LEARNing Landscapes
type: channel
publisher: LEARN
language: en
publication name: LEARNing Landscapes
issn: 1913-5688
items: Effective Literacy Instruction for English Learners with Learning Disabilities
items: School-Based Youth Participatory Action Research With English Learners: Art-Based Narratives for Change
items: Collaborative Action Research: Cultivating Communities of Inquiry Through School–University Partnerships
items: Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Rethinking Spelling Instruction in Elementary Grades
items: My PE, My Story: The Use of Vignettes to Understand Student Experiences of Pedagogical Innovation in PE
items: Critical Religious Literacy as Equity Literacy: Disrupting Silence in Teacher Education
items: Grounding Elementary Social Studies Teacher Education in Indigenous Knowledge
items: Honoring Story, Land, and Community: Rethinking Indigenous Literacy Education
items: Dance of the Stick: Relationships With Children in Early Childhood Settings
items: Poetry, Reflection, the Human Experience: Creating Spaces for Listening and Becoming
items: Taking Medicine That Heals: Teachers Engaging in Reflective Inquiry Through Community Cultural Wealth
items: The “Teacher” in the Classroom: A Personal Self-Study With Photographs
items: Listening Through Storywork: Source Selection for Erasure Poetry in Decolonial Praxis
items: Embedding Social Justice and Ethical Awareness in Course‑Based Research Assignments
items: Teaching Hard History Amid Contemporary Challenges: Inquiry Pedagogies for Impactful Holocaust Education
items: “Ask Us, and Not the Interpreter”: A Critical Pedagogy Inquiry on Deaf-Led Empowerment in Sign Filipino Language Teaching
items: When Inquiry Leads to the Unexpected: “Ungrading” with Preservice Teachers and the Struggle With Reflection
items: The Beautiful Chaos of Inquiry
items: Mon histoire, ton histoire: Entangling Research, Pedagogy and Theatre
items: Editorial
items: Editor's Note
items: Review Board (Issue 30)
items: Statement of Purpose
items: Seeking Care: Youth’s Counterstories Within the Context of Mental Health
items: An Early Childhood Educator’s Learning Story in the Time of COVID
items: Reflexive Inquiry’s Impact on Mindful Teaching for Student Wellbeing
items: School Sport for All: An Inclusive Developmental Framework to Improve Participation
items: Maintaining Playground Relationships Through Music During a Pandemic: An Action Research Inquiry
items: Review Board

Effective Literacy Instruction for English Learners with Learning Disabilities
type: item
description: As the number of English learners with learning disabilities continues to grow in U.S. public schools, educators are tasked with finding effective ways to support both language and literacy development. This article presents an instructional approach designed to meet the unique needs of this student population by combining current research with practical, language-focused teaching strategies. The approach highlights key areas such as academic vocabulary, syntactic awareness, explicit spelling instruction, and culturally sustaining practices. It also offers guidance on assessment, progress monitoring, and implementation, with classroom tools and real-world examples to help educators apply these strategies in their everyday teaching.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: English learners
  topic: keywords
subject: learning disabilities
  topic: keywords
subject: literacy instruction
  topic: keywords
subject: culturally sustaining pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: bilingual education
  topic: keywords
creator: Mireille Ukeye
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1178

School-Based Youth Participatory Action Research With English Learners: Art-Based Narratives for Change
type: item
description: This paper examines how a high school English Language Arts classroom engaged multilingual learners of English in a School-Based Youth Participatory Action Research (SchYPAR) cycle integrating arts and narrative‑based practices. Drawing on Freirean praxis and ethnographic observation, the study highlights how co‑teaching supported critical literacy, agency, and dialogue. Findings reveal student and teacher transformations in relation to language, identity, and collaborative inquiry, illustrating implications for inclusive and critical pedagogies in multilingual contexts.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: School-based YPAR
  topic: keywords
subject: Critical Pedagogies
  topic: keywords
subject: Multilingual Learners of English
  topic: keywords
subject: Arts-Based Research
  topic: keywords
creator: Teresa Troyer
creator: Sally Coons
creator: Rosalinda Godinez
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1177

Collaborative Action Research: Cultivating Communities of Inquiry Through School–University Partnerships
type: item
description: This article shares reflections from a collaborative action research (CAR) partnership between a regional university and a rural school in Canada. This partnership involved two university educators, two inservice teachers, and two preservice teachers, all of whom are positioned as knowers, learners, and change agents within this research. Specifically, we worked to center teachers’ knowledge through our inquiry into culturally responsive and relevant literacy practices. We highlight some of the affordances of our learning through CAR, including the benefits of learning within a community of inquiry, knowledge generation, and strengthening teacher identities. We advocate for cultivating communities of inquiry through research partnerships.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: action research
  topic: keywords
subject: inquiry communities
  topic: keywords
subject: teacher identities
  topic: keywords
subject: teacher learning
  topic: keywords
subject: teacher education
  topic: keywords
subject: school-university partnerships
  topic: keywords
creator: Deborah Toope
creator: Marie-Christina Edwards
creator: Darlene Barr
creator: Nisha Langford
creator: Emily Fultz
creator: Jessica Martin
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1176

Beyond One-Size-Fits-All: Rethinking Spelling Instruction in Elementary Grades
type: item
description: This study examined K–6 spelling instruction through surveys and interviews with 32 teachers (drawn from a pool of 168 eligible K–6 educators) in a western Pennsylvania district. Findings revealed a lack of formalized programs, overreliance on digital tools, and challenges in differentiating instruction. Effective practices included phonics-based and multisensory methods—both cornerstones of the Science of Reading—yet systemic barriers, such as inconsistent resources and limited professional development, hindered implementation. The study emphasizes the need for targeted training in explicit, systematic instruction to improve student outcomes. Implications include developing standardized assessments and robust professional learning. Future research should examine the long-term impacts of these strategies across diverse educational settings.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: phonics-based instruction
  topic: keywords
subject: multisensory learning
  topic: keywords
subject: teacher professional development
  topic: keywords
subject: differentiated instruction
  topic: keywords
subject: spelling assessment
  topic: keywords
subject: educational strategies
  topic: keywords
subject: English orthography
  topic: keywords
subject: literacy development
  topic: keywords
subject: instructional practices
  topic: keywords
subject: student engagement
  topic: keywords
subject: science of reading
  topic: keywords
creator: Joshua Sektnan
creator: Karen Larwin
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1175

My PE, My Story: The Use of Vignettes to Understand Student Experiences of Pedagogical Innovation in PE
type: item
description: Our study explores how middle school students experience pedagogical innovation in Physical Education (PE) through the implementation of the Meaningful Physical Education (Meaningful PE) framework. Using a case study design, students participated in eight units throughout the school year that explicitly prioritized meaningful experiences. Data from interviews, reflections, and journals were represented as portrait vignettes that were co-constructed with each student to capture authentic, individualized experiences. This approach highlights students’ voices and the evolving meaning they attribute to physical education over time. Findings aim to inform educators’ practice and advance research on meaningfulness and student engagement in physical education.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: meaningful
  topic: keywords
subject: innovation
  topic: keywords
subject: vignette
  topic: keywords
subject: physical education
  topic: keywords
creator: Ty Riddick
creator: Douglas Gleddie
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1174

Critical Religious Literacy as Equity Literacy: Disrupting Silence in Teacher Education
type: item
description: Religious diversity remains a marginalized aspect of social justice-oriented teacher education, leaving many preservice teachers ill-equipped to navigate the complex religious landscapes of Canadian K–12 classrooms. Drawing on qualitative case study interviews with five Canadian teacher educators, this article examines how teacher educators perceive and navigate critical religious literacy as a form of social justice. Applying Gorski’s equity literacy framework, we find that teacher educators experience silencing and self-censorship, are concerned about potential harms for preservice teachers, and consider dialogue as a point of disruption. These findings suggest that teacher educators who create intentional space for cultural safety and critical dialogue around religious diversity are better positioned to prepare preservice teachers for the religious complexity of contemporary Canadian classrooms. This kind of dialogic practice constitutes an underrecognized but essential dimension of equity-oriented teaching.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Teacher education
  topic: keywords
subject: religious literacy
  topic: keywords
subject: social justice education
  topic: keywords
subject: equity literacy
  topic: keywords
subject: critical pedagogy
  topic: keywords
creator: Erin Reid
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1173

Grounding Elementary Social Studies Teacher Education in Indigenous Knowledge
type: item
description: This article tracks a multiyear relationship between an Indigenous and a non-Indigenous preservice teacher educator working together on Odenang Inquiry pedagogy. The importance of truth-telling and relationship-building in a reconciliation context is discussed, followed by a discussion of Anishinaabe Wiijiindowin and story pedagogy as Indigenous relational self-study. We present some examples of Odenang Inquiry in social studies preservice teacher education that reflect three interconnected and layered processes. We conclude the article with some reflections on ways that the interconnections among these processes have contributed to the development of our Odenang Inquiry approach.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Indigenous knowledge
  topic: keywords
subject: Odenang Inquiry
  topic: keywords
subject: social studies
  topic: keywords
subject: decolonizing pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: reflective arts practice
  topic: keywords
creator: Sharla Peltier
creator: Janice Huber
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1172

Honoring Story, Land, and Community: Rethinking Indigenous Literacy Education
type: item
description: In a Western schooling context, literacy education is often narrowly framed through reading and writing, privileging text-based practices grounded in Eurocentric assumptions about knowledge, learning, and achievement. For many Indigenous children, such framings do not acknowledge the relational, embodied, and land-connected ways literacy is lived and learned within family, community, and culture. In this literature review, we engage scholarship on Indigenous literacy education to examine how storytelling, land, kinship, community, and creative expression open broader understandings of literacy. Rather than approaching these as separate themes or as culturally responsive additions to Western literacy instruction, we consider them as interdependent literacies that reshape how meaning-making, teaching, and learning can be understood. We argue that rethinking literacy in these ways invites educators, particularly non-Indigenous educators, to move beyond deficit and classroom-bound frameworks toward more relational, culturally grounded, and collaborative literacy practices with Indigenous students, families, and community.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: literacy
  topic: keywords
subject: literacy education
  topic: keywords
subject: Indigenous learners
  topic: keywords
subject: Land
  topic: keywords
subject: storytelling
  topic: keywords
creator: Brittany Ouellette
creator: Trudy Cardinal
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1171

Dance of the Stick: Relationships With Children in Early Childhood Settings
type: item
description: This study explores the relationships that emerged during outdoor play in an early childhood education setting. Over four months, collaborations deepened through playful encounters and co-constructed learning among children and educators, in nature. Natural materials shaped the play, and traditional hierarchy dissolved as children took the lead, inviting educators into their imaginative worlds. Through observation, documentation, and reflection, the action research illuminated the nuances of children’s behaviors, motivations, and preferences. Weekly outdoor “dances” fostered curiosity, development, and discovery. The findings suggest that when educators release control, they rediscover joy and embrace a negotiated curriculum that centers play and honors each child’s unique capabilities.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: play
  topic: keywords
subject: relationships
  topic: keywords
subject: child-led
  topic: keywords
subject: outdoor learning
  topic: keywords
creator: Linda O’Donoghue
creator: Beverlie Dietze
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1170

Poetry, Reflection, the Human Experience: Creating Spaces for Listening and Becoming
type: item
description: This work is a collaborative, reflective exploration of our lived experiences interacting with students who are directly or indirectly affected by conflict. We inquired into these experiences using poetry and wrote three poems. We present these as visuals to enrich the poetic expression. Through poetry, previously unidentified themes regarding our beliefs about teachers’ roles and identities emerged. This process demonstrated that collaborative reflective practice among educators is immensely valuable for creating inclusive and evolving teaching and learning spaces. Dialogue and open-mindedness in such spaces will foster student growth, enabling them to become confident members of society.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Reflective Practice
  topic: keywords
subject: Collaborative Inquiry
  topic: keywords
subject: Poetic Expression
  topic: keywords
subject: Conflict Zones
  topic: keywords
creator: Aleesha Noreen
creator: Kashaf Noreen
creator: Mariam Al Ramadhan
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1169

Taking Medicine That Heals: Teachers Engaging in Reflective Inquiry Through Community Cultural Wealth
type: item
description: This study explores how reflective inquiry can empower teachers from marginalized backgrounds, specifically women of color from immigrant families. Through the Community Cultural Wealth (CCW) Reflective Inquiry, K–12 teachers merged their testimonios with theoretical concepts to identify their own funds of knowledge and capital. The CCW Reflective Inquiry was developed through culturally responsive-sustaining methods to meet the needs of the teachers enrolled in a graduate-level course. This study highlights the necessity of integrating culturally responsive-sustaining methods of inquiry into teacher education to support educators in connecting to course content, navigating oppressive environments, and continuing their work toward social justice.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Community Cultural Wealth
  topic: keywords
subject: Reflective Inquiry
  topic: keywords
subject: Teacher Education
  topic: keywords
subject: Culturally Responsive
  topic: keywords
subject: Culturally Sustaining
  topic: keywords
creator: Aimée Myers
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1168

The “Teacher” in the Classroom: A Personal Self-Study With Photographs
type: item
description: This article illustrates a reflective experiment of analyzing the teacher self through personal photographs. While performing an observational study within my secondary English classroom, I embarked on my own exploration of my teacher identity and its relationship to my practice. I open the article by discussing my data collection procedures and discussion of artefacts from my recent past. I then discuss my sorting process with treating my data, as well as my methods of categorization and meaning-making with regards to my photograph collections. I conclude this article with curatorial statements, which highlight my personal engagement of self, expressed through these photographic moments.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Self-Study
  topic: keywords
subject: Photographs
  topic: keywords
subject: Teaching and Learning
  topic: keywords
subject: Surrealism
  topic: keywords
creator: Stephanie Ho
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1167

Listening Through Storywork: Source Selection for Erasure Poetry in Decolonial Praxis
type: item
description: This reflexive practitioner inquiry examines how we selected Indigenous-authored passages for an erasure poetry activity within an arts-based decolonial praxis. Guided by Jo-ann Archibald’s Indigenous Storywork methodology, we approached the sources as living entities. We came to see source selection itself as a form of teaching—foregrounding emotional resonances, identity exploration, and responsibilities. Two key learnings emerged: first, the importance of honoring passages as existing decolonial pedagogy; and second, the necessity of situating our own narratives within pedagogical practices. This account demonstrates how settler educators might take up Indigenous Storywork to encourage ethical relationality in practice.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: decolonial praxis
  topic: keywords
subject: erasure poetry
  topic: keywords
subject: Indigenization
  topic: keywords
subject: storywork
  topic: keywords
creator: Kathleen Hare
creator: Gitanjaly Chhabra
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1166

Embedding Social Justice and Ethical Awareness in Course‑Based Research Assignments
type: item
description: This article discusses guidelines for embedding research ethics and social justice into undergraduate and graduate coursework through the University of Victoria’s course-based ethics review framework. Drawing on experiential learning strategies and the Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS 2, 2022), this paper illustrates how instructors can design assignments that cultivate ethical reasoning, research integrity, and social responsibility. Practical examples from several academic disciplines demonstrate how students learn to navigate ethical complexities in real-world contexts. The framework affirms that ethical research education is not just procedural but foundational to inclusive inquiry, offering a scalable approach to teaching responsible and justice-oriented research practices.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: social justice
  topic: keywords
subject: research ethics
  topic: keywords
subject: course-based research
  topic: keywords
subject: TCPS 2
  topic: keywords
subject: human participants
  topic: keywords
creator: Sandra Gibbons
creator: Kenna Miskelly
creator: Eugenie Lam
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1165

Teaching Hard History Amid Contemporary Challenges: Inquiry Pedagogies for Impactful Holocaust Education
type: item
description: This article examines four secondary teachers’ experiences with inquiry-based approaches to teaching the “hard history” of the Holocaust after they participated in inquiry-based professional learning focused on Holocaust education. The teachers’ narratives highlight the affordances of inquiry-based pedagogy for overcoming curricular and time constraints, fostering critical thinking, and supporting student agency through studying hard history. The teachers’ narratives further suggest that inquiry-based pedagogies can deepen student perspective-taking, promote classroom discussions, and enhance teachers’ professional resilience. The article underscores the value of reflective, contextually driven, student-centered instruction, concluding with questions for inquiry that might support efforts to teach hard history in local contexts.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Hard history
  topic: keywords
subject: Inquiry pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: Professional learning
  topic: keywords
creator: Danielle Butville
creator: Logan Rutten
creator: Alyssa Hockensmith
creator: Melissa Kreider
creator: Farrell Kelly
creator: Melissa Bryan
creator: Boaz Dvir
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1164

“Ask Us, and Not the Interpreter”: A Critical Pedagogy Inquiry on Deaf-Led Empowerment in Sign Filipino Language Teaching
type: item
description: This autoethnographic reflection explores the author’s journey of learning Filipino Sign Language from her Deaf students and how Deaf-led actions led to conscientization and empowerment. Inquiry through critical pedagogy revealed shared self-doubts about abilities and a fear of challenging dominant negative narratives about Deaf people. The article illustrates how Deaf inclusion is fundamentally an inclusion of human rights in education, making it Deaf-centered. It also highlights the importance of creating a safe space for healing from the impact of linguistic and cultural oppression, which becomes an empowering process. This study recommends concrete actions to sustain linguistic and cultural justice for Deaf learners in education.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Deaf oppression
  topic: keywords
subject: critical pedagogy
  topic: keywords
subject: human rights
  topic: keywords
subject: Deaf inclusion
  topic: keywords
subject: sign language teaching
  topic: keywords
creator: Theresa Christine Benitez-dela Torre
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1163

When Inquiry Leads to the Unexpected: “Ungrading” with Preservice Teachers and the Struggle With Reflection
type: item
description: While the alternate assessment movement known as “ungrading” is increasingly common in K–12 classrooms, it has only recently reached higher education, and very little has been written about its use in teacher education classrooms. This article describes the organization and repercussions of one teacher educator’s classroom inquiry, through which a gradeless approach was implemented and adapted in a capstone course over four years. Given the degree of difficulty the future teachers appear to face when reflecting on their learning, the author considers their challenges in relation to changing perceptions and government expectations of how and why teachers learn, once in the field.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: ungrading
  topic: keywords
subject: teacher education
  topic: keywords
subject: classroom-based inquiry
  topic: keywords
subject: reflection
  topic: keywords
creator: Avril Aitken
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1162

The Beautiful Chaos of Inquiry
type: item
description: This autobiographical narrative details a veteran science educator’s transformation from a traditional teacher into a scholar-practitioner within a long-term research-practice partnership (RPP). Prompted by mid-career stagnation, the author embraced the STEM-to-STEAM movement, integrating project-based learning and critical making. A 2017 collaboration with McGill University on student-directed inquiry (SDI) served as a critical turning point, forcing her to navigate imposter syndrome and cede classroom control. Over nine years, this work evolved into a robust cross-curricular framework that dismantles subject silos. Now a McGill PhD student and RPP mentor, the author models a “fail forward” mindset, demonstrating how shifting from an all-knowing expert to a curious co-creator enriches student agency.
subject: Commentaries
  topic: section
subject: student-directed inquiry
  topic: keywords
subject: project-based learning
  topic: keywords
subject: research-practice partnership
  topic: keywords
creator: Christianne Loupelle
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1161

Mon histoire, ton histoire: Entangling Research, Pedagogy and Theatre
type: item
description: In this article I explore ways Research-based Theatre (RbT) entangles pedagogy, scholarship, and art‑making through embodied, relational inquiry. Drawing on the evolving autoethnographic play Mon histoire, ton histoire, I reflect on a theatre-based workshop in which participants co-created personal and ancestral stories through movement, monologue, gesture, and dialogue. Centering the monologue “Baggage Carousel,” I share how theatrical practices invite rhizomatic forms of knowing that blur boundaries between performer and audience, research and teaching, individual and collective memory. The workshop illustrates how arts-based inquiry can foster relational meaning-making, cultural reflection, and collaborative storying within educational spaces across diverse learning communities globally.
subject: Commentaries
  topic: section
subject: Research-based Theatre
  topic: keywords
subject: collaborative storying
  topic: keywords
subject: arts-based inquiry
  topic: keywords
creator: George Belliveau
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1160

Editorial
type: item
description: Introduction to this issue's theme of inquiry in teaching, learning, and research, and overview of the content.
subject: Editorial
  topic: section
creator: Lynn Butler-Kisber
creator: Anna Villalta
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1159

Editor's Note
type: item
description: Note about the 30th anniversary issue.
subject: Editor's Note
  topic: section
creator: Lynn Butler-Kisber
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1158

Review Board (Issue 30)
type: item
description: List of reviewers for this issue.
subject: Review Board
  topic: section
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1157

Statement of Purpose
type: item
description: LEARNing LandscapesTM Journal is an open access, peer-reviewed, online education journal supported by LEARN (Leading English Education and Resource Network). Published in the spring of each year, it attempts to make links between theory and practice and is built upon the principles of partnership, collaboration, inclusion, and attention to multiple perspectives and voices. The material in each publication attempts to share and showcase leading educational ideas, research, and practices in Quebec, and beyond. We welcome articles, interviews, visual representations, arts-informed work, and multimedia texts to inspire teachers, administrators, and other educators to reflect upon and develop innovative possibilities within their own practices.
subject: Statement of Purpose
  topic: section
subject: Learning Landscapes
  topic: keywords
creator: Lynn Butler-Kisber
rights: Copyright (c) 2026 LEARN
date: 2026-07-02
publication date: 2026-07-02
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi30.1156

Seeking Care: Youth’s Counterstories Within the Context of Mental Health
type: item
description: In this article, we draw on a narrative inquiry into the experiences of children, youth, and families waiting for mental health support during the COVID-19 pandemic in Western Canada. We foreground two youths’ experiences (Gillian, who self-identifies as transgender, and Malek, who self-identifies as racialized) to highlight the complex barriers and supports each encountered while attempting to secure appropriate care as they navigated moments of crisis within their worlds of home, school, and communities. By inquiring into their mental health stories, we foreground the unique ways these youth enacted counterstories to disrupt hegemonic constructions of their identities, build agency, and support their wellbeing.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: COVID-19
  topic: keywords
subject: narrative inquiry
  topic: keywords
subject: racialized
  topic: keywords
subject: youth mental health
  topic: keywords
subject: 2SLGBTQ
  topic: keywords
creator: Jinny Menon
creator: Michelle Lavoie
creator: Vera Caine
creator: Margot Jackson
creator: Holly Symonds Brown
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 LEARN
date: 2024-07-02
publication date: 2024-07-02
starting page: 235
ending page: 258
doi: 10.36510/learnland.v17i1.1130

An Early Childhood Educator’s Learning Story in the Time of COVID
type: item
description: While it began with a variety of narrative representations of writing personal experiences, since Ellis (2004; Bochner & Ellis, 2016), evocative, performative, and creative nonfiction forms of storying have coalesced to form contemporary autoethnography. For over a decade, Canadian arts education researchers have blazed trails to employ those forms of autoethnography as “learning stories” (Carr, 2001; Carr & Lee, 2012) to study teaching and learning practices in a variety of school and community educational contexts. Learning stories enable educators to reveal teaching and learning experiences that cannot be represented by, or communicated through, other research forms. The present inquiry, which begins with the story of an early childhood educator, is rooted in the fusion of evocative autoethnography and learning stories with arts-based research, particularly a/r/tography.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: autoethnography
  topic: keywords
subject: a/r/tography
  topic: keywords
subject: learning story
  topic: keywords
subject: living inquiry
  topic: keywords
subject: COVID-19
  topic: keywords
creator: Frances Moore
creator: Peter Gouzouasis
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 LEARN
date: 2024-07-02
publication date: 2024-07-02
starting page: 259
ending page: 274
doi: 10.36510/learnland.v17i1.1131

Reflexive Inquiry’s Impact on Mindful Teaching for Student Wellbeing
type: item
description: This inquiry investigates the effects of trauma on students by analyzing personal experiences and teaching methods. Through the lens of autoethnography, a nonfictional storytelling approach, I reflect on my learning journey to identify compassionate and mindful teaching practices, aiming to foster a trauma‑sensitive classroom environment. Emphasizing the significance of teachers sharing their stories through autoethnography, this exploration contributes valuable insights to the ongoing discourse on trauma-informed pedagogy for student wellbeing.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: wellbeing
  topic: keywords
subject: trauma-sensitive education
  topic: keywords
subject: grief
  topic: keywords
subject: resilience
  topic: keywords
creator: Melissa Morris
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 LEARN
date: 2024-07-02
publication date: 2024-07-02
starting page: 275
ending page: 286
doi: 10.36510/learnland.v17i1.1132

School Sport for All: An Inclusive Developmental Framework to Improve Participation
type: item
description: Recognizing the contributions that school sport can make to the wellbeing of students, this paper proposes a “re-imagined” school sport framework. School Sport for All (SS4A) places students at the center of building a program where development and wellbeing are prioritized. The SS4A framework fully integrates and promotes key aspects from comprehensive school health, whole-child education, and long-term athlete development throughout all its features. As a whole, SS4A aims to ensure the benefits of sport can be experienced by all, within a school system where teaching and learning are prioritized in the classroom and in the school community.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: school sport
  topic: keywords
subject: wellbeing
  topic: keywords
subject: comprehensive school health
  topic: keywords
subject: teacher-coach
  topic: keywords
subject: whole-child education
  topic: keywords
creator: Lauren Sulz
creator: Douglas Gleddie
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 LEARN
date: 2024-07-02
publication date: 2024-07-02
starting page: 287
ending page: 304
doi: 10.36510/learnland.v17i1.1133

Maintaining Playground Relationships Through Music During a Pandemic: An Action Research Inquiry
type: item
description: The COVID-19 pandemic’s restrictions for schools and playgrounds threatened children’s social and emotional wellbeing. In response, Grade 4/5 students created music-based activities through action research to sustain playground interactions. This study explored the crucial yet fragile playground relationships and the children’s determination to maintain them. Findings indicate that the student‑initiated projects were not only a medium for self-expression and maintaining friendships, but also served as an important tool for reinforcing the inherent social fabric of the playground setting. Notably, this study underscores the significance of collaborative learning, interpersonal skill development, and intrinsic motivation in fostering social skills and enhancing self-confidence.
subject: Articles
  topic: section
subject: Covid-19
  topic: keywords
subject: pandemic
  topic: keywords
subject: maintenance behaviours
  topic: keywords
subject: peer relations
  topic: keywords
subject: music education
  topic: keywords
subject: social development
  topic: keywords
creator: Matthew Yanko
rights: Copyright (c) 2024 LEARN
date: 2024-07-02
publication date: 2024-07-02
starting page: 305
ending page: 321
doi: 10.36510/learnland.v17i1.1134

Statement of Purpose
type: item
description: Statement of purpose
subject: Statement of Purpose
  topic: section
creator: Lynn Butler-Kisber
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 LEARN
date: 2025-06-24
publication date: 2025-06-24
starting page: 5
ending page: 5
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi29.1135

Review Board
type: item
description: List of reviewers for Issue 29.
subject: Review Board
  topic: section
creator: Lynn Butler-Kisber
rights: Copyright (c) 2025 LEARN
date: 2025-06-24
publication date: 2025-06-24
starting page: 6
ending page: 6
doi: 10.36510/learnland.vi29.1136