Globalization: A Shifting Context for the Canadian Education Landscape (2012)

Globalization is affecting education systems around the world, as political and economic alliances shift and information moves quickly through online pathways. Education reflects these changes and paves the road to adulthood, career, and global citizenship. Canada has been changed by immigration as well as the exodus of our educators, students, curricula, and theory to other countries around the world. As the first CJE issue dedicated to Canadian education from comparative and international perspectives, this special issue provides a unique platform from which to critically examine the field of Canadian education as it is currently shaped and influenced by globalization. It also provides a means to share the research experiences and scholarship generated in the Canadian context with a broader international community. This issue consists of a collection of 11 timely articles engaging with theory-driven syntheses of current scholarship, reports of new research, studies on transformative educational practices, and critical discussions of major educational issues and phenomena emerging from globalization, which brings both challenges and opportunities to the scholarly work and teaching practices in Canada and internationally. issue starts with Paul Tarc's The Uses of Globalization in the (Shifting) Landscape of Educational Studies, which critically examines the term 'globalization' as a conceptual lens significantly impacting academic discourses in education and other disciplines. In this paper, Tarc summarizes the major impacts of globalization on education and examines the discourse of Globalization and Education through analyzing the key texts published around the turn of the 21st century. This paper maps out and clarifies the potential applications for, and implications of, the 'lens' of globalization for educational scholarship. An important impact of globalization on Canadian education is reflected in the greatly increased international mobility of both educators and students between countries. Several articles collected in this special issue are concerned with educators and students' cross-border educational experiences. article Locating Home: Newcomer Youths' School and Community Engagement by Chrissy Deckers and Dawn Zinga examines newcomer youth's experience in the Canadian education system and explores how diversity among newcomer youth explains the differences in their school engagement and success. This paper presents and stresses a deeper understanding of the motivations behind youths' varied levels and approaches of school engagement; it also discusses the implications of such understandings on educational practices and policy development. Similarly, the article the Way: Teaching and Learning with and for Youth from Refugee Backgrounds by Joanne MacNevin presents a qualitative study exploring teaching and learning with and for youth from refugee backgrounds in Prince Edward Island (PEI). Reporting some of the challenges and professional development needs of teachers working with refugee youth, this study confirms the gap in educational services available to these students who have experienced trauma and stresses, as well as the need for ongoing professional development for teachers to better meet the needs of these students. Practical implications of such challenges for educational policy and practice are discussed in this paper in relation to current research literature. An increased number of internationally educated teachers (IETs) has emerged in Canadian schools and communities as a response to the needs of students who are immigrants, refugees, and first generation Canadians. Teachers for Diverse Students by Farahnaz Faez provides a context of teacher education programs in Canada with particular attention to their focus on preparing teachers for diversity and teaching English Language Learners (ELLs). This paper is based on a study that examines Canadian-born and internationally educated teachers' (IETs') self-perceived preparedness to teach ELLs. …