Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l'éducation
Can summer programs, as remedial supplements to regular schooling, extend learning opportunities ... more Can summer programs, as remedial supplements to regular schooling, extend learning opportunities and other benefits to disadvantaged students? To frame this question, we compare logics from “social reproduction” and “partial compensation” perspectives, and then apply them to a large mixed method study of four kinds of summer programs in Ontario. Drawing on quantitative data on over 10,000 students and qualitative data from interviews with over 200 teachers and parents, we examined patterns of student recruitment and participation, social valuations, and academic outcomes. We found that all summer programs successfully recruited disadvantaged students without stigmatizing them, and raised their average achievement without widening pre-existing gaps. We interpret these findings as being consistent with the “partial compensation” perspective, and discuss related policy implications that include COVID-19 learning recovery strategies.
Supplemental material, Educational_Status_Hierarchies.Appendix.ed for Educational Status Hierarch... more Supplemental material, Educational_Status_Hierarchies.Appendix.ed for Educational Status Hierarchies, After-School Activities, and Parenting Logics: Lessons from Canada by Janice Aurini, Rod Missaghian and Roger Pizarro Milian in Sociology of Education
ABSTRACT This paper describes three eras of state building and higher education in Canada. Higher... more ABSTRACT This paper describes three eras of state building and higher education in Canada. Higher education in ‘Old Canada’ before WWII was mostly a small collection of colleges that bore imprints of American and British institutions and provided personnel needed to develop a vast and sparsely populated territory. The ‘Hey Day of Canadian Nationalism’ from 1950 to 1990 greatly expanded universities and colleges in a broader project of modern state building and social uplift, borrowing organizational models from mass-access American state colleges. The third era, ‘Transnational Nation-Building,’ spanning the past 20 years, uses Canadian degrees and diplomas to lure selective immigrants who seek Canadian citizenship and entrée to an emerging transnational class of English-speaking professionals. That strategy, along with a series of converging forces, is leveraging Canadian colleges and universities to implicitly adopt a new institutional path. We end by discussing insights that the Canadian case may provide for comparative understandings of higher education and state building.
Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 2017
This study examines how staff working for one Ontario school board perceive two distinct approach... more This study examines how staff working for one Ontario school board perceive two distinct approaches to school discipline policy: the Safe Schools Act (Bill 81) and Progressive Discipline and School Safety (Bill 212). The more centrally controlled and rigid Safe Schools Act was criticized by interviewees and cited for human rights violations. However, the inherent flexibility and vagueness of the Progressive Discipline policy that replaced it was seen to lead to inconsistent policy implementation and unequal outcomes for students. This paper considers the broader implications of policies that are “tightly coupled” or “loosely coupled” in terms of teachers’ professional discretion, accountability, and student outcomes.
This article draws from American research on ‘‘concerted cultivation’’ to compare the parenting l... more This article draws from American research on ‘‘concerted cultivation’’ to compare the parenting logics of 41 upper-middle-class parents in Toronto, Canada. We consider not only how parents structure their children’s after-school time (what parents do) but also how the broader ecology of schooling informs their parenting logics (how they rationalize their actions). We find that parenting practices mirror American research. Upper-middle-class families enroll their children in multiple lessons and cultivate their children’s skills. However, unlike their American counterparts, Canadian parenting logics are not explicitly stratification oriented, guided by a desire to access elite universities. Canada’s relatively flat stratification system of higher education, where prestige differences between universities are minimal, prompts the emergence of a more expressive parenting ethos. Our findings draw attention to the macrofoundations of social behavior by articulating the connection between...
This article examines whether market forces encourage private education entrepreneurs to strategi... more This article examines whether market forces encourage private education entrepreneurs to strategically outsmart the competition in ways that improve the quality of their programs or service delivery. Based on interviews with eighty private education entrepreneurs, we find that market competition does not inform how they understand their role in the wider education sector or how they made sense of their actions. Instead entrepreneurs tie their program, hiring and customer service decisions to an ideological commitment to students and by defining themselves as educators. Drawing on the sense-making literature, we suggest that this worldview guides their actions more so than the principle of supply and demand. This paper opens the black box of private education organizations, and offers a nuanced addition to mounting research that challenges the connection between market competition and school performance.
Education policy is intended to be adopted by stakeholders, yet high-level policies may not refle... more Education policy is intended to be adopted by stakeholders, yet high-level policies may not reflect reality at home or school. This article draws on interviews with 127 teachers and parents of children in Grades 1–3 to examine the degree to which they align with Ontario’s Ministry of Education parent engagement policy. We demonstrate how perceptions of parent engagement differ by role (teacher and parent), priorities (universalistic vs. particularistic), and parents’ social class background (working and middle class). We consider the challenges of promoting policies targeted at supporting good parenting practices.
Drawing on a photo-interview study of home reading practices with 35 children (ages 5–8) we exami... more Drawing on a photo-interview study of home reading practices with 35 children (ages 5–8) we examine how the ‘parent-effect’ influences research with young children. Not surprisingly, we find that parents influence reading practices and access to literacy resources. However, it is also clear that children’s reliance on parents affects data collection. Children who have more help from parents produce better photographs and a clearer narrative about home reading practices, but parents’ use of impression management influence the images that children produce and sometimes the photo-interview that follows. Rather than compromising children’s agency or the purity of the data, we argue that the parent-effect can be used an indicator of cultural norms about parenting; it can shed light into the dynamics of the parent-child relationships; and it can illuminate the degree to which children exert ‘child capital’ over home reading practices and the social construction of family life.
Out of the Shadows: The Global Intensification of Supplementary Education, 2013
Abstract Purpose In this chapter we draw on research from Canada to develop a framework for under... more Abstract Purpose In this chapter we draw on research from Canada to develop a framework for understanding the variety of forms of supplementary education and their position within broader organization fields of education. The chapter asks: What is the nature and organizing logic of supplementary education in Canada? and, How does supplementary education relate to public schools in Canada? Design/methodology/approach Data come from a variety of secondary sources. Findings Distributed between three relatively autonomous settings – state, market, and nonprofit – supplementary education exhibits tremendous variety in its use value to parents, instructional content, and organizational form. Supplementary education is popular among Canadian parents and appears to be growing, yet it has failed to fundamentally alter the technical core of Canadian schooling, processes that stratify students, and child and family usage of their time or income. Supplementary education’s inability to penetrate these processes reflects its peripheral position within the broader organizational field of Canadian schooling. Originality/value The adoption of an organizational field approach generates new ways of thinking about determinants, forming and organizing logics of supplementary education both nationally and comparatively.
The Impact of Comparative Education Research on Institutional Theory
Private tutoring is a worldwide phenomenon, long-popular in Europe and Asia (Baker & LeTendre... more Private tutoring is a worldwide phenomenon, long-popular in Europe and Asia (Baker & LeTendre, 2005; Bray, 2003; Stevenson & Baker, 1992), and increasingly so in North America (Aurini, 2004; Aurini & Davies, 2004; Davies, 2004). However, this K-12 “supplementary education” or “shadow education” sector is being transformed. Until recently it has been a cottage industry of individual tutors and test prep companies, but corporate bodies are revolutionizing it around the globe. For instance, Kumon has spread from Japan to now boast 26,000 franchises in 43 countries.1 Educate, Inc., the umbrella company for industry giant Sylvan Learning Center, currently operates 950 centers in North America, and 900 in Europe under the Schulerhilfe brand. Several franchises have expanded from their original target market of math and reading tutoring to aggressively enter new niches, including SAT/ACT prep, high school credits, online tutoring, and post-secondary programs.2 These corporations are thriving in niches with relatively little competition from established public schools or non-profit institutions. The largest corporations are publicly traded and rank among top companies in business circles.
Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l'éducation
Can summer programs, as remedial supplements to regular schooling, extend learning opportunities ... more Can summer programs, as remedial supplements to regular schooling, extend learning opportunities and other benefits to disadvantaged students? To frame this question, we compare logics from “social reproduction” and “partial compensation” perspectives, and then apply them to a large mixed method study of four kinds of summer programs in Ontario. Drawing on quantitative data on over 10,000 students and qualitative data from interviews with over 200 teachers and parents, we examined patterns of student recruitment and participation, social valuations, and academic outcomes. We found that all summer programs successfully recruited disadvantaged students without stigmatizing them, and raised their average achievement without widening pre-existing gaps. We interpret these findings as being consistent with the “partial compensation” perspective, and discuss related policy implications that include COVID-19 learning recovery strategies.
Supplemental material, Educational_Status_Hierarchies.Appendix.ed for Educational Status Hierarch... more Supplemental material, Educational_Status_Hierarchies.Appendix.ed for Educational Status Hierarchies, After-School Activities, and Parenting Logics: Lessons from Canada by Janice Aurini, Rod Missaghian and Roger Pizarro Milian in Sociology of Education
ABSTRACT This paper describes three eras of state building and higher education in Canada. Higher... more ABSTRACT This paper describes three eras of state building and higher education in Canada. Higher education in ‘Old Canada’ before WWII was mostly a small collection of colleges that bore imprints of American and British institutions and provided personnel needed to develop a vast and sparsely populated territory. The ‘Hey Day of Canadian Nationalism’ from 1950 to 1990 greatly expanded universities and colleges in a broader project of modern state building and social uplift, borrowing organizational models from mass-access American state colleges. The third era, ‘Transnational Nation-Building,’ spanning the past 20 years, uses Canadian degrees and diplomas to lure selective immigrants who seek Canadian citizenship and entrée to an emerging transnational class of English-speaking professionals. That strategy, along with a series of converging forces, is leveraging Canadian colleges and universities to implicitly adopt a new institutional path. We end by discussing insights that the Canadian case may provide for comparative understandings of higher education and state building.
Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy, 2017
This study examines how staff working for one Ontario school board perceive two distinct approach... more This study examines how staff working for one Ontario school board perceive two distinct approaches to school discipline policy: the Safe Schools Act (Bill 81) and Progressive Discipline and School Safety (Bill 212). The more centrally controlled and rigid Safe Schools Act was criticized by interviewees and cited for human rights violations. However, the inherent flexibility and vagueness of the Progressive Discipline policy that replaced it was seen to lead to inconsistent policy implementation and unequal outcomes for students. This paper considers the broader implications of policies that are “tightly coupled” or “loosely coupled” in terms of teachers’ professional discretion, accountability, and student outcomes.
This article draws from American research on ‘‘concerted cultivation’’ to compare the parenting l... more This article draws from American research on ‘‘concerted cultivation’’ to compare the parenting logics of 41 upper-middle-class parents in Toronto, Canada. We consider not only how parents structure their children’s after-school time (what parents do) but also how the broader ecology of schooling informs their parenting logics (how they rationalize their actions). We find that parenting practices mirror American research. Upper-middle-class families enroll their children in multiple lessons and cultivate their children’s skills. However, unlike their American counterparts, Canadian parenting logics are not explicitly stratification oriented, guided by a desire to access elite universities. Canada’s relatively flat stratification system of higher education, where prestige differences between universities are minimal, prompts the emergence of a more expressive parenting ethos. Our findings draw attention to the macrofoundations of social behavior by articulating the connection between...
This article examines whether market forces encourage private education entrepreneurs to strategi... more This article examines whether market forces encourage private education entrepreneurs to strategically outsmart the competition in ways that improve the quality of their programs or service delivery. Based on interviews with eighty private education entrepreneurs, we find that market competition does not inform how they understand their role in the wider education sector or how they made sense of their actions. Instead entrepreneurs tie their program, hiring and customer service decisions to an ideological commitment to students and by defining themselves as educators. Drawing on the sense-making literature, we suggest that this worldview guides their actions more so than the principle of supply and demand. This paper opens the black box of private education organizations, and offers a nuanced addition to mounting research that challenges the connection between market competition and school performance.
Education policy is intended to be adopted by stakeholders, yet high-level policies may not refle... more Education policy is intended to be adopted by stakeholders, yet high-level policies may not reflect reality at home or school. This article draws on interviews with 127 teachers and parents of children in Grades 1–3 to examine the degree to which they align with Ontario’s Ministry of Education parent engagement policy. We demonstrate how perceptions of parent engagement differ by role (teacher and parent), priorities (universalistic vs. particularistic), and parents’ social class background (working and middle class). We consider the challenges of promoting policies targeted at supporting good parenting practices.
Drawing on a photo-interview study of home reading practices with 35 children (ages 5–8) we exami... more Drawing on a photo-interview study of home reading practices with 35 children (ages 5–8) we examine how the ‘parent-effect’ influences research with young children. Not surprisingly, we find that parents influence reading practices and access to literacy resources. However, it is also clear that children’s reliance on parents affects data collection. Children who have more help from parents produce better photographs and a clearer narrative about home reading practices, but parents’ use of impression management influence the images that children produce and sometimes the photo-interview that follows. Rather than compromising children’s agency or the purity of the data, we argue that the parent-effect can be used an indicator of cultural norms about parenting; it can shed light into the dynamics of the parent-child relationships; and it can illuminate the degree to which children exert ‘child capital’ over home reading practices and the social construction of family life.
Out of the Shadows: The Global Intensification of Supplementary Education, 2013
Abstract Purpose In this chapter we draw on research from Canada to develop a framework for under... more Abstract Purpose In this chapter we draw on research from Canada to develop a framework for understanding the variety of forms of supplementary education and their position within broader organization fields of education. The chapter asks: What is the nature and organizing logic of supplementary education in Canada? and, How does supplementary education relate to public schools in Canada? Design/methodology/approach Data come from a variety of secondary sources. Findings Distributed between three relatively autonomous settings – state, market, and nonprofit – supplementary education exhibits tremendous variety in its use value to parents, instructional content, and organizational form. Supplementary education is popular among Canadian parents and appears to be growing, yet it has failed to fundamentally alter the technical core of Canadian schooling, processes that stratify students, and child and family usage of their time or income. Supplementary education’s inability to penetrate these processes reflects its peripheral position within the broader organizational field of Canadian schooling. Originality/value The adoption of an organizational field approach generates new ways of thinking about determinants, forming and organizing logics of supplementary education both nationally and comparatively.
The Impact of Comparative Education Research on Institutional Theory
Private tutoring is a worldwide phenomenon, long-popular in Europe and Asia (Baker & LeTendre... more Private tutoring is a worldwide phenomenon, long-popular in Europe and Asia (Baker & LeTendre, 2005; Bray, 2003; Stevenson & Baker, 1992), and increasingly so in North America (Aurini, 2004; Aurini & Davies, 2004; Davies, 2004). However, this K-12 “supplementary education” or “shadow education” sector is being transformed. Until recently it has been a cottage industry of individual tutors and test prep companies, but corporate bodies are revolutionizing it around the globe. For instance, Kumon has spread from Japan to now boast 26,000 franchises in 43 countries.1 Educate, Inc., the umbrella company for industry giant Sylvan Learning Center, currently operates 950 centers in North America, and 900 in Europe under the Schulerhilfe brand. Several franchises have expanded from their original target market of math and reading tutoring to aggressively enter new niches, including SAT/ACT prep, high school credits, online tutoring, and post-secondary programs.2 These corporations are thriving in niches with relatively little competition from established public schools or non-profit institutions. The largest corporations are publicly traded and rank among top companies in business circles.
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Papers by Janice Aurini