LEARNing LandscapesTM is an open access, peer-reviewed, online education journal supported by LEARN (Leading English Education and Resource Network). Published in the autumn and spring of each year, it attempts to make links between theory and practice and is built upon the principles of partnership, collaboration, inclusion, and attention to multiple perspectives and voices.The material in each publication attempts to share and showcase leading educational ideas, research and practices in Quebec, and beyond,by welcoming articles, interviews, visual representations, arts-informed work and multimedia texts to inspire teachers, administrators, and other educators to reflect upon and develop innovative possibilities within their own practices.

In this current issue, Debbie has published an article entitled, The Situation of Parents in the Curricular Commonplaces: A Place of Equal Rank? While Schwab asserts that a balance between all four of the curricular commonplaces is important in teaching, Debbie argues that attention to milieus, particularly in relation to parents and families (rather than schools or classrooms), is largely being omitted in teacher education curriculum. Her article explores how a teacher education curriculum attending to the positioning of parents helped interrupt one teacher’s story of parents. Her article challenges us to consider who is rendered in/visible, who is in/validated, who finds schooling an educative process – and who is/does not – in the dominant plotline of parents as outsiders to curriculum. You will find her article beginning on p. 139.

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SSHRC – Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) is a very important funder in Canada of educational research. I feel very fortunate to have received SSHRC funding for both independent and collaborative research efforts.

SSHRC has supported my independent research through a Standard Research Grant. This funding is enabling me to develop a new theoretical approach to parent knowledge – to understanding what it is and how it is held and used.

SSHRC has supported my collaborative research efforts, as a lead member of a large research team with the Community University Institute of Social Research (CUISR), through their Community University Research Alliance (CURA) program, providing development funds for the design of interdisciplinary and community-based research.

D. Pushor (PI). Parent Knowledge, a program of research to determine what parent knowledge is and how parent knowledge is held and used, $61,821, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, April 2004 – April 2008.

D. Pushor (PI), N. Muhajarine, & K. Waygood.  Building the Social Ecology of an Inclusive Community, a grant to fund the development of a SSHRC CURA Full Proposal, $20,000, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, March 31, 2005 – August 8, 2005.

Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for Research into Teaching
The Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for Research into Teaching is a local funding agency – an independent charitable organization – that was created by the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation. The McDowell Foundation’s goal is to support inquiry, reflection, and the communication of information and ideas that improve education. McDowell Foundation funding made possible my inquiry into parent engagement and leadership with a large team of co-researchers at Princess Alexandra Community School. The impact of this work has been significant because of the Foundation’s support for the research and its dissemination.

D. Pushor (PI), research team from Princess Alexandra Community School.  Parent Engagement and Leadership, a study of past, current, and future practices to engage parents in the school and to promote parent leadership at Princess Alexandra Community School, $25,000, Dr. Stirling McDowell Foundation for Research into Teaching, May 2004 – November 2005.

St. Francis Xavier University and the University of Saskatchewan have also made research possible through their start up grants for new academics, and the services they offer to researchers in support of grant development.

University of Saskatchewan

D. Pushor (PI), N. Muhajarine, & K. Waygood.  Building the Social Ecology of an Inclusive Community, a grant to fund the development of a SSHRC CURA LOI, $5,000, Facilitation of Groups and Collaborative Grants Award, Office of the Vice-President Research, University of Saskatchewan, November 2004 – March 31, 2005.

D. Pushor (PI), N. Muhajarine, & K. Waygood.  It takes a child to raise a village:  Building the social ecology of an inclusive community, a grant to fund the development of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Community University Research Alliance (CURA) Letter Of Intent (LOI), $4,620, Facilitation of Groups and Collaborative Grants Award, Office of the Vice-President Research, University of Saskatchewan, April – May, 2006.

St. Francis Xavier University

D. Pushor (PI). Parents’ Positioning in Relation to the Landscape of Schools, research into parents’ current positioning in schools in a local context and their desires for their participation in their children’s schooling, $3,000, St. Francis Xavier University, 2001 – 2002.

D. Pushor (PI). Parents’ Positioning in Relation to the Landscape of Schools, research into parents’ current positioning in schools in a local context and their desires for their participation in their children’s schooling, $2,000, St. Francis Xavier University, 2002 – 2003.

Jim successfully defended his doctoral dissertation in the fall of 2007 and he is currently  working in the private sector.

About Jim Propp

Dr. A. J. (Jim) Propp was born and raised in Yorkton Saskatchewan, Canada and currently lives in Saskatoon Saskatchewan with his wife, Susan. Jim has over 20 years experience as a classroom teacher, five years as a school based administrator, and between 1984 and 2002 he consulted on social studies and English language arts curriculum development projects with Saskatchewan Learning. Upon returning to university Jim successfully completed his Masters of Education (2004) and Doctorate of Philosophy in Educational Administration (2007) and currently teaches undergraduate students in the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP) in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.

Jim Propp CV

Jim Propp Publications

Propp, A.J. (Jim). (2004). Patterns of the Psychological Contract Among Rural
Saskatchewan Vice-Principals. Unpublished Masters Thesis, University of
Saskatchewan: Saskatoon

Propp, A.J. (Jim). (2005). Preschool: As Essential As Food: an Effectiveness Review of
the Saskatoon Preschool Foundation Tuition Subsidy Program.   

Propp, A.J. (Jim). (2007). Undergraduate Education Students’ Leadership
Understandings. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Saskatchewan:
Saskatoon.

Propp, A.J. (Jim). (in press). Sensemaking and constructing meaning: Undergraduate
Education Students’ Leadership Understandings [Monograph]. Saarbrücken,
Germany: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG

As an educational philosopher who has studied Jacques Derridas, Claudia brought such insight to our research team’s thinking about welcoming and hospitality, and a conceptualization of educators as guest hosts on school landscapes. She also brought rich thinking about place. In so many ways, she has influenced the work because she is a critical thinker with whom no idea gets left unexamined. Her contribution to both inquiries has been significant.

Upon completion of her doctorate, Claudia moved to Vancouver to assume an academic position at the University of British Columbia.

Continue with Full Abstract

In my address to parents/guardians, trustees, and school board personnel in the Toronto District School Board and the Toronto Catholic School Board (Wards 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22) I focused on the critical need to use parent knowledge to enhance our success in making schools safer and more culturally responsive and in improving educational outcomes for all students.

In this panel discussion, we explored how educators and parents can tap into the power of parent knowledge by building trusting and collaboration partnerships in school communities.

In this session with principals, teachers and school council members, I focused on differentiating between the conceptualization and practices of parent involvement and of parent engagement.

In this session, I shared research findings from my narrative inquiry into parent knowledge. I featured key strands of parent knowledge that have become apparent in my analysis of field text: intimate knowledge of children, intimate knowledge of teaching and learning, a knowledge of self as parent, cultural knowledge, the important place of values in one’s knowing, the influence of passions in one’s knowing, and principles to live by that guide what parents do and why they do it.

In this roundtable discussion, I focused on one strand of parent knowledge – principles to live by – sharing principles which guided the knowledge and actions of the three parents/parent partners in my narrative inquiry.

In this session, I shared a synthesis of research that illuminates what it is specifically in the involvement/engagement of parents that can be linked to improved student achievement, and educational outcomes such as retention in school, completion of courses, high school graduation rates, and so on.

In this session, I facilitated a process in which principals made explicit their assumptions and beliefs about the place and voice of parents in their schools and then examined the implications of these beliefs in defining/redefining the roles and responsibilities of leaders, staff and parents in their schools.

Parents, educators, staff, community and family members joined together to explore their current practices with parents in relation to involvement and engagement, invitation and hospitality, and trust and relationships.

In this session for preschool and family educators in public, private and community-based organizations, I explored how parent knowledge can be used to co-construct a curriculum that is reflective of and responsive to the families for whom it is designed. I modeled ways to invite parents and family members into the telling and writing of birth or adoption stories, name stories and family stories to bring a curriculum of lives into the family/early learning setting.

Steeves, P., Yeom, J., Pushor, D., Nelson, C., Mwebi, B.M., Murray Orr, M., Murphy, M.S., Glanfield, F., Huber, J., Clandinin, D.J. (In press). The research issues table: A place of possibilities for the education of teacher educators. In C.J. Craig & L.F. Deretchin (Eds.), ATE Teacher Education Yearbook XVII. Lanham, ML: ScarecrowEducation (An imprint of the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group).

Pushor, D. & Clandinin, D.J. (In press). The interconnections between narrative inquiry and action research. In B. Somekh & S. Noffke (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Action Research. London: SAGE Publications.

Pushor, D. (In press*). Are schools doing enough to learn about families? In T. Turner-Vorbeck & M. Miller Marsh (Eds.), Learning to listen to families in schools. New York: Teachers College Press. *The anticipated release date of this book is April, 2009.

Pushor, D. (In press. Projected publication date 8/19/08). Collaborative research. In L.M. Givens (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishers. 9 pp.

Pushor, D. (2007, Fall). Welcoming parents: Educators as guest hosts on school landscapes.* Education Canada, 47, (4), 6-11.

In this article, Clandinin, Murry Orr and I attend to complexities surrounding all phases of a narrative inquiry, a kind of inquiry that requires particular kinds of wakefulness. We outline three commonplaces and eight design elements for consideration in narrative inquiry.

Clandinin, D.J., Pushor, D. & Murray Orr, A. (2007, January/February). Navigating sites for narrative inquiry. Journal of Teacher Education, 58, (1), 21-35 Pushor, D. (2007, Fall). Welcoming parents: Educators as guest hosts on school landscapes.* Education Canada, 47, (4), 6-11.

In this article, I make apparent the scripted story of school and how, by accepting the taken-for-grantedness of their positions in this structure, educators and parents reinforce, and are constrained and shaped by, the conditions imposed upon them. I explore how we can work against these constraints by interrupting current practices of parent involvement and putting practices of parent engagement in their place.

Pushor, D. (2007, January). Parent engagement: Creating a shared world. Invited research paper posted on the Ontario Ministry of Education website.

Muhajarine, N., Horn, M., Glacken, J., Evitts, T., Pushor, D. & Keegan, B. (2007). Full-time Kindergarten in Saskatchewan, part one: An evaluation framework for Saskatchewan full-time Kingergarten programs. Research report, Community-University Institute for Social Research, Saskatoon, SK, 74 pp.

Muhajarine, N., Evitts, T., Horn, M., Glacken, J. & Pushor, D. (2007). Full-time Kindergarten in Saskatchewan, part two: An evaluation of full-time Kindergarten programs in three school divisions. Research report, Community-University Institute for Social Research, Saskatoon, SK, 110 pp.

Pushor, D. (2007, November). Parent inclusion: We are all family. Invited address, Making Connections: A People for Education Conference on Education Issues, Toronto, Ontario.

Pushor, D. (2007, November). Parent knowledge. Circle of Light: A First Nations, Metis and Inuit Education Conference, Ontario Ministry of Education and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Toronto, Ontario.

Amendt, T. & Pushor, D. (2007, November). Parent engagement. Circle of Light: A First Nations, Metis and Inuit Education Conference, Ontario Ministry of Education and Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, Toronto, Ontario.

Pushor, D. (2007, October). Involvement to engagement: Community education practices in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan Community Schools Association Annual Conference, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan.

Pushor, D. (2007, October). Community engagement in schools: Aligning beliefs and practices. Invited half day address, Project Teams Gathering, Manitoba Education Citizenship and Youth, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Amendt, T. & Pushor, D. (2007, May). Community engagement: Policy and practice in Saskatchewan schools. Shawane Dagosiwin: Aboriginal Education Research Forum, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Clandinin, D.J., Huber, J, Pushor, D., Schultz, B., Coulter, C., Butler-Kisber, L., Caine, V., Michie, G., Mitchell, R., Rolling, J. Steeves, P., & Pinnegar, S. (2007, April). Moving into the academy as narrative inquirers. Symposium presented at the Annual Meeting of The American Educational Research Association, Chicago, IL.

Pushor, D. (2007, January). Parent engagement: Creating a shared world. Invited research paper presentation, Research Symposium, Ontario Ministry of Education, Toronto, Ontario.