Our free webinar series is available again to continue to provide Canadian K-12 staff with actionable strategies to improve workplace well-being during this unique back-to-school.
Despite recent progress towards supporting LGBTQ2+-inclusive education, ensuring that both teachers and students who identify as sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) experience belonging, safety, and security in their schools and communities remains an ongoing challenge. A national survey of Canadian high school students found that 64% of LGBTQ2+ students reported feeling unsafe at school. Similarly, research has shown that LGBTQ2+ teachers are less likely to come out to their administration and 33% had been warned to not come out at school by family, friends, and other educators.
“What do I do at my school? Certainly, we have our safe-contact teachers identified. We also have the safe and caring rainbow stickers. There’s one right as you enter the school, and there’s one on my office door, my assistant principal’s door, and on the classroom doors of the safe contact teachers and other supportive teachers. I’ve had many conversations with my parent council around the work we’re doing in order to have their support for the SOGI work in our school. Our library collection is also growing as we find more and more stories that depict the LGBTQ+ youth and their families and same-sex families. I also have conversations with my staff about heteronormativity, the gender spectrum, and the language we use with students. So, is it working? I certainly know that my staff is very aware. Also, my sexuality is not hidden from my staff, so my staff know who I am. I also let them know that my partner is male and he’s a grade one teacher. I do it because I want them to know that I believe in the normalization of sexuality and gender in our schools, that it is no big deal. It is just who we are.”
-(Elementary school principal)
Although many school districts have SGM-specific policies in place, research points to the ongoing need for school districts to invest the time into building a genuinely accepting and accommodating LGBTQ2+-inclusive school culture that supports and promotes the well-being of LGBTQ2+ teachers and students. Taking a LGBTQ2+-inclusive approach to education is a shared responsibility and school leaders, colleagues, and parents all play an important role in understanding how to best support and learn from the experiences and perspectives of LGBTQ2+ teachers and students.
Grace, A. P. (2015). Part II with K. Wells. Growing into resilience: Sexual and gender minority youth in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Grace, A. P., & Wells, K. (2016). Sexual and gender minorities in Canadian education and society (1969-2013): A national handbook for K-12 educators. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Teachers’ Federation. (Published in English & French.) Taylor, C., & Peter, T., with McMinn, T. L., Elliott, T., Beldom, S., Ferry, A., Gross, Z., Paquin, S., & Schacter, K. (2011). Every class in every school: The first national climate survey on homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in Canadian schools. Final report. Toronto, ON: Egale Canada Human Rights Trust. Tompkins, J., Kearns, L., & Mitton-Kükner, J. (2019). Queer educators in schools: The experiences of four beginning teachers. Canadian Journal of Education, 42(2), 385-414. Retrieved from: https://journals.sfu.ca/cje/index.php/cje-rce/article/view/3448/2727
References
Playing and designing games have been of interest to K-12 educators as ways to support student learning. Parents are also increasingly accepting of video and board games as their choice of family activity, based on a 2018 survey by the Entertainment Software Association of Canada finding that 71% of Canadian parents play video games with their children. Game-Based Learning involves learning situations where children play or design games – whether digital, physical, or table-top games – in which they solve problems and gradually develop new knowledge and skills. Games have been found to improve students’ motivation and cognitive development, such as memory and reasoning.
Research demonstrates that Game-Based Learning enhances essential life skills that are foundational to a child’s development. In particular, Game-Based Learning provides students with an interactive learning experience where they have the opportunity to use and develop many different cognitive, social, and physical skills. Problem solving, critical thinking, strategy development, decision making, and teamwork are some of the many skills that games can provide.
Clark, D. B., Tanner-Smith, E. E., & Killingsworth, S. S. (2016). Digital games, design, and learning: A Systematic review and meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 86(1), 79–122. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654315582065
Entertainment Software Association of Canada. (2018). Essential facts about the Canadian video game industry 2018. http://theesa.ca/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ESAC18_BookletEN.pdf
Gee, J. P. (2008). Learning and Games. In K. Salen (Ed.), The ecology of games: Connecting youth, games, and learning(pp. 21–40). MIT Press. https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/ecology-games
Jaques, S., Kim, B., Shyleyko-Kostas, A., & Takeuchi, M. A. (2019). “I Just won against myself!”: Fostering early numeracy through board game play and redesign. Early Childhood Education, 26(1), 22–29. http://hdl.handle.net/1880/111252
Kim, B., & Bastani, R. (2017). Students as game designers: Transdisciplinary approach to STEAM Education. Special Issue of the Alberta Science Education Journal, 45(1), 45–52. https://sc.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ASEJVol45No1November2017.pdf
Kim, B. & Bastani, R. (2018). How Inversé merged with Go: (re)designing games as mathematical and cultural practices. In Proceedings of the 5thInternational STEM in Education Conference (pp.166-172). Brisbane, Australia: Queensland University of Technology. https://stem-in-ed2018.com.au/proceedings-2/
Koabel, G. (2017). Simulating the ages of man: Periodization in Civilization V and Europa Universalis IV. The Journal of the Canadian Game Studies Association, 10(17), 60-76. https://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/192
Sardone, N. B., & Devlin-Scherer, R. (2016). Let the (Board) Games Begin: Creative Ways to Enhance Teaching and Learning. The Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, 89(6), 215–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/00098655.2016.1214473
Squire, K. (2006). From content to context: Videogames as designed experience. Educational Researcher, 35(8), 19–29. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X035008019
Qian, M., & Clark, K. R. (2016). Game-based learning and 21st century skills: A review of recent research. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 50–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.023
Zimmerman, E. (2009). Gaming literacy: Game design as a model for literacy in the twenty-first century. The video game theory reader, 2(23-32). http://www.neliufpe.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/08.pdf
This small-group online mindfulness workshop will take place via Zoom and is primarily for school-based K-12 educators and anyone interested in educator mental health and well-being. 20 participants maximum per session.
This small-group experiential workshop will provide a variety of mindfulness/attention practices that promote stress management. We will examine how understanding the physiology of stress, through the lens of mindfulness, can support educators and helping professionals in responding to situations with greater resilience.
Mindfulness promotes self-regulation, resilience, stress management, and improved relationships, thereby supporting positive mental health and well-being in students, staff and parents, leading to transformations in school culture.
The workshop will include one of the foundational mindfulness practices called the “body scan,” which is usually done lying down on a yoga mat or other comfortable surface. This practice can also be done seated in a chair. Please have ready a yoga mat, cushion and blanket for your own self care and comfort.
During these 90-minute INTERACTIVE presentations, participants are encouraged to have their camera and microphone turned on as the intention of the workshop is to build community and provide a space for educators to feel supported and learn some simple, yet effective mindfulness techniques that can be used daily to support their well-being.
About Mindfulness Everyday
At Mindfulness Everyday, we envision a society in which we relate to others, the environment, and ourselves with clarity and compassion. We promote mindfulness practices to enhance positive mental and physical health, compassionate action and resilience by providing stress reduction training and life skills for young people, educators, professional support staff and parents in the schools, and for organizations and members of the community.
Since COVID-19 began, people’s relationship with food has been upended. Before, people may have had some meals provided at work, school, or at social functions, but in isolation many have taken it upon themselves to become self-sufficient in their daily meal prep. How many of us have seen videos on social media of a friend’s first attempt at baking bread or a triumphant picture of a successful attempt at a gourmet dinner? There has been a massive increase in the public’s interest in food, & the kitchen has once again become the hearth around which people gather to share, to learn, & to connect.
Register now at: https://www.alumni.ubc.ca/event/family-ties-connecting-food-and-learning-at-home/
This webinar is primarily for governments, education professional organizations, school and school district leaders, teachers and education support workers, and anyone interested in understanding current issues for changes to K-12 schooling for the education sector across Canada in the COVID-19 era.
In March of 2020, Canadian education systems first began to close schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as the emergency response shift to remote learning from home, we must also begin to turn our attention to the inevitable task of planning for the future of schooling over the short and medium term. As school reopenings internationally are showing, this is not simply a return to schooling as normal. Moreover, since education in Canada is a provincial responsibility, responses to COVID-19 have been diverse and we would expect plans for the future to be appropriately varied. Fundamentally, what we will need to ask ourselves is: “What conditions need to be in place for students to learn and for teachers to teach, and how will leaders across the system adapt to support these conditions?”
This one-hour webinar panel discussion originally broadcasted on June 11th, 2020 explored how we will understand effective leadership across the education sector for the coming months and years by considering implications for governments, teacher organizations, and school leaders.
With recent events in the U.S., the EdCan Network expresses our solidarity with the Black community and racialized individuals and acknowledges the damaging impacts of systemic racism and violence. As a national not-for-profit education organization, our mission is to ensure that each and every student thrives in our schools based on the values of equity, inclusion, and respect. As such, we remain committed to learning, listening, and knowledge sharing in support of the well-being of staff and students in our schools and education workplaces.
This webinar is primarily for school district leadership, principals, vice-principals, professional associations, policymakers, aspiring school leaders, and anyone interested in the well-being of school leaders.
Canadian school leaders are grappling with longer hours, increasing demands, and higher workloads than ever before, which is threatening principal recruitment, retention, and job performance. Work intensification involves managing condensed timelines and a simultaneous increase in the volume and complexity of tasks, activities, and other work demands. As effective school leaders are key to high-performing schools and healthy school environments, work intensification not only threatens school leader recruitment and retention, but also the well-being and performance of both staff and students.
This one-hour webinar originally broadcasted on June 8th, 2020 explored the results of recent studies conducted in Ontario and British Columbia on how principal wellness and the role of school leaders is changing, including strategies that professional associations, school districts, policymakers, and school leaders themselves can take to improve principals’ and vice-principals’ well-being.
Watch the webinar below:
Happy Teacher Revolution is a Baltimore-born, international movement with the mission to organize and conduct support groups for teachers in the field of mental health and wellness to increase teacher happiness, retention, and professional sustainability.
This one-hour experiential learning webinar originally broadcasted on May 28th, 2020 explored burnout, vicarious trauma, and self-care as a global professional development movement.
Watch the full webinar below:
ABOUT DANNA THOMAS
Danna Thomas is a former Baltimore City Public School teacher turned founder of a global initiative to support the mental health and wellness of educators. Her organization, Happy Teacher Revolution, is on a mission to increase teacher happiness, retention, and professional sustainability by providing educators with the time and space to heal, deal, and be real about the social-emotional demands they face on the job. Danna served as the national spokeswoman for the National Alliance of Mental Illness (NAMI) Maryland and the “Music for Mental Health” campaign. She is the recipient of the 2019 Johns Hopkins Community Hero Award and the 2019 Winner of the Johns Hopkins Social Innovation Lab. Danna’s favourite forms of self-care include playing backgammon, community hot yoga, and rocking out on the saxophone.
In this issue, Education Canada looks at the role our public schools do, could, and/or should play in exposing students to these career pathways, preparing them for future labour market needs, and facilitating their transition to trades training. Are students given adequate experiential learning opportunities to consider trades, adequate opportunity to learn about them, and adequate support in negotiating entry to post-secondary programs and apprenticeships that will take them there? How can we shift the narrative, counter the stigma and articulate the value of skilled trades to youth and their parents? How does our education system embrace the multiple roles of fostering the skills and knowledge students require to become informed, active, citizens of the world, and also preparing them to meet the workforce needs of tomorrow?
As we finalized the articles for this issue of Education Canada, schools and campuses across the country had been closed for about a month to reduce the spread of COVID-19. It looked like students would not be back in class anytime soon. And we were wondering how much sense it made to ship boxes of magazines to empty buildings.
Those closed schools are the reason we are not printing our May issue. Like the teachers and profs who have turned to online technology to connect with their students, we have created an online-only magazine. We invite you to enjoy the PDF version as you “shelter in place.”
In this issue of Education Canada we focus on the skilled trades, and specifically on the K-12 system’s role in connecting students to trades training.
So here’s the dilemma. While I still devoutly believe in the value of a liberal arts education, our world is full of highly educated young adults working precarious minimum-wage service jobs because that’s all they could find. Many of them never even considered skilled trades. Probably nobody ever suggested that they were worth looking into. Some students may have even been steered away from trades when they expressed interest.
Meanwhile, well paying, challenging, steady jobs are going unfilled in many trades sectors. While it’s not up to K-12 schools to qualify students for a trade, we think we could be doing a better job of introducing them to the trades as a desirable career path. We also need more options that allow secondary students to “try before they buy” (and ideally earn credits at the same time), and more fluid pathways that allow students to combine academic and skills-based training.
In our theme section, two innovative Canadian programs that give high schools students a great head start in trades (“TAP into Trades, p. 14, and “Youth Train in Trades,” p. 22) share how they fill that gap. And looking at the bigger picture, David Livingstone and Milosh Raykov (p. 18) discuss the need for expanded apprenticeship programs and better linkages between our education and apprenticeship systems. Paul Stastny (p. 25) examines our other big labour need – digital technology skills – and how the digitizing of many trades creates new opportunities, while Alison Taylor (on our website) argues for experiential and work-integrated learning programs as a means of breaking down “the binary between vocational and professional education.”
Perhaps it comes down to that old ideal of a “well-rounded education.” Shouldn’t an education include learning how to do things as well as how to know things? And can’t we, as Taylor suggests, educate students in a way that prepares them for both democratic citizenship and employability?
Photo: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, June 2020
This webinar is primarily for governments, education professional organizations, school and school district leaders, teachers and education support workers, and anyone interested in understanding current issues for changes to K-12 schooling for the education sector across Canada in the COVID-19 era.
In March of 2020, Canadian education systems first began to close schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. As well as the emergency response shift to remote learning from home, we must also begin to turn our attention to the inevitable task of planning for the future of schooling over the short and medium term. As school reopenings internationally are showing, this is not simply a return to schooling as normal. Moreover, since education in Canada is a provincial responsibility, responses to COVID-19 have been diverse and we would expect plans for the future to be appropriately varied. Fundamentally, what we will need to ask ourselves is: “What conditions need to be in place for students to learn and for teachers to teach, and how will leaders across the system adapt to support these conditions?”
This one-hour webinar panel discussion will explore how we will understand effective leadership across the education sector for the coming months and years by considering implications for governments, teacher organizations, and school leaders.
The Global Recess Alliance, a newly formed group of scholars, health professionals, and education leaders, argues that attention to recess during school reopening is essential. Recess is the only unstructured time in the school day that provides space for children’s physical, social and emotional development, which are essential for well-being and learning. When schools reopen, children will need space to heal from their collective trauma.
The Global Recess Alliance have combined their expertise to provide answers and concrete strategies for a recess that not only works under the current circumstances but paves the way for a fundamental shift in the ways schools approach recess.
Cofounded by Heidi Bornstein and Stephen Chadwick in 2009, Mindfulness everyday is a diverse team of experienced professionals dedicated to educator well-being. Mindfulness Everyday offers various mindfulness programs and practices for educators to provide them with the skills and coping strategies required to support their own mental and physical health.
This webinar first broadcasted on April 15th, provided an experiential introduction to mindfulness research and practices that benefit educators personally and professionally.
Watch the full webinar below:
About Mindfulness Everyday
At Mindfulness Everyday, we envision a society in which we relate to others, the environment, and ourselves with clarity and compassion. We promote mindfulness practices to enhance positive mental and physical health, compassionate action and resilience by providing stress reduction training and life skills for young people, educators, professional support staff and parents in the schools, and for organizations and members of the community.
As their children’s first teachers, parents contribute to their academic and professional development. While parental engagement is crucial to children’s well-being and positive development, parents can also have a negative impact by failing to meet children’s fundamental psychological needs, which are essential to academic and professional success.
Research demonstrates that children generally perceive their parents as being supportive of their psychological needs. It’s important for parents to recognize that they can have a significant impact – positive or negative – on their children’s development. Therefore, parents hoping to guide the positive development of their children are well advised to meet their fundamental psychological needs, thereby encouraging greater academic and professional success.
Guay, F., Ratelle, C.F., Larose, S., Vallerand, R.J., Vitaro, F. (2013). The number of autonomy-supportive relationships: Are more relationships better for motivation, perceived competence, and achievement? Contemporary Educational Psychology. 38, 375-382. doi:10.1016/j.cedpsych. 2013.07.005 Guay, F, Ratelle, C.F., Lessard, V., Dubois, P., & Duchesne, S. (2018). Mothers’ and fathers’ autonomy-supportive and controlling behaviors: An analysis of interparental contributions. Parenting: Science and Practice, 18, 45-65. Duchesne, S., & Ratelle., C.F. (2010). Parental behaviors and adolescents’ achievement goals at the beginning of middle school: Emotional problems as potential mediators. Journal of Educational Psychology, 102, 497-507. doi:10.1037/a0019320 Duchesne, S. & Ratelle, C.F., Feng, B. (2017). Psychological need satisfaction and achievement goals: Exploring indirect effects of academic and social adaptation following the transition to secondary school. Journal of Early Adolescence. doi: 10.1177/0272431616659561 Maltais, C., Duchesne, S., Ratelle, C. F., & Feng, B. (2017). Learning climate, academic competence, and anxiety during the transition to middle school: Parental attachment as a protective factor. European Review of Applied Psychology, 67, 103-112. Ratelle, C.F., Morin, A.J.S., Guay, F., & Duchesne, S. (2018). Sources of evaluation of parental behaviors as predictors of achievement outcomes. Motivation and Emotion,42, 513-526. doi: 10.1007/s11031-018-9692-4
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
It was on the third walk of the day, a couple weeks into our COVID isolation norms, that it hit me. My little girl, at the formative age of five, was living in a global pandemic. We were pointing out the teddy bears that neighbours placed in their windows for children to spot during the pandemic. It warmed my heart that so many of my community members, many without children, found old teddies and dolls to place on display to join in the bear campaign. A couple walking their dog approached from the opposite direction, and my daughter, who was walking ahead, without hesitation or reminder took her long six-foot arc around them as we passed. She turned and mouthed the word “virus” to us and carried on.
As we all attempt to restore normalcy in our lives and jobs (whatever our “normal” may be) in the aftermath of a global crisis, there is much to consider. For teachers, this is above and beyond the daily challenges we already face. For some students, COVID 19 may result in, or amplify preexisting, anxiety, depression or trauma. For others the transition back to school and routine will be seamless. Coronavirus will become a distant memory for them, and life will carry on as it did before. I think about my daughter and her support system and how she’s been so fortunate in her life. Others aren’t as lucky, before or after COVID 19.
Much is unknown about the circumstances in homes across this country during the pandemic. What happened in the months of isolation? We may never fully know. How did the long confinement affect homes where domestic violence, abuse or neglect was already present? Of course we know there were students and families who were struggling long before the global pandemic. Some children live within circumstances that are troubling and far beyond their control. Families living on the edge of poverty may have already been struggling with food and home insecurity, lack of childcare, stress over jobs, community violence and more. We know that along with increased risk factors from COVID 19, families have also been deprived of many of their normal coping measures. Spending time with friends and family, going to the mall, seeing a counselor or engaging in extra-curricular activities, among others, have been disrupted. And for many students, their place of refuge, connection or support, is school itself.
Trauma has and will continue to be a pervasive and challenging issue for teachers and students alike. This global crisis has placed a spotlight on various aspects of society, including its multi-faceted inequities – trauma included. It also has certainly served as a reminder that children in schools need more than just their educational outcomes, and that schools serve as more than just educational institutions.
Students who experience chronic trauma (persistent and ongoing, such as adverse living conditions or abuse) are at risk for developmental deficits, attachment disorders and difficulties with learning and behaviour.1 This causes problems for them in school as they attempt to navigate the social, academic and behavioural expectations for their chronological age, while potentially lacking skills in one or more of these areas. Teachers are faced with a multitude of challenges as they work to meet the needs of all their learners. It is challenging to give each child individual attention in addressing their needs while also managing the classroom and curriculum outcomes. This may result in compassion fatigue, feelings of being overwhelmed or exhausted, and a reduced ability to function as they normally would. Some identify compassion fatigue as the cost of caring.
So where do we go from here? What is the teacher’s role in supporting students impacted by trauma? Teachers are not therapists, psychologists, counselors or social workers. Many therapeutic interventions do exist, that support students in one-on-one or in small groups. These are often beneficial and necessary for some students. However, due to limited resources and access, not all students have the opportunity to engage in such programming. Additionally, as Perry2 and Bath3 have noted, research shows that the most healing for trauma-impacted children actually takes place in what some call the “other 23 hours” of the day. A supportive environment for children in all aspects of their day is essential. Equipping teachers with the understanding and strategies to provide this supportive environment can benefit both the students in need, and fortunately, also the teachers themselves.
Being trauma-informed requires educators to have a knowledge base about trauma itself. This does not require teachers to become experts in brain functioning or psychology, but rather a general understanding for the potential impact of chronic trauma for students they teach. This means understanding that trauma is a result of experiences that exceed an individual’s capacity to cope in healthy ways, and which render them unable to function normally. Chronic trauma may be a result of living in poverty, experiencing forms of abuse, experiencing racism, being witness to violence, experiencing significant loss, and more. While adversity is common (and often productive) throughout life, trauma results when our support systems and coping mechanisms for that adversity are not enough. Therefore, trauma is less about events themselves, but our responses to them.
When a child has experienced chronic trauma, the result may be delays in various aspects of their development. This may affect their social skills and ability to form relationships, their cognitive, physical and emotional development, their ability to regulate, learn and cope with daily demands. Trauma-impacted children walk through their world with a heightened sense of danger and can be triggered into a fear response for situations that are perceived as threatening. School is a place where students not only learn, but navigate various situations, relationships and challenges. Children who are trauma-impacted therefore often struggle in many aspects of school.
Attachment is protective factor against trauma. Many children who experience chronic trauma, however, struggle with relationships and trust. They also may not have fully experienced secure and healthy relationships in their lives. Building positive relationships with students is therefore critical, for feelings of safety, acceptance and love. Giving unconditional positive regard and showing patience are ways to build this trust. This does not mean lifting boundaries and expectations. In fact, boundaries are more important than ever. Setting and sticking to limits is essential, but done with patience and compassion. Teachers have the opportunity to spend a considerable amount of time with their students throughout the school year. They can demonstrate and model positive and consistent relationships and establish new understandings of what a healthy relationship is. Child psychiatrist and trauma expert Bruce Perry talks about the power of small positive encounters and interactions for children throughout the day. “Therapeutic dosing”4 as he calls it, is a simple yet effective way for these new patterns to develop. He asserts that “just as traumatic experience can alter a life in an instant, so too can a therapeutic encounter.”5
Children impacted by trauma often are on high alert, ready to respond. Learning is virtually impossible for children who feel unsafe. Physical and emotional safety are essential in schools, as is the importance of felt safety. It is possible for trauma-impacted children to feel unsafe regardless of whether or not this is reality. Teachers are able to increase feelings of safety by creating consistent and predictable environments. This means creating a safe space where classroom community is a primary focus, and being cognizant of preparing children for transitions and change. Our responses and behaviours as teachers must also be consistent and predictable. We can recognize that some behaviours we are witness to, may be a response to feeling unsafe, versus a desire to misbehave. Behaviour is about communication. A meltdown or act of defiance, might be a fear response, or manifestations of a need. Maintaining a consistent and supportive role in responding to all behaviour with compassion and understanding, strengthens the teacher-student bond and establishes trust. We can be the calm they need, when they are not. Students will often mirror our reactions and behaviours. Keeping this thought in our minds can support us in our reactions and the way we assist students in regulating their emotions.
All children have strengths. Seeking them out and helping students to see them for themselves, as “inner-wealth,”6 is an important part of supporting growth and learning. As previously mentioned, students impacted by trauma may also have deficits in areas of development. Teachers can support all students by teaching to specific “lagging skills.”7 Lessons on social skills, problem solving, organization, self-regulation, friendship skills, mindfulness, conflict resolution and more, may be valuable in filling gaps in much-needed development. Social-emotional learning is a necessary component of trauma-informed classrooms. We can acknowledge and begin with student strengths that build confidence and engagement, and seek out the areas where more explicit teaching is needed.
An often-neglected focus for teachers, yet an essential component of trauma-informed practice, is self-care. As teachers, we simply cannot give what we don’t have. We must not only take care of ourselves through intentional self-care planning (exercise, leisure activities, support networks, eating well, etc.) but also be vigilant in noticing and identifying when we feel overwhelmed. There is vulnerability in reaching out to our colleagues and administrators when we require support, but it is a valuable step for our own wellness. As colleagues, we need to support one another and create a space where everyone feels empowered to reach out. This work is not easy and cannot be done in isolation.
Returning to work after months of remoteness may bring new feelings of anxiety and fear, or heightened preexisting mental health issues. Let us name it. We must be patient with ourselves and check on our colleagues. Let’s debrief our days and take a breath. We are not alone, and the load should not be solely ours to bear. Focusing on strong working relationships and a team approach will be crucial. As teachers, we need to open our classroom doors and support one another. The feeling of pressure on the shoulders of the classroom teachers alone, increases the risk of burnout and fatigue. “Our” students are also part of the whole school community and the community beyond the school. We benefit from creating partnerships outside of the school, building relationships with parents and community members and collectively wrapping our arms around our students and ourselves.
TEACHERS’ DAYs are often a whirlwind. Decision-making is happening constantly, and our attention is split in many different directions. Teachers don’t need more on their plates. We do, however, benefit from new knowledge for making teaching and learning more successful. Fortunately, trauma-informed strategies, such as those listed above, are good teaching practices for all students – and many are already happening all through Canadian schools. If we keep relationships at the centre and have more understanding for our students through a knowledge of the pervasive impact of chronic traumatic experiences, we will be making a difference. We will be contributing to the supportive environment that children require, to reach their full potential. With this understanding, teachers too, can feel the positive impact of a trauma-informed classroom and school. Caring doesn’t always have to come at significant cost, but instead, can provide meaningful and effective experiences that leave teachers feeling more empowered and connected.
As we transition into our post-COVID lives (whenever “post” will be), it is important to recognize how this virus may have impacted the lives of our students, and our own. We must also keep in mind that well before COVID 19, some of our students have struggled with trauma and adversity that will continue to impact their lives and learning. Our students who were accessing counseling or psychological services prior to school closures, and making gains, may experience setbacks. We may feel that impact throughout our schools. During these last devastating months, this virus has certainly opened the eyes of many to various societal inequities, in addition to forms of trauma. Those issues, however, were always and will always be present in the lives of many of our students. This unprecedented event has also taught us how precious life and time truly are. The entire world seemed to stand still at moments, causing many of us to reflect upon our jobs, roles, purpose and values. I was certainly one of them. It reminded me of how strongly I believe in our nations’ teachers and our ability to care beyond the curriculum.
With small doses of kindness, intentional teaching, and a heightened awareness of trauma’s impact, we can add to the environment needed for all to heal and grow. Our students are worth it, and so are we.
PHOTO: ISTOCK
This webinar first broadcasted on May 12th discussed individual and organizational resilience in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this hour-long webinar, Dr. Graham Lowe explained:
The features of a healthy organization, especially its culture and inclusive approach to leadership, that can support your workforce now and prepare it for the recovery
How resilience is one of the defining characteristics of a healthy organization
How resilience is a psychological health and safety skill that can be cultivated within school and school district teams.
How resilience is part of a broader set of capabilities called Psychological Capital (PsyCap)
The ways that Psychological Capital (PsyCap) supports a transformational leadership style and contributes to K-12 workplace well-being.
Watch the full webinar below:
Want to watch upcoming webinars as they are released? Visit our webinar series to sign up today!
In March of 2020, Canadian education systems first began to close schools in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In that relatively short (yet seemingly long) timeframe, however, the internet has been abuzz with webinars, instructional videos, live learning experiences, and free resources for teachers, parents, and students. Educational thought-leaders from around the globe have weighed in with blogs and articles on a host of topics and educators themselves have taken to Twitter, Facebook, and other social media outlets to document their experiences and share their challenges and successes in moving their practices towards various remote delivery models.
As we begin to settle into remote learning from home, however, we must also begin to turn our attention to the inevitable task of planning for the future of schooling over the short and medium term. As school reopenings internationally are showing, this is not simply a return to schooling as normal. Moreover, since education in Canada is a provincial responsibility, responses to COVID-19 have been diverse1 and we would expect plans for the future to be appropriately varied. Fundamentally, what we will need to ask ourselves is: “What conditions need to be in place for students to learn and for teachers to teach, and how will leaders across the system adapt to support these conditions?” With that overarching question in mind, we draw upon provincial, pan-Canadian, and international work in the areas of government and whole system educational improvement, as well as teacher organizations and school leaders, in posing the following thoughts to stimulate conversation around how we will understand effective leadership across the education sector for the coming months and years.
At the height of the pandemic, over 90% – or approximately 1.6 billion – students were not in school2 due to 195 country-wide closures. These figures are already decreasing as some countries start the delicate process of reopening schools. While each jurisdiction will have distinctive needs, governments in Canada should look to and learn from international education systems that are ahead of us in the move towards creating new forms of schooling. Ensuring health, hygiene, safety, and protection must be the utmost priority. Physical distancing, hand washing, and other public health protocols are likely to continue as discussions of a second and third wave of COVID-19 persist. These conditions are extremely challenging in schools. An essential question is how, or if, students and staff can be kept two metres apart? Previous debates about class sizes have focused on educational and/or budgetary benefits, implications, and trade-offs. But how many students can be in a physically distanced school or classroom? Emerging international evidence includes phased re-openings, variations on rotating enrolments, and reduced class sizes. Assuming there are ways for students and staff to return to school buildings, the next key health consideration is that – while some people will have managed well and some may even have thrived during a period of staying at home – some students and staff will have experienced illness, grief, and trauma. As Doucet et al. (2020)3 paraphrase, “Maslow before Bloom” must be the fundamental guiding principle moving forward.
Policy decisions will also need to be made concerning equity. Emergency response approaches to teaching and schooling should not become the new status quo. Rather, in collaboration with the education profession and support staff, approaches to education during the COVID-19 era should be evaluated. Which approaches are worth continuing and developing and which are not? Technology, for instance, can be a useful tool and resource for teachers to use as part of their repertoire of strategies, but it is not a replacement for in-person classroom interactions over the longer term.4 If phased re-openings and/or rotating students’ physical attendance is used, what forms of distance learning, blended learning, and learning resource strategies for home and school will be required and with what additional resource investments? A second policy consideration
is that COVID has resulted in a pause on standardized testing in most education systems, prompting discussion on how authentic and appropriate feedback can be provided to students and their families, as well as to educators. These are important developments that should be further explored. What forms of assessment will be appropriate for the
2020-21 school year? How can rapid feedback continue to be provided in a scenario of physically distanced schooling, blended learning, and distance learning? The period of emergency response has been challenging for students, their families, and educators. It is a lost opportunity if this is not also harnessed to rethink the future of schooling in partnership with the education profession and support staff.
Canadian teacher organizations often work with, alongside, and through governments to develop innovative learning and leadership opportunities for their members,5 which often include a combination of teachers, school leaders, and other school staff. Recently, however, budget cuts to various areas of education have resulted in unrest in a number of jurisdictions and existing partnerships have been tested. Consequently, one of the priorities for teacher organizations will be ensuring access to the kinds of professional learning (PL) experiences that will be critical in supporting new forms of teaching, learning, and assessment of learning. What partnerships and relationships might need to be developed, renewed, or re-established? We are beginning to see evidence of renewed relations in Saskatchewan and Ontario, for instance, where new collective agreements have recently been reached after tense, long negotiations. A second consideration will be rethinking delivery models. Our previous research shows that the most effective teacher learning occurs in collaboration with other teachers.6 What adaptations will be needed to provide opportunities for teachers to continue to work together, and will organizational priorities and resources need to be shifted? While webinars and other forms of online learning are a solution in the short term, high-quality teacher learning should be varied in both form and function. Continued educator learning around trauma-informed teaching and ways of working will certainly be a priority, but what other innovations in content will the membership require and how will those needs be determined?
A second priority for teacher organizations will be continuing to ensure that safe working conditions and well-being are prioritized. While resolving outstanding bargaining issues will hopefully provide a stronger foundation for the continuation of professionally-led systems, a careful and measured approach will be necessary. In the context of the rapid growth of a range of providers of remote learning and technology solutions and the longer-term economic impacts of COVID-19, what new forms of advocacy work
and public outreach will be needed to ensure that public education continues to receive the investments that it needs? How will educators and support staff manage new job expectations and associated workload demands? What kinds of support mechanisms will be needed and how will organizations mobilize to meet those needs? Moreover, if educators are to have a strong voice in determining the future of schooling, active member engagement will be necessary. In a time when large-scale gatherings are prohibited, what adaptations might be necessary to strengthen organizational commitment? We are seeing a number of teacher organizations hosting webinars and providing online support to address current issues. This is certainly a step in the right direction but how else might teacher organizations connect with members to help answer all these questions?
If there was ever a time for teacher organizations to draw on the talents and strengths of their members while harnessing collective leadership capacity, it is now.
With legal responsibilities for the health and safety of all students, principals – alongside educators and support staff7 – are very much the “other first responders” of this pandemic. Consequently, first and foremost, the responsibility of principals will be both the prevention and identification of outbreaks within their schools. There are a lot of logistical considerations: Will there be plexiglass for each desk? Will students wear masks? Will there be recess and how would it be supervised? How will applied courses take place? Will additional custodial staff be needed? What impact will prevention strategies have on school budgeting? Will there be new communication strategies with public health regarding student infections? What new procedures will have to be carried out as breakouts and clusters pop up? Physical health and safety are not the only well-being issue that principals will have to be mindful of as they will also need to consider the psychological impact of the pandemic.8 In an ideal world, we assume students are physically isolating in a safe environment. Unfortunately, we do not live in an ideal world and, only a few months into the pandemic, members of the public and policy-makers are being warned to “remain vigilant about the potential for abuse towards women and children.”9 What kinds of new community-school partnerships will be needed to support the emotional health and well-being of students and staff? How will principals support teachers in developing and implementing trauma-informed practices and policies? What supports will principals need themselves to manage their own health and how will those supports be provided? These are all important and significant issues that need to be explored.
Collectively, we will also need to reconsider how we understand effective leadership in the coming months and years. As instructional leaders, principals are responsible for supporting and ensuring that effective pedagogical practices and successful student learning happen. Now that schools are physically closed, and learning has been moved to virtual engagement, principals have turned their attention towards supporting online learning and leading schools virtually, coupled with exponential growth in their use of information communication technology and social media. Online teaching and learning, however, is not the same as teaching face-to-face10 as it is not merely about taking a face-to-face program and delivering via a web-based conference platform. Considerations include hardware and software issues, but also the skills required to navigate software and new knowledge on how to interact on such platforms. These issues are not exclusive to students, but impact teachers and school principals as well. Looking forward towards longer term implications, in a recent survey of American school principals, 82% of respondents indicated that they were not sure how their school district planned to scale up education technology to deliver curriculum and instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic.11 A key question becomes: what new forms of instructional leadership are required to promote a culture of learning in digital or blended learning spaces? A related concern is how principals will ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students. As we noted earlier, international return to school plans have been staggered and continue to include elements of at-home learning. As we move forward, issues including internet access, access to learning devices, and instructional capacity for online learning will need to be continuously re-evaluated. Working in collaboration with school districts, teachers, parents, and students to identify and navigate these inequities is and will continue to be a significant facet of effective principal leadership during the pandemic.
This pandemic has given us a lot of food for thought. On the one hand, the creativity and commitment of educators to providing meaningful and creative learning opportunities has been inspiring and lends hope to many possible futures. On the other hand, systemic gaps around equity in education (and all facets of society) have become all the more visible. While access to the internet and electronic devices has been heavily covered in the news media, there are families without access to clean water and others who struggle to provide basic supplies, healthy lunches, or a safe learning environment. Teachers, principals, and other school staff are also grappling with the rapid pace of change and its impact on their daily work lives.12
As Education International’s (2020) Guiding Principles on the COVID-19 Pandemic points out, given the extensive trauma (both professional and personal) that has resulted, future plans should be mindful of not only the physical safety factors related to containing outbreaks, but also the emotional well-being of both educators and students. Perhaps more so now than any other time, all decisions related to the future of schooling need to place protection, care, and compassion for students and educational staff at the centre. This will require us to collectively rethink the value and purpose of schooling as we shift gears away from the immediate responses that have dominated our conversations thus far, and instead move towards reimagining many of the fundamental aspects of schooling from the physical and public health components through to leadership, teaching, learning, equity, well-being, and a host of other components. This will be no easy feat and will not be fully realized for some time. As has become Canada’s slogan throughout this crisis, however, we are indeed stronger together. Most certainly, this must be the mantra of the education system moving forward.
1People for Education. (2020). Tracking Canada’s education systems’ response to COVID-19. Accessible from https://peopleforeducation.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/PFE_covid-tracker-table-Apr30-2020.pdf
2UNESCO (2020a). COVID-19 Impact on Education. Accessible from https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse
3Doucet, A., Netolicky, D., Timmers, K. & Tuscano, F.J. (2020). Thinking about Pedagogy in an Unfolding Pandemic: Independent Report on Approaches to Distance Learning During COVID 19 School Closures. Accessible from https://issuu.com/educationinternational/docs/2020_research_covid-19_eng
4Higgins, S., Xiao, Z., & Katsipataki, M. (2012). The Impact of Digital Technology on Learning: A Summary for the Education Endowment Foundation. Durham University and the Education Endowment Foundation.
5Osmond-Johnson, P., Campbell, C., Faubert, B. (2018). Supporting professional learning: The work of Canadian teacher organizations. Professional Development in Education. DOI: 10.1080/19415257.2018.1486877.
6Campbell, C., Osmond-Johnson, P., Faubert, B., Zeichner, K., & Hobbs-Johnson, A. (2016). The state of educator’s professional learning in Canada: Executive summary. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward. Accessible from https://learningforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/state-of-educators-professional-learning-in-canada-executive-summary.pdf
7Ontario Principals’ Council, (January 2020). The other first responders: Crisis support for principals and vice-principals dealing with traumatic events. The Register. 22(2).
8Zhou,X., Snoswell, C., Harding, l., Bambling, M., Edirippulige, S., Bai, Z. & smith, A. (April, 2020). The role of telehealth in reducing mental health burden from COVID-19. Telemedicine and e-Health, 26(4).
9Woods, M. (2020, March 21). Concerns about child abuse during COVID-19 isolation. CTV News Ottawa. Accessible from https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/concerns-about-child-abuse-during-covid-19-isolation-1.4863060
10Ben Jaafar, S. (2020). Emergency response to this pandemic is not the future of online education. Accessible from https://www.bettshow.com/bett-articles/emergency-response-to-this-pandemic-is-not-the-future-of-online-education
11National Association of Elementary school principals (NAESP) & AASA (School Superintendents Association) 2020).
12UNESCO. (2020b). Teacher task force calls to support 63 million teachers touched by the COVID-19 crisis. Accessible from https://en.unesco.org/news/teacher-task-force-calls-support-63-million-teachers-touched-covid-19-crisis
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