Archive
-
Carrying the Fire
Comments Off on Carrying the Fire(A discussion moderated by Michelle Hogue and Holly Bennett)
When planning this special edition of Education Canada, one thing we knew for sure is that we did not want to overlook the insights and ideas of the people at the heart of the issue: Indigenous students. On January 19, 2018, four young adults joined us in a phone discussion to share their thoughts about what Truth and Reconciliation means to them and how that should be reflected in our schools…
Meet the Participants
- Gregory Francis is from Kingsclear First Nation in New Brunswick and is a 4th year student at the University of New Brunswick studying chemical engineering. Currently a member of the Prime Minister’s Youth Council, Greg acts as a positive role model through his actions to support youth. He has been a tutor for First Nation students in his community and has served as a facilitator for First Nation youth engagement.
- Talia Natowcappo is from Lestock, Saskatchewan and is registered to Fishing Lake First Nations Band. A proud Saulteaux-Anishinaabe woman, she is currently studying at Concordia University majoring in First Peoples Studies. She says, “My spirit name is Migiiziikwe; I am part of the Bear Clan family and I am also a pipe carrier. Discovering my culture saved my life, made me proud of something I was once ashamed of.”
- Tarene Thomas is from Enoch Cree Nation and the North West Coast of B.C. She is a writer, poet, and activist in the fourth year of her English major at the University of Alberta. Tarene also works with the transition year program at the University of Alberta, and is an Indigenous peer mentor for the faculty of arts.
- Hunter Martin is from Black Lake Denesuline First Nation in Saskatchewan and is a Grade 12 student at Bethlehem Catholic High School in Saskatoon. He has recently developed an interest in his people’s culture and hopes to contribute to the advancement of Truth and Reconciliation.
We want to know what you, as youth and young adults of today, think needs to happen as we move forward in this TRC era? Where do you think things should go?
I know these are big, open-ended tough questions, but really you are the next generation and are going to be the game changers, and ones who open up doors in a lot of different ways, so we’re very interested in what you have to say.
HUNTER: Moving into the 21st century, I do believe that we need to take action. Some of the reserves have been taking action. The chief for Whitecap, outside of Saskatoon here, really puts emphasis on supporting the youth in the community. There’s more funding going toward the school, and it’s creating a great environment for the young people of that community. I think we do need to put emphasis on the younger generation in order to move forward. There are other issues, such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, drug addictions and suicide, but if we teach the younger generation that this is not the way, that it doesn’t have to be like this, then they will strive to actually make things better once they graduate and go out into the world. That’s my take on reconciliation and youth.
I go to school in the city now. I transferred down south coming out of Grade 9, for the betterment of my education. My mom really didn’t want me to stay up north in my reserve because the education there is poor, the school system is underfunded.
TARENE: That’s what I think we should talk about a little bit, how Indigenous education systems are funded a lot less than mainstream education. It was the same with me, I grew up on a reserve and I did graduate from the high school on my reserve, but from Grade 1 to 9/10, I went to school in the city. It was for the same reason; I wanted a better education so I registered myself and my siblings in the public school system.
But that’s a huge problem, that we have to outsource ourselves to other places away from our community, where we can be involved in our culture and kinship. Those ties are sort of lost, and we have to make that leap just to have the same level of education that non-Indigenous people are having. That’s something that really needs to be addressed.
TALIA: I moved away from my territory, from the prairies, because it was really hard being there as an Indigenous person, with the negative stereotypes that come along with this heritage. It’s really frustrating. But for the years I’ve been travelling, I’ve always carried this big sense of guilt for leaving home, like I’m leaving my family or my siblings or somebody there that would need me. It was just going back this Christmas that I realized that I no longer have to feel guilty or selfish for leaving home, for wanting to better myself – and that came with giving up alcohol and trying to be more traditional and smudging more and trying to be more active in any type of discussion that involves Indigenous people. But I’m still contemplating whether, when I’m done with my academia, if I want to go back and try to create a positive space for the Indigenous people there.
HUNTER: I also have stresses from my family, knowing the problems that they are going through. It really hinders me sometimes from concentrating on what needs to be done. Like my cousin commited suicide, just a year and two days ago, and after that I did abuse alcohol for awhile. It was hard, really hard, getting over that. It took about a month before I realized, what can I do so this doesn’t happen again? So that’s when I decided to take an interest and learn about my culture and my people.
We should teach the true history of Canada. I think that if we start to teach those histories and the effects of colonialism, then we’ll start to clear the air a little bit because I feel like that’s where a lot of the racism and ignorance comes from.
TARENE: Another issue is Indigenizing education. We need to be starting in early elementary and right through to Grade 12, because a lot of the gaps between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people come from the ignorance and not knowing the history, not understanding colonialism and the effects it has on Indigenous people. So in social studies in Grades 4-7, you’re learning about settlers coming into Canada, and you have that small little paragraph that says First Nations People wilfully moved so settlers could live there. We should teach the true history of Canada. I think that if we start to teach those histories and the effects of colonialism, then we’ll start to clear the air a little bit because I feel like that’s where a lot of the racism and ignorance comes from.
I also think it’s really important to create spaces for Indigenous students wherever it may be, in communities, in the school system, in the city. And there needs to be relationship building between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students so we can start to break down the barriers that keep people focused on the negativity.
GREG: One thing that I wanted to talk about was creating that dialogue between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. I spent my entire schooling in the public system. There was an elementary school on my reserve, but I was always put into the city school 15 minutes away. But as I transitioned from elementary to middle to high school, I noticed that people’s conceptions about Indigenous people had drastically changed, to the point that going into high school I felt uncomfortable and alienated. I think that trying to promote that dialogue and trying to have those conversations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people will help us understand each other’s differences and find a common place to be able to agree on something that allows us to move forward. Too many times I feel that people focus on each other’s weaknesses when we should really be focused on what makes them strong, and on using those strengths to better our nation as a whole.
TARENE: Those are really good points. There need to be spaces made for those types of conversations, facilitated by people who are comfortable and trained, and they should be happening in school systems in all different levels and age groups. I think when people have these conversations in a… I don’t really want to say safe space, because no one can guarantee a safe space, but in a relatively safe space, I think a lot of times people come through with a better understanding, as opposed to learning something through a book.
HUNTER: I do agree with this. In Native Studies, we were reading about sweat lodges and smudging, but learning about it from a book is very different from actually doing it. You get a deeper understanding, you actually get a connection, when you actually do something that’s related to the topic. That’s true about anything, really, I think it’s one of the major problems with education as a whole. It emphasizes the memory of things and doesn’t really emphasize doing it. That also has to do with getting the students interested. They’ll have a deeper understanding of the subject and in turn will be interested in learning more.
If you could make one big change, what would it be?
TALIA: I want to help plan curriculum, I want to help change the way we teach our kids. And I think the first thing that needs to be instilled is that sense of cultural pride, getting those little kids into a sweat lodge, teaching them that our identity is valuable. Then they’ll be able to carry the fire, and then they’ll be able to be more prepared for the life we send them off into.
They’ve tried for the last 500 years to assimilate us, and it’s not going to happen. They say it takes two to three generations to lose your culture, but we’ve been fighting for it for the last seven. Yeah, it’s nice to teach it here at the university level, but before we even start sharing it with our European neighbours or our other minorities, who are really beautiful too, we have to instill it in our kids. We have to take it back before we can try to explain to anyone else how beautiful it is.
You know, I look at my friends who come from, I guess, a privileged lifestyle where their parents were successful, they had jobs, health care, health insurance… So they didn’t have to go through Indian Affairs, cause it sucks, you know? There’s such a huge stigma around it, that when people bring it up, I’m actually kind of still ashamed that I need help from Indian Affairs. And my non-Indigenous friends who are younger than me are getting their Masters degrees, while I… I’ve worked amazing jobs, travelled to the most Northern remote places, but I pretty much failed my first semester of university here in Montreal and I was scared – scared to go home, scared to tell anybody. I’m in therapy for this, and it’s help me realize that growing up I pretty much raised my siblings and I developed this sense of “I have to do it on my own, no one can help me.” And that I had to overcome all of the shitty things I went through as a kid and in my teens and what I’ve done to myself because I was really incredibly hurt, from being a residential school survivor survivor. I didn’t have to actually go to residential school to have the exact same effects happen to me – being taken away from my parents, being in foster care, the molestation and abuse. It was all there.
TARENE: If I could change one thing? It would be kind of adding on to what Talia was saying, teaching our youth that we are not vessels for white settler colonial shame. We’ve been talking a lot about barriers, and I think one of the reasons why there are so many barriers in front of our people is because it’s kind of the narrative we’ve been told. That’s what society teaches us – that our families are broken so they can’t teach us anything about who we are. So it’s important for our generation and for us when we have children, to instill that in our kids, to be proud of who we are. And then we need to start peeling back these layers, that colonial narrative that’s all over Canada that kind of fits Indigenous people into one box, you know, like the dumb drunk Indian. To do that we need to start within the school systems.
GREG: I know personally when I was younger I wasn’t really connected to my culture, and I did face a lot of mental health issues and alcohol abuse. I was a lost soul for a while. I was able to rediscover myself when I got more involved in my culture and learned a lot more about my traditions. It gave me a more holistic approach and allowed me to feel a lot more like who I am. I just really want that for every other Indigenous youth out there.
TALIA: I just hope they find it a lot sooner than we did. That’s one of the biggest issues right now that we’re facing as a generation: we are really fighting for who we are. I’m fighting to take back my language. I’m fighting to feel comfortable in my own skin for being brown. I have to fight to learn my name in my language and figure out what Bear Clan actually means, and what Eagle Woman means and Migiiziikwe, to find out where my people come from and why I carry a peace pipe.
I’m incredibly proud and happy now about who I am as an individual and what small accomplishments I’ve actually made. And it’s learning to be humble and to have humility, and to share and to laugh, and to just exude love all the time.
When you picture your kids or your grandchildren, what would you hope their school experience would be like?
TARENE: I would want it to be challenging, but also a space where they feel respected and where people know their histories.
HUNTER: I would like my children or grandchildren to find more fulfilment in life through their schooling. When they enter it, they are still on their journey of finding who they are, and when they leave I want them to have a stronger sense of who they are as a person and go off in the world from that place of knowing who they are. That’s my big thing with school: it’s very hard to find yourself in it.
I want to add, I want all kids to go to school feeling like they are not less human for who they are, their background, their people. I want them to feel fully human. I went to school feeling left out because of the colour of my skin.
TALIA: I just hope that, ten years from now, there’s a school on every fucking reserve! A properly funded school, with running water, that isn’t in trailers, that can give them a place to actually flourish and realize who they are and be proud of who they are – and also give them the life tools to be successful.
And I really want them to have a safe home. That truly depends on me and us as parents to not make the same mistakes.
GREG: Everyone pretty much covered it. I want my grandchildren to have that identity, and not to be at a disadvantage because of their ethnicity or because of who they are. That’s something that a lot of Indigenous people are facing today – we have had more struggles compared to other people. I don’t want our kids having to face those kinds of struggles.
HUNTER: I have just one thing to add I guess. I was told that it’s been seven generations before ours that have had a time of pain and suffering, and that it will take seven generations more until that pain has fully healed. I was told it is our generation, the Millenials, that is the start of that seven-generation healing process. When I was told this, I felt compelled and motivated to start doing things to better myself and my people. It is us who will rekindle the flame of hope. And through that hope, will inspire others to actually go on that journey.
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
First published in Education Canada, May 2018
-
Learning Together by Learning to Listen to Each Other
Comments Off on Learning Together by Learning to Listen to Each OtherWithout question, we need discussions about Truth and Reconciliation in all classrooms in every community and every educational institution across Canada. From my traditional Mi’kmaw way of understanding the world, I firmly believe these discussions must begin with exchanges of stories because such is the foundational basis of all relationship. I also passionately believe these exchanges must be ongoing and that they must take place within an acknowledged journey of co-learning wherein we – Indigenous peoples and the newcomers in our Indigenous lands – seek to learn together, to learn from each other, and to learn to draw upon the strengths, indeed the best, in our different ways of knowing, doing, and being.
Many years ago, I brought forward the guiding principle of Etuaptmumk or Two-Eyed Seeing for co-learning. It encourages the realization that beneficial outcomes are much more likely in any given situation when we are willing to bring two or more perspectives into play. As such, Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing can be understood as the gift of multiple perspective, which is treasured by the Mi’kmaw people and probably most Indigenous peoples. Our world today has many arenas where this principle, this gift, is exceedingly relevant including, especially, education, health, and the environment. I’ve often described Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing this way:
“I, you, and we need to learn to see from one eye with the best or the strengths in the Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing… and learn to see from the other eye with the best or the strengths in the mainstream (Western or Eurocentric) knowledges and ways of knowing… but most importantly, I, you, and we need to learn to see with both these eyes together, for the benefit of all.”
In my experience, many people across Canada and in different locations have a desire to bring together the ways of knowing of Indigenous peoples and newcomers. Different approaches and different names are in use for this type of work and Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing is but one. Regardless, the work is not easy. I always emphasize that the ongoing journey of co-learning is essential in order to develop and nurture collective and collaborative understandings and capabilities. Otherwise, the work can all too easily slip into a lazy, tokenistic approach in which Etuaptmumk / Two-Eyed Seeing and similar efforts quickly become mere jargon, trivialized, romanticized, co-opted, or used as a “mechanism” where pieces of knowledge are merely assembled in a way that lacks the S/spirit of co-learning. And thus, we need ongoing co-learning in our classrooms. But we need also to act upon the recognition that informal learning environments exist in abundance throughout our communities and within the whole of society… and co-learning needs to occur in them as well as in the formal classroom setting. So I believe this educational need is both deep and broad.
I look forward to this special issue of Education Canada: We must share our stories and we must learn to listen to stories other than our own… our knowledges live in our stories.
Apoqnmatultl’k Jiksktuali’lk
L’pa ma’ pun tluow ta’n tettuji nuta’q sku’tminenow Ketlewo’qn aq Apiksiktuaqn msit wutaniminal aq msit ta’n te’sikl kina’matnuo’kuo’ml ta’n telki’k u’t Kanata. Ta’n ni’n tel nestm koqoey, amujpa tela’sik wlu wsitqamu’kminu. Amujpa etlewistu’ti’k aq wesku’tmu’k ta’n wejitaik mita ta’n tujiw etlewistu’ti’kw melkiknowatu’k ta’n teli-mawqatmu’ti’k u’t wsitaqmu. Paqsipki-tlamsitm ta’n tettuji nuta’q u’t tla’siktn ke’sk pemitaikl msit wutawtiminal. Nutaik toqi- kina’masultinew mawi kwilmu’kl ikjijitaqnminal aq kinu’tmasultinew ta’n koqoey maw-kelu’kl e’tasiw ala’tu’kl, muskajewe’l. Mu ajkine’nuk ta’n tettuji pilui-kina’masulti’k, ta’n tel-lukuti’k aq ta’n telo’lti’k – mawikwaik amujpa nike’ – l’nu’k aq ak’lasie’wk.
Sa’qiji’jk na nike’wesku’tm aq kekkina’muey ta’n ni’n telo’tm wela’sik tel-kina’masultimk kiskuk. Telui’tmap “Etuaptmumk.” Akklasie’wiktuk telui’tasik – “Two-Eyed Seeing.” Etuaptmin na koqoey, toqa’tu’nl ikjijitaqnn. Mnaqij akkaptmin u’t tel kina’masimk, nmitisk aq wetuo’tisk me’aji wl’a’sik toqa’tumk ikjijitaqnn l’nue’l aq aklasie’we’l. Na nekmowey wjit Etuaptmumk teliksua’tasik kutey iknmakumkl ta’n tujiw tel-kina’masimk l’nuimk. Nestmu’k, mita sa’q ki’s tel’ukuti’k aq kesite’tmu’k.
Kiskuk u’t eymu’ti’k u’t wsitqamu pukwelkl etekl koqoe’l ta’n kisi we’wmu’k Etuaptmumk. Kisi we’wmu’k wjit kinamasuti, t’an teli-tajiko’lti’k, aq ta’n te’li klo’tmu’k u’t wsitqamu. Kaqisk teluey amujpa ewe’wmin newte’jk pukik meknimin ta’n mawi-knaql lnueye’l ikjijitaqnn ta’n nenminn aq ta’n mawi-wla’sital wjit ki’l, ni’n, aq kinuk, tujiw kekknu’tmasin ewe’wmin piluey pukik ta’n te’sik nenmin ikjijitaqn akla’siewey koqoey kelu’k ta’n tel-nmitu’tij. Tujiw weswa’tu’nl ikjijitaqnn aq toqwa’tu’nl – Etuaptmumk msit kowey, mawa’tu’nl aq aji wlaptikemk kwilimimk mawi-kelu’k wjit msit wen. Ta’n ni’n telaptm koqoey aq ta’n tel nenm, pukwelk wen ewe’wk Etuaptmumk msit Kanata aq se’k u’t wsitqamu. Pukwelk wen wetnu’kwalsit kisi toqa’tun l’nuey aq akklasie’wey klaman wla’sitow aq klu’ktitow. Jel ap pilu’wi’tmi’tij ta’n tujiw wejitu’tij, katu newte’jk na pasik ni’n telo’tm etek – Etuaptmumk. Katu ap mu-ajjkine’nuk mita l’pa ma’ pun tluow ta’n tel nuta’q mawa’tunew aq toqa’tnow ikjijitaqnminal pemitaik kekknamasutimk klaman ml’kiknowatisnuk mawa’tu’kl ta’n te’sikl iknmatimkewe’l ala’tukl aq ta’n te’sikl me’ kisi kina’masultitesnuk.
Mu ml’kuktmuk u’t nike’, aq attikineta’wk toqa’tunew, aq e’tasiw kepmite’mukl kjijitaqnn lnu’eyl aq akklasie’we’l, na mnaqnatew aq ewliksu’a’tasiktitew koqoey maliaptmu’k. Na ni’n nekmowey ketlamsitm aq kejitu nuta’q u’t toqa’tasin kkjijitaqnn kina’matmuo’kuo’ml, katu elt nuta’q kepmite’tminow te’sik kisi kina’masimk wutaniminal aq msit u’t wsitqamu. Nuta’q elt tuwa’lanew kwijimuk ta’nik kekknamu’kik mita asa newte’ te’sik kisi kina’masultitaq kwijimuk aq malikwuo’mk. Ta’n tel-nemutu ni’n, kenek me’ eltaik kekkna’masulti’kl toqwa’tumk u’t kkjijitaqnn, pukwelk me’nuta’q pana’tunew. Nenaqite’tm u’t wi’katikn: Kina’masuti Kanata: Nuta’q kin’ua’tatultinew a’tukwaqniminal aq kina’masultinew ejiksitmu’kl atukwaqnn se’k wejiaql – kkjijitaqnminu mimajik atukwaqnnminal.
(Elder Albert’s voiced thoughts, written in Mi’kmaw by Carol Anne Johnson)
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
First published in Education Canada, June 2018
-
New report details how urban high schools can raise Indigenous graduation rates
Comments Off on New report details how urban high schools can raise Indigenous graduation ratesReconciliation in Action: Creating a Learning Community for Indigenous Student Success, praises B.C. education policies and demonstrates how non-Indigenous educators can implement reconciliation initiatives immediately.
In an effort to implement the recommendations for education contained in the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, provincial school systems are developing curricula that incorporates Indigenous perspectives respectfully and accurately for all students. But non-Indigenous educators, who’ve had limited learning experiences in their own schooling about Indigenous cultures, histories and issues, are now grappling with the fear of “getting it wrong” for their students. But a B.C.-based learning community model in Kelowna demonstrates how non-Indigenous educators can envelop students in a network of Indigenous teachers, adult advocates and the wider community to curtail Indigenous student dropout rates while immersing non-Indigenous students in Traditional Knowledge.
The Indigenous graduation rate has risen from 66% to 77% in six years at Mount Boucherie Secondary in West Kelowna, B.C, which has a high percentage of students with Indigenous ancestry. Educators have attested that culture is medicine, and that immersing students in land-based activities, First Nations-centred courses, the local Okanagan language and traditional drumming and talking circles has given them a sense of pride and a will to succeed.
This report provides practical examples complete with video testimonials from students and teachers on how the Academy of Indigenous Studies has built lasting relationships with local First Nations communities – demonstrating how existing provincial course offerings can be leveraged to create a for-credit learning track that allows Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to learn about Indigenous cultures throughout their entire high school journeys.
“We have well-intentioned, non-Indigenous educators across the country who are afraid of not teaching this material respectfully and authentically,” says Darren Googoo, Chair of the EdCan Network, a pan-Canadian collective of education leaders. “But doing nothing is also wrong, and this approach allows educators to effectively mobilize reconciliation in their schools right now.”
To access the full report and videos, please visit: www.edcan.ca/academy-report
-
A guide on how urban high schools can raise Indigenous graduation rates
Comments Off on A guide on how urban high schools can raise Indigenous graduation ratesA case study report on how one B.C. high school is mobilizing a whole-community approach to raise Indigenous graduation rates
This case study report provides practical examples on how the Academy of Indigenous Studies has built lasting relationships with local First Nations communities – demonstrating how existing provincial course offerings can be leveraged to create a for-credit learning track that allows Indigenous and non-Indigenous students to learn about Indigenous cultures throughout their entire high school journeys.
This B.C.-based learning community model in Kelowna demonstrates how non-Indigenous educators can envelop students in a network of Indigenous teachers, adult advocates and the wider community to curtail Indigenous student dropout rates while immersing non-Indigenous students in Traditional Knowledge.
Non-Indigenous educators in urban high schools can leverage this step-by-step report to create their own unique programs in consultation and collaboration with local Indigenous communities.
Practical how-to videos for teachers and principals
We’ve also put together a series of student and educator video testimonials demonstrating how “culture is medicine” that gives students a sense of pride and a will to succeed.
Tackling School Dropout, Pursuing Reconciliation: Why we should teach and celebrate Indigenous cultures and knowledge in schools
Reconciling Broken Promises: Advice on building partnerships with Indigenous communities
Culture Is Medicine: Confronting stereotypes on First Nations peoples
-
Education’s Call to Action
Comments Off on Education’s Call to Action“Education is the key to reconciliation.” – Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair, Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission illuminated a history that has been ignored or glossed over for far too long: the suffering and damage caused to Indigenous children and their families by residential schools, and the ongoing impact and legacy of colonialism.
The challenge before us is to acknowledge these truths and work toward a just and respectful relationship with this land’s Original Peoples. It remains to be seen how well we as a country will meet this challenge, but one thing is clear: educators have a critical role to play. Through the education system, we can ensure that the next generation of Canadians grows up with some understanding of the histories and cultures of First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) peoples, and that FNMI students receive an equitable and culturally relevant education.
But how to begin? We know that many teachers feel daunted by their own lack of knowledge and fear of “getting it wrong.” There is great work being done, however, that can inspire and guide us – addressing both the specific needs of Indigenous students and the need to better educate all students.
I’m very excited that this special issue is entirely devoted to Truth and Reconciliation in education. It showcases inspiring models and practical ideas for educators who wish to take steps towards reconciliation in their schools. The articles we received were truly outstanding, and I am very grateful for the generosity and enthusiasm of our contributors.
I’d specifically like to thank two people. Michelle Hogue, our Guest Editor, sits on Education Canada’s Editorial Board and is a Métis scholar teaching at the University of Lethbridge. She was not only an invaluable guide and advisor but also took on nitty-gritty work like moderating our Youth Talking Circle (and please do read what these extraordinary young adults have to say – they blew us away with their openness, wisdom, and determination to contribute to a better world). I also want to thank Mi’kmaw Elder Albert Marshall, who set us on the right path with his introduction to this issue on.
Elder Albert says we are on “an ongoing journey of co-learning” from and with each other. Educators don’t need to know it all. We simply need to be ready to seek out the knowledge of those who do know, and to learn alongside our students.
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Send your comments and article proposals to editor@edcan.ca
Photo: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, June 2018
-
New guidebook on early school leaving
Comments Off on New guidebook on early school leavingNew EdCan Network case study research report entitled The Rural Advantage: Rallying Communities Around Our Students calls on school-community leaders to consider a made-in-Canada approach that raises literacy rates, prevents early school leaving and breathes life back into small towns.
It’s an all-too-common scenario in Canada’s rural communities. Parents who struggle to read and write. Household incomes and unemployment rates that fall below the national average. Students with special needs who require a speech pathologist or a teaching assistant, but don’t get one. Schools at risk for closure and dwindling community services as young people dropout of school or opt for brighter opportunities in the big city. But these trends can be reversed with a “community ecosystem approach”: a Canadian-developed, step-by-step process for developing school-community partnerships that can reduce student dropout rates in rural and disadvantaged schools and municipalities.
“Our grade-four French-language success scores have risen from 50% to 98% in only five years,” says Sylvain Tremblay, principal of both an elementary school and a high school in Saint-Paul-de-Montminy, Quebec. “Instead of working in silos, we engaged parents, kids, teachers and community partners to collectively lead activities that increase the language skills of toddlers and encourage the academic and social success of our children and young adults.”
This guidebook was originally developed with the support of CTREQ – a Quebec-based research and knowledge mobilization centre – and provides a practical toolkit and worksheets for school and community leaders to create their own unique program, including guidance on how to engage hard-to-reach families, classrooms, schools, and whole communities.
“Schools can’t afford to work in isolation from the families and communities where their students live and grow up,” says Darren Googoo, Chair of the EdCan Network, a pan-Canadian collective of education leaders. “This approach isn’t about overloading busy educators; rather, it’s about community leaders rallying around a literacy action plan that leverages existing resources and strengthens existing efforts.”
Download the full report for free, including how-to videos and a practical toolkit, at: www.edcan.ca/ecoreussite-report.
SUPPORTED BY
This initiative is generously sponsored by State Farm Canada, which shares EdCan Network’s commitment to supporting leaders who are transforming Canada’s public education system.
-
The Signal: Multi-Grading iGen-ers and Alpha Geners
Comments Off on The Signal: Multi-Grading iGen-ers and Alpha GenersWhat?
Multi-grading – combining two grade levels in one classroom – may not appear to be a signal of change at first glance. After all, it’s been around for generations; some might say since one-room schools. However, in Canada more than 20 percent of students were registered in multi-grade classes in 2015, with the number continuing to grow – an educational trend being experienced worldwide.1 And yet, what do we know about our current students’ (iGen-ers) and future students’ (Alpha Geners) experiences with multi-grading? Do we know how to meet their multi-grading needs?
So what?
This worldwide educational trend is based on research that shows students in combined classes performing as well and better than peers in single grade classes.2 Greg has seen first-hand how students benefit from some aspects of multi-grading, especially in the context of smaller class sizes. He has found that pedagogical practices such as differentiated instruction and heterogeneous groupings are proving (anecdotally) more effective in supporting student growth, development, and learning in a multi-grading context.
However, there is a gap in our knowledge about how best to educate iGen-ers and Alpha Geners in multi-grading classrooms. In a time when multi-grading is showing unprecedented growth, we need current research supporting best practice. And although teachers like Greg, relatively new to multi-grading, have been provided professional learning on multi-grading, it has not always been best suited to the needs of the multi-grade teacher. To compensate for this, Greg has had to create his own online/email groups and set up meetings and opportunities to connect with his multi-grade peers on the weekends and evenings. Since research on current best practice can be difficult to locate, there is an overreliance on teacher trial and error to determine what will best serve these new generations of learners, the increased diversity of student learning and developmental needs within one classroom, and also departmental/ministry expectations.
What next?
Supporting student success is the ultimate goal of quality teachers and quality educational programming. With multi-grading gaining momentum in Canada and internationally, we need to capitalize on its strengths. This requires systematic implementation and investigation of multi-grading in today’s educational contexts, with and for current iGen’ers and future Alpha Gen’ers, as well as a community within which to share this information with and between practitioners.
Participant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
1 Globe and Mail (September 17, 2015). https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/education/are-split-grades-something-to-worry-about/article26390439/?ref=http://www.theglobeandmail.com&
2 E.g. Gajadharsingh, 1991; Goodland, 1987; Veenman, 1995.
-
The Signal: The demand to build adaptive expertise
Comments Off on The Signal: The demand to build adaptive expertiseWhat?
The demand to build adaptive expertise in educators is a powerful signal of change. Recently, I sat in on several sessions at an educational technology conference, where seven local school districts collaborated to share knowledge. As I watched teachers at all stages of their careers gather in classrooms to learn and exchange ideas in areas ranging from apps for teaching math to online portfolios for student assessment, it reminded me that the goals we share go beyond simply keeping pace with the latest tech tools. The premise of a peer-led conference is illustrative of how we must approach education’s most profound shift in a century.
So what?
The demand to develop adaptive expertise matters because educators must prepare learners for a world that few can imagine: a world where technology often outpaces our understanding of its implications, where the global village demands collaborative solutions, and where critical thinking is our only life vest in a swelling tide of information. Educators and learners alike need to build their skill set for adaptive expertise: critical and creative thinking, collaboration, and the willingness to engage with others.
Now what?
Teachers need to model the change in practice that allows these skills to become habits or attributes in the lives of learners. This is how we develop resilient learning communities. As Stephen Downes of Canada’s National Research Council wrote, “We need to move beyond the idea that an education is something that is provided for us, and toward the idea that an education is something that we create for us.” We demonstrate a willingness to adapt as we create space and opportunities for personalized learning, build understanding of shared histories, and use technology for deeper learning. Even learning spaces must transform – rows of desks and the hierarchies they underline are often incongruous with the collaboration required to propel real innovation. As educators, if we can recognize our own inter-dependence, we can build resilient, lifelong learners who understand their power to both adapt to and shape the world around them.
Participant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
The Signal: A curriculum shift from content to connections
Comments Off on The Signal: A curriculum shift from content to connectionsWhat?
In response to an evolving global landscape, and to better equip students with the skills and abilities needed for the future, British Columbia is in the process of integrating a new curriculum for Grades K-12.
So What?
B.C.’s new curriculum provides greater flexibility to teachers, focusing on depth of understanding rather than simply recalling and regurgitating “Google-able” facts. This increased flexibility allows students to explore the curriculum through the lens of their individual passions and interests. By extension, the relevancy of curriculum is increased for both teachers and students. Exploring curriculum through the lens of a student’s interests allows for a more strength-based approach to education, providing increased opportunities for students to succeed based on their unique skills and abilities. Ultimately, it should result in greater engagement and ownership, creating a framework for meaningful learning experiences.
As well, by encouraging the development of a broader and more diverse range of skills, students will be better equipped for the challenges and opportunities that they will face in the future.
Now What?
This shift from content to connections necessitates a renewed focus on relationships between teachers and students. A culture in which relationships are valued as an essential component for student success requires an investment of time. In the midst of busy days, teachers must be provided with the time to learn the stories and context of their students, allowing them to facilitate meaningful connections between the curriculum and individual student interests. As such, districts and schools much invest in both informal and formal structures, providing a necessary framework in which to grow and sustain meaningful relationships.
The Advisory Model is one such example of a formal structure. This model provides a sustained, intentional and focused block of time, built into the school day, that allows teachers to connect with their students without the pressure to deliver specific content or curriculum. In an Advisory Model, connections are privileged over content. Research clearly indicates that students who feel like they belong, who are understood and supported by the adults in their school community, are more likely to achieve social and academic success.
Participant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
The Signal: Increased focus on closing the gaps for students with learning disabilities
Comments Off on The Signal: Increased focus on closing the gaps for students with learning disabilitiesParticipant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange. Some appear below; others are published on the EdCan Network website.
What?
In 2016, the Ontario Ministry of Education launched the Learning Disabilities Pilot Projects. The goal of these projects is to provide better support for students with Learning Disabilities. Working with eight publicly funded school boards, the Ministry is running three-year intensive reading pilot projects. All eight school boards are using the Empower Reading Program, an evidence-based reading remediation program developed by the Hospital for Sick Children. In addition to addressing reading, school boards are also tasked with looking at ways to support the social-emotional functioning of students with learning disabilities and access to assistive technology.
So what?
Focused reading instruction takes place in the primary grades. As the system moves from “learn to read” to “read to learn,” students who struggle with reading after Grade 3 often receive little support or remediation to improve their skills. While some reading remediation programming does exist for older students, it is not widely available across the province, and varies greatly from school board to school board. As students get older, and fall farther behind their peers, positive academic and social-emotional outcomes become harder to achieve.
During the 2015-2016 school year, the Ontario Ministry of Education conducted a Consultation into the Provincial and Demonstration Schools, which are run by the Ministry and support students who are Deaf or hard of hearing, blind, Deaf/blind or have severe learning disabilities. At the time of the Consultation, many feared that the government was looking to close these schools. As a result of the findings, these schools remain open, and this pilot project was created to take some of the best practices of the demonstration schools, and reach more students through implementation at the school board level. As an educator who was working at a Demonstration School at the time of the Consultations, and who believes ardently that we must do what we can to find a way to support all students, the pilot projects represent a recognition that change is needed if we are to truly commit to teaching all students.
What now?
Moving forward, school boards can build upon the proven success of research-based reading remediation programs, such as Empower, and begin to implement them widely. We can recognize the emotional toll that learning challenges can place on a student, and develop social-emotional supports. All educators can refuse to accept the premise that a student with a learning disability may never learn to read well, and seek out ways to support all students to achieve success.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
The Signal: New media, new literacies
Comments Off on The Signal: New media, new literaciesWhat?
Whether it’s news, social media or classroom learning resources, images and video are gaining primacy over print. Many teens use Snapchat to share spontaneous images and video and many use it as their news source. Most classrooms have a projector connected to a computer, making it easy for teachers to use many kinds of media to teach.
If you want to learn how to repair something, learn a computer program, play the piano, or even how to write, search YouTube. You can share what you know, what you can do or the strange thing your cat did, on Youtube, Vimeo, Daily Motion, Twitter, Instagram or Imgur. If you’re interested in ideas or stories, you can listen to or create a podcast. Gamers can live stream their own game play or watch others play on Twitch. Audience size? Try 100,000,000 visitors a month. There are also many sites where you can take a course or create a course for free or a fee.
So what?
We need to prepare students to make sense and meaning with these new media texts that are increasingly a huge part of what we consume and create. And that means we will have to give up some old practices and attitudes.
As schools have been print-based, many in education continue to privilege print texts and to narrowly define literacy as the ability to read and write print texts. Rarely are we even teaching how print texts are written, presented and read differently online.
We talk about multiple intelligences in education, yet how prevalent are tests or exams that use multiple intelligences and multiple literacies?
Now what?
We need to invest our resources into teaching students how to critically analyze images and video and other new media. We need to teach our students the persuasive and expository techniques used in images and video and how to use them effectively. We can have students create video essays and post them online.
Traditional reading and writing texts are still important and won’t be going away. It is now a necessity, though, that schools teach students how to “read” and “write” with new media with the same urgency for creating literate students as before.
Rather than dragging past literacy definitions into the present, we need to bring present literacies into the future.
Participant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
The Signal: The average is nobody
Comments Off on The Signal: The average is nobodyWhat?
We are leaving out the majority when we design and implement curricula to meet the needs of the average student and the average teacher. This is the opposite of what most people believe about being average. We use the phrase “average Joe” to mean just about anybody but it actually describes virtually nobody. As Lori Hough wrote,
Schools were designed during the industrial age by people who were ‘absolutely obsessed’ with averages because averages worked so well in managing factories. The goal wasn’t to nurture creativity and develop individuality. The system mostly accomplished what it set out to do: prepare students for standardized jobs in an industrial economy. Since then, we have continued to think that the average — a human invention — represents everyone or that any deviation from the average is what defines you.2
So what?
If we are truly going to design education to meet the needs of all students, we need to start thinking about individuals. Who is our audience? Who are the primary benefactors of teachers’ work? In answering this question, we need to consider a paradigm shift in our thinking about what we are teaching and how we teach it. This is important to our work in developing an education system to support universal design for learning. The word “universal” might make some of us leery, thinking that it’s just another way of describing average. But it really means recognizing and celebrating diversity in our schools and in our curricula.
Now what?
To quote Bernie Sanders, “Change happens from the bottom up.” So it starts in the classroom with teachers and students. We need to ask: Is the way I’m teaching in the best interests of the students or in my own best interests? The answer to this question may lead us to advocate for more flexibility and autonomy. And this means we need to be prepared to be flexible, which is much easier said than done. It is much easier to keep doing things the way we have always done them. Change is hard but once there is evidence of a few individuals engaged in open, safe, collaborative dialogue about what we are doing in the classroom, momentum will grow. We can prepare for the challenges of change by inviting these classroom leaders to share their experiences at school board and government levels. Check out Shelley Moore’s bowling analogy3 about teaching for a great perspective: “We have to change our aim.”
Participant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
2 L. Hough, “Beyond Average” (2015). www.gse.harvard.edu/news/ed/15/08/beyond-average
3 S. Moore, “Transforming Inclusive Education” (2014). www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYtUlU8MjlY
-
The Signal: Understanding neuroplasticity
Comments Off on The Signal: Understanding neuroplasticityWhat?
Neuroscience evidence now proves that our brains are malleable, constantly creating new neural pathways and disrupting others. This means, in essence, that the pathways to create the patterns that we use to make decisions, which affect our learning behaviours, can be influenced by our teaching strategies.
So what?
This signal has the potential to be a serious game changer in education. The growing understanding of the neuroplasticity of the brain will have a tremendous impact on our ability to teach students and ultimately on student learning.
In my 27 years in education, it has been my observation that previous initiatives aimed at optimizing student learning, although well intended, were rarely successful. Until recently, the neurological science to support why a learning directive should be effective has not been available. With MRI diagnostic information, we are now able to have a clearer and more accurate understanding of how we learn, both physiologically and psychologically, and neuroscience is at the forefront of this revolution.
It is critically important for educators to understand the concept and implications of neuroplasticity, and how it can influence our teaching and the learning environment we provide for our students. We, and our students, need to view our brains as a muscle – one that, when exposed to the right environment, gets stronger. A growth mindset is our belief that intelligence can be developed, and that we, as educators, need to adopt the right strategies, effort and modeling to effectively assist students to learn and adapt.
Now what?
As school leaders, we need to ask ourselves, “What would the outcome be for our students if we developed a growth mindset with our staff?”
Research indicates a number of ways to promote a growth mindset:
• Model a growth mindset via professional development opportunities.
• Create a culture where failure is viewed as a learning opportunity, and where people feel safe to challenge themselves.
• Advance the importance of self-reflection and provide consistent opportunities to do so.
• Design a feedback system that is formative and responsive for staff, in which staff are active participants.
Developing a growth mindset is a long journey that requires sustained attention and focus. The desired outcome for our students – that they become more resilient, more intelligent and more prepared for effort – is a goal worth caring about.
Participant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
The Signal: Mapping language acquisition
Comments Off on The Signal: Mapping language acquisitionWhat?
MIT professor Deb Roy1 wanted to understand how his infant son learned language, so he wired his house with video cameras and parsed 90,000 hours of video to interpret how his son turned the sound “gaaa” into “water.” Roy used visual manipulations of data to create space and time “hotspots” that provided clues around language acquisition. These “hotspots” or data worms led to insights around how language develops in the very young.
So what?
Observing the work of academics, statisticians, program evaluators and data specialists clues us in to how our world is evolving and changing. These professionals are modeling new ways to combine perspectives, methods, information and technologies. Researcher Deb Roy maps data across the space and time continuum. Big data parses data for causality and evidence. Social network mapping organizes complex data into relational maps. New mapping technologies combine population data with geospatial innovation across disciplinary data sets. A data revolution is underway.
Now what?
Educators need to respond to this signal of change through evolving practice and a nimble interaction with information and technology. New data approaches offer incredible opportunities to leverage data to address important social issues. Amplifying innovative thought and preparing students to respond to multiple ways of thinking becomes a 21st century imperative.
Participant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
1 www.ted.com/talks/deb_roy_the_birth_of_a_word
-
The Signal: Questioning pedagogy
Comments Off on The Signal: Questioning pedagogyWhat?
Traditionally, students would “take blame” or ownership for what they know and don’t know. This mindset is shifting. The tables have turned. Students are starting to ask good questions about assessment practices and pedagogy, and to look critically at the teacher’s professional practice with a good sense of what’s fair and reasonable. However, schools are not a safe place for students to express their questions about how they’re being taught and assessed. They remain silent. They find their voice, however, on social media. With photos and quick comments, students express their concerns and feelings of injustice online with peers and possibly the world.
So what?
Students want to be active participants in their learning. They want a voice and have a strong desire for student agency and autonomy. The school system needs to respond. Students feel powerless and disengaged when they are expected to be complacent and compliant. Why should students wait for high school to end before figuring out what they want and love to do? K-12 is the time to play, experiment, and explore oneself and one’s strengths. The teacher or school leader should not be a barrier to this learning process. Fear-based learning comes from fear-based leadership. Students should feel safe providing formative feedback to teachers as advocates of their learning to enhance their learning experience in K-12 schools.
Now what?
Listen to students. Be responsive. Take action. This goes beyond the annual student forum or student council meeting. It’s about taking appropriate pedagogical action based on student feedback. This is an opportunity for teachers and school leaders to reflect on practice, policy, and doing what’s best for students and student learning. Ask, “Would you want to buy a ticket to attend your class or school?” Self-reflection, student feedback, and taking action must be visible, restorative, and responsive.
We need to pay attention to what students are saying and not get burdened or blinded by the grind or rigour of our work. Going beyond the ego and into a place that’s vulnerable, kind, and receptive, will help us become true partners in our students’ learning.
Participant reflections on signals of change
Participants at the 2016 EdCan Network Regional Exchanges discussed more signals of change than we could possibly cover — but we wanted to share a sense of their range and significance. We invited a number of participants to write a short piece reflecting on one of the signals they brought to the Exchange.
Discover more signals at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
Signs of the Times (to Come)
Comments Off on Signs of the Times (to Come)When talking about change in education, we often begin by looking inward to the strategies and approaches that are already a part of the way we do things. Not surprisingly, using present-oriented practice as a starting point for our change conversations doesn’t get us very far. Oh, there may be some tweaking and tinkering that happens, but nothing close to the level of change that so many believe is necessary if we are going to move beyond the status quo.
So when the EdCan Network proposed a series of Regional Exchanges across the country, in order to listen carefully to what educators, students, parents and community members saw as the top education-related priorities for the next decade, we knew that we needed to activate our thinking in a substantially different way.
The five EdCan Network Regional Exchanges were formed in the Autumn of 2016 as a way to recognize the challenges and opportunities in different parts of the country, but also to identify the priorities that need to be set now if we want to be able to respond to what the future holds for us – five, ten, and even 20 years down the road. The teachers, administrators, parents, students and government representatives that formed each of our five Regional Exchanges helped us put our ear to the ground, but they also helped us fix our eyes on the horizon.
Inspired by the work of futurists, we challenged Regional Exchange participants to look for at least three signals of change that they observed when they looked around their world. According to the California-based Institute for the Future, a signal is a small local innovation that has the potential to disrupt the status quo and/or scale in size or geography. On their own, these signals may appear as weak or distant possibilities. When combined with other signals, however, they can become powerful ways of imagining new possibilities for organizations preparing to lean more intentionally into the future.
Instead of looking inward with an eye to improving what we were already doing, we asked Regional Exchange participants (educators representing the entire spectrum of K-12 education) to look to other contexts not always directly associated with education. What was happening in the world of business, manufacturing, and technology that might have an impact on the work we do in schools? What signals were developing at the levels of politics and economics? What did they see when they cast their eyes to the world of social enterprise, science and medicine?
Participants were then asked to apply three lenses to the signals they were finding:
- What title or name would they give to the signal?
- Why could this signal be important for the education context? What assumptions about our current way of doing things does this signal challenge?
- What might we need to do now in order to prepare for the amplification of this signal?
The signals that Regional Exchange participants brought forward were rich, varied, and quite often a little “out-there.” We heard about advances in artificial intelligence and virtual reality. We heard about innovations in environmental sustainability. We worked with signals related to wearable technology, food sciences and brain research. We heard about new initiatives related to community engagement and cooperation. We explored the impact of automation, a move towards a “gig economy” and the increasing presence of fake news.
We considered how the amplification of these signals might impact the work we do in education, and what might happen if we were to combine some of these seemingly unrelated ideas. The resulting conversations were lively, informative and often sobering.
In the pages that follow, you will read about some of the specific signals of change identified by our Regional Exchange participants. You’ll encounter insights into what those signals could mean for the way we think about education change. And you’ll read stories of people, both inside and outside of education, who are working on powerful prototypes that show where these ideas could take us.
To learn more about what we heard from our pan-Canadian network during this unique consultation, please download Identifying the Signals of Change for the Future of our Public Education Systems at: www.edcan.ca/RegExReport.
But in dedicating an entire issue to Signals of Change, we are also presenting you with a call to action. What signals do you see emerging? What importance could they hold for the way we think about education? Consider this an invitation to continue the conversation, both in your local contexts and on the EdCan Network.
More Signals
The Signal: Questioning pedagogy
The Signal: Mapping language acquisition
The Signal: Understanding neuroplasticity
The Signal: The average is nobody
The Signal: New media, new literacies
Web exclusive
The Signal: Increased focus on closing the gaps for students with learning disabilities
The Signal: A curriculum shift from content to connections
The Signal: The demand to build adaptive expertise
The Signal: Multi-Grading iGen-ers and Alpha Geners
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photos: Max Cooke and Yolande Nantel
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
Deep Learning
Comments Off on Deep LearningHow do we create the needed change to move from a system focus on content acquisition to a mindset that helps develop and grow this content knowledge in a deeper, more meaningful manner and helps all students to excel? Michael Fullan, Joanne Quinn and Joanne McEachen share some strategies and answers in their new book, Deep Learning: Engage the world change the world.
This book does not attempt to sell a pre-packaged program, nor does it encourage teachers to make subtle shifts in practice. Deep Learning shares an effective mix of the why and the how of Deep Learning through theory, strategies, and successful examples to create a cultural shift to “attack inequity with excellence.” Educators can tap into the strengths and talents of teachers and learners to better engage, make learning more meaningful, and “help all young people to flourish.” The authors describe a “fusion of the most effective pedagogical practices with emerging innovative practices that together foster the creation and application of new ideas and knowledge in real life.”
The authors do not simply share what is wrong with education; rather, they choose a strengths-based model by identifying effective pedagogies that occur in pockets within schools. They build on these examples to create system-wide change. By focusing on their 6 C’s (character, citizenship, communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking – which align very well with the focus on Core Competencies in the redesigned curriculum here in British Columbia), conditions are created for deep learning and students gain the knowledge and skills they need to flourish in school and beyond.
As a principal, I thoroughly enjoyed the balance of research, examples, and ideas to move learning deeper in schools. The book is a fantastic entry point to deep learning and educators can go on to use the New Pedagogies for Deep Learning website (http://npdl.global) to watch videos, read additional resources, and connect with other educators from around the world who are working to shift their mindset and create this change. Educators can use this book as a resource to start the conversation or continue the dialogue to help create the needed shift in pedagogies and culture to move to deeper learning in schools.
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Corwin, 2017 ISBN: 978-1506368580
Photo: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
Seize the Future
Comments Off on Seize the FutureIt’s late February as we go to press, and already a few brave shoots are showing in the more sheltered corners of my garden. What will thrive and spread? What will get killed off by the next blast of winter? What will survive, but never really take hold? I love this stage of early spring promise, which is all about possibility.
This issue of Education Canada considers signals of change: developments and trends, within and without our sector, that may not be a big force in education right now but have the potential to change how we teach and learn. The idea grew out of last year’s EdCan Network Regional Exchanges; read Stephen Hurley’s column for some background on those Exchanges and the articles that they inspired.
These signals of change are varied indeed. Chris Cluff proposes that micro-credentialing, now common in business settings, could open the door to a more personalized, flexible education system that allows students to earn credit for a wider variety of learning activities. Michael Fox discusses how one small rural community developed a vision for their own education; could this signal a shift to community-based education planning? And in the category of sci-fi turned real, Lora Appel shows how Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence is already being applied to personalized training for health professionals, and imagines how further development could transform our education possibilities.
There were so many more ideas that we invited some Regional Exchange participants to briefly discuss a signal of their choice. More of these signals will be featured in our online version.
You won’t find a lot of how-to recipes or best practice recommendations in our theme articles this issue. For most of these emerging signals, the how-to hasn’t been figured out yet. Instead, we invite you to imagine, to get inspired, to prepare the ground. That’s what the spring is for, after all.
P.S. With this issue we say goodbye to Yolande Nantel, who has been the outstanding editor of our French articles for seven years. It has been a great pleasure to work with Yolande, and I am very sorry to see her go. But our francophone readers are in great hands with Yolande’s replacement, Jean-Claude Bergeron. Jean-Claude brings a wealth of experience in both education and editing, and I look forward to working with him to make Education Canada an inspiring, relevant, and useful bilingual resource.
Write to us!
We want to know what you think. Send your comments and article proposals to editor@edcan.ca – or share your own Signals of Change on social media using #EdCan.
Photo: Dave Donald
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
A Virtual Education
Comments Off on A Virtual EducationPicture this: Eva, six years old and just starting Grade 1, is fascinated with the human body and how it works. Why, she wonders, do some people have a different eye colour from their parents? Why do the tiny hairs on her arm stand up when it gets cold, and why does skin swell and itch after a tiny mosquito bite? Why do her parents love the taste of seafood, when she hates it?
What is Eva’s teacher to do with all these questions? Many are simply too complicated to explain to a young child at a level she can comprehend (like recessive genes resulting in different eye colours). And as a recent immigrant to Canada, Eva still finds explanations in English tricky to understand. This makes personalized learning even more of a challenge for her teacher.
We, as formal or informal educators, have all faced obstacles in our teaching, from having the knowledge to accurately explain a wide range of topics, to having the patience required to continuously respond to those “yes, but why?” questions, and perhaps most challenging, to creatively illustrate meaning at an individual’s level of understanding.
Technologies – such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality – that have for decades been described in science fiction are now emerging in a way that may soon make this kind of individualized and infinite learning possible at any grade level and indeed throughout life.
Definitions
Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) and Virtual Reality (VR) / Augmented Reality (AR) are two sets of buzzwords that often seem to be used interchangeably. However, AI is not the same as ML, and similarly, VR is not the same AR; it is worth clarifying their differences before we imagine their possible impact on the future of learning.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the broader concept of machines being able to carry out tasks in a way that we would consider “smart.” An example is the way your smartphone keyboard predicts the word you are typing based on the first letter and from the average frequency and proximity this word has to the other words you previously typed.
Machine Learning (ML) is an application of AI based around the idea that rather than teaching computers everything they need to know about the world and how to carry out tasks, it might be possible to teach them to learn for themselves, by giving them access to large data sets and letting them identify patterns on their own. So rather than creating a rule that tells the computer that the letter “t” in a word at the end of a message is most commonly used for “thank you,” you tell the computer to find patterns in an individual’s typing habits. This might indicate the person is actually more likely to write “thanx.” With the advent of the internet and the vast increase in digital information being generated and stored, computers are now able to delve into, extract and analyze (aka “mine”) this data and come up with structures and patterns that we, “smart humans,” may not even see.
Both AI and ML are methodologies that computers use to analyze data.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), by contrast, are means by which we can convey information represented by a digital reality (a sensory experience that mimics physical reality).
Mixed reality is the blending of the physical and digital worlds. Mixed reality is a spectrum; on one side, which we currently refer to as Augmented Reality, visualizations are overlaid on top of the physical world – think Pokémon Go. At the opposite side, Virtual Reality presents a digital environment that completely occludes your vision of the real (physical) world and transports you to a different virtual (digital) world.
In their most recent incarnation, AR/VR are presented on head-mounted displays: wearable devices that make users feel as though they are truly present in the virtual world. Head-mounted displays seamlessly replace the surrounding real environment with the rich sights and sounds of a simulated three-dimensional world. Coupled with auditory stimuli and haptic feedback, VR experiences are truly immersive and elicit perceptions and behaviours similar to those one would observe in real life. Users view and engage with content that has been created using software and special cameras to create a graphically rendered virtual world.
In its infancy, AR/VR were used primarily for military training (flight simulators), entertainment and gaming, and more recently in the media sector. As VR equipment has become increasingly affordable and available, there has been an incredible explosion of interest around the development of VR technologies and content, and now these are being implemented across various sectors, including healthcare (for things like phobia treatments), and also in education.
Virtual Reality in clinical education
Imagine that as Eva grows older, she excels in biology, takes an interest in the health sciences, and decides to pursue a degree in Nursing. In order to graduate, Eva must complete a clinical placement – but local opportunities are limited and highly competitive. Travel is difficult as she also works part-time and provides care for her elderly grandmother. In the past it would have been very hard for Eva (and many others like her) to balance her responsibilities and complete her degree. In response to these growing challenges, and to give emerging healthcare professionals the opportunity to “practice before they practice,” post-secondary healthcare programs have started to invest in simulation as a part of their curricula.
Professors from the School of Nursing at York University have applied for funds to develop a Virtual Reality simulated Intensive Care Unit (ICU) environment, to enable health-care professionals to practice and gain in-situ experience. VR technologies are of special interest to clinical education as they can effectively simulate experiences and afford controlled manipulation, which allows users to engage realistically yet under safe conditions. VR also overcomes some limitations of more traditional simulation methods (such as live actors), which are more costly and time consuming. With VR, one can create a wider range of clinical scenarios (e.g. hospital ICU, out-patient clinic, long-term care setting) that can be exposed simultaneously to a greater number of students. Furthermore, VR simulations can be repeated as many times as required to create the desired level of familiarity and appreciation of the different roles, skills and scenarios.
In another simulation project, the professors are working on a VR training simulation platform called “ScrubXchange” that helps build empathy and understanding for the different clinical roles and responsibilities in healthcare. It’s intended to help nursing students “live a day in the scrubs” of another professional or in another setting – perhaps in Eva’s case as a nurse practicing in a clinic in Botswana.
Imagine now that Eva dreams of working for Doctors Without Borders. It would good for her to have the opportunity to understand how her education in Toronto may differ from her future work environment; how the tools at her disposal may be different and how to best use them, and how the cultural and professional norms in another country may impact how she works and interacts with others. Through VR, she can be transported into a virtual but realistic clinical setting in Botswana. She will be immersed in a clinic, staff and equipment on the other side of her world.
The potential of virtual learning
In the last ten years, education has benefited from a real revolution – most schools and universities now have a functioning virtual learning environment like Moodle, Sakai, WebCT or Blackboard, and their benefits have already been well documented. In short, in addition to helping students (and educators) develop a skill set that is needed in the current marketplace, virtual learning environments can improve equity of access by providing greater curriculum choice, flexibility, breadth of experiences, and opportunities for every student to excel, including the geographically isolated, the disengaged and vulnerable, the gifted and talented and those with special needs.
Machine learning brings additional benefits and furthers those already afforded by virtual learning environments. However, the greatest impact ML would bring to education is one-on-one personalization: the ability to customize and adapt curriculum to the current knowledge, learning abilities and preferred pedagogical style of individual students, and do so time and time again so that students have continuity.
At York University, educators are looking to combine an existing e-learning platform, Daagu, with the power of machine learning. In its current form, one of the aspects that makes Daagu unique is that it encourages students to tag moments, elements, emotions, or conversations that have created a shift in their understanding, leading to an “aha” moment. With a large enough data pool, machine learning could build off Daagu’s embedded tags and pair up students who have similar or complimentary learning styles. The long-term goal of the initiative is to better understand how, and in what order, content and experiences should be presented for optimal learning, and to do so on an individual level. In other words, to begin to customize and deliver content to students in a way that provokes personal reflection and pushes them towards their own “aha” moments.
For example, let’s suppose Eva is learning about stitches. To help her learn which types of sutures and seams are ideal for different types of wounds, the program could first present Eva with a visualization of a quilt she made with her grandmother when she was a child. Showing how different thread and patterns are ideal for different materials, depending on their elasticity and the desired strength or flexibility, the program could then draw parallels to different surgery incisions and wounds, and which areas of the body need greater flexibility to account for increased movement. Finally, if it appeares that Eva has understood the basic idea, but is best able to cement a concept through emotional experience, the program would generate an interactive movie in which her grandmother trips in the kitchen and requires stitching around her knee. Eva is challenged to describe the motion of the knee, the type and size of wound and to suggest the most appropriate suture and seam pattern. For Eva, this approach is meaningful and memorable. Another student might be better taught in an entirely different way. This ability to learn from the users and provide personalized curriculum is the true power of AI.
Risks of AI education
For all its potential benefits, AI also creates opportunities for new kinds of misuse, and so we should proceed with caution. Where there is ubiquitous technology and a captive, perhaps naïve, audience, there is the threat of abuse. One obvious risk is the potential for privacy and security breaches, and of user data being mined and mishandled.
A big risk is for any country, system, organization or company to wield too much control over people’s education and learning techniques. Even subtle ways in which history is taught, what is included or omitted, can have grave impacts on society and politics. The fact that virtual education is easily scalable allows for more scalable misinforming. With machine learning computers, only a handful of content creators can have immense impact over many people. The more we learn about how the brain works and understand how people form biases, the more we realize how vulnerable we are to targeted presentations of inaccurate or biased views.
Finally, there is a valid concern that individuals will no longer know how to effectively communicate in person, or be empathetic towards the needs of other (real) people. Some argue that society is changing, the need for in-person interactions is decreasing and therefore the ability to foster what we traditionally recognized as deep relationships is no longer as important. However, if we collectively believe that there is something valuable in building face-to-face connections, then we have full control to design future tools to help improve the skills that are on a downward spiral. Much like the shift to improve the bedside manner of physicians, we need to make the teaching of communication skills a priority, alongside programming, math and sciences. We should thoughtfully design the next set of technology-based teaching tools so that they encourage rather than dilute our abilities to have meaningful conversations in person. If we focus on building AI and AR tools that encourage longer and more complex communication, incorporate visual, auditory, and sensory interaction (what AR/VR actually contribute), and provoke self-driven exploration and experimentation (what AI is able to generate), we have the ability to reverse the current trend.
Despite the risks, it is undeniable that we are entering an age of revolutionized education. With little imagination, one can easily see a future similar to that described in Neal Stephenson’s science fiction novel, The Diamond Age. The story features a young protagonist, Nell, who at the age of four acquires an interactive AI “book” whose sole purpose is to steer its reader (with whom it bonds) intellectually towards a more interesting life and to become an effective member of society. The AI book is designed to react to its reader/owner’s environment and teach them everything they need to know to survive and develop, personalizing every interaction to reflect their life, preferred interests, and learning style, and it does so without bias and with infinite patience and support.
We can look forward to the day when students have a truly personalized education experience that helps to drive both their professional education and personal development.
We want to know what you think. Join the conversation @EdCanPub #EdCan!
Photo: Valentin Russanov (iStock)
First published in Education Canada, March 2018
-
National Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Learning Conference
Comments Off on National Reading Recovery and Early Literacy Learning ConferenceThis conference is widely recognized as Canada’s premier professional development experience for teachers of early literacy. Sessions are designed to present sound learning theory together with instructional best practices for K–3 teachers, Reading Recovery Teachers, Literacy Consultants and Coaches, Resource, Special Education teachers and Early Childhood Educators.
IDEAS TO SUPPORT EDUCATORS : Subscribe to the EdCan e-Newsletter
Quality research, reports, and professional learning opportunities.