7289 research outputs found
Sort by
Frame-bending quality: Leading through discourses towards equity and student success
Get PDFIn 2018, the Government of Ontario introduced a post-secondary accountability framework that attributes up to 60% of colleges’ annual public funding to the achievement of ten government-directed performance outcomes. The new framework’s shift from the previous enrollment-based funding model intensifies neoliberal and post-structural policy discourses of quality and accountability, further relegating social inequities to the margins of post-secondary education. At the same time, burgeoning social movements have appealed to governments and post-secondary institutions to dismantle systemic barriers that impede students from equity-deserving communities from accessing and flourishing in college. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores how a large urban college can reconcile neoliberal and post-structural representations of quality to develop a strategic approach to improving college-level outcomes that advances equity and promotes student success. Managing inherent tensions between government-defined quality and the college’s moral obligations to advance equity and promote student success is conceptualized using a hybrid social justice framework through lenses of moral leadership, transformative educational leadership, and tempered radicalism. Examining leadership through these lenses produces a proposed solution that reorients quality by organizational frame-bending and situates individual and organizational leadership practice towards equity and student success with tempered radicalism. Continuous negotiation of neoliberal and post-structural representations of quality is deliberately discussed as a means through which leaders and the organization can engage in an ongoing process of praxis and sensemaking to navigate an increasingly complex and competitive post-secondary terrain
Mental Health in Elementary Schools: Supporting Students Using a Multi-Tiered System of Support
Get PDFThis Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) provides a template for addressing the lack of mental health support available to elementary school children. It focuses on the process that will be used at one elementary school to respond to internal and external pressure to provide mental health education. This organizational change is significant and requires a comprehensive change plan. This OIP demonstrates that continuous school improvement coupled with planning and commitment provides a framework, named the hybrid change model, that will ensure successful implementation of this change initiative. This framework includes five stages: study and commit, plan, build capacity, implement and monitor, and continuously improve. Various stakeholders have a role in addressing mental health. Although schools are significant contributors to mental health service delivery, their role is complemented with services provided by others. This plan proposes a multi-tiered system of support model for service delivery. In this model, schools proactively provide mental health education and initial identification and support. If more intensive interventions are required, other professionals are enlisted. This system emphasizes equity and ensures that all children receive education about mental health. Attention is given to leadership styles that are effective in leading similar change initiatives. Ideas for monitoring and evaluating success of the initiative are explored. The importance of communication is recognized, and a detailed plan is presented. Finally, the significance of continuous school improvement in improving results for children is highlighted. Strategies for providing support for others are considered so that mental health can become ubiquitous in education
The Internationalization of a Sexual Violence Policy
Get PDFABC University (ABCU; a pseudonym) is a Canadian university that has seen a significant increase in international students in the past several years. Institutional infrastructure has not fully adjusted to the new student demographic, meaning that processes, policies, and resources still cater to domestic student needs. The problem of practice (PoP) addressed in this Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) is the lack of intercultural perspectives and international student considerations represented in the ABCU 2020 sexual violence policy draft. Policies that protect student health and well-being must be inclusive and responsive to the needs of the student population. Drawing on recommendations outlined in a research project report, this OIP discusses why policy reform is necessary through critical and intersectional perspectives. Moreover, it provides a framework for change that was developed using Cawsey et al.’s (2016) change path model and Lasswell’s (1956) policy cycle, while being complimented by Kotter’s (1996) sense of urgency. Four possible solutions are presented to resolve the PoP. The chosen solution discusses how the policy should be changed, with supporting artifacts developed and added that address gaps outlined in the research project report. The OIP continues with a detailed implementation for the chosen solution through transformative and transformational leadership approaches, followed by a sustainable monitoring and evaluation plan. It concludes by discussing possible next steps and future considerations upon OIP completion. Implementation of this OIP will create a safer and more equitable campus for all students at ABCU and set precedent for more inclusive sexual violence policies in higher education
Shifting Individuals and an Organization Towards Social Justice: A Teacher Education Program Imperative
Get PDFGlobalization is the interconnected national and international forces that shape and define nations, economies, and peoples and that extend to schools. Higher education institutions, and kindergarten to Grade 12 school systems, are impacted by the internationalization of teaching, research, and service in response to market- and ethically driven discourses of targeted international admissions policies. Teacher education programs are positioned to respond to the internationalized teaching and learning context to support nondominant teacher candidates and prepare future teachers for diverse classrooms post-graduation. This OIP problematizes an inconsistent strategic direction to prioritize culturally sustaining pedagogies in a diverse teacher education program located in British Columbia, Canada. It draws from the theoretical concepts of critical epistemology and organizational identity as foundational drivers of change and incorporates concepts of intercultural competency development and culturally responsive pedagogies as evidence-based models to guide improvement plans. A social justice–oriented plan executed through a transformative leadership approach at both the macro and micro change levels creates the structural foundation for this OIP. Appreciative and collaborative inquiry offer all stakeholders’ participatory access points to amplify nondominant voices in the change process. A generative, multimethod integrated monitoring, evaluation, and communication plan supports this foundational change through a learning approach. The outcome connects theory to practice for stakeholders to promote unlearning and prioritize the decolonization of teacher education as liberation for nondominant students