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Weaving New Stories: Decolonizing and Transforming Secondary Schools for Equity, Belonging, and Learning
Get PDFSchool belonging is important for adolescents’ psychological wellbeing, identity formation, and academic achievement, yet there is an equity and belonging gap as approximately half of secondary students surveyed in British Columbia (BC) indicate a lack of school belonging. To address the need for belongingness, this Dissertation-in-Practice, set in a diverse, suburban BC school district, focuses on decolonizing and transforming praxis in secondary schools for equity, belonging, and learning. Fostering equitable school-wide praxis is a problem of practice for school leaders as secondary schools continue to function within the Eurocentric hegemony of Western, individualistic perspectives. A two-eyed change model combining Indigenous principles and Western systems thinking addresses the problem of practice through the combined actions of decolonial, transformative, and compassionate systems leadership, shared community stories, inquiry learning networks, and Indigenous and culturally sustaining pedagogies. Three solutions are discussed: a professional learning network for school leaders; professional learning sessions for school teams; and inquiry pilots for school teams. To successfully weave new stories of decolonization and transformation, a change implementation plan outlines methods to increase shared knowledge and efficacy, develop authentic and relational communication processes, and monitor and evaluate the ongoing process. Weaving together Indigenous, racialized, and post-modernist Western perspectives is essential to reflect the intersectionality of diverse educational communities. Everyone needs to belong
Crisis Management: Addressing the Impact of Insufficient Resources and Supports on Middle School Students\u27 Mental Health
Get PDFThis Dissertation-in-Practice (DiP) addresses a problem of practice which is an urgent need for enhanced mental health supports at Alpine Prairie Middle School (APMS) within the Western Canadian School District (WCSD). Amidst resource and budgetary constraints, this study explores holistically informed strategies grounded in the principal\u27s positionality and grounded by critical theory. This DiP focusses on transformative and distributed leadership approaches, considering the school as a complex adaptive system. A leadership framework integrates critical theory, transformative leadership, distributed leadership, and pragmatism to effectively lead the change process. The implementation plan includes a four-step change model: awakening, mobilization, acceleration, and institutionalization, tailored for APMS. This model aligns the organization with changes involving mental health literacy (MHL) and transformative social emotional learning (tSEL), managing the transition smoothly. Comprehensive communication and evaluation plans ensure successful integration of change strategies into the school\u27s operations, supporting and improving students\u27 mental health. Adopting a holistic approach, emphasizing equity, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization (EDID), this DiP describes a supportive and resilient environment where every student can thrive. This DiP also emphasizes the importance of a proactive stance on student mental health, the need for ongoing professional development for educators, and the value of involving the entire school community in mental health initiatives. By addressing these critical areas, the DiP seeks to create a more inclusive and supportive educational environment for all students at APMS. The findings may also inform future initiatives to improve mental health supports in middle schools
Bridging Policy-Curriculum-Accommodations: A Nursing Education Initiative
Get PDFSupporting student academic accommodations (AAs) is an increasingly prevalent challenge for post-secondary nursing instructors in Ontario, with the growing number of students in nursing programs with mental health or medical disabilities. Historically, nursing programs have denied access to potential students with disabilities; today, the rigorous nursing program structure and the lack of support for instructors remain realities, even with the Ontario Human Rights Code and administrators\u27 policies. The nursing faculty team (NFT) at Top College (TC) (pseudonym) must uphold educational and clinical expectations while assuring student competencies and curriculum integrity. In this comprehensive dissertation-in-practice (DiP), I explore bridging gaps in policy, curriculum, and the growing complexity of AAs. This proposed initiative combines a universal design for learning (UDL) framework with a nursing solution (NS) (UDL-NS), which includes the creation of a nursing accommodation-accessibility decision tree tool. This DiP combines Shields\u27s transformative, Heifetz\u27s adaptive, and Ubuntu\u27s socio-ethical leadership approaches to change. The implementation plan is guided by Deszca and Ingols\u27 change path model (CPM), a communication plan with the alignment, voice, identification, and dialogue (AVID) framework, and a plan, do, study, act (PDSA) monitoring and evaluation plan. A knowledge mobilization plan further illustrates change implementation. The successful implementation will provide a systemic infrastructure for TC and, potentially, other nursing education programs.
Keywords: mental health, nursing, competencies, accommodation, universal design for learning, disabilit
The Integration of the Indigenous Knowledge Holders Council into a Post-Secondary Education Tri-Cameral Governance Institution
Get PDFThe 2015 release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) final report documented the historical impact of Canadian Indigenous residential schools through 94 Calls to Action requiring redress. Supporting post-secondary institution (PSI) educational reconciliation, Calls to Action #62 appeals to incorporate Indigenous (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) knowledge, philosophies and approaches into the post-secondary system which has historically been built on a Western colonial worldview. An arctic Canadian PSI (referred to by the pseudonym Big River College, BRC) has made reconciliation an institutional priority, as it aligns with BRC strategic, academic, and equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) plans. Consequently, this Dissertation-in-Practice (DiP) focuses on increasing support for reconciliation and indigenization by integrating into BRC tri-cameral governance an Indigenous Knowledge Holders Council (IKHC). The recently amended legislation supports reconciling BRC governance through a tri-cameral approach. The integration of the IKHC into BRC governance is the focus of the Problem of Practice (PoP). Institutionalization of the IKHC will be in place when the IKHC provides strategic direction to leadership, faculty and staff by braiding critical Indigenous perspectives within BRC through Etuaptmumk or Two-Eyed Seeing. This DiP is constructed using critical Indigenous and cultural perspectives including three leadership approaches: transformative, adaptive, and culturally responsive that are linked to the change process. Addressing the PoP should lead to a longer-term learning cultural shift within BRC that supports reconciliation indigenization, equity, diversity, and inclusion and increasing institutional success factors for Indigenous faculty, staff and students to walk in two worlds, Dene Nahjo
Breaking the Silence: Understanding dementia-related stigma in conversation between racialized persons living with dementia and their care partners
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Illuminating the intersectional experiences of individuals living with eating disorders and disordered eating: The in/accessibility of treatment services
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