Diversity in Canadian education

Riffel, J. Anthony; Levin, Benjamin; Young, Jonathan C.

doi:10.1080/0268093960110106

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…It is no accident that most lists of goals for schools contain a large number of items that are not always mutually consistent. And the growing diversity in our society, coupled with the growing recognition of the importance of diversity, makes the challenge steadily greater as we struggle to develop a common institution that is also able to accommodate difference (Levin & Riffel, 1994;Riffel, Levin & Young, 1996). Schools cannot achieve all the things we want from them, and they cannot satisfy all the expectations we have of them.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Criticizing the Schools, Then and Now

Levin

1998

EPAA

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Schools in many countries are facing intense and elevated levels of criticism, with much debate over whether the criticism is merited. Much of the criticism embodies a view that things used to be better years ago, when schools were not prey to the many defects they are alleged to show today. Recollections of the past may hide a mixed reality. In this article, criticisms of education from 1957 are compared with contemporary criticisms. Some issues have remained important across forty years, while a few new issues have emerged. Criticisms of forty years ago centered on the dominance of "professional educationists," progressivism, the life adjustment movement, the waning "spirit of competition," lax discipline, the lack of emphasis on classical and modern foreign languages, avoidance of science and math, the neglect of gifted children, the lack of training of children in moral and spiritual values, and low academic standards. Today's debates introduce the alleged test score declines, poor performance on international achievement comparisons, the supposed enormous increase in funding without positive results, the problem of high dropout rates, and the need to connect schooling and work. In addition, modern critics point to economic concerns, whether in terms of funding for education or in regard to the contribution of schooling to economic development.Educators are facing intense and elevated levels of criticism. Scholars debate whether the criticism is merited. The "pages" of the Education Policy Analysis Archives have themselves been a site for this debate on a number

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Criticizing the Schools, Then and Now

Levin

1998

EPAA

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“…Learning disabilities, mainstreaming, multiply disabled children, individual education programmes, all these substantive issues of today were essentially unknown until the late 1960s. Attention to differences in gender, ethnicity, language, sexual preference and social class have brought a new series of issues around how we reconcile respect for difference with some sense of commonality (Riffel et al, 1996). Technology has become yet another major focus of change as schools develop computer capacities and curricula.…”

Section: The Paradox Of School Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Conceptualising School Change

Levin

Riffel

1998

Cambridge Journal of Education

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“…Even in the 1960s and 1970s, which might be seen as the high point of common schools, Canada provided religious and linguistic minority schools, French Immersion, bilingual programs, Heritage Language, federal government schools, and yet another system for Status Indians. 1 Indeed, in international terms Canada has one of the more diverse systems of educational provision (Riffel, Levin, and Young 1996). Had we really adopted the common school, we would not now have in Newfoundland such vigorous debate about moving from five school systems to one!…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%