward ways of being in relation, naming the emerging synergy and relationality as “alongside stories”. Drawn to making meaning of the intersections and nuances between forms of self-study research and Indigenous Ways of Knowing, the authors conclude that “the richness of relationality, respect, wholism, resonance, and responsibility embedded in Indigenous worldviews can enhance Western scholarship” (Hill et al., this issue).

In Children as Levels: Early Understandings of Reading Development Conceptualized by Preservice Teachers, Andrea Fraser surveys five preservice teachers (PSTs) on their beliefs about reading instruction and reading development at the onset of an elementary literacy methods course. A thematic analysis of these pre-course surveys revealed that preservice teachers’ early understandings of reading development and pedagogy appear to rely on levelling systems. The author reflects on the problematic nature of these understandings and beliefs, which tend to shift attention away from the complex nature of reading acquisition and the skills required to develop proficiency. Fraser concludes her article with recommendations for teacher education, including that literacy methods courses be “designed to facilitate learning experiences for PSTs to unpack and negotiate prior beliefs while engaging in learning opportunities to develop knowledge and application of instruction reflective of current research” (Fraser, this issue).

Our fourth article in this issue, by Alana Ireland, Laurie Hill, and Sarah Twomey is titled Preservice Teachers and School Health and Wellness. Similar to the previous article in this issue, the research reported on here focuses on understanding preservice teachers’ beliefs and attitudes, in this case with respect to health and wellness in teacher education programs and in school settings. A thematic analysis of interviews with 11 preservice teachers identified four themes, all of which point to specific areas of need around health and wellness and prioritizing an evidence-based approach. Specifically, in the area of teacher education programs, the authors suggest that “preparing preservice teachers by providing background knowledge and tools about school health and wellness can foster confidence and support their teaching practice and professional selves” (Ireland et al., this issue).

In the fifth article in the issue, titled A Teacher’s Perspective on Grit and Student Success in a High School Physics Classroom, Matthew Ngo shares autoethnographic reflections as a high school physics teacher interested in exploring the concept of grit. Warning the reader that much of the literature on the topic of grit is focused on deficit ideological elements, the author discusses the structural elements which may also be present but often overlooked when studying a student’s ability to be ‘gritty’ and successful in school. Through reflections on narratives of deficit ideologies, grit, and meritocracy, Ngo clarifies: “While I do not suggest that educators abandon addressing effort and hard work, there are concrete justifications as to why educators also need to take structural elements into account” (Ngo, this issue).

Finally, our sixth article is by Peter Cole, entitled Punctuating Musical Diacritics of Water in Cross-species Context. Inviting the reader to shift away from colonial thinking and engage in a different dimension where water is life, this poetic research text calls for inter-cultural cross-species oral performance and recuperative conversations. Cole’s narrative score emphasizes how embodied realities of the land, particularly water, might become our baseline being and doing in a realization that nothing is ever fully captured in human knowledge or understanding. Indigenous tricksters Coyote and Raven, joined by others in the performance of this text, ponder such questions as “whatever happened to water just being something you need a drink of when you're thirsty  why must it be essentialized with everything else in e-stem thinking   it is alive  it is spirit and shapeshifter   molecular is only one of its forms” (Cole, this issue).

Our book review in this issue, written by Hui Xu, offers an in-depth look at the 2023 book by Lily A. Arasaratnam-Smith and Darla K. Deardorff, Developing Intercultural Competence in Higher Education: International Students’ Stories and Self-Reflection. As Xu notes, “the book offers an insightful exploration into the development of intercultural competence (IC) in higher education”. Based on her critical review, Xu affirms that “the blend of storytelling, self-reflection, and theoretical foundations makes [the book] an invaluable resource for anyone interested in IC and international education” (Xu, this issue).

We hope you find these articles as provocative and enjoyable as we have. Many thanks to the contributing authors and the many reviewers who provided their feedback and insight during the review process.