The Schools Ain’t What They Used to Be and Never Was – 21st Century Schools, Learners, and Teachers

Abstract

This writing presents our views, as university teacher educators and scholars, concerning some issues pertaining to the readiness of contemporary Canadian education to move forward, well, with confidence and competence, into the mid-21st Century. We posit that all which is possible, educationally, lives in the give and take between Canadian education‘s geo-political, economic and linguistic past, the current functioning of contemporary schools as contested learning and teaching sites, and the increasing impacts of globalisation. We draw from guiding adult education principles in support of an enriched and expanded commitment to teacher professional development as a pathway to sustainable education reform.