Reflective practice is one means through which practitioners make site-based decisions and through which they continue to learn in their professions. This course will critically examine the research and professional literature concerning the meaning of and the processes involved in reflective practice. Additionally, as professional development is often associated with reflective practice, the course will also identify and examine professional development strategies which could facilitate reflective professional development. Students will critique these models by utilizing the concepts from the reflective practice literature.

The literary text is used as a vehicle for reflection on issues of language and ethnic identity maintenance and for allowing students an opportunity to live vicariously in other ethnocultural worlds. The focus is on autobiographical narrative within diversity as a means to our understanding of the ''self'' in relation to the ''other''. The course examines the complex implications of understanding teacher development as autobiographical/biographical text. We then extend this epistemological investigation into more broadly conceived notions of meaning-making that incorporate aesthetic and moral dimensions within the multicultural/anti-racist/anti-bias teacher educational enterprise.

This course will focus on the dynamics of multiculturalism within the individual classroom and their implications for teacher development. It is intended to examine how teachers can prepare themselves in a more fundamental way to reflect on their underlying personal attitudes toward the multicultural micro-society of their classrooms. Discussions will be concerned with the interaction between personal life histories and the shaping of assumptions about the teaching-learning experience, especially in the multicultural context. The course will have a ''hands-on'' component, where students (whether practising teachers or teacher/researchers) will have the opportunity to become participant-observers and reflect upon issues of cultural and linguistic diversity within the classroom.

In this course we explore differences in the ways ''Knowledge'', ''Teaching'', and ''Learning'' are constructed and understood in different cultures, and how these affect how teachers learn and promote learning, with particular emphasis on multicultural settings. An underlying theme is how one can best bring together a) narrative, and b) comparative/structural ways of knowing in order to better understand teacher development in varying cultural/national contexts. The choice of particular nations/regions/cultures on which to focus in the course responds to the experience and interest of the students and the availability of useful literature regarding a particular geo-cultural area with respect to the basic themes of the course.

This course is organized around the various components of program planning and evaluation for education and the social and health sciences; needs, evaluability, process, implementation, outcome, impact, and efficiency assessments. Data collection methods such as the survey, focus group interview and observation are introduced.

Basic concepts, methods, and problems in educational research are considered: discovering the periodicals in one's field, steps in the research process, developing research questions, design of instruments, methods of data collection and analysis, interpreting results, and writing research reports.

Survey is widely used in quantitative research. When survey is relied on exclusively to collect data in a non-experimental research, it is referred to as a survey research. In this course, we will learn about constructing and validating surveys within a framework that is currently advocated by quantitative research methodologists: Theory-driven using both quantitative and qualitative (mixed) methods. The course content adheres closely to the text Survey Development: A Theory-Driven Mixed-Method Approach (https://www.routledge.com/9780367222338), which encompasses four components: Theory and Methodology, Survey Construction, Assessing Psychometric Properties, and Recommendations. Students are expected to participate in discussions, exercises and a course project pertaining to survey development. Grades are assigned based on performances of these activities. The course is basically quantitative in nature. Even though advanced statistics included in the text are optional reading, basic knowledge and low level of aversion to math and statistics is desirable. With the same token, students should not have a distaste for qualitative data.

This course studies methods of evaluating training. Topics covered by the course include training models, practice analysis, Kirkpatrick's 4 level training outcome evaluation model and its variants, Return on Investment (ROI) analysis, and measurement and design issues in training evaluation.

This course examines the concept of self-assessment and its relationship to learning and other psychological constructs, construction and validation of self-assessment measures, psychometric properties of self-assessment, how learners assess their learning, and how teachers and professionals in social and health services assess the quality and effects of their practices. The course emphasizes practice as well as theory and research. Some of the topics include methods of self-assessment; cognitive processes; psychometric issues and sources of bias in self-assessment; correlates of self-assessment; learner self-assessment and teacher or professional self-assessment.

Working within a broad discussion of methodology and the problems of theory and praxis particular to a 'global', postmodern, and neoliberal era, this course invites students to work through methodological dilemmas, choices and experiments within the context of their own research projects and in conversation with a variety of qualitative methodologists. Readings will propose critical, creative, and collaborative solutions to a range of contemporary qualitative methodology concerns in the field of education today. In particular, the problematics of gender and race, the impact of neoliberal politics on workers and learners, the tensions of local and global, the competing epistemologies of art and science, structural and post-structural, the ethical relations between researchers and research participants, the challenges of 'representation', the struggles over claims to truth are some of the subjects to be addressed in the discussion of research design and methodology.

This course explores inquiry as a methodological stance on practice, a framework for investigating and addressing critical issues in school, classroom, and community-based research. What Cochran-Smith and Lytle (2001; 2009) have theorized as an inquiry stance invites educators to regard educational projects as sites of knowledge generation, occurring within social, historical, cultural, and political contexts. With its emphasis on the intimate relationship between knowledge and practice, this concept foregrounds the role that practitioners can play—individually and collectively—in generating understandings, rich conceptualizations, in the service of enacting new educational possibilities. Taking an inquiry stance involves constructively problematizing conventional educational arrangements, interrogating how knowledge is constructed, evaluated and used in various settings, and re-imagining the roles practitioners might play in actualizing change in their work contexts.

Drawing on this notion of inquiry as stance, this course will explore what it means to be a practitioner researcher in educational institutions and community-based organizations. This course is intended for MA and PhD students interested in exploring the possibilities and the potential of developing new understandings and research within actual educational contexts that they shape daily. This may include a range of initiatives, from developing small-scale studies to inform ongoing practice to developing larger research projects, including practitioner inquiry dissertations. The course will pay particular attention to the conceptual and experiential frameworks that practitioners bring to site-based educational research. We will consider critical practitioner research in relation to other methodological approaches as well as educational conversations about the nature of research, with special consideration of how research might shape practice and inform policy and the potential contributions practitioners can make.

Beginning by situating the roots of critical literacy within the landscape of literacy research, this course explores how critical literacy has been taken up by educators, in and out of formal school settings, both historically and in contemporary educational contexts, in North America as well as globally. Weekly readings and examples highlight how K-Adult teachers invite students, to paraphrase Paulo Freire, to critically read and rewrite their worlds, examine power relationships in society, understand the function of ideology in a wide range of texts, and situate their learning within broader political contexts.

This course is designed as a collaborative inquiry into the field of critical literacy and its relation to our own teaching and research. Each week, we will look at examples from practice and from research literature to explore how critical literacy has been taken up in school and community settings. Our engagement with scholars in the field will be done with an eye to how their work can inform our own research and teaching.

This course examines the linkages between education, both formal and non-formal, and the social development of nations, with particular focus on the process of educational policy formation for both developing nations and developing sub-areas within richer nations. The course aims to acquaint students with the main competing ''theories'' or conceptualizations of the development process and, through examination of a representative set of recent empirical studies and ''state of the art'' papers, to develop an understanding of the relationships between educational activities and programs and various aspects of social development, with an overall focus on problems of social inequality. The overarching objective is to help develop a better understanding of how, in confronting a particular educational policy problem, one's own theoretical preconceptions, data about the particular jurisdiction, and comparative data about the problem at hand interact to produce a policy judgment.

This course will provide students with an opportunity to learn about the arts-based research methods of performed ethnography and research-informed theatre. Performed ethnography, also known as performance ethnography and ethnodrama, involves turning the findings of ethnographic research into a play script that can be read aloud by a group of participants or performed before audiences. Performed ethnography can be seen as one kind of research-informed theatre. Other examples of research-informed theatre we will look at in this course include autobiographical theatre, community theatre, verbatim theatre, documentary theatre, tribunal theatre and history theatre.

Taking as a starting point a conception of pedagogy that centres relational encounters, this course seeks to consider the question of how to enter into relationships with others that seek to transform the very terms that define such relationships. The course explores how the concept of solidarity has been used to both explain the nature of social relationships between groups and individuals, as well as how it has been mobilized as a strategy for political work. In both counts, solidarity plays a key pedagogical role because it seeks to either sustain or challenge particular social arrangements. The course takes education and educational experience as a particular site for thinking through solidarity as both explanation and strategy, and considers a range of educational situations, including the classroom, to consider the complexities of solidarity as ethical encounters in pedagogical relations.

This course will examine the research of, and different approaches to, applied and socially engaged theatre. Practitioners engaged in forms of applied theatre, such as drama in education, theatre for development, Verbatim theatre, participatory theatre etc. often believe creating and witnessing theatrical events can make a difference to the way people interact with one another and with the world at large. The 'social turn' in theatre is understood politically, artistically, and educationally to be in the service of social change, although there is certainly no single nor consistent ideological position that supports the expansive use of theatre in classrooms and communities. Theatre has been consistently used in formal and informal educational settings as a way to galvanize participation and make learning more relational, or more a student/participant-centred rather than teacher/facilitator- centred proposition. In addition to exploring the educational value of applied theatre in a range of contexts and through a variety of interventions and intentions, the course will also contemplate the ethics and poetics of representation in performance and in research.

This course will focus on matters of equity, inclusion, and school reform as these pertain to differences of sexual orientation and gender identity among students in elementary and secondary schools. Course content and instruction will focus on understanding and addressing educational and schooling issues confronting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, and queer (LGBTQ) students. It will also explore strategies and resources for challenging homophobia, heterosexism, and transphobia in classrooms and schools. We will examine the ways homophobia, heterosexism, and transphobia intersect with multiple identities, other forms of oppression and our history of white settler colonialism. We will also examine curriculum materials and community support services that promote sensitivity, visibility and social justice.

This course examines how creative practices can be employed to generate innovative research in the humanities and social sciences. Course participants will analyze current debates on representation, rationale, and ethics, and in particular they will examine how arts-based practices/processes can move educational research towards more critical, democratic, and participatory forms of research by attending to issues of social justice and equity.

This course explores different approaches to the arts in urban schools, with a focus on how the arts might play a role in teaching for equity and social justice. Using a critical lens, students will explore the role that the arts might play pedagogically and in the curriculum in urban schools. Among other themes, students will explore how to incorporate the arts for teaching in non-arts classrooms, critical issues in curriculum and instruction in various arts disciplines, as well as non-curricular and community-based approaches to the arts in school related contexts. Students will have an opportunity to explore different artistic disciplines and consider how they might incorporate the arts as a strategy in teaching for social change.

The examination of current topics or problems in play, drama, and arts education as related to curriculum studies. Issues will be identified from all age levels of education as well as from dramatic play, each of the arts disciplines, and aesthetic education as a whole. Students will address one specific topic through self-directed learning and present the results in an appropriate form. Topics vary from year to year depending upon interests of course members.

This course examines the nature of spirituality. After exploring various conceptions of spirituality the course then examines how it can be part of the school curriculum in a non threatening manner. More specifically, the course explores the nature of the soul and how the soul can be nourished in the classroom through approaches such as imagery, dreams, journal writing, and forms of contemplation. The arts and earth education are also examined in this context. Finally the role of the teacher will be explored.

This course will focus on curriculum that facilitates personal growth and social change. Various programs and techniques that reflect a holistic orientation will be analysed: for example, Waldorf education, social action programs, and transpersonal techniques such as visualization and the use of imagery in the classroom. The philosophical, psychological, and social context of the holistic curriculum will also be examined.

It has been well documented that many adults experience mathematics anxiety, possibly due to the traditional way they have been taught math in their own schooling. This course utilizes a holistic approach in helping elementary teachers to reconstruct their foundational math knowledge and overcome their anxieties. Utilizing reform-based approaches, participants will work in small groups on selected mathematics problems and hands-on explorations at an appropriate level of difficulty. Journal writing, group reflection and guided visualization activities will be used to help participants become aware of, and start dealing with their emotional and cognitive blocks in relation to mathematics. Such work opens the door to accessing one's mathematical intuition and creativity. A discussion of how the strategies used in the course, or reported in the literature, can be adapted for mathematics-anxious students will also be included.

During this highly interactive course, graduate students will investigate in depth, current research on effective teaching strategies in elementary mathematics focusing on student communication and its implications for classroom practice. This course will also provide opportunities for graduate students to deepen their understanding of the research literature through hands-on activities, student work samples, and classroom-researched videos. We will examine the research related to student discourse and communication in order to explore not only students' understanding of mathematical concepts, but also the use of mathematical language and the social interactions that take place between students. No experience in teaching mathematics or previous coursework related to mathematics is required.

This course will focus on the holistic nature of wellness, through a phenomenology of practice. Phenomenology of practice is an approach that concentrates on the study of consciousness and the objects of direct experience and relates to the meaning and practice of phenomenology in professional contexts, as well as the practice of phenomenological methods in the context of everyday living. In this course, phenomenological reflection, using aspects of multimedia, will be employed in a concentrated effort to engage with the complexity of the topic of wellness. The course begins with questions relating to the meaning of “wellness,” by exploring philosophical and historical orientations towards wellness. Seminars will survey concepts, issues and approaches associated with wellness and educative practice. Theoretical and practical problems will be examined through themes such as sources of self, reality constructions, human agency and awareness.

This course explores the theory and practice (praxis) of Environmental and Sustainability Education (ESE) in school and community settings. Students will investigate the historical roots, theoretical foundations and pedagogical traditions of ESE from personal and organizational perspectives, contextualizing these in recent developments in research, policy, and practice in Canada and internationally. The praxis of ESE will be situated in relation to equity, social justice, Indigenous ways of knowing, health and wellbeing, and transformative learning. Students will use this as a starting point to explore and develop practices in ESE in classrooms and community settings as a means to better position and integrate ESE in their own work as educators and researchers.

This graduate level course is designed to examine conceptual, epistemological, political, cultural, methodological, and ethical insights, opportunities, and challenges faced and addressed by OISE's prospective students and graduates during their learning about and carrying out of both qualitative and quantitative research as well as knowledge production work in non-western, developing countries' contexts. The course's ultimate focus suggests the analysis of the connections between the overall research and knowledge production experiences, the various forces that impinge upon them and how all these relate to curriculum, teaching. and learning, as well as policy making, broadly conceptualized and practically grounded in the participants' particular contexts.

OISE students, graduates, and faculty are increasingly engaged in and exposed to what one might call international, comparative, developmental, and cross-cultural work abroad and at home. During and after their graduation, many of them work outside Canada as citizens, teachers, teacher educators/faculty, researchers, development specialists, consultants, and leaders of educational, development institutions. Working in comparative, international, and development fields is full of challenges and opportunities, but addressing and seizing these challenges and opportunities does not happen automatically. What do these various roles mean in developing countries' contexts that are both similar and different in political, epistemological, cultural, health, and resource terms? How do we, as educators, navigate the various roles, identities, situations, forces, and interests to ensure the success of our research, programmatic and leadership undertakings? What challenges do we face and how do we address them? What models, theories, and approaches exist that provide conceptual and methodological frameworks for successful engagement in the above-mentioned roles/situations?

And if a better solution to education and overall empowerment of students in the comparative, international contexts include development of culturally sensitive pedagogy, relevant curricula, and policy making, what do these mean and how are these produced? How do we negotiate power and privilege, intellectual and research priorities and interests between the context of global north and south? How do we address safety, security, health, intellectual freedom, ethics, and other challenges in the contexts where we are both privileged, but also vulnerable? How do we know that what we do is impactful, sustainable, and promotive of justice and equity and truly reaching out to those who are in genuine need? How do we ward off cultural insularity and intellectual arrogance, and become learners in these new contexts? How can our research, development, consultancy work in the global south become educative experiences for further growth for us and for those with whom we work? What do the learning, thinking, and production of solutions and insights outside western epistemological frames imply? Lastly, how can one create equitable approaches to production of new knowledge based on a critical-constructive synthesis of local and global, western and non-western epistemologies, methodologies, and modalities of research?

Notably, a recent issue of the journal Comparative Education Review ((May 2017, 61 (1)) has also emphasized that the field of comparative, international, and development education needs to reflexively engage its Eurocentric foundations and biases and move towards a pluralist position where non-Eurocentric alternative knowledge production approaches are given space. This course, through its critical, post-colonial, southern, and holistic approaches will try to fill this niche.

This course examines what mathematics should be taught, how to define and increase students' understanding of mathematics, classroom discourse and student engagement in elementary mathematics. The intent of the course is to provide a grounding in mathematics education.

This course involves a study of theories of learning in the context of science education, a survey of research relating to children's understanding of concepts in science, and an exploration of strategies for more effective science teaching.

A detailed study of issues in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science that have significance for science education, an examination of the philosophy underpinning the STS movement, and a consideration of some of the theoretical and practical problems surrounding the implementation of science curricula intended to focus on environmental, socioeconomic, cultural, and moral-ethical issues.