Educational Research, Policy, and Collaboration for the Future of Public Education

Abstract

As we write this editorial in December 2022, a season of celebration, reflection, and renewal, we are struck by how each article in this winter issue offers something to celebrate about Canadian public schools, while simultaneously urging us to reflect on what needs to be changed and improved. Cutting-edge research in this issue offers much to educators, leaders, and policy makers for planning ahead. Specifically, covering the period of the last two decades, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the research in this collection illuminates learning opportunities, experiences, and outcomes across primary and secondary schools in Canada and the provincial-level policies that determine and/ or shape them. The specific topics include high school completion patterns, the effects of summer learning programs, the experiences of physically-distanced learning during the pandemic, cross-country policy responses to the pandemic, and the future of robotics-incorporated education. In this editorial, we discuss the significance of each of these studies, while emphasizing that more research is needed on issues impacting under-represented groups, especially research undertaken by, with, and for Indigenous and Black people and communities.