Schools across Canada have had to adapt amid the global pandemic, resulting in many students learning remotely. Teachers are being asked to lead learning virtually in the family home while families are being asked to support students in ways that may be unfamiliar and potentially overwhelming. While schools are important for a child’s learning outcomes, research has demonstrated that positive family involvement can have a significant impact on student achievement. This doesn’t mean that schools cannot make a difference, but rather these unprecedented circumstances are calling on schools and families to work in partnership to support student learning. Here are some questions that teachers and families can ask when developing and implementing home-based learning activities, including tips to support student participation:
• Developing online activities is difficult. Don’t try to recreate the school classroom at the family dinner table. Just having worksheets and powerpoint slides online is not the answer.
• Find teachable moments in everyday activities including cooking/baking, board games, reading a storybook, etc.
• It’s important to keep an open line of communication between teachers and families to identify the diverse needs of students and their households (e.g. level of expertise, interests, access to resources, culture, language).
• Literacy and math are fundamental skills required for daily life. Learning how to read and write and do mental math occurs gradually over time.
• Try finding little ways that prompt children to practice mental math. For example, when playing the card game ‘go fish’ you can’t ask for a card directly, but make up arithmetic questions (e.g. you can’t ask for 10 but can ask for a card whose face value is equal to 8+2).
• Think quality over quantity. We should never underestimate the learning that can happen through talking. Some parents are still working and at best have only gained commute time.
• Ministries/Departments of education are recommending 5 hours a week doing school work – that’s it. This means just 1 hour per day of school work (e.g. 20 minutes of reading a book, 10 minutes of math exercises, and 30 minutes of teacher-led time a day).
If families are deciding not to complete teacher-assigned activities, this might mean that families are finding it challenging to play school in the home. A partnership between school and home is one where each partner has something to gain and shouldn’t feel exhausting to either teachers or families. This can be achieved by integrating curriculum expectations within everyday family activities in ways that consider their interests and unique needs. Creating learning experiences that are family-centered can help to better support student learning – and most importantly– student well-being during this time.
Baking/cooking with a twist: Students can make family treasured dishes/treats with a family member but teachers can put in the challenge that only the student can read the recipe. This can allow targeting of specific language and mathematics curriculum expectations yet monopolize on family activities.
Researching with a twist: Students can invite family members and friends to share experiences about topics (e.g., earthquakes, geographical regions, historical events, gardening) from their own work, home, travel, and festivities. Students can capture what they learned from the interview in a video or written report.
Family challenges: Families can be challenged to make safety devices that protect an egg during a drop or build stable towers/structures/forts. Students can reflect on all family members devices/structures and make a video to report which strategies worked best (using teacher requested terminology).
Card games with a twist: Families can play card games like ‘go fish’ where you cannot ask for a card directly but make up arithmetic questions. (e.g., you cannot ask for 10 but can ask for a card whose face value is equal to 8+2).
Family math: Family members (even high school students) can share their strategies in solving a mental math problem a couple days a week for 10 mins or less.
Family reading/writing: The student reads one page and a family member reads the next. Families can demonstrate what they learned in the reading by completing a comic jam to the prompt “what happens next (in a follow up book or in the next pages)?”. Families fold a paper into quarters (to make comic frames). The student and family member take turns filling out the comic frames. For example, the student completes the first comic frame and a family member has to pick up on ideas within the first comic frame to complete the next comic frame. They take turns until all frames are complete.
TDSB mathematics for families website: This website contains weekly age related family mental math challenges with videos that represent the strategies families submitted to solve the mental math challenge. https://sites.google.com/tdsb.on.ca/tdsb-mathematics-for-families/home
Bray, A., & Tangney, B. (2017). Technology usage in mathematics education research–A systematic review of recent trends. Computers & Education, 114, 255-273.
Campbell, M., & Boyland, J. (2018). Why students need more ‘math talk’. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-students-need-more-math-talk-104034
Cook-Sather, A., Bovill, C., & Felten, P. (2014). Engaging students as partners in learning and teaching: A guide for faculty. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Civil, M., & Bernier, E. (2006). Exploring images of parental participation in mathematics education: Challenges and possibilities. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 8(3), 309-330.
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Fenstermacher, G. (1994, revised 1997). On the distinction between being a student and being a learner. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA.
González, N., Moll, L., Amanti, C. (Eds.). (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Healey, M., Flint, A., & Harrington, K. (2014). Engagement through partnership: Students as partners in learning and teaching in higher education. York: HE Academy.
Kehler, A., Verwoord, R., & Smith, H. (2017). We are the Process: Reflections on the Underestimation of Power in Students as Partners in Practice. International Journal for Students as Partners, 1(1).
Kraft, M. A., & Monti-Nussbaum, M. (2017). Can schools enable parents to prevent summer learning loss? A text-messaging field experiment to promote literacy skills. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 674(1), 85-112.
Koralek, D., & Collins, R. (2020). How most children learn to read. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/article/how-most-children-learn-read
National Association for the Education of Young Children. (2020). Learning to read and write: What research reveals. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/article/learning-read-and-write-what-research-reveals
Olsen, J. R. (2015). Five keys for teaching mental math. Mathematics Teacher, 108(7), 543-548.
Rapke, T., & De Simone, C. (2020). 4 things about maths success that might surprise parents. The Conversation.
https://theconversation.com/4-things-weve-learned-about-math-success-that-might-surprise-parents-135114
Rapke, T., & Norquay, N. (2018). MATH JAMS: Students analysing, comparing, and
building on one another’s work. OAME Gazette, 56, 25-30.
Silinskas, G., & Kikas, E. (2019). Math homework: Parental help and children’s academic outcomes. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 59, 101784.
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.
The benefits of mindfulness for both students and teachers have led to a growing interest in mindfulness practice within school settings over the last decade. Mindfulness is our ability to bring full attention to our experience in the present moment. However, a Harvard study found that our minds wander 47% of the time, disrupting our ability to remain focused on the present moment. This study also found that a wandering mind tends to be an unhappy mind (i.e. fewer experiences of positive emotions and a reduced sense that life is meaningful, worthwhile, and has purpose). Over time, this can have a negative impact on our resilience, learning, and overall well-being. Yet, recent research has demonstrated that daily mindfulness practice (e.g. focusing on the breath or mindful movement) can change the structure and function of the brain in highly beneficial ways.
1. Begin with yourself. When teachers commit to a personal mindfulness practice and apply it to their teaching, there is often a positive ripple effect in the classroom. Practicing also provides the embodied experience necessary to teach and lead mindfulness in ways that are sensitive to students’ experiences.
2. Ensure mindfulness practices are introduced in secular ways. By introducing research-based mindfulness practices, teaching will be consistent with current scientific understanding and inclusive for all students.
3. Offer mindfulness practices that are trauma-sensitive. Mindfulness practices should be designed to support the safety and stability of students – particularly for students who are experiencing high levels of stress and/or who have a history of trauma.
4. Integrate mindfulness into a culturally responsive and inclusive approach to teaching. With equity at the centre, teachers are more likely to be responsive to the identities, contexts, backgrounds, histories, abilities, and needs of students as they develop their own mindfulness practices.
Cultivating mindfulness is beneficial for both teachers and students. When mindfulness is intentionally embedded in teaching and learning, entire school communities can experience improved well-being including lower levels of teacher stress and burnout, more positive teacher-student relationships, and improved student learning outcomes.
Murphy, S. (2019). Fostering Mindfulness: Building skills that students need to manage their attention, emotions, and behavior in classrooms and beyond. Markham, ON: Pembroke Publishers.
Greater Good in Education (GGIE) of the University of California, Berkeley offers free research-based and informed strategies and practices for the social, emotional, and ethical development of students, for the well-being of the adults who work with them, and for cultivating positive school cultures.
Edutopia is a website and online community dedicated to sharing evidence and practitioner-based learning strategies for educating the whole child in K-12 classrooms.
UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Centre (MARC) is a centre devoted to fostering mindful awareness across the lifespan through education and research. There are a number of free guided mindfulness practices on this page.
Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness is a website (created by Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness expert David Treleaven, PhD) devoted to resources for learning how to teach and lead mindfulness with an understanding of trauma.
Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) is a source for knowledge about high-quality, evidence-based social and emotional learning (SEL).
The Handbook of Mindfulness in Education is a publication that addresses the science and educational uses of mindfulness in schools.
Mindfulness Journal is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes papers that examine the latest research findings and best practices in mindfulness.
The Best Meditation Apps of 2019 is a list of 12 Mindfulness Apps rated the best of 2019 based on quality, reliability, and reviews. (All but one have a free version).
American Mindfulness Research Association (2020). “Figure 1. Mindfulness journal publications by year, 1980-2019”. Retrieved from American Mindfulness Research Association website. https://goamra.org/resources/
Abenavoli, Rachel & Jennings, Patricia & Harris, Alexis & Greenberg, Mark & Katz, Deirdre. (2013). The protective effects of mindfulness against burnout among educators. The Psychology of Education Review. ISSN 0262-4087.
Black, D. S., & Fernando, R. (2014). Mindfulness Training and Classroom Behaviour among Lower Income and Ethnic Minority Elementary School Children. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 23(7), 1242-1246.
Braun, S.S., Roeser, R.W., Mashburn, A.J. et al. (2019). Middle School Teachers’ Mindfulness, Occupational Health and Well-Being, and the Quality of Teacher-Student Interactions. Mindfulness 10, 245–255.
Brown, K. W. & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The Benefits of Being Present: Mindfulness and Its Role in Psychological Well-Being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(4), 822– 848.
Caballero, C. Scherer, E., West, M.R, Mrazek, M.D., Gabrieli, C.F.O., & Gabrieli, J.D.E. (2019). Greater Mindfulness is Associated With better Academic achievement in Middle School. Mind, Brain, and Education. 13(3): 157-166.
Cannon, J. (2016). Education as the Practice of Freedom: A Social Justice Proposal for Mindfulness Educators. Purser, R.E., et al (Eds.). In Handbook of Mindfulness. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. pp. 397-409.
DeMauro, A.A., Jennings, P.A., Cunningham, T. et al. (2019). Mindfulness and Caring in Professional Practice: an Interdisciplinary Review of Qualitative Research. Mindfulness 10, 1969–1984.
Eva, A. & Thayer, N. (2017). The Mindful Teacher: Translating Research into Daily Well-Being. The Clearing House. Vol .90, No. 1, pp. 18-25.
Feuerborn, L.L., Gueldner, B. (2019). Mindfulness and Social-Emotional Competencies: Proposing Connections through a Review of the Research. Mindfulness, 10, 1707–1720.
Flook, L., Goldberg, S. B., Pinger, L., & Davidson, R. J. (2015). Promoting prosocial behavior and self-regulatory skills in preschool children through a mindfulness-based kindness curriculum. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 44–51.
Flook, L., Goldberg, S., Pinger, L., Bonus, K., & Davidson, R. (2013). Mindfulness for Teachers: A Pilot Study to Assess Effects on Stress, Burnout, and Teaching Efficacy. International Mind, Brain, and Education. 7(3): 182-195.
Flook, L., Susan L. Smalley, M. Jennifer Kitil, Brian M. Galla, Susan Kaiser-Greenland, Jill Locke, Eric Ishijima, and Connie Kasari. (2010). “Effects of Mindful Awareness Practices on Executive Functions in Elementary School Children.” Journal of Applied School Psychology, 26: 70–95.
Fritz M.M., Walsh L.C., Lyubomirsky S. (2017) Staying Happier. In: Robinson M., Eid M. (eds) The Happy Mind: Cognitive Contributions to Well-Being. Springer, Cham.
Greenberg M., Brown J, & Abenavoli R. (2016). Teacher Stress and Health: Effects on Teachers, Students, and Schools. Social emotional learning. The Pennsylvania State University, Issue Brief, 1-12.
John Meiklejohn, Catherine Phillips, M. Lee Freedman, Mary Lee Griffin, Gina Biegel, Andy Roach, Jenny Frank, Christine Burke, Laura Pinger, et al. (2012). Integrating Mindfulness Training into K-12 Education: Fostering the Resilience of Teachers and Students. Mindfulness, 3, 291-307.
Killingsworth, M. A., & Gilbert, D. T. (2010). A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind. Science, 330(6006): 932.
Leyland, A., Rowse, G., & Emerson, L. (2018). Experimental Effects of Mindfulness Inductions on Self-Regulation: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Emotion, 1-15.
MacDonald, H.Z. & Price, J.L. (2017) Emotional Understanding: Examining Alexithymia as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Mindfulness and Empathy. Mindfulness, 8(6): 1644-1652.
Magee, R. V. (2019). The Inner Work of Racial Justice: Healing Ourselves and Transforming Our Communities Through Mindfulness. New York, NY: Penguin Random House.
Murphy, S. (2019). Fostering Mindfulness: Building skills that students need to manage their attention, emotions, and behavior in classrooms and beyond. Markham, ON: Pembroke Publishers.
Murphy, S. (2018). Preparing Teachers for the Classroom: Mindful Awareness Practice in Preservice Education Curriculum. In Byrnes, K., Dalton, J. & Dorman, B. (Eds.), Impacting Teaching and Learning: Contemplative Practices, Pedagogy, and Research in Education (pp. 41-51). Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ryan, S. V., von der Embse, N. P., Pendergast, L. L., Saeki, E., Segool, N., & Schwing, S. (2017). Leaving the teaching profession: The role of teacher stress and educational accountability policies on turnover intent. Teaching and Teacher Education, 66, 1–11.
Sibinga, E. M. S., Webb, L., Ghazarian, S. R., & Ellen, J. M. (2016). School-Based Mindfulness Instruction: An RCT. Pediatrics, 137(1), 1-8.
Schonert-Reichl, K. A., Oberle, E., Lawlor, M. S., Abbott, D., Thomson, K., Oberlander, T. F., & Diamond, A. (2015). Enhancing cognitive and social–emotional development through a simple-to-administer mindfulness-based school program for elementary school children: A randomized controlled trial. Developmental Psychology, 51(1), 52-66.
Treleaven, D.A. (2018). Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness: Practices for safe and transformative healing. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Zarate, K. Maggin, D.M., & Passmore, A. (2018). Meta-analysis of mindfulness training on teacher well-being. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 56(10): 1700-1715.
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
The digitization of trades demands new skill sets, makes some trades more appealing to a wider range of apprentices and is creating new career and training pathways. For educators, this will require a better understanding of the overlap and differences between trades and information/communications technology and the new opportunities they present to students willing to consider less traditional careers.
The so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution is underway, as a combination of digital technologies permeate every sector of the economy and most every occupation – including those in the skilled trades. The digitization of trades demands new skill sets, makes some trades more appealing to a wider range of apprentices, and is creating new career and training pathways.
At the same time, the blurring of lines between information and communications technology (ICT) and skilled trades has created a confusing occupational grey area. The two sectors notably share one feature: both ICT and trades need more workers.
For educators, this evolution in the workplace will require a better understanding of the overlap between trades and digital tech, its extent and limitations, and the new opportunities it presents to students willing to consider less traditional careers.
The digital economy has been growing at roughly double the pace of the wider economy for more than a decade now. According to the most recent labour forecast by the Information and Communication Technology Council (ICTC), by 2023, the demand for digitally skilled talent in Canada is expected to exceed 305,000. If filled, ICTC expects total employment in the Canadian digital economy to reach more than 2.1 million tech jobs.1
Interestingly, more than half of the current tech work is outside of the ICT sector per se. That means most tech jobs are now in sectors such as banking, insurance, and oil and gas, and in organizations across the entire economy looking to digital technology for better operational, safety and environmental performance.
The rapid growth of the digital economy has outstripped available ICT talent. In Canada’s major tech hubs – Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal – the shortfall in senior-level tech workers has even prompted international hiring symposiums such as the one last year in Calgary, hosted by Calgary Economic Development and international ICT recruitment firm VanHack. In October, VanHack vetted 36 intermediate and senior tech job seekers from five continents to help local Calgary companies hire the talent they desperately need to grow. The skilled trades tell a similar story. Fewer youth are learning the skills needed to replace an aging generation of soon-to-retire tradespeople. Critical shortages in skilled workers are on the horizon.2 In Alberta, during the economic downturn, trades groups reported continued healthy demand for skilled workers, but during the province’s oil and gas boom years, worker shortages were so acute that projects also imported tradespeople from abroad. This practice is expensive and risky, and almost always “the option of last resort,” whether in trades or tech.
By now, educators have surely heard a well-honed message from Canada’s trades groups. “If we want to have a well-functioning society, we need people with diverse interests and diverse skills,” says Shaun Thorson, Chief Executive Officer of Skills/Compétences Canada. Students should be led to consider all occupations and not just those that shepherd them through a university education, he says.
This message, however, doesn’t seem to be translating into more tradespeople. Despite steady, well-compensated work in trades, there remains a deeply entrenched perception that trades are a lesser career path to one that requires a university education – even as increasing numbers of university graduates struggle to find employment.
“It’s worth repeating that not everyone wants an office job in front of a computer,” Thorson says. “And not everyone wants to be out on a worksite, working with tools and materials. The main thing is to tell students to do their research and not get trapped in the six to ten occupations that you mostly hear about.”
Some of the obvious examples of digitized trades are the diagnostic tools that automotive and heavy-equipment technicians use today. GPS-guided excavation is now run-of-the-mill technology in road construction and natural resource extraction projects. Schematic drawings are now mostly read on tablets rather than from rolls of paper blueprints.
Pretty much all trades contractors rely on scheduling, invoicing and other software programs to expedite their paperwork. The ubiquitous smartphone and the many communication platforms such as Teams and other video/chat/file-sharing apps allow for greater collaboration and problem solving among tradespeople, designers and engineers. And new digital applications are being introduced each year.
Janis Lawrence-Harper, director of research and development with Careers: The Next Generation, an Alberta trade group launched in 1997 to support the growth of the oilsands industry by promoting skilled trades, adds some of the latest developments along this digital journey. “In the oilsands, the heavy haulers have a tremendous number of sensors that collect data about everything from how hard the equipment is hitting bumps, to how inflated the tires are and where the bumps are located so the road can actually be fixed,” she says. That data is tracked and processed by the mechanic, whose job it is to optimize the efficient running of these machines. (What Lawrence-Harper doesn’t mention is that autonomous vehicles are also becoming the norm in some mining operations in Alberta and around the world.)
Agricultural equipment technicians also rely on data to do their job. Advanced agricultural equipment today can seed a field within an inch of the previous year’s seeding plan. To maximize crop growth, drones help run and monitor fertilization programs.
“As technology continues to play a bigger role in many skilled trades, we are going to see changes in the required skillsets,” says Lawrence-Harper. “That might mean those occupations change, or in some cases, it might create new specialized positions that could fall into the categories of skilled trades and ICT. It will be up to the Alberta government to decide where those occupations belong.”.
The Working Centre, an Ontario group established in 1982 as a response to unemployment and poverty in downtown Kitchener, now lists several ICT roles as skilled trades under the “Services” banner. These occupations include Contact Centre Customer Service Agent, Technical Support Agent, Hardware Technician, and Network Technician.
The grey area between tech and trades has prompted Careers: The Next Generation to launch an Information and Communication Technology Internship Program to help meet the growing demand for tech workers in the next decade. The program offers six-week hands-on-learning internships to high school students interested in expanding their understanding of ICT opportunities in the workplace and to help define their potential career paths.
“We’re piloting it this year – though it’s a bit of a stretch right now with the COVID 19 pandemic,” Lawrence-Harper says. “We see a huge synergy between skilled trades and ICT. These two directions build on each other and this program bridges that gap between tech and trades.”
Careers: The Next Generation works with companies and organizations whose primary role isn’t ICT, but which have an ICT dimension. These have been in transportation, construction, marketing, the not-for-profit sector or others. At the other end, Careers works with high school staff to match Grade 11 and 12 students who have specific ICT skills and interests with target company needs. “Pacific Western, for example, has a lot of heavy-equipment technicians, so we talk to them about what role ICT plays in their company, what the crossover is in their heavy-equipment garage and how they could benefit from hiring a student intern,” Lawrence-Harper says. The company or organization foots the bill for the six-week internship, and benefits from the placement to the extent of the type and scope of work identified for the intern. Part of this value proposition is a line of sight to future ICT hiring, development of mentoring capabilities, strengthening of its ICT focus and connection to community.
To date, about 30 students have taken part in this internship, but the program is expected to expand into something bigger. Lawrence-Harper says that the skilled trades’ training model, which combines on-the-job mentoring and post-secondary education, could apply to learning certain ICT roles.
The blurring of lines between information and communications technology (ICT) and skilled trades has created a confusing occupational grey area.
Despite the overlap of skilled trades and tech, Skills Canada’s Thorson is careful not to oversell the razzle and dazzle of tech to prospective apprentices. “The digitization of trades is exciting and interesting and may initially attract more students to learn about what’s involved in these occupations, but I don’t think digital tech will necessarily keep them in a skilled trade occupation [if they don’t enjoy the trade itself],” he says.
ICTC’s manager of data analysis and research, Rob Davidson, puts a finer point on this. “Trades are typically tactile occupations. So they are almost the opposite of digital jobs, which are mostly abstract,” he says. Many tech roles, in fact, involve high levels of abstract thinking and knowledge of programming languages. This is true of the top five in-demand digital occupations identified by ICTC’s Canada’s Growth Currency: Digital Talent Outlook 2023 (software developer, data scientist, data analyst, UX/UI designer, and full stack developer).
Thorson, however, urges people to move beyond the idea that students are either abstract learners or experiential learners. Students fall somewhere along a continuum between these poles. This perspective opens the door to “helping students find the right comfort level with abstract concepts that are married to tactile occupations that manipulate objects.”
Moreover, Davidson notes that the growing importance of digital technology challenges other sterotypes. The image of the socially inept techie in a dim backroom full of computer screens is giving way to tech workers who can fluently explain digital functionalities and present the business case for a new technology platform to C-suite executives.
A parallel trend in the skilled trades is driven by the collaborative nature of digital technology, which is allowing tradespeople to share their expertise. Construction outcomes, for example, can be improved when trades collaboration is sought earlier in the planning and design process rather than later in the execution stage, as has traditionally been the case. Shared digital platforms are facilitating this type of stakeholder consultation.
Exposing students to these tech and occupational trends is key. Educators can play an important role in helping students find meaningful careers by sharing their understanding of digital technology developments and their impacts on in-demand occupations. This awareness could extend to keeping abreast of new tech curricula developments in Canada’s post-secondary institutions, and various initiatives such as the Careers ICT pilot, or ICTC’s nationwide CyberTitan program, which provides middle and secondary school students with a foundation in digital skills by participating in a competition to fend off simulated cyber attacks. Career options have never been as diverse as they are today.
Photo: iStock
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:
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The mental health and well-being of students in Canadian schools has become a growing concern – but it’s not just children’s well-being that’s concerning. Recent research demonstrates that the well-being of both students and teachers go hand-in-hand. In particular, increased teacher well-being leads to more supportive teacher-student relationships. Despite this evidence, a Canadian Teachers’ Federation survey shows that 85% of teachers find that poor work-life balance is affecting their ability to teach the way they would like to teach.
Teachers who have a positive sense of how they feel, think, and act generally have a sense of relatedness (i.e. connectedness) with fellow staff, believe their strengths and skills are valued, and have autonomy to collaborate and provide feedback.
School staff who persist, bounce forward, and thrive in the face of adversity usually demonstrate strong relationship practices and professionalism, positive attitudes, emotional intelligence, and adaptation skills.
EMBODY POSITIVE LEADERSHIP:
Administrators who are committed to helping teachers achieve their highest potential and succeed show compassion and gratitude, know the strengths/interests of their staff, clarify roles and expectations, and provide opportunities for growth.
The factors that promote student well-being are, in many ways, the same as the factors that promote teacher well-being. A positive school climate leads to reduced teacher absenteeism, fewer teachers leaving the profession, stronger teacher-student relationships, and improved student achievement. Targeted training for school teams and leaders on mental fitness and resiliency practices that foster teachers’ sense of relatedness, competency, and autonomy represent an important first step in improving school climate, reducing teacher stress, and enhancing student achievement.
Work-Life Balance and the Canadian Teaching Profession by Bernie Froese-Germain via Canadian Teachers’ Federation Three key conditions to create a healthy workplace by Bill Morrison via The Globe and Mail Infographic: The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF) via Well at Work by EdCan
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RESOURCES
Burke, R., Greenglass, E., & Schwarzer, R. (1996). Predicting teacher burnout over time: Effects of work stress, social support, and self-doubts on burnout and its consequences. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 9(3), 261-275. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10615809608249406 Briner, R., & Dewberry, C. (2007). Staff well-being is key to school success. London: Worklife Support Ltd/Hamilton House. Darr, W., and Johns, G., (2008). Work strain, health, and absenteeism: A meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology,13(4), 293-318. doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012639 Hoglund, W. L., Klingle, K. E., & Hosan, N. E. (2015). Classroom risks and resources: Teacher burnout, classroom quality and children’s adjustment in high needs elementary schools. Journal of School Psychology, 53(5), 337-357. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2015.06.002 Jennings, P.A., Brown, J. L., Frank, J. L., Doyle, S., Oh, Y., Davis, R., DeMauro, A. A. & Greenberg, M. T. (2017). Impacts of the CARE for teachers program on teachers’ social and emotional competence and classroom interactions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(7), 1010–1028. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000187 Laurie, R. (2019, December). Measuring school well-being: The mental fitness and resiliency inventory and the School Happiness Index (SHI). Education Canada Magazine, 59(4). Retrieved from: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/measuring-school-well-being Laurie, R., Morrison, B. & Peterson, P. (2019, December). The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF): A strengths-based approach for thriving schools. Education Canada Magazine, 59(4). Retrieved from: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-positive-workplace-framework/ McLean, L., & Connor, C. M. (2015). Depressive symptoms in third‐grade teachers: Relations to classroom quality and student achievement. Child Development, 86(3), 945-954. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12344 Miller, R. (2012). Teacher absence as a leading indicator of student achievement: New national data offer opportunity to examine cost of teacher absence relative to learning loss. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. Miller, R., Murnane, R., & Willett, J. (2008). Do teacher absences impact student achievement? Longitudinal evidence from one urban school district. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 30(2), 181-200. doi: https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373708318019 Molero Jurado, M. D. M., Pérez-Fuentes, M. D. C., Atria, L., Oropesa Ruiz, N. F., & Gázquez Linares, J. J. (2019). Burnout, perceived efficacy, and job satisfaction: Perception of the educational context in high school teachers. BioMed research international, 2019. doi: 10.1155/2019/1021408 Núñez, J. L., Fernández, C., León, J., & Grijalvo, F. (2015). The relationship between teacher’s autonomy support and students’ autonomy and vitality. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21(2), 191-202. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2014.928127 Oberle, E., & Schonert-Reichl, K. A. (2016). Stress contagion in the classroom? The link between classroom teacher burnout and morning cortisol in elementary school students. Social Science & Medicine, 159, 30-37. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.04.031 Roffey, S. (2012). Pupil Wellbeing – Teacher Wellbeing: Two sides of the same coin. Educational & Child Psychology, 29(4), 8-17. Retrieved from: https://www.sueroffey.com/wp-content/uploads/import/32-Roffey%20ECP29-4.pdf Ronfeldt, M., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2013). How teacher turnover harms student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 50(1), 4-36. doi: https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0002831212463813 Statistics Canada. (2020). Work absence of full-time employees by industry, annual. Retrieved from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410019101
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
The mental health and well-being of students in Canadian schools has become a growing concern – but it’s not just children’s well-being that’s concerning. Recent research demonstrates that the well-being of both students and teachers go hand-in-hand. In particular, increased teacher well-being leads to more supportive teacher-student relationships. Despite this evidence, a Canadian Teachers’ Federation survey shows that 85% of teachers find that poor work-life balance is affecting their ability to teach the way they would like to teach.
Teachers who have a positive sense of how they feel, think, and act generally have a sense of relatedness (i.e. connectedness) with fellow staff, believe their strengths and skills are valued, and have autonomy to collaborate and provide feedback.
School staff who persist, bounce forward, and thrive in the face of adversity usually demonstrate strong relationship practices and professionalism, positive attitudes, emotional intelligence, and adaptation skills.
EMBODY POSITIVE LEADERSHIP:
Administrators who are committed to helping teachers achieve their highest potential and succeed show compassion and gratitude, know the strengths/interests of their staff, clarify roles and expectations, and provide opportunities for growth.
The factors that promote student well-being are, in many ways, the same as the factors that promote teacher well-being. A positive school climate leads to reduced teacher absenteeism, fewer teachers leaving the profession, stronger teacher-student relationships, and improved student achievement. Targeted training for school teams and leaders on mental fitness and resiliency practices that foster teachers’ sense of relatedness, competency, and autonomy represent an important first step in improving school climate, reducing teacher stress, and enhancing student achievement.
Work-Life Balance and the Canadian Teaching Profession by Bernie Froese-Germain via Canadian Teachers’ Federation Three key conditions to create a healthy workplace by Bill Morrison via The Globe and Mail Infographic: The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF) via Well at Work by EdCan
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION RESOURCES
Burke, R., Greenglass, E., & Schwarzer, R. (1996). Predicting teacher burnout over time: Effects of work stress, social support, and self-doubts on burnout and its consequences. Anxiety, Stress & Coping: An International Journal, 9(3), 261-275. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10615809608249406 Briner, R., & Dewberry, C. (2007). Staff well-being is key to school success. London: Worklife Support Ltd/Hamilton House. Darr, W., and Johns, G., (2008). Work strain, health, and absenteeism: A meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology,13(4), 293-318. doi: https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012639 Hoglund, W. L., Klingle, K. E., & Hosan, N. E. (2015). Classroom risks and resources: Teacher burnout, classroom quality and children’s adjustment in high needs elementary schools. Journal of School Psychology, 53(5), 337-357. doi: 10.1016/j.jsp.2015.06.002 Jennings, P.A., Brown, J. L., Frank, J. L., Doyle, S., Oh, Y., Davis, R., DeMauro, A. A. & Greenberg, M. T. (2017). Impacts of the CARE for teachers program on teachers’ social and emotional competence and classroom interactions. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109(7), 1010–1028. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/edu0000187 Laurie, R. (2019, December). Measuring school well-being: The mental fitness and resiliency inventory and the School Happiness Index (SHI). Education Canada Magazine, 59(4). Retrieved from: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/measuring-school-well-being Laurie, R., Morrison, B. & Peterson, P. (2019, December). The Positive Workplace Framework (PWF): A strengths-based approach for thriving schools. Education Canada Magazine, 59(4). Retrieved from: https://www.edcan.ca/articles/the-positive-workplace-framework/ McLean, L., & Connor, C. M. (2015). Depressive symptoms in third‐grade teachers: Relations to classroom quality and student achievement. Child Development, 86(3), 945-954. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12344 Miller, R. (2012). Teacher absence as a leading indicator of student achievement: New national data offer opportunity to examine cost of teacher absence relative to learning loss. Washington, DC: Center for American Progress. Miller, R., Murnane, R., & Willett, J. (2008). Do teacher absences impact student achievement? Longitudinal evidence from one urban school district. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 30(2), 181-200. doi: https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373708318019 Molero Jurado, M. D. M., Pérez-Fuentes, M. D. C., Atria, L., Oropesa Ruiz, N. F., & Gázquez Linares, J. J. (2019). Burnout, perceived efficacy, and job satisfaction: Perception of the educational context in high school teachers. BioMed research international, 2019. doi: 10.1155/2019/1021408 Núñez, J. L., Fernández, C., León, J., & Grijalvo, F. (2015). The relationship between teacher’s autonomy support and students’ autonomy and vitality. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21(2), 191-202. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2014.928127 Oberle, E., & Schonert-Reichl, K. A. (2016). Stress contagion in the classroom? The link between classroom teacher burnout and morning cortisol in elementary school students. Social Science & Medicine, 159, 30-37. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.04.031 Roffey, S. (2012). Pupil Wellbeing – Teacher Wellbeing: Two sides of the same coin. Educational & Child Psychology, 29(4), 8-17. Retrieved from: https://www.sueroffey.com/wp-content/uploads/import/32-Roffey%20ECP29-4.pdf Ronfeldt, M., Loeb, S., & Wyckoff, J. (2013). How teacher turnover harms student achievement. American Educational Research Journal, 50(1), 4-36. doi: https://doi.org/10.3102%2F0002831212463813 Statistics Canada. (2020). Work absence of full-time employees by industry, annual. Retrieved from: https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1410019101
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING
Here you are trying to figure out what your life will look like as a teacher who – depending on where you live – might not actually be doing any more teaching at all this year. For others, you might be struggling to figure out how to meet the numerous needs of your students while not being fully able to tap into your tried and true pedagogies. Whichever of these situations most closely resembles your own, it’s likely that these circumstances are only compounded by the challenges of having your own children at home with you, including having to navigate newly-concentrated family responsibilities alongside your professional role as a teacher. Distance education might not be new to you, but distance education in a pandemic together with your family is most certainly a novelty.
I’m currently working from home along with my husband as we care for our two children while trying to maintain some semblance of “normal life,” keep our mental health in check, and keep our family relationships intact. For me, that means trying to appreciate the nicety of letting some things unfold at a pace that isn’t rushed. The most basic example would be letting our night owl daughter and adolescent son head to bed later and sleep in longer, which more closely resembles what their developing minds and bodies prefer, anyway. What that means is a calm, quiet morning for mom and dad, which has really set a more positive tone for the rest of our day as working parents. By being able to appreciate the positive aspects imposed upon our household by this difficult and worrisome time, I find myself better able to cope with the uncertainty of daily life during this pandemic. This deliberate focus on even such relatively small benefits is one strategy that helps build and sustain resilience even when we might otherwise be feeling trapped and overwhelmed.
The multiple and constant demands put upon us as both parents and teachers are a reality in non-pandemic times, but it’s even more important during this unprecedented global crisis to maintain what’s called ‘work-life equilibrium’ – as opposed to the infamous ‘work-life balance.’
If we think about “balance,” we’ll likely conclude that our lives are out of whack. How do you realistically undertake a balancing act when your personal and professional responsibilities take place simultaneously under the same roof? Balance requires us to be successful at work and at home by keeping various aspects of our lives within very specific parameters, like separate drawers in a dresser – but that just isn’t realistic under normal circumstances let alone during stay at home orders. The reality is that how we feel in our personal lives can impact how we feel in our professional lives, and vice-versa. For caregivers especially, we can’t expect teachers to “shut off” the care that they have for their students just because they’ve left the schoolgrounds or signed off from an online class. In other words, there’s really no such thing as balance.
Instead of balance, it might be more helpful to think of life in terms of equilibrium, which allows for flexibility. When you think of your life in this way, new demands and additional stress create mere shifts in our lives. It means accepting, for example, that the amount of time, energy, and focus we dedicate to certain aspects of our lives will constantly change depending on what our priorities are or where our attention is most needed at a given point in time.
Equilibrium for parent-teachers means that as we individually and collectively work out how to stay resilient while maintaining strong school and family relationships, it might be necessary to shift the focus more on the relational aspects of our parenting and teaching and less on moving through curriculum and supporting our children’s academic pursuits. Let’s not forget that while the roles of ‘parent’ and ‘teacher’ have both always involved looking after the well-being of others, it’s likely that the next little while will require us to focus even more on the emotional needs of our students, of our own children, and of ourselves.
By recognizing and valuing this caring at work and at home, it might be possible to also recognize ways in which the overlap between the two might be particularly useful during this time of COVID-19. In both spheres, we only need to aim to be “good enough,” which is an idea first proposed by pediatrician D.W. Winnicott (1965), whose description of the “good enough mother” was meant to highlight the importance of reasonable expectations and plenty of self-forgiveness for parents who might otherwise feel as if their parenting efforts don’t measure up against some kind of unrealistic ideal. All we need to be is “good enough,” which is going to look different each day and for each individual person. Let’s manage our expectations towards ourselves and towards others because during this unprecedented time, it might be necessary to redefine what it means and looks like to parent and to teach.
As Michael Ungar reminds us in his excellent and timely book Change Your World, our resilience depends on our ability to navigate outside of our comfort zones and to work through new challenges, which includes challenges that we may not have chosen for ourselves like the current pandemic. The resilience literature is clear: to be able to navigate outside of our comfort zones, we need to rely on our relationships with other people while maintaining personal flexibility so that we can:
This last point about helping kids develop a sense of self-efficacy underlines a wider opportunity that we have as both parents and teachers to innovate in ways that put students and our own children in the driver’s seat by supporting their learning in ways that they find most meaningful, instead of worrying about assigning them grades. The opportunity to support our students and our own children in using or accessing resources and helping them to work through the emotions involved in learning (e.g. frustration, disappointment, surprise, joy) may help leave us all more resilient in the end. This is particularly true since having kids’ emotional needs met with sensitivity — whether by teachers or parents/guardians — gradually helps kids learn to self-regulate, especially if the adults in their lives are also able to model self-regulation. This is not to say that this is at all easy, especially given the stress and anxiety that tend to accompany the experience of being thrown into unfamiliar territory. Nevertheless, the time we find ourselves in presents a rare opportunity for innovation.
As teachers, our identities tend to be closely tied to our profession, and we know from research that meaningful work is vital to good mental health. With changes to or loss of these aspects of our identities, combined with the anxiety-provoking uncertainty and lack of control, it’s not surprising that teachers may be experiencing intense emotions and high levels of stress even though, on paper, it can sound nice to work from home. It’s okay and completely normal to feel like you don’t want to be stuck at home and it’s just as okay and normal to be feeling relief, excitement, or whatever other emotions you might be experiencing.
Emotions are signposts for how we are interpreting our situations. Try to make time to check in with yourself to see what your emotions might be telling you. Find ways to connect with others and share your emotional experiences, even if your personal situation and strategies for working through the current situation are very different from that of other people. In any case, it’s likely that we’re all experiencing similar emotions; knowing that others are feeling similarly can help validate our experiences while reducing the pressure of the high expectations to which we often hold ourselves. Sharing our experiences and supporting the emotional needs of our friends, neighbours, and colleagues builds resilience in ourselves and in our communities, while also modelling a positive coping strategy for our students and for our own children.
Together, we can make it through this challenging time. Don’t forget to reach out, stay flexible, and stay healthy. We’re all in this together.
Photos: Adobe Stock
Ungar, M. (2018). Change your world: The science of resilience and the true path to success. Toronto, ON: Sutherland House.
Winnicott, D. W. (1965). The maturational process and the facilitating environment. New York, NY: International Universities Press.
Learning for a Sustainable Future is curating a weekly collection of activities drawn from the Resources for Rethinking database designed to facilitate home teaching and learning for students, parents, and teachers in light of major changes that have occurred in the past few weeks. The goal is to ease the burden on parents and teachers by providing them with resources to keep students engaged and learning at home.
In light of school closures resulting from COVID-19, TakingITGlobal has launched Connected North@Home to provide virtual field trips that students and their families can access directly at home. TakingITGlobal is working with many educational partners to connect students to museums, zoos, artists, storytellers, and other amazing organizations that offer unique learning experiences while students are at home. Canadian partners include the Vancouver Aquarium, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and Royal Botanical Gardens. Recordings are available online.
Create to Learn @ Home has partnered with ImagineNATIVE to support 40 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (Indigenous) media makers and creatives to launch instructional video series’ to share digital skills and traditional knowledge.
TakingITGlobal has launched Code to Learn@Home to continue to serve students during COVID-19 closures. In partnership with LCSI, Cisco, Fair Chance Learning, and with support from the Government of Canada, they are offering free live online lessons on coding and computational thinking that includes Lynx coding, micro:bit, cybersecurity, and more!
This recent blog by the CCUNESCO offers an update on the global context in education during COVID-19, and shares online resources, including their recently-launched Teacher’s Toolkit for the UNESCO Schools Network in Canada, which contains ideas and resources that all teachers and parents can use. This toolkit draws on a variety of resources to give educators a range of activities and best practices to support students of all ages to learn about human rights and global citizenship, sustainable development, climate action, and reconciliation with Indigenous peoples.