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This paper presents research on the benefits of service learning for pre-service teachers in the final year of their concurrent education program. The purpose of the research was to determine whether liberatory learning (Chambers, 2009) occurred for those students during a four-week service learning placement in organizations other than schools. Liberatory learning involves transformational shifts in social consciousness and provides service of benefit to both the participant and the host organization. Seventeen pre-service teachers and service learning supervisors completed questionnaires. Results suggest that service learning has the potential to be liberatory for pre-service teachers, but learning may remain tacit rather than explicit unless substantial opportunities for reflection are included in the service learning experience. Debriefing activities following the experience may be a critical contributor to helping participants realize the nature and extent of their learning.  

Good afternoon and thank you Kelly for that kind introduction. I was in Toronto recently at a meeting of the Learning to 18 ministry work-group and was given a copy of the latest Capacity Building Series publication entitled Collaborative Teacher Inquiry. It is pretty exciting stuff to see the Government of Ontario throw its weight behind collaborative teacher inquiry as a means of professional learning and school improvement.

The ongoing emphasis on early years education in Ontario provided a rich context for this research project, commissioned by The Learning Partnership (TLP), to evaluate a new provincial project called FACES (Family and Community Engagement Strategy). This initiative seeks to extend and enhance community-based, multi-agency partnerships that support young children and their families in successful transitions to school. Interview data from individuals and focus groups suggest re-thinking early childhood education practices to include innovative multi-agency, community-based partnerships. "Seven Keys to Success" in building multi-agency partnerships emerged from the data providing direction for educators and policy makers.

Welcome to the first of two special issues of the Canadian Journal of Action Research (CJAR) arising from the Teachers Learning Together (TLT) project of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). Over a period of three years, beginning in 2007-2008, ETFO supported teams of teachers across Ontario who conducted action research for the purpose of improving teacher practice and student learning. Education faculty members from a number of Ontario universities provided facilitation and guidance to these teacher teams. The Ontario Ministry of Education provided the funding for the Teachers Learning Together initiative.