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Classrooms are complex spaces. These complexities magnify the teacher's sense of obligation to children and the subsequent experiences of being overwhelmed, which can influence the teacher's decision to leave the profession. Yet, we believe that a teacher's obligation to children is inherent to morally defensible teaching. Drawn from a larger research project, we explore one teacher's experience of obligation as a promissory relation between the teacher and the child, and consider the effect this has on the teacher's relationships with other professionals and her disengagement from the profession. In doing so, we will illustrate the teacher's experiences of obligation; the ways these are complicated within the matrix of relationships with professional colleagues; and the possibilities for professional disengagement to be considered an act of moral resistance.Lena, a veteran teacher of over 30 years, flatly stated, 'there have been lots of times when I've been overwhelmed …. Sometimes, trying to develop a community in the classroom felt impossible, and trying to meet so many needs, I felt like I was sinking. I remember driving home so many days just feeling like I was drowning because there was so much going on for those children. They were living hellish lives and I was trying to make their days at school happy. ' Although Lena's description may be surprising to some, it is reflective of many teachers' experiences in our research. Canadian teachers are immersed in classrooms that are more diverse and complex than ever (Clandinin, Downey, & Huber, 2009). This is evidenced by increased child poverty rates (Campaign 2000(Campaign , 2015; increasing numbers of children in care of the state (Jones, Sinha, & Trocmé, 2015) with some provinces having the highest rates of children in care in the world (Brownell et al., 2015); increased racial, ethnic and linguistic diversity (Statistics Canada, 2011); and the highest rates of inclusion of students with special needs in mainstream classrooms in the OECD countries (Evans, 2010). These multiple and diverse interests and needs of children place great demands on teachers to respond ethically.

Discourses of children as deficient and deviant are common within the education system and shape the ways in which educators interact with and respond to children. To illustrate this, we conducted a critical discourse analysis of a provincial policy document that directs schools in the development of Codes of Conduct. Drawing on poststructural theory, we demonstrate the ways in which the discourses within policy construct and reify particular identities of the child and of misbehaviour and how these discourse influence conceptions of behaviour “management.” We argue for a reconceptualization of the identity of the child as a contextualized and socially embedded being. In doing so, we articulate an opening for ethical engagements with children that rely on our responsibility for the other.

Students who have been labeled as having “behaviour problems” in the school system have some of the worst academic and social outcomes of any student group. In most Canadian provinces, responses to students who misbehave are legislated through Safe Schools policies intended to guide districts and individual schools in responding to student misbehaviour. In this research project, we conducted a critical discourse analysis of Manitoba’s Safe and Caring Schools documentation in order to analyze the ways in which provincial policies construct school-based responses to behaviours. Based on our analysis, recommendations for policy-makers to better support studentsinclude revising policies to reflect reconceptualized views of children, non-deficit understandings of behaviour, and ethical responses to student behaviour.

This paper presents the findings from a collaborative inquiry research study that explored instructors’ perspectives and students’ perceptions of an innovative ten-day graduate level human rights education course for educators. The course was the result of a partnership between the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. The purpose of the course was to encourage students to critically examine human rights; specifically, whose human rights stories get told, how they get told, and by whom. The findings suggest that while there were worthwhile insights gained when considering on teaching about, through, and for human rights, there were also significant challenges that can inform other courses that encourage students to adopt a critical stance with topics, like human rights, that seem unassailable. Cet article présente les résultats d’une recherche menée en collaboration dont l’objectif était d’explorer les perspectives des instructeurs et les perceptions des étudiants concernant un cours de cycle supérieur de dix jours pour éducateurs sur les droits de la personne. Le cours était le résultat d’un partenariat entre la Faculté d’éducation de l’Université du Manitoba et le Musée canadien pour les droits de la personne. L’objectif du cours était d’encourager les étudiants à examiner les droits de la personne de façon critique, en particulier les récits concernant les droits de la personne qui sont racontés, la manière dont ils sont racontés et par qui. Les résultats suggèrent que, bien que le cours ait permis d’acquérir des connaissances utiles qui peuvent être enseignées sur les droits de la personne et pour ces droits, il a également permis de mettre à jour des défis importants qui pourraient s’appliquer à d’autres cours dans lesquels on encourage les étudiants à adopter un point de vue critique sur des sujets tels que les droits de la personne qui semblent inattaquables.