The Canadian Public Education System: Issues and Prospects

George G. Ambury is an associate professor of adult education at
Queen’s University.

This work seeks to take a broad look at a wide variety of educational
issues in English-speaking Canada (though some writers do mention
Quebec).

The first section deals with what are called “contextual issues”:
private schooling, public finance, multiculturalism, legal rights, the
role of women in administration, and province-wide examinations. The
next section presents what the editor sees as current issues: the
federal intrusion into language programs, provincial policy-making,
school trustees, teacher organizations, and Indian education. The book
concludes with a look into the future; here, papers deal with such
topics as future clients, the funding of independent and public schools,
the role of lobbying, and curriculum reform.

While the articles are generally well researched and well written
(often by established scholars), the work as a whole would have been
strengthened if the editor had presented a rationale for the arrangement
of the articles and provided some synthesis or overview of the issues
raised. Nevertheless, this rather disjointed collection of articles does
provide a comprehensive introduction to a wide range of ideas about the
policy issues facing educators in English-speaking Canada.