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CASE 9: Gun Violence: A Public Health Issue?
Get PDFGun violence is a growing concern in the City of Toronto. The number of injuries and fatalities related to firearm incidents has been increasing at an alarming rate over the past six or seven years. The Stop The Bleed program is a secondary injury prevention program aimed at training laypeople how to respond during critical incidents to prevent fatal outcomes caused by massive bleeding. Along with the Centre for Injury Prevention at Sunnybrook Hospital, Sarah Smith, a registered nurse working in the hospital’s emergency department, has been given the opportunity to collaborate with multiple stakeholders, including the Black Creek Community Health Centre and the City of Toronto, to pilot a Stop The Bleed expansion program in the city’s at-risk communities. Sarah is aware that several complex variables intertwine to comprise this public health issue and she knows that a multifaceted approach is needed to try to stop deaths resulting from gun violence entirely. However, to determine whether the program expansion is feasible, Sarah must complete a comprehensive planning process that considers the facilitators and barriers to program implementation, including the stigmatization of at-risk communities
Creating a Unified School Culture in a Rural School Serving Families in Multiple Communities
Get PDFThis Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) addresses the fractured culture of School X resulting from an influx of staff and students from neighbouring communities following rural school closures. The problem of practice (PoP) presented explores ways that a unified school identity can be developed in a receiving school with a student population coming from three separate communities. Through the utilization of both distributed and authentic leadership, the methods that principals of rural schools can use to address this problem are explored. The focus of the problem when viewed through the social capital theory is that all stakeholders of the school have not been given the opportunity to build trusting relationships with one another so that a cohesive identity can be established (Liou & Chang, 2008). Kotter’s (2012) Eight-Stage Change Process model is used to guide the change implementation plan, which recommends putting into practice a relationship-based program requiring participation from students, staff members, and family members to repair the fractured school culture. The implications of the change plan are that the development of trusting relationships between staff members and families of students in the school will provide opportunities for all stakeholders to realize a sense of belonging in the school, contributing to higher levels of social capital and a more cohesive school culture (Deal & Peterson, 2016). This will be of interest to leaders of rural schools serving families in multiple geographical communities, as well as schools receiving students and staff members from neighbouring communities following permanent school closures
Strengthening a Culture of Collaboration Through Intentional and Strategic Collaborative Practices
Get PDFCollaboration can inspire professional learning, improve teaching practices, and impact student learning and well-being. Yet, not all types of collaboration yield these desired results, as is in the case of Elementary School (ES) at Paradise International School (PIS; a pseudonym). This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) presents a problem of practice (PoP) that addresses the lack of intentional and strategic collaborative practices at PIS. Within a pragmatic worldview, this OIP is grounded in a socioconstructivist theory, one that frames three chosen interrelated leadership models: transformational, constructivist, and distributed. A synthesis of these theoretical foundations results in three leadership principles and 10 leadership behaviours that underpin this OIP, which is steered by this change vision: teachers work and learn interdependently in high-performing teams and are collectively responsible for the learning and well-being of all students. This vision, along with the key priorities and the diagnosed needed changes, were utilized to develop the outcomes and goals of the change. Furthermore, after examining the possible solutions to address the PoP, a research- and practice-based decision was made to implement coteaching and collaborative inquiry in an integrated manner. The change path model was chosen to lead the change process and used to develop the 2-year action plan. The multifaceted action plan of this OIP has three integrated components: an autonomous and programmed change implementation plan, a context-specific monitoring and evaluation framework, and a participatory and persuasive communication plan. This OIP concludes by considering ways to ensure the sustainability and evolution of effective collaborative practices at PIS
Cultural Shift From a Teacher- to a Learner-Centered Teaching Environment in an Undergraduate Nursing Program
Get PDFThe changing Canadian demography—resulting in an older population with increasing health issues—coupled with the ongoing pandemic, requires nursing programs to produce graduates ready to provide safe, competent nursing care. Learner-centered teaching (LCT) is an effective approach that facilitates deep learning and the emergence of a new meaning of knowledge. However, teacher centeredness in nursing education that emphasizes memorized knowledge versus higher-order thinking is still prevalent. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) aims to shift the beliefs, attitudes, and practices of the nursing faculty in an undergraduate nursing program in Ontario, Canada, from those of a more traditional lecturer role to those of a learning co-facilitator. The results of recent program exit surveys completed by graduating students support the need for such intervention, showing that the current teaching practice is misaligned with the philosophy of the nursing school and the program. The OIP is approached from an interpretivist paradigm and cultural lens, utilizing the shared, transformational, and adaptive leadership frameworks, all of which underscore the experiences of the teachers and learners as they co-construct reality, while emphasizing that multiple meanings may exist across individuals and groups. In alignment with these theoretical frames, the stages of the cycle-of-learning-and-change framework and the change path model were selected to implement change. Thus, these frameworks serve as guides for the detailed implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and communication plans. Future considerations include the expansion of the change project to other programs in the nursing school and the scientific evaluation of LCT in the nursing program
Global Citizenship Education and Heritage Preservation of Host National Students in GCC International Bilingual Schools
Get PDFInternational private schools adopt Eurocentric accreditation and curriculum standards that aim at developing global citizens. However, global citizenship education is a problematic construct based on a colonial instrumentalist framework. Contextualized in Type C international schools for GCC host national students, the problem of practice is GIBS’s unmitigated adoption of international GCE accreditation and curriculum standards in a manner that erodes the students’ culture and heritage. Grounded in a transformative worldview, GIBS’s accreditation and curriculum coordinator is in a unique position to lead organizational improvement that restructures school systems in a way that prioritizes GCC host national students’ heritage while empowering teachers to enact equitable instructional change. To address the problem of practice, a framework of change was developed by integrating ISA’s (2017) accreditation framework with Schein’s (2017) model of change management and Cawsey et al.’s (2016) change path model while using transformative, instructional, and servant leadership approaches. Culturally responsive learning’s three dimensions of culturally responsive care, culturally responsive instruction, and curriculum indigenization and decolonization were identified as the key to solving the problem of practice. To monitor and evaluate GIBS’s embedding of CRL into formal school systems, organizational change management takes place at the macro and micro levels using the API Model and PDCA cycle respectively. Synchronous alignment of GIBS’s accreditation phases and strategic improvement cycle with the OIP’s change implementation plan leverages the school’s pre-existing systems to achieve successful transformation
