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• The Mental-Health Risks of Pandemic Teaching

  May 27, 2021 12:51 PM Comments Off on The Mental-Health Risks of Pandemic Teaching

  “What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I manage? I feel like a failure. I can’t go on like this.”

  If only one teacher had said this to me – or even just a handful – I would not be writing this article. However, over the course of the past 12 months, and especially the last six, I have heard these statements from teachers so consistently and with such frequency that I cannot help but see a bigger pattern emerging.

  As a psychotherapist, I have been privileged to support many educators in finding ways to maintain their mental health amid personal struggles, strikes, resource management issues, and changes in job expectations. Prior to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, many reported feeling an understandable sense of burnout and frustration, but always present in each session was a very palpable love and devotion to their occupation as teacher.

  Things are different now.

  In the clients I see, the educators and administrators I speak with, and the articles I search through for a sign I might be wrong, the evidence is everywhere… teachers and school leaders are not OK.

  This isn’t the kind of “not OK” that gets restored after a summer break. Nor is it the kind that is resolved by a politically stale “We appreciate all that you do.” This is the kind of not OK that does lasting and long-term damage to one’s view of the world and one’s self. This is the kind of not OK that results in trauma.

  Informed consent

  Educators, like other front-line workers, have been asked to face the challenges and changes brought on by the pandemic while helping others do the same. But at what cost? Is there more that can be done to shine a light on the potential risks for teachers? While the COVID-19 pandemic is a new obstacle for the world, research on the mental health impact on front-line workers during crisis situations is plentiful and clearly details the hazards of prolonged exposure to heightened stress. With such risks landing on the shoulders of those who care for our children, it is imperative that educators are provided with the information and supports needed to protect their mental well-being. Without a true understanding of the risks they face, educators cannot protect themselves against the long-term consequences of pandemic teaching.

  Mental-health risks to teachers

  My intention is not to encourage teachers to abandon their post, but instead to renew their commitment to their craft in a way that is informed and intentional. It is also to provide a look at the very real risks of continuing to ignore their mental health as they try to meet the ever-changing demands of pandemic learning.

  Here are the top three psychological risks teachers currently face:

  1. Compassion fatigue If you ask anyone about a teacher they remember fondly, they tell you how they felt cared for. It is a hallmark of some of the world’s greatest teachers. The ability to connect with children, be present to their needs (not always academic in nature), and leave them feeling seen and valued every single day takes an incredible amount of patience and energy. Patience and energy come from a rested, well nourished (physically and emotionally), healthy human being.
     The pandemic restricted access to many resilience-enhancing factors that help teachers stay healthy, such as social connection, supportive routines, and a sense of safety and security. As the demands on educators increased, the opportunities for reset and restoration quickly dried up. The result: compassion fatigue.
     Compassion fatigue is a psychological response to existing in a continual state of burnout for an extended period. The act of caring and connecting is costly to a nervous system that is running out of energy, so to protect us, our brain creates emotional distance from those in our charge. This is well documented in health-care professions, but discussed less in reference to our educational system.
     Compassion fatigue will not only compromise the connection between teacher and student, it will also compromise other connections, such as relationships with the teacher’s own child(ren), spouse, family members or friends. One of the most prevalent increases in my clinical practice after March 2020 was in front-line workers navigating relational conflict at home.
  2. Trauma Psychological trauma occurs when a threat to our safety and well-being overwhelms our capacity to cope. As educators faced the risk to their own health (amplified by a 24-hour news cycle of death and tragedy), worried about their children and families, and faced working in ways never before imagined, they became (and have remained) incredibly vulnerable to the risk of trauma and PTSD.
     Post-traumatic stress disorder can result in an individual living in a constant state of alert known as hypervigilance. With a nervous system in overdrive, those with PTSD struggle with heightened and uncontrollable anxiety, depression, and difficulty managing emotional responses. They often develop distorted thinking, marked with a persistent worry about their own safety or the safety of their loved ones. Every problem becomes amplified and filtered through a constant sense of personal insecurity.
     These symptoms, left untreated, can disrupt an individual’s ability to function in the long term, compromising their overall health, careers and relationships.
  3. Anxiety and depression Anxiety and depression are best understood as the brain’s natural responses to cope with being overwhelmed. Through this lens, we can understand how, as teachers become more and more overwhelmed by the demands of the pandemic, we will see a correlated increase in anxiety and depression.
     With limited ability to change the level of output (energy and focus required to navigate the demands of work and life), and restricted access to restorative inputs, it is understandable that an increasing number of teachers have reported struggles with anxiety and depression,¹ with a significant portion seeking pharmaceutical or psychotherapeutic intervention for the first time. Left unresolved, anxiety and depression increase in intensity over time, putting educators at risk for panic attacks, persistent low mood, and many other harmful outcomes including self-harm and suicide.

  Teacher-centered reform?

  To assume that all of the risks stated above are solely the result of this pandemic is to overlook the conditions that educators faced prior to March 2020. The demands on teachers to provide the best learning experience (often with limited or insufficient resources), manage the weight of public opinion (which is not always compassionate and appreciative), and provide for the intricate and diverse emotional, cultural and sociological needs of their students has grown steadily over time. For decades, some of the best minds have explored how the education system can better meet the needs of the students – but what of the needs of teachers? How can any model of improvement not include those who are on the front lines for any change we wish to make?

  I do not presume to know what a system needs to look to like support both students and teachers alike, but I do know that the risks educators face during these challenging times are real. I also know that these risks are not limited to a few months of disruption or challenge but, instead, have the ability to tragically impact their health, careers and relationships well into the future.

  The first step toward change is informed consent. Teachers, and all front-line workers, need to be aware of the risks of the work they do and the conditions in which they do them. Secondly, the mental health risks to educators need to be considered a primary occupational hazard and treated as such. Resources should be mobilized and allocated in a way that reflects the system’s commitment to protecting educators through and beyond the pandemic. Where time, funding or other resources are limited, the potential for community support should be considered. This might include inviting local mental-health professionals or community-based social organizations to partner in providing information or supports. Restructuring or re-allocating professional development opportunities may also be an option. Supporting teachers may require innovative new methods, but the pandemic has provided many examples of how communities can come together to meet the needs of our most vulnerable.

  The care of our children – and those who support them – is not a government issue or a union issue. It is a public-health issue. Effectively supporting our educators as front-line workers is well within our capacity as a community and as a nation. To begin this important work we only need to acknowledge and accept that educators are facing a mental-health crisis and refuse to minimize the very real hazards of pandemic teaching any longer.

  ---

  Survival Tips for Teachers

  There are steps teachers can also take to build resilience and fortify their mental health. These include:

  • Modify expectations: “Doing your best” will not look the same each day, and striving for perfect is the path to poor mental health. Each day, check in with yourself and consider what doing your best means to you, today. Your circumstances and stress levels can change day to day, so being able to recalibrate your own expectations will help you to work in a satisfying and sustainable way.
  • Self-Advocate: It is important to consistently advocate for yourself and your mental health. The more educators share their experiences, the more information the education system has on which to develop and implement supports. You don’t have to disclose every aspect of your mental health experience or sacrifice your privacy. Just know that every voice added to the growing call for support can matter significantly.
  • Practice Self-Care: Self-care isn’t spa visits and golf trips. Taking care of yourself can include daily steps such as taking your breaks diligently, eating well, sharing a laugh with a loved one, or disconnecting through engagement in the arts or time outside. Find a practice that is restorative for you and make it a priority and a non-negotiable part of each day.
  • Reconnect with your Why: Do you remember why you decided to become a teacher? If not, take some time to reconnect with what you loved about being an educator. Consider ways you can recapture that love in the current climate. I have encouraged all of my teacher clients to start a daily “Win Diary” where they can capture at least one moment each day that felt positive and reconnected them with their craft. It can be a student’s breakthrough or a shared moment of laughter with your colleagues.
  • Finally, understand that the public (including parents) may not always appreciate the selfless commitment you have to your work and to our children. Do not let this convince you that your work is unimportant or undeserving of recognition. You must set your own standard of excellence and let it – and the impact you will have on an entire generation of future adults – be your guiding light.

  Photo: iStock

  First published in Education Canada, June 2021

  Note

  ¹ In a poll conducted by Dr. David Dozois, teachers were five times more likely to report experiencing heightened anxiety. 

• Summing Up, Looking Ahead

  12:45 PM Comments Off on Summing Up, Looking Ahead

  The end of a challenging school year is in sight. To all the teachers, EAs, support staff, principals, school superintendents, school board employees, and trustees who worked so hard to adapt to shifting conditions and requirements and keep students both safe and learning – thank you!

  And I know, it’s not over yet. But we have reason to think that we will start the new school year, in most places, with a return to many of the pre-pandemic aspects of schooling. We’re not out of the woods, but we’re getting there.

  So it’s time to take stock of what we’ve learned, and ask: How will things be different when we return to school in the fall? How can we deal with post-pandemic challenges? In “Learning Our Way Out of the Pandemic” (p. 23), Karen Mundy and Kelly Gallagher sum up global lessons on the impacts of school shutdowns on students and ways to alleviate them.

  We also need to consider where we are aiming to land. Is the goal to return to the status quo, or is this the time to address the inequities exposed and exacerbated by the pandemic, and strengthen our education system’s ability to prepare all students to thrive in the rapidly changing world that awaits them? There’s a reason this issue’s theme is “Back to Normal?” with a question mark. Not everyone is convinced that normal was all that great. In this issue, Christine Younghusband (p. 19) argues that now, more than ever, we need to intentionally make space for students to exercise agency in their education. Sarah Leung and her team (p. 26) share a model for inviting more meaningful parent participation in school life and decision-making, while two prominent Canadian education thinkers, Charles Pascal and Paul Bennett, present their differing visions for what our educational priorities should be in the coming school year (“Plotting a Post-Pandemic Course for Public Education” (p. 13).

  As you read through the magazine, don’t overlook the valuable web-exclusive articles on our website! In this issue, Danielle Lapointe-McEwan and her colleagues discuss challenges and strategies for formative assessment of online or blended learning in “Navigating New Territory.” John Chan and Nicholas White present an effective program to support students with reading difficulties (“Overcoming Reading Deficits,”), while Susan Drake and Joanne Reid describe their “Story Model,” a way for students to broaden their understanding of an issue and then create their own vision for a positive future outcome.

  What’s your vision of what school should be? What do we need to do to get there?

  Write to us!

  We want to know what you think. Send your comments and article proposals to editor@edcan.ca – or join the conversation by using #EdCan on Twitter and Facebook.

  First published in Education Canada, June 2021

• A Whole-School Approach to Teaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals

  February 12, 2021 9:28 AM Comments Off on A Whole-School Approach to Teaching the UN Sustainable Development Goals

  COVID-19 has put students in a unique situation when it comes to reflecting on our planet’s future. Difficult as it is, the pandemic has been instructive. It shows how we are interdependent, sustained by nature, and that our actions matter. This experience provides a timely opportunity for students and educators to focus on sustainability action, using the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

  The UN’s goals, agreed on by Canada and nearly all other countries, are far-reaching and important. They target 17 areas directed toward sustaining life on Earth – human and all other forms – as well as ending poverty and inequity, achieving social justice, and combating climate change.

  As sustainability becomes ever more important, strategies are emerging to help schools and educators inspire students to understand that their learning and community action contribute to progress on the Global Goals. These approaches make the goals both real and achievable, as youth begin to see new ideas and progress scale up across nations and regions of the world.

  Using strategies to integrate the SDGs within a whole-school approach is a key focus for Learning for a Sustainable Future (LSF). LSF is a Canadian charity whose mission is to promote, through education, the knowledge, skills, values, perspectives, and practices essential to a sustainable future. Working with schools, school policies, and curricula is a core part of LSF’s activities, explains the organization’s President and Chief Executive Officer Pamela Schwartzberg.

  LSF began its whole-school approach with support for Belfountain Public School in Ontario in 2005 and continued with the first Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Lighthouse School project at Stouffville District Secondary School in 2006. In 2007, in partnership with the UNESCO Chair in Reorienting Education for Sustainable Development, York University’s Schulich School of Business, and its Faculty of Education, LSF began Sustainability and Education Academy (SEdA) seminars to engage senior education officials from school boards across Canada in:

  • understanding education for sustainable development (ESD)
  • envisioning how it could be embedded into school board policy, programs, and culture
  • providing a SEdA framework to assess their current sustainability initiatives
  • developing action plans for change.

  How a whole-school approach can advance the SDGs

  The whole-school approach is designed to help students, teachers, principals, staff, parents, and community members integrate the SDGs into school culture, teaching and learning, facilities and operations, and community partnerships. “We get farther, faster if we work as a whole school,” says Pamela Gibson, LSF consultant. A whole-school approach helps reinforce engaging teaching methods and moves schools toward practising sustainability. It optimizes learning in synergistic ways and models 21^st century skills – collaboration, innovation, and action.

  Global Competencies and the SDGs

  In 2016, the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) articulated six broad Pan Canadian Global Competencies to: “provide learners with the abilities to meet the shifting and ongoing demands of life, work, and learning; to be active and responsive in their communities; to understand diverse perspectives; and to act on issues of global significance.” With some variation across the provinces and territories, the attitudes, skills, and knowledge needed for 21st century citizens include:

  • critical thinking and problem solving
  • collaboration
  • innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship
  • learning to learn/self-awareness and self-direction
  • communication
  • global citizenship and sustainability.

  These Global Competencies support SDG 4.7 (Global Citizenship and Sustainable Development) as well as the education component of all of the other 16 SDGs.

  By the same token, applying an SDG lens to course content and class work gives students the opportunity to practise all six competencies relevant to school success and their future roles. Any local or school issue embraced by students needs to be supported by specific instruction and guided practice of oral, written, and digital communication skills in order to gain support, design innovations, and find partners for collaboration. Students need to learn methods of collecting, organizing, and critically reflecting on data and research to determine best options for action. Educators have both the curriculum and the instructional strategies to build these competencies and help students practise them on a project that, whatever its size or scope, can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

  Greening a school playground with support from a local plant nursery and hardware store? Think about Goal 15: Life on Land; Goal 13: Protect the Planet and Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities. Taking action involves many stages and steps requiring organization, planning, and self-regulation skills when plans don’t go as expected or take more time. The competencies build core functional skills, a big-picture perspective, strong learning skills, and resources for well-being. The SDGs give practice a purpose.

  Strategies to engage students with the SDGs

  Introduce students to environmental, social, and economic issues. These will vary based on the community, and might include, for example, dealing with single-use plastics, exploring green jobs, understanding food insecurity, etc. Finding community partners is a great first step to making issues relevant and including practical experiences.

  Provide context and purpose. Learning is more powerful when it’s applied. For example, data management comes to life when you step outside the classroom and learn to measure and graph the amount of food waste your classmates diverted from landfill and the compost that resulted. Relating this work to specific SDGs (See Goal 12 and Goal 15, for example) helps make abstract ideas real.

  Transform teaching strategies and thinking tools. Using inquiry, systems thinking, and other tools for student engagement can link curriculum and local issues, leading to action projects that relate to SDGs. This extends learning, develops hands-on skills, provides valuable life/work experiences, and more. For example, researching and planting native plants can be linked to Goal 13 (Climate Action) and Goal 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities).

  Use SDGs to guide curriculum and practices. Educators can tap into nearby nature and the surrounding built, natural, or cultural community to see how their learning can be used to improve or support innovation right where they live. They can embed this process in curriculum learning – for example, integrating environment-based budgeting into math or working on advocacy skills in writing. This place-based approach to learning is applicable to all grade levels.

  Adopt inclusive models of planning and decision-making that consider the SDGs. Students, teachers, parents, and community members are valued voices in making decisions and problem solving. They can strengthen relationships by consulting each other, through interviews, questionnaires, or small focus groups. Other models include a Council of All Beings, where participants take on roles of different stakeholders in a decision including the people, plants, and animals. Important to include are Indigenous community partners or Elders as well as local experts. The SDGs gives discussions a wider context that can help build consensus.

  A framework for Sustainable Future Schools in Canada

  LSF is now piloting a Sustainable Future Schools program (see Figure 1) promoting a whole-school approach using the SDGs and the global competencies as a foundation.

  “The program will be a resource for schools to design their own path for advancing the SDGs. It is not set out as a prescribed journey, but rather as a map and set of planning tools using the SDGs as a lens,” Schwartzberg says.

  It provides tools and strategies to monitor and evaluate progress, crucial for support from the board and parents.                

  Outcomes of a Sustainable Future School

  • Enhanced and diverse learning opportunities
  • Authentic experiences and action-based learning
  • Opportunities for students to engage in sustainability projects
  • Improved educational outcomes
  • Development of informed citizens for future success
  • Development of skills, knowledge, and attitudes necessary to create positive changes in the school and/or community.

  ---

   

  The Sustainable Self and Four Human Attributes

  The circular structure of the program framework allows schools and classrooms to start anywhere. The “Sustainable Self” is every individual child in our care at school, putting the student’s growth and well-being at the centre of the learning community. Students build awareness, caring relationships with others and with nature, learn new skills and knowledge – all in support of taking action to better their lives and communities.

  Ten Elements of Practice

  The ten pedagogical elements are cited by research and practice as transformative tools for change. Educators’ depth of understanding and implementation for each practice may vary. Resources and professional learning on each are available and accessible. Teachers can learn independently, or with a teaching colleague, course, local partner, or faculty as a professional learning community.

  • Focusing on place-based inquiry  Encourage, through place-based inquiry, a shared respect and responsibility for learning, for each other, and for the land.
  • Deepening reciprocal relationships  Develop and sustain school and community practices by collaborating with others. Schools model interdependent, complementary relationships that are connected, balanced, and mutually beneficial. The key to creating reciprocal relationships is a respect and appreciation for the common goal.
  • Connecting with nature  Connect all learners to the wonder of the natural world, our interdependence with it, and the skills needed to protect it.
  • Supporting well-being in a changing world  Maintain physical and mental well-being to build resilience, emotional strength, and self-care in the face of complex challenges.
  • Including all voices  Foster inclusive, collaborative, and equity-centred leadership in schools and community partnerships. Everyone – students, teachers, parents, and local citizens – has a voice.
  • Seeking diversity and justice  Show respect for alternative perspectives and diverse ideas; seek to understand and innovate together in the pursuit of social and environmental justice.
  • Embracing systems and future thinking Use systems thinking tools to help students engage with complex questions, leading to sustainable solutions. Including the future as an important voice in all decision-making helps us to “think long” and avoid the problems caused by short-term thinking. This also reflects Indigenous teaching about respect for the land and people, now and in the future.
  • Transforming learning for global competencies Build on a strong foundation of numeracy and literacy by incorporating the six global competencies to prepare students for a complex and unpredictable future with rapidly changing political, social, economic, technological, and ecological landscapes (UNESCO, 2020).
  • Acting on real-world learning Connect curriculum concepts and knowledge to issues that students have encountered or are likely to encounter in life. This brings relevance, complexity, and motivation to their learning. (Kozak & Elliott, 2012).
  • Practising active citizenship  Through community experiences connected to their learning, inspire the values and build the skills for active citizenship.

  The Sustainable Future Schools pilot

  

  LSF launched the Sustainable Future Schools pilot program in 2020, with support from 3M Canada, at Belfountain Public School. In early 2020, all classes at Belfountain learned about the Sustainable Development Goals. Using reflection time over the year, teachers asked students how their course content, information, or projects could be linked to one of the 17 goals. Noting these connections on a learning wall and in class discussions helped teach the SDG framework. It also provided evidence that students were understanding the goals over time. The connections showed the students the relevance of what they were learning at school. Students could link their own assignment goals to a website about an SDG initiative, showing how their work aligns with positive action taking place around the world.

  For the 2020–2021 school year, the Sustainable Development Goals have become more integrated in classes throughout the school. The program began with a virtual school assembly in October, with a call to action on food waste and SDG 2: End hunger and achieve food security. In November each class shared their learnings and actions on the SDGs through videos, songs, and writings.

  School culture is key

  Starting from a shared understanding of a school’s culture and its unique sense of place ensures that success is not wholly dependent on one principal, teacher, or club for leadership and energy! The next step is to link the local action to one or more of the Sustainable Development Goals. Framing school learning to the wider world of the SDGs in school priorities is critical to the success of a whole-school approach. When the school is connected to local partners and tuned into real-life concerns, students, staff, and parents can work together on actions rooted in what matters to them, making acting on learning motivating and sustained over time.

  Belfountain Principal Lynn Bristoll says, “When I was new, I sent out a short questionnaire to parents to find out their priorities and concerns and what they loved about the school. Overwhelmingly important for them was the environment and getting students outside.” For many years, Belfountain staff, students, and parents have connected to nature and the community.

  “This is a core value of the school and a foundation to its culture. Students apply their lessons to making a difference, globally and locally,” says Bristoll. “For example, they participate in an annual Garlic Mustard Festival – a program that engages the public to identify and remove invasive garlic mustard from local green spaces. That underscores the importance of integrating the Sustainable Development Goals into our thinking and action.” (See Belfountain Grade 4 Water Inquiry for a class example).

  The Sustainable Development Goals also help build awareness and understanding for other important social issues that are school priorities, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and Indigenous knowledge. Bristoll explains, “The goal is that students will leave the school knowing they can act on what they have learned.”

  Belfountain Grade 4 Water Inquiry

  

  Grade 4 students wanted to learn and do something about water. They live in homes with well water, so potable water is important for them. They are concerned about a possible new development in the area and what might happen. SDG 6 is about Clean Water and Sanitation and SDG 14 is about Life below Water, so making the local relate to the global need was a clear imperative.

  “Take them to the river,” LSF consultant Pamela Gibson advised the teacher. “I told her that the students are like investigative journalists, finding out what’s important for them and their community. That way they are attached to what they are learning, dialed in.”

  The students observed and collected data on the river near the school. They had many questions from this initial visit. What will happen to the water table? Where is the water coming from and where is it going? Is it clean water? Their questions directed their lessons and research back at school. They learned about artesian wells, surface water, and underground rivers. The students could proceed in many directions with many projects, simply through collecting information and using their learning. The teacher could find many curriculum links through this process across several subject areas. Key to this was the outdoor experience.

  It is important that teachers view the process through their curriculum. There were links to Science, Social Studies, Math and Language right from the start. Teachers can see what is possible and can guide learners to the curriculum concepts and the big ideas. Through the river and water experience, the teacher saw how her curriculum, the SDGs, and the integration of new pedagogies could all be linked.

  Gibson says, “The idea is to reflect on learning experiences through the SDGs. Ask questions: How does this relate to our own future? To our local community? To global challenges?“

  ---

   

  Make it real

  Belfountain kindergarten teacher and LSF Consultant Janice Haines has been part of the sustainability culture of the school for many years. “To make the goals understood you have to make them real for children. Big ideas need to be connected to their day-to-day experiences,” Haines explains. “For example, children can grasp a science idea like adaptation when they see the animals outside managing to survive in winter. They really get it.” Finding community partners is especially helpful. “A parent got us working on squirrel conservation a few years ago and we continued with it for five years,” she says.

  It’s important to offer context and reassurance to students that what they are doing makes a difference. “We don’t stress them with catastrophes, but instead relate it to what is happening in their school playground,” Haines says. “My ultimate vision is of happy kids who are eager to learn and do more in their community. They know they have a voice.”

  Resources

  World’s Largest Lesson
  https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org

  Posters and Lesson Plans https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org/resource/introducing-explorers-for-the-global-goals/

  Intro to Goals video: Sustainable Development Goals: Improve life all around the globe
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGcrYkHwE80&feature=youtu.be

  Resources from Learning For a Sustainable Future (http://lsf-lst.ca)

  Webinars: http://resources4rethinking.ca/en/outdoor-learning
  These webinars introduce teachers to the SDGs and provide opportunities to share ideas and resources for integrating key SDGs into lesson plans and action projects.

  Resources for Rethinking: www.R4R.ca
  A free online database where educators and the general public can search, by the SDGs, for the highest quality, peer-reviewed, curriculum-matched teaching resources, children’s literature, videos, outdoor activities, and apps/games.

  Our Canada Project: www.ourcanadaproject.ca
  Allows schools to share their sustainability action projects with others to inspire youth agency, access resources, and apply for funding. More than 850 projects are currently posted and searchable by SDG.

  Youth Leadership Forums:
  These forums engage students in local sustainability issues, equip them with the knowledge and skills needed to make a change, and empower them to take action.

   

  Banner Photo: Adobe Stock

  Images courtesy of Learning for Sustainable Futures

  First published in Education Canada, March 2021

  Read other articles from this issue

   

  References

  Council of Ministers of Education, Canada. (2016). Pan-global competencies.
  https://www.cmec.ca/682/global_competencies.html

  The Global Goals. (2015). The Global Goals for Sustainable Development.
  www.globalgoals.org

  Kozak, S., & Elliott, S. (2014). Connecting the Dots: Key strategies that transform learning for environmental education, citizenship and sustainability. Learning for a Sustainable Future.
  http://lsf-lst.ca/dots

  United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. The 17 Goals. United Nations.
  https://sdgs.un.org/goals

  UNESCO International Bureau of Education. (2020). Canada establishes a Pan Canadian Global Competencies Framework for Education. UNESCO.
  www.ibe.unesco.org/en/news/canada-establishes-pan-canadian-global-competencies-framework-education

• The UNESCO Schools Network

  February 5, 2021 4:21 PM Comments Off on The UNESCO Schools Network

  The 17 Sustainable Development Goals – also known as the SDGs or the Global Goals – offer a blueprint for a more just and sustainable future for all. As many as 193 governments from around the world adopted these goals in 2015 and agreed to implement them in their own countries in order to achieve the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Over the coming decade, these countries will continue to mobilize efforts to end poverty, fight inequalities and tackle climate change. These new, interconnected goals build on the earlier Millennium Development Goals while encompassing new priority areas, such as climate change, economic inequality, innovation, sustainable consumption, peace and justice, and others.

  SDGs have a huge part to play in today’s classrooms. As a road map for making the world a better place, these goals can support student engagement and can also inform and influence lesson plans. The Canadian Commission for UNESCO (CCUNESCO) has been supporting students and educators in bringing these global goals to the classroom through the UNESCO Schools Network, a global network of schools contributing to the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Here are a few examples of how members of this network are taking action on the SDGs in their schools across Canada.

  Agenda 2030

  

  At Elm Creek School, a K–12 community school in Elm Creek, Manitoba, their UNESCO team of students and lead teachers launched a school-wide project to bring more awareness to, and take action on, the SDGs. The World’s Largest Lesson, launched in 2015 to bring these global goals to children everywhere, was shared with all students in a special school assembly. At this assembly, students were placed into various multi-graded groups. The school’s UNESCO committee collected various print and electronic resources, and then assigned each of these groups one or two of the goals to research. This research process led to planning that supported the ultimate goal of the entire school working together to implement action projects that could address the SDGs. Action projects that continue to be implemented and sustained include:

  • an annual food drive to collect non-perishable food items for children and families in need within the school’s community and surrounding areas (SDG #2: Zero Hunger)
  • an annual drive to collect school supplies, personal care items, and small toys for children in developing countries (SDG # 4: Quality Education)
  • a school-wide waste composting project using worms to break down food waste into useable compost for the school’s garden, which then raises produce for the school’s canteen (SDG #12: Responsible Consumption and Production).

  SDG #4: Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education for All

  In 2020, the CCUNESCO and the Global Centre for Pluralism launched online teacher training on “Talking About Racism in the Classroom” in response to racial injustice in Canada and in our schools. More than 1,000 teachers responded and more than 500 participated in online training as it was clear that teachers and school administrators urgently wished to be equipped and supported to have these conversations and to explore systemic racism within their school systems.

  In order to continue this important conversation with students, CCUNESCO partnered with TakingItGlobal and the Centre for Global Education to organize an online live video conference for schools across the country titled “#BlackLivesMatter in Canadian Schools.” The two keynote speakers for this video conference were two students from the David Suzuki Secondary School from Brampton, Ontario. As members of the United Souls, a Black student leadership group that shares a common ideal of upholding Black excellence, they were able to share their personal experiences of racism and how we can address systemic racism within our school systems.

  SDG #3: Good Health and Well-Being

  

  To promote health and well-being in their community, some of the students at F.H. Collins Secondary School in Whitehorse, Yukon, organized care packages for people in need this winter. Students purchased arm socks and mitts along with personal-care products and some chocolate to be distributed locally. The students enjoyed working together to spread some holiday cheer and work toward SDG #3: Good Health and Well-Being.

  SDG #13: Climate Action

  Climate action is essential for sustainable development, which, at heart, is a way for people to benefit from natural resources without using them all up and depriving future generations. For example, reducing carbon emissions is key to living within environmental limits. So is being responsible about excess packaging, waste disposal, and how we treat the world’s oceans. It is increasingly urgent to preserve the world’s ecosystems and natural and cultural heritage, and to protect the Earth from the most devastating effects of weather extremes, such as wildfires, floods, severe storms, and more.

  

  At Bruce Peninsula District School in rural Ontario, teachers, students, and staff have implemented a comprehensive program driving climate action in every classroom, with monthly challenges and tips. As part of this approach, the entire K–12 school completed ten monthly challenges focused on climate action during the school year. The projects supported what students were learning in class and involved parents and community members. To ensure everyone stayed on track, the school kept tally sheets of climate actions and had one student elected by each class to make sure climate actions were being taken.

  

  At École secondaire Cavelier-De LaSalle in Quebec, reducing waste is serious business. After installing an industrial composter, the school redirected 176 kg of waste as compost in 2017, and 200 kg of waste in 2018. The school also reduced plastic waste by selling reusable water bottles in the 2017–2018 school year, which are fillable at the school’s bottle fountains.

  SDG # 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions

  In order to ensure peace, justice and strong institutions in Canada, Indigenous peoples’ rights must be respected. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) is the framework for reconciliation at all levels and across all sectors of Canadian society. The UNESCO Schools Network supports initiatives that promote reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada within UNESCO’s program areas. To facilitate the conversation around reconciliation within the classroom, CCUNESCO partnered with Wapikoni, an organization that works with Indigenous youth through cinema and music to develop their artistic, technical, social, and professional skills, and broadcasts their films to increase public awareness of issues facing Indigenous communities. The result was a teaching guide intended to encourage high-school teachers to engage students in discussions about current issues and to introduce them to the diversity of Indigenous cultures in Canada.

  

  At Allison Bernard Memorial High School, located in Eskasoni First Nation in Nova Scotia, the school uses music and technology to help students engage with, share, and celebrate their cultural identity. For example, high-school students put Rita Joe’s famous poem, I Lost My Talk, to music. “It’s all about reconciliation through art – that was the overriding idea with this whole project,” says Eskasoni teacher Carter Chiasson. They are also in the process of developing a language app to revive Mi’kmaq.

  A global network that supports local action

  Imagine more than 11,500 schools in 182 countries connecting and learning from one other, where students reflect on global challenges such as peace, climate action, human rights, cultural diversity, and sustainable development, while taking action to contribute to positive changes in their own communities. This is what the UNESCO Schools Network is all about. Created in 1953, it connects schools across the world to promote quality education for all in the pursuit of peace and development. There are more than 100 UNESCO schools across Canada.

  There is a particularly important role for UNESCO schools in Canada to take action on SDGs. A Teacher’s Toolkit was recently created to support all educators and students who are interested in implementing UNESCO values at their schools. While all schools can access UNESCO and CCUNESCO educational resources and publications, those that are part of the network also get to learn from one another with other schools that are committed to tackling local and global issues related to the SDGs, thereby contributing to a better and more sustainable future for all. Learn more about the SDGs, connect with others across Canada and the world, and join the movement!

  Photos: CCUNESCO

  First published in Education Canada, March 2021

  Read other articles from this issue

   

  References

  Canadian Commission for UNESCO.
  https://en.ccunesco.ca

  Canadian Commission for UNESCO. (March 2020). Teachers toolkit: UNESCO Schools Network in Canada. UNESCO.
  https://en.ccunesco.ca/-/media/Files/Unesco/Resources/2020/04/ToolkitUNESCOSchoolsTeachers.pdf

  Rita Joe Song Project. Gentle warrior. National Arts Centre.
  https://nac-cna.ca/en/ritajoesong/gentle-warrior

  Global Centre for Pluralism. (2020). Talking about racism in the classroom: Webinar and resources for educators on anti-Black racism.
  www.pluralism.ca/talking-racism

  UNESCO Schools Network.
  https://en.ccunesco.ca/networks/unesco-schools-network

  Wapikoni. (n.d.) Wapikoni teaching guide: An introduction to the diversity of Indigenous cultures in Canada.
  www.wapikoni.ca/about/services-offered/wapikoni-teaching-guide

  World’s Largest Lessons.
  https://worldslargestlesson.globalgoals.org

• Compassionate Systems Leadership

  January 25, 2021 11:07 PM Comments Off on Compassionate Systems Leadership

  What else can be said about our experiences since the onset of the pandemic? “Unprecedented, stress producing, disrupting, mind boggling, unimagined.” All of the descriptors of our current context have been used and overused. Yet somehow the magnitude of it all never seems quite properly conveyed. The pandemic has shone a light, as rarely before, on the possibilities and opportunities for innovation and change in the education system. And we are all engaged in thinking about how we can respond in ways that not only address immediate needs but also capitalize on the opportunity for much larger and more significant innovation.

  As children and teachers return to the classroom, we have searched for an accurate description of the impact of the pandemic on the education system and all the people within it. COVID-19 has exacerbated existing stressors and challenges as administrators, educators, and support staff return to school: it has been tough, really tough. Regular routines have been disrupted; the needs of many learners have increased, and those with special needs especially so; the need to be innovative and try new things, though exciting, has also depleted energy; children are experiencing high levels of anxiety and sadness.

  Simultaneously though, the disorder presents us with an extraordinary opportunity to consider actions that are capable of transforming the system in ways that we could not have envisaged at the start of 2020. We have a chance now, from this place of disruption, to create a new kind of environment; one that is compassionate and nurturing as an essential foundation for learning; one that focuses on our shared humanity and provides continuous collaboration and learning for both students and educators; one that is grounded in an understanding of the complexity of the education system and acknowledges this in all of the decisions that need to be made.

  Compassionate Systems Leadership (CSL) is a framework that can facilitate such a transformation. CSL is an approach to educational leadership that explicitly builds skills and practices in three interconnected domains (see Figure 1) that are required in this new reality: self (building a practice of personal reflection, mindfulness, and compassion), each other (building authentic relationships that can support generative conversations), and the system (developing skills and capabilities to use tools that honour the complexity of the work that needs to be done).

  

  CSL draws on practices that are similar to those that have proven effective in building teacher well-being and supporting the social and emotional capacity of learners. It extends these to include the strengthening of interpersonal relationships, while deepening the understanding of how the system can perpetuate, rather than diminish, stress in the workplace. CSL can shift us out of that continuous cycle of doing what we can to take care of ourselves, while always returning to a structure that does not take care of the health and well-being of the people within it.

  Self

  The foundation of CSL is a continuous practice of mindfulness and reflection. It draws on the premise that increasing the awareness of ourselves as leaders – our values and beliefs, our passions and our challenges – allows us to become more alert to how we are “showing up” at work every day and how our behaviour and approach might be impacting those around us. CSL uses simple tools to build this awareness. It encourages a practice of personal mindfulness meditation (the deep skill of pausing, understanding our emotions and thoughts, and responding from a place of clarity), and regular reflective journaling.

  Each other

  The CSL process also introduces practices that facilitate awareness and deeper, more authentic, and trusting relationships amongst groups of colleagues: these are essential to more courageous systems work. For example, “Check-in” (See Steps in Facilitating a Check-In) is a CSL tool that is simple and powerful. It creates the time and space for each person to share their thoughts and emotions without judgment. It creates a place where all those involved can bring their whole selves into the work. It asks that we practise the basic skills of intentional speaking and listening that can generate a new and shared personal understanding with our colleagues. The CSL approach also supports a curiosity into the possibility for more transformative conversations that take us beyond our existing ways of thinking and solving problems into a more aspirational approach that can encourage more innovative and creative solutions.

  Steps in Facilitating a Check-In

  • First, open up by asking a group of people to take two to five minutes to individually and quietly reflect on a guiding question. You can also do this as a simple guided meditation.
  • Next, take time (five minutes) to journal whatever comes to mind. Maintain silence throughout the journaling time.
  • Place everyone into groups of three to five (either in small circles or in virtual breakouts), and take one to two minutes per person to share personal reflections. Encourage people to share only what they are comfortable with and to listen without judgment or interpretation, only to understand and hold what people have to say.

  ---

  SYSTEM

  The core concepts of systems thinking (Meadows, 2008; Stroh, 2015) that are included in the CSL framework provide a broad set of tools for viewing the challenges and opportunities faced by schools and the system more generally at the moment. CSL incorporates a series of practices and concepts that facilitate perspective taking (from multiple perspectives), deepen knowledge about systemic behaviour, and illuminate the patterns that often lead to us into a continuous cycle of frustration and powerlessness, where we keep on doing the same things and getting the same outcome. One such concept is the Systems Iceberg (see Figure 2). This concept provides a structure to explore and unpack the system challenges that consume too much time and energy, and yield little progress. The iceberg moves us from seeing daily events, to understanding the patterns in these events and then digging deeper to understand the structures, processes, values, and beliefs that continue to generate non-optimal outcomes and leave us feeling stuck.

  

  The CSL framework that we are developing in B.C. is a compilation of the work of many others. It is connected to the work of Peter Senge (2006) and Mette Boell at the Centre for Systems Awareness at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Through the Centre, a global community for systemic change in education is developing. In B.C. we have also integrated an approach to cultivating compassion that was developed at Stanford University and the Cultivating Compassion Institute based in California. And we are grateful to be able to draw on tools and approaches developed by Otto Scharmer (2018) (Theory U), Robert Fritz (1989) (Creative Tension), and others.

  We are testing and applying this emerging framework with educators and other child-serving professionals in B.C. The B.C. Ministry of Education recently incorporated a CSL component in its Mental Health in Schools strategy. Through a robust and growing Community of Practice of educators and professionals from a range of sectors, which meets on a regular basis, we are continuously adapting the approach to integrate shared learnings and best fit the systemic context of participants. Our discussions and emergent practice focus on collaborative learning. And we are grounded in the idea that “we are the system,” that what we each do, individually and collectively, is an essential contribution toward meaningful and effective systemic change. We are also connected in a common commitment to approach the work ahead of us with an intention toward kindness and compassion (Jinpa, 2016); cultivating compassion for ourselves and for those we connect with every day is an essential foundation for the transformation that we seek.

  Curious to know more? Check out the website: compassionatesystemsleadership.net

  Photo: iStock

  First published in Education Canada, January 2021

  REFERENCES

  Fritz, R. (1989). Path of least resistance: Learning to become the creative force in your own life. The Random House Publishing Group.

  Jinpa, T. (2016). A fearless heart: How the courage to be compassionate can transform our lives. Penguin Random House LLC.

  Meadows, D. (2008). Thinking in systems: A primer. Chelsea Green Publishing.

  Scharmer, O. (2018). The essential of Theory U: Core principles and applications. Berret-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

  Senge, P. (2006). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Crown Business.

  Stroh, D. (2015). Systems thinking for social change: A practical guide to solving complex problems, avoiding unintended consequences and achieving lasting results. Chelsea Green Publishing.

• Lessons Learned

  December 11, 2020 3:08 PM Comments Off on Lessons Learned

  This week, the librarian who wrote the Yale Book of Quotations published his list of the top quotes of 2020; unsurprisingly, the top two spots on the list were held by “Wear a mask” (Dr. Anthony Fauci) and “I can’t breathe” (George Floyd). These two quotes, which speak to the COVID-19 pandemic and to racial/social injustice and inequity, point clearly to two of the most pressing issues we face in today’s world. So it is fitting that the EdCan Network has chosen the theme of “Educational Equity in the COVID-19 Era.”

  The series of 12 articles published this fall tackle the issue’s theme from a wide array of perspectives, including school and central office leaders, teachers, students, and parents. As the series comes to a close, we consider the narratives and lessons that emerge from both the content of these articles and our own experiences, and we ask ourselves what these narratives might tell us about where we go from here.

  Lesson 1: Educators can, and do, leverage technologies in powerful and creative ways, but inequitable access to devices and connectivity remains a major barrier to student success.

  In her article, “Teaching through the Screen,” Stephanie Cortese describes her struggle to connect authentically to her students via digital platforms, as well as the joy she experiences as she discovers new ways to leverage technology to “cradle interconnection and create a new dimension of teacher/student relationships.” Indeed, as we progress through the pandemic, we have witnessed incredible examples of teachers’ creative, effective, and innovative uses of technology, with educators turning to platforms like YouTube and TikTok to engage students in learning. However, we can’t rely on educators alone to make e-learning work for all students; in “E-learning at Home,” the authors note that access to digital devices has been a significant challenge, particularly for children in more vulnerable communities. And while many provincial and territorial initiatives have been devised to equip low-income families with laptops and Internet access, the fact remains that without sufficient training on the use of technology for educational purposes, these programs will do little to remedy the inequities that exist. It is clear that more comprehensive long-term solutions, including equitable access and tech-related instruction for students, and professional learning programs and support for teachers and administrators, are needed to bridge the digital divide in our schools.

  Lesson 2: As home-school relationships become increasingly important, parents’ abilities to support their children’s learning can have a major impact.

  As educators, we’ve long known the importance of strong home-school relationships. But as schools transitioned to online learning in the spring, those relationships became even more critical as the tasks of supervising and supporting children’s learning fell increasingly on parents and guardians. For example, researchers found that for families of students with special education needs (SEN), the quality of at-home schooling was closely correlated with the quality of the “working alliance that existed between parents and school staff”; the best outcomes occurred when there was frequent and positive communication between home and school. However, for many working parents, the task of supervising at-home learning presented a considerable challenge, with lower-income families finding it particularly difficult to balance their own work schedules with the added pressures of increased parental involvement in remote learning. Indeed, in “Class Matters,” Andy Hargreaves argues that the issue of socio-economic diversity is frequently ignored in discussions of inclusivity and calls for increased focus on the effects of class inequality on educational outcomes.

  Lesson 3: School climate has a significant effect on how teachers, learners, and parents experience school, but care must be taken to ensure inclusivity for all members of the school community.

  Life in the midst of a pandemic can be incredibly stressful, and adding the anxiety of remote learning into the equation creates incredible pressure for families. A positive school climate can play a major role in lowering stress levels all around, and effective, frequent, and consistent communication is an important factor. School and central office leaders can set the tone for teachers, parents, and students, and a “clear focus on calm, steadfast, patient messaging” is key. As we grapple with the disproportionate effects of the pandemic on vulnerable communities, however, leaders must also ensure that they maintain focus on these inequities and should carefully consider “what kind of spaces they are creating for teachers, students, and their families to dialogue about equity issues.”

  Lesson 4: The move to remote learning has laid bare the degree to which teachers’ (and schools’) roles extend beyond academic instruction.

  With the move to online learning, those outside of the field of education are beginning to understand what we as educators have known all along: that “the role of ‘teacher’ is much more than one of providing academic knowledge and skills to students.” Indeed, schools and teachers play a number of important roles in students’ lives, relating to many aspects of students’ health and well-being. For the most vulnerable students, at-home schooling has in some cases meant a loss of access to food, to a safe space, or to mental and physical health supports. This is partly why, as Paul Bennett notes, “Closing all schools should be the last resort this time around.” But some researchers now point to the opportunity offered by this realization of the critical role of schools and teachers, calling not for a return to business as usual but to a future in which teachers are no longer asked to “do more with less” and our education systems are rebuilt on “solid foundations of sustainable equity and well-being.” And this brings us to our final lesson.

  Lesson 5: The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic offer a tremendous opportunity for transformational change in our education systems, should we choose to take it up.

  While many of us may crave a return to normalcy, we must also consider the injustice and inequity that “normalcy” actually entails. The current moment, while challenging on numerous fronts, also offers a chance for a fresh start; this message of hope and possibility is woven through a number of the articles in this issue. Indeed, as Stephanie Cortese reminds us, “As we transfer our binders and printed lessons onto digital platforms, and blend our classrooms into interactive and accessible hubs, we need to embrace a new vision of what an educator can be. It is not the end of the role, but rather a transformation of it, which we get to be part of.”

  This transformation holds the promise of profound structural change: it might allow us, for instance, to explore “the ways that white supremacy has been manifested by COVID-19 and to challenge the devastating effects the pandemic has on racialized students.” The return to “normalcy” is certainly the easier route to take, but as educators, we must recognize the profound implications of the path that we choose going forward, and the impact that it will have on the students in our classrooms for many years to come. As we sit at the crossroads of the twin crises of COVID-19 and social inequity, we should take to heart Vidya Shah’s words: “May we find the individual and collective courage to centre relationality, community, and collective care above our individual fears, insecurities, and self-interest.”

  Photo: Adobe Stock

• Teacher Expertise Is Key

  10:07 AM Comments Off on Teacher Expertise Is Key

  I want to be clear about two things. The first is that everyone within the education system has made herculean efforts to keep kids safe, maintain positive environments, and in the midst of all this still cultivate the conditions for learning. Teachers, educational assistants, bus drivers, custodians, clinicians, library technicians, secretaries – all have done what is needed and beyond.

  By way of example, music educators have adjusted countless times, redesigning their entire practice on a moment’s notice. Physical education teachers continue to take their learners outdoors for high-intensity experiences that are critical to wellness. These are just a few of the ways educators have pushed the boundaries of their expertise.

  Second, teaching children remotely – whether that is for four days or two weeks, half of them in and half out, hybrid, hyflex, or hub-based – is really difficult. It requires expertise, an ability to work with families, and a fundamental shift in design. Simply teaching online does not equate to learning, and in some cases can be deemed miseducative. Moving worksheets online isn’t remote learning. It’s just worksheets online.

  British researcher and consultant Dylan Wiliam makes the claim, supported by cognitive science, that the single most important factor in a child’s learning is the quality of the teacher and the day-to-day interactions that child and adult have. Not class size. Not the design of the classroom space. Not the amount of technology strapped to the wall. Not even the curriculum.

  What counts is the expertise of teachers – teachers who spend countless hours designing deep learning experiences to engage their learners, to cause cognitive dissonance, and to fundamentally cause learning. And this comes in all sorts of forms. From traditional teachers at the front of the class, to project-based-learning teachers, and to those who weave back and forth with ease, a teacher’s expertise in teaching is what counts in learning.

  COVID has certainly challenged this. With Senior Years learners attending every second day in most of our school divisions, and Early and Middle Years students having to leave for periods of time when cases occur, educators’ expertise has been put to the test. Their ability to replicate what they do in the classroom has been stunted, fractured – perhaps even sabotaged – by a virus that has shown no mercy.

  And despite all these challenges, our teachers have persevered.

  We have seen that success in the micro and macro adjustments educators make toward deep remote learning derives from three design assumptions. These assumptions rely in turn on the experience, research, critical thought, and desire to collaborate on the part of educators. Again, teachers are engaged in this work, despite the masks, the plexiglass, and the many unknowns.

  The first of these assumptions is that what is done in the classroom cannot be replicated. We know the best learning happens in the classroom, on the land, at the internship, or in the lab. With the potential of face-to-face learners, learners connected online in the moment, and learners who need to learn in an asynchronous way, the expertise of a teacher can be stretched and distorted. In these cases, educators have reconceptualized their time. We have learned that an educator’s online time is best spent with small groups and individuals, and engaged in conferencing, coaching, planning, and feedback. Our teachers have expertly designed stations where learners rotate from asynchronous blocks of providing each other with feedback, to a small-group discussion with the teacher, and then time to read, reflect, and design significant projects.

  The second assumption of deep remote learning is that the educator knows the curriculum well. Our educators see the curriculum dripping from the buildings and trees when they walk down the street. There are no limits for them. They read ferociously, they are engaged in the community, and they always seek to bring their passion into the classroom. They are able to bring curriculum areas together in powerful transdisciplinary projects that ask learners to engage in adult work – that is work that obliterates silos and domains and work that forces us to wrestle with the unknowns about the human experience.

  The final assumption on which deep remote learning is predicated upon is the critical relationship that the educator has not only with the child, but with the family. We have seen this in the Kindergarten teacher who reads with her learners from the front door or in the backyard. We have seen this in the Middle Years educator who knows the circumstances of each of his children and is able to engage with each of them through the choice in reading and writing workshops. We have also observed this through the Seniors Years educator who follows the golden rule when teaching in a pandemic: less is more. There are countless examples of teachers who pull back and bring to light what Parker Palmer deems “the grace of great things.” Big questions, big struggles, big ideas, big history.

  All educators are making quick cuts in muddy fields as they react to where their learners are – physically, emotionally, and cognitively. To meet the needs of learners, educators across the system demonstrate what matters: expertise. Expertise in design, expertise in passion, and expertise in love.

  We need to nurture and support this expertise as we move further into the abyss that is COVID-19.

  Photo: Adobe Stock

• School Shutdowns

  December 8, 2020 9:23 AM Comments Off on School Shutdowns

  When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, pandemic emergency response plans embraced a singular education strategy – close all K–12 schools and default to hastily assembled, and largely untested, “home learning” programs. Nine months into the pandemic, public health authorities, ministries of education, and school superintendents are singing a different tune: keeping students in school is the first priority as we prepare to ride out the second wave of viral infections.

  All of us are far more acutely aware of the accumulating academic, human, and social costs of shutting down schools, which fall unevenly upon children and teens in the most disadvantaged communities. Combating the relentless virus and keeping regional economies intact will not likely be greatly advanced through system-wide shutdowns.

  With COVID-19 infection rates spiking again, school closures are becoming a distinct possibility, if only as a temporary respite for shaken-up students, fatigued teachers, and bewildered parents. Setting a relatively low infection positivity number, such as the three percent figure applied in closing New York City schools, is unwise because, by that standard, all schools will ultimately close at some point this school year.

  What’s emerging is a “flexible response” doctrine that embraces a fuller arsenal of strategies and borrows the phrase popularized by former U.S. Secretary of State Robert McNamara in the early 1960s. Banishing the devastating pandemic requires a carefully considered set of options and a calibrated range of responses.

  Let’s review some of the far more effective, targeted strategies:

  Isolating cases and suspending exposed classes

  A case-by-case isolation strategy in provinces and districts with lower transmission rates has proven reasonably effective, as long as the public health system can sustain contact tracing and isolate children and staff who have COVID-19 exposures. It was working, up until now, in most provinces covered by the Atlantic Bubble. Implementation challenges are compromising its effectiveness in Ontario, where the numbers of infections exceed the current capacity for contact tracing.

  Short, time-limited school closures

  Extending school holidays is emerging as the most expedient way of applying an education “circuit breaker.” Starting the Christmas holidays early, as in Quebec and Alberta, and extending the break into January 2021, as in Manitoba, are the latest “quick fixes” gaining traction right across Canada. It’s much easier to extend school holiday time because that policy response resonates with teachers and education support workers, and is more minimally disruptive for working parents. Policymakers often opt for the path of least resistance.

  Dual track-student choice model

  Giving students and families the choice of completing courses in-person or online was implemented in Ontario and it caused an array of unanticipated, disruptive, and unpredictable consequences. Students and parents in more affluent school districts in the TDSB chose in-person schooling, while online enrolment was highest in the district’s poorest and most racialized communities. School schedules were constantly changing as students bailed out of in-person classes, generating unexpected demand for online courses. Hundreds of thousands of students in Toronto, Peel, and York Region have shifted online, rendering the two-track strategy essentially unsustainable over the longer term.

  Mixed in-person and virtual hybrid blended learning model

  Moving to a hybrid blended learning model on a so-called “rotation system” is a response full of implementation bugs. Some Ontario school districts have resorted to dual track delivery models with classes combining in-person and video-streamed classes. That’s far from ideal because effective online teaching requires its own approach, not just televising in-class lessons. Since September 2020, New Brunswick has implemented a Hybrid Blended Learning Model with alternating days in all high schools, with decidedly mixed results. Curriculum coverage suffers, with losses estimated at up to 30 percent of learning outcomes, and student participation rates are reportedly low during the hybrid off days in the checkerboard high-school schedule.

  Defaulting to virtual home learning in upper grades

  Suspending in-person schooling and reverting to virtual or online home learning is an implementable option, only if it applies to all classes in Grades 7 to 12. Splitting larger classes in urban or suburban school zones is prohibitively expensive without significant hikes in provincial spending. That explains why so many school districts resort to shifting everyone to online classes. Younger children benefit more from teacher-guided instruction and do not spread the virus as readily, judging from K–6 in-person classes in Denmark and British Columbia.

  Closing all schools should be the last resort this time around. That’s the consensus among leading British, Canadian, and American pediatricians and epidemiologists. Sending kids home should only be considered if positivity rates spike in schools. It’s an easy decision if and when transmission rates turn schools into vectors and staff infection rates make it impossible to provide a reasonable quality of education.

  Resurgent rates of infection and community transmission in October and November have called into question some of the previous assumptions about the limited COVID-19 risks in schools. One recent research summary in Science Magazine painted “a more complex picture” of the very real risks and of the critical need to be flexible and responsive in the face of a rapidly changing, unpredictable public health crisis. There’s no perfect solution, but adopting a “flexible response” strategy, attuned to regional and local pandemic conditions, still makes the most sense.

  Photo: Adobe Stock

• Centring Equity in the COVID-19 Era

  November 20, 2020 1:18 PM Comments Off on Centring Equity in the COVID-19 Era

  Second only to the impact of classroom instruction, decades of educational research has demonstrated the important role school leaders play in supporting student success (Robinson, 2011). Leading for equity, however, often requires a different way of thinking about student success; one that recognizes that diverse contexts require decolonized and socially just approaches (Lopez, 2016). And so, leading schools is a socially complex and adaptive process, even in the “best” of times. The pandemic, coupled with social uprisings and a reckoning with our colonial past, has added additional layers of complexity that many school leaders are struggling to balance.

  On the one hand, the pandemic has created a firestorm as school leaders grapple with new roles as “the other first responders” of the pandemic (Osmond-Johnson et al., 2020). Workload intensification and work-life balance have been an ongoing challenge for school-based leaders (Pollock et al., 2017). COVID-19 has exacerbated these issues, creating new accountability expectations around health and safety protocols that school leaders had little to no input in creating.

  On the other hand, COVID-19 has also laid bare long-existing racial inequities that school leaders are compelled to address. Originally thought to be “the great equalizer,” according to McKenzie (2020), COVID-19 actually exploits differences between communities, using the existing “cracks in our system to get in, take hold and maintain its position.” In school reopenings, we have seen the continued proliferation of systemic inequities. A recent analysis of registrations in the Toronto District School Board, for instance, found that parents from low-income neighbourhoods comprised a much larger share of those opting for online learning. These neighbourhoods were also found to have a higher incidence of positive COVID-19 cases, larger populations of racialized families, and a higher percentage of multi-generational homes. So, while some can pay for personal in-home teaching and tutoring, “others who are fearful of sending their children back to school but cannot pay for private help are becoming test subjects for a new realm of online learning” (Bascaramurty & Alphonso, 2020).

  White supremacy does not go away just because there is a pandemic. Rather, fault lines in an educational system that had been comfortably managing the status quo have been further exposed. In this sense, school leaders must understand the challenges and see the opportunities to ensure systems of white supremacy are challenged and dismantled. Complacency and wilful ignorance will no longer suffice.

  Grounding leadership in equitable practices

  If school-based leaders are to focus on equity, wellness, and dismantling systemic racism amid the complexities and challenges of leading during a pandemic, how can they operationalize that focus to ensure the needs of their students and teachers are being met?

  First, school leaders must remain laser-focused, keeping equity at the forefront of their practice – not as something they do if they have time, but the lens through which they plan and engage in leading (Lopez, 2016). During COVID-19 this might include additional attention to pedagogy, particularly in the online environment. For instance, some students may not have spaces for online learning they want to share with others, and may not want to turn their cameras on. Educators should be mindful to not act on their own stereotypes and biases in such an instance, with school leaders supporting teachers in these endeavours.

  Second, enabling the focus on equity necessitates a solid plan to deal with the most challenging aspect of leading at this critical juncture: the pace at which information, expectations, and directives are constantly changing. Within this context, a desire to plan with equity in mind is easily scuttled by the need to just survive the onslaught of new and often conflicting information. Developing a school-based communication plan as part of a distributed leadership model can help navigate the seemingly endless amount of “crucial” and “urgent” information leaders are tasked with addressing. This might include allocating specific responsibilities around various aspects of COVID communications to administrative support personnel and formal and informal teacher leaders within the school. Knowing when to defer to advice from public health officials is also important. This kind of distributed approach creates space for school-based leaders to also focus on the difficult work of addressing the systemic racism, educational inequities, and oppressive practices that have been made even more visible as a result of COVID-19.

  Third, it is important that school leaders ask themselves what kind of spaces they are creating for teachers, students, and their families to dialogue about equity issues. This journey of change cannot be viewed as a series of tasks to be completed at the direction of a school district. Dismantling systemic inequities can’t be “workshopped” or managed with tips, tricks, and strategies. School leaders must explain the purpose of the work, connect it to a shared set of values articulated by the collective, and clarify the vision for moving the work forward. They must build a critical mass of support, encourage and empower those looking for opportunities to lead, and remain resilient and focused when challenged by those resistant to change. The moment we are currently in also provides school leaders with a great opportunity to build deep, lasting and respectful relationships with communities as a pathway to exploring the ways that white supremacy has been manifested by COVID-19 and to challenge the devastating effects the pandemic has on racialized students.

  Finally, and perhaps most crucially of all, school leaders must honour the time, effort, and resilience required to engage in this work. Any leader who is prepared to invest time, energy, and resources into sustainable change knows that leading anti-racist work requires a focused and persistent long-range plan, driven by our students’ expectations for an education worthy of their desire to be academically challenged and socially engaged. It is important, then, that school leaders also engage in self-care to ensure they have the emotional and physical health to challenge white supremacy and its impact on their practice and their schools.

  While it may seem safety protocols are the only thing school leaders have time for at the moment, it must be understood that wellness and equity are intrinsically linked. In this sense, school leaders must be prepared to centre equity as they lead through COVID-19; as Gaymes and San Vicente (2020) recently stated, “A crisis does not negate such responsibilities. It only enhances them.”

  Photo: Adobe Stock

  References

  Bascaramurty, D., & Alphonso, C. (2020, September 5). How race, income, and ‘opportunity hoarding’ will shape Canada’s back-to-school season. The Globe and Mail.
  www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-race-income-and-opportunity-hoarding-will-shape-canadas-back/

  Gaymes, A., & San Vicente, R. (2020, March 27). Schooling for equity during and beyond COVID-19. Behind the Numbers. https://behindthenumbers.ca/2020/03/27/schooling-for-equity-during-covid-19/

  Lopez, A. E. (2016). Culturally responsive and socially just leadership: From theory to action. Palgrave MacMillan.

  McKenzie, K. (2020, August 13). Toronto and Peel have reported race-based and demographic-based data – now we need action. Wellesley Institute. www.wellesleyinstitute.com/healthy-communities/toronto-and-peel-have-reported-race-based-and-socio-demographic-data-now-we-need-action/

  Osmond-Johnson, P., Campbell, C., & Pollock, K. (May, 2020). Moving forward in the COVID-19 era: Reflections for Canadian education. EdCan Network.
  www.edcan.ca/articles/moving-forward-in-the-covid-19-era/

  Pollock, K., Wang, F., & Hauseman, C. (2019). Proactively mitigating school leaders’ emotionally draining situations. Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy 190, 40–48.

  Robinson, V. (2011). Student-centered leadership (1st ed.). Jossey-Bass.

• Back to School: The First 30 Days

  November 13, 2020 12:23 PM Comments Off on Back to School: The First 30 Days

  As teachers, principals, and system leaders facing the reality of reopening schools amidst COVID-19, we entered the summer with trepidation; there would be no “holiday,” as travelling south of the Northwest Territories’ border and returning was discouraged. Instead, we frantically planned for both physical re-entry and remote learning to ensure equity and accessibility, while juggling to meet continually changing COVID-19 needs. August 2020 saw multiple email reminders about PPE, re-entry safety guidelines, and Chief Public Health Officer protocols. Staff familiarized themselves with safety plans, PPE wearing, and etiquette, and repeatedly reviewed new directives ranging from what to do if a child/staff member became sick to how to fulfil playground supervision, class bubbles, and how they functioned, one-way traffic, and laundering masks in cohort groupings. Then we looked at Essential Learning Outcomes, while preparing for in-class and remote teaching as needed.

  The South Slave Divisional Education Council, situated on the south shores of Great Slave Lake in the N.W.T., serves a unique and diverse student population spanning both remote and regional communities, many with significant socio-economic challenges. It was in this challenging physical environment that we set about re-entry after months of school closures in the face of COVID-19.

  August 27, 2020

  PPE and provisions (in some cases washers and driers!) haven’t arrived! Logistics in the North can be tricky, so it’s understandable that staff are tense. Teachers, parents, and communities are all anxious as we recognize the serious potential consequences of having students return during a pandemic. Considering the bleak historical consequences of colonization, and the devastating effects of European diseases on the Indigenous peoples, the potential for further trauma in the North is huge. No one wants to get sick, or be branded Typhoid Mary in a small northern community.

  By 8 p.m., the monumental efforts of all involved pay off as PPE, sanitizer, and handwashing stations are delivered and set up by staff, along with self-isolation rooms, to ensure readiness for opening day. The hand sanitizer dispensers challenge our collective problem-solving talents: the bag of sanitizer resists efforts to get it into the standing station. Brute force proves the answer; as one principal put it, “Take the cap off the bag and use a significant amount of force to shove the nozzle for dispensing the hand sanitizer in.” Next came figuring out how not to dispense too much liquid (another principal described it as “too squirty”).

  We breathe a sigh of relief – we made it! Tomorrow, August 28, some schools will reopen, and those of us who get the weekend to further prepare secretly sigh in relief and watch to see how it goes. The new school routine begins: temperature check everyone (thank goodness for touchless thermometers), remind parents to keep sick students home, check for masks, keep a staff log, track symptom checker declarations, sanitize hands, and then do this all over again in the afternoon. All goes surprisingly well; the students are happy to be back; their crinkled eyes above masks tell us they are smiling! We may feel like medical personnel, and be quite nervous about that, but we are still teachers and love having our students back, knowing they are safe, seen, and we are learning together.

  Our twice-daily routine becomes our mantra: wear masks, sign in, sign out, limit visitors to the school, no swapping of masks, don’t touch your face, sanitize hands, stay two metres apart, don’t mix your bubbles! Mantras are followed by disinfection – desks, doorknobs, high-touch surfaces. We teach, we clean, and now we have a second mantra: If it moves, TEACH it, if it doesn’t move, CLEAN it!

  We hold our breath, follow the rules, and ruthlessly focus on Essential Learning Outcomes, prepared to pivot to emergency remote teaching at a moment’s notice. We prepare in-class, blended, and home learning packages for our immunocompromised, self-isolating students and those on rotational schedules due to physical distancing requirements, and try to use every minute of instruction efficiently.

  Sept. 8

  We make it to Labour Day and relax just a smidge. No cases so far! Aside from wanting all staff to be well, the lack of substitute teachers in the North is a challenge, one which we greatly fear. A slight COVID spike has the potential to shut schools down due to lack of teachers and support staff.

  We forge ahead, focused on excellent teaching and strong assessment practices to ascertain gaps in learning over the months of remote instruction in spring 2020. We actively plan remediation and work on deep transfer learning. Our high-school students meet counsellors, courses are planned, and they are excited to start semester one.

  September 21

  We’ve been back in the saddle almost four weeks. We’ve had our first virtual “meet the teacher” event for parents and are finding other ways to engage virtually. We remain committed and healthy. The habits of good hand hygiene and mask etiquette are ingrained now, and thankfully the Northwest Territories remains COVID-free. However, we see signs of exhaustion and stress (the workload of regular in-class delivery plus home/online packages, plus daily COVID routines is unrelenting). We are somewhat traumatized by the last five months, and our students, families, and communities feel the same way.

  Mental well-being for staff and students appears to be deteriorating, social disconnection still exists, and relationships suffer. The unintended consequences of hypervigilance, mask wearing, physical distancing, mandatory self-isolation, and non-essential travel bans are surfacing. Is it the masks, the physical separation, or the five months of school closures that have eroded authentic connections? Is it everything at once?

  Reinvigorating social emotional learning is necessary to build empathy, resilience, and healthy connections to support the learning community. We recognize that, even though exhausted, we must lean into our empathic skills and values of compassion, and learn to self-regulate before we can actively teach students to do the same in a time of significantly heightened stress. Being on the front lines, we need to be agile and responsive to emerging and changing social emotional needs, including our own. That all sounds great, but what can we do right now?

  Building capacity

  We must build teacher capacity through vibrant professional learning communities (PLC) and professional development focused on researched self-regulation and empathy-building practices. The need for empathy is so great that those who have it are now being dubbed as having the “empathy edge” (Ross, 2019) or seen as a “need to have” (Goleman, 2004). Jody Carrington (2019) states, “First, last and in all ways, it comes down to connection. To relationship…. It’s all about connection. Full stop.” Now is not the time to let empathy and social emotional education outcomes fall by the wayside.

  In the North, we fundamentally include our communities. The focus is on the connection we share to ourselves, each other, and the land. Research from the Ashoka Empathy Initiative, highlighted in the Making Caring Common project of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (Jones et al., 2018), reveals five powerful reminders for intentional empathy teaching and best practices that in turn can support both teacher and student mental health:

  1. Model empathy. Everyday moments matter! As students enter the one-way systems in schools for daily checks, we look them in the eye and greet them by name. This says, “I see you and you matter!”

  2. Actively teach what empathy is and why it matters – across all learning areas, at every grade seamlessly to promote a safe and caring school culture.

  3. Practice. Use every opportunity to be empathic: in class, on the playground, in staff rooms, out in the community, everywhere. Students are always watching!

  4. Set clear ethical expectations. Lean into personal values, show up each day with intention and authenticity, and self-regulate yourself, always modelling for students.

  5. Make school culture and climate a priority. Use professional development time and PLCs to collaborate and generate ideas for intentional, authentic empathy education. Professional development, case studies, and dialogue can all be leveraged to collaboratively build trust and establish a community of practice focused on empathy, relationship, and positive connections.

  The work of many researchers, notably Goleman (2006, 2004), underpin the research-based programs we actively use (e.g. 4^th R, Zones of Regulation, Leader in Me). These reminders are not just for school leaders; all staff are interconnected across our common fears or joys, and we deserve to be treated with empathy and dignity. In a socially and physically distant world, we need to expect more relationally from each other, hold each other accountable to the connections we have made or need to make, and actively cultivate compassionate empathy, whether in class or via video-conferencing, to support resiliency. So, in returning to schools, we think outside the box for ways to connect with students, parents, and communities, ensuring we are all seen and heard.

  September 29

  We watch previously postponed 2019–20 school awards ceremonies streaming live on Facebook! We share in the joy of what our students and staff have achieved in the middle of the COVID storm. We now have a “Conferencing on Demand” initiative (a designated day and time each week for parent calls to teachers), we live stream our opening Feeding the Fire ceremonies and promote cultural connections. We honour the lessons learned in the previous five months, to ensure we grow through this crisis. Live streaming is one of those lessons: post-COVID, we will continue to use this means to include and promote more parent engagement opportunities.

  September 30

  It’s Orange Shirt Day, and we remember the legacies of the residential school system and honour our commitments to truth and reconciliation. This resonates with our commitment to reinvigorate and consistently build empathy and positive restorative relationships. We commit to intentionally using our professional learning time to continue applying a structured approach to enhance social emotional learning. We commit as leaders to model what we want to see in our schools, from both staff and students, and to share with each other what works and what doesn’t so we can grow as a professional learning community and be of service to our staffs.

  October 2

  So far, so good! Thanksgiving is on us, and we wait to see what the next 30 to 60 days bring. We know teachers and communities are concerned about whether or not there will be Christmas and spring breaks, but we also know that by practising empathy and connection, we will not just survive but thrive.

  Photo: Adobe Stock

   References

  Carrington, J. (2019). Kids these days: A game plan for (re)connecting with those we teach, lead, & love. Friesen Press.

  Goleman, D. (2004). What makes a leader? Harvard Business Review, January, 24–33.

  Goleman, D. (2006). Social intelligence: The new science of human relationships. Bantam.

   Jones, S., Weissbourd, R., Bouffard, S., Kahn, J., & Anderson, T. R. (2018). For educators: How to build empathy and strengthen your school community. Making Caring Common Project, Harvard Graduate School of Education.
  https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/resources-for-educators/how-build-empathy-strengthen-school-community

  Ross, M. (2019). The empathy edge: Harnessing the value of compassion as an energizer for success. Page Two, Inc.

• It’s OK to Be OK, Too

  October 30, 2020 11:59 AM Comments Off on It’s OK to Be OK, Too

  As a team of university researchers and educators, we have been studying stress and resilience in teachers since the pandemic began. Based on responses from more than 2,200 teachers from across Canada who completed 92-question surveys in April, June, and September of 2020, and several follow-up interviews, we were able to gain a detailed understanding of the demands, resources, stress, and coping experienced by teachers. We have published widely in both academic journals and media to share teachers’ voices and the lessons we learned from them.

  As we were collecting and analyzing our data, there were two related dialogues taking place about issues akin to our research. First, we read headlines suggesting the effects of the pandemic could be viewed as trauma, and that both teachers and students would suffer long-term losses from their current educational experiences during COVID-19.

  Second, we began to hear the term “toxic positivity” and witness verbal attacks on teachers who made positive or optimistic comments on social media. The catchphrase “It’s OK to not be OK” gained traction as the mantra of the day.

  These two separate dialogues seemed to accept pathology as the logical consequence of stress, while concurrently eroding attempts at recovery and resilience by those teachers who responded to the challenges in different ways. Given our discomfort with these observations, we decided to dig deeper into the science of toxic positivity, long-term effects of trauma, effects of positivity, and resilience to see if we could better understand the relationship between them.

  Given that our study showed chronic and increasingly elevated stress in teachers from April to September, we were interested in looking at the long-term effects of both high levels and extended durations of stress. Specifically, teachers in our study reported a 10% deficit in coping with their stress in April and a 6% deficit in June, suggesting that teachers across Canada were adjusting to the realities and challenges of remote teaching. We were alarmed to find that teachers reported a 30% deficit in coping in late September, when most teachers were returning to classroom instruction, but under unusual conditions due to COVID-19 safety requirements. Our September findings clearly demonstrated that additional resources are needed to meet demands. Considered together, the results of our three surveys suggested that teachers had the capacity to recover from abrupt, major changes to their teaching, but that repeated, incremental changes and challenges resulted in lower capacity for coping.

  Our review of the literature revealed that the experiences of teachers’ stress and coping could be understood through Bruce McEwen’s concept of allostasis. Allostasis is the evolutionary capacity to respond to immediate threat through a fight, flight, and freeze response – an adaption to the experience of acute stress. Humans have developed this capacity as a protective measure for survival. However, allostasis is a double-edged sword that can create safety, but can also cause harm. While allostasis has biologically prepared us to respond to emergencies, the cumulative burden of repeated exposures to stress leads to a chronic stress condition related to “allostatic load” – a situation that can have physiological and psychological health costs. Gauging by the survey and interview responses, it seems that this may be what was happening with Canadian teachers over the course of our study. They had begun to recover from the pivot to remote teaching by June but, instead of spending the summer continuing to recover, they entered July 2020 with a 6% deficit in coping that was never fully addressed. Between worrying about what would happen in the fall, preparing for possibly teaching remotely or in person (or both), and then returning to teaching situations that in many cases did not resemble typical classrooms and involved worry for the health of front-line educators and their families, teachers’ stress increased greatly. As we cautioned during an interview with CBC Radio, the 6% deficit we found in June might have seemed small, but if left unaddressed it had the potential for damaging and enduring effects. It was the canary in the coal mine, and ignoring it could have serious consequences for both teachers and students.

  Is there an alternative to predictions of long-term costs to teachers’ health as a result of the pandemic? As we know, good science always considers the counter-argument, and we found an equally convincing one in the work on resilience by George Bonnano. His research challenges the concept of distress and illness as a singular response to trauma and disruption, suggesting that there is a different and more typical path that can result from traumatic events. With reference to people who had experienced terrible challenges such as being victims in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, Bonnano found that while some people developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), most demonstrated resilience. This is not to dismiss the real and important needs of those who experience PTSD, but instead points out that pathology is not the only, or even the most typical, response to traumatic events. Canadian Senator and researcher Dr. Stanley Kutcher noted that there is an increased public perception that negative emotions are an indicator of pathology and illness. In contrast, Kutcher suggested that negative emotions are an important part of addressing life’s challenges and essential when adapting for the future. Without such emotions, he argued, we cannot develop resilience.

  Bonanno found that one of the predictors of resilience as opposed to pathology was a positive outlook. This is where the ideas of balance and toxic positivity come into play. Toxic positivity seeks to reject, deny, or displace any acknowledgement of the stress, negativity, and possible disabling features of trauma, and instead looks only through rose-coloured glasses. In contrast, a positive outlook acknowledges both the negative, challenging aspects as well as the more optimistic frames and pathways. Optimism, unlike toxic positivity, encompasses both reality and pathology instead of ignoring potential and actual psychological disability experienced by some people in response to trauma.

  Confusing optimism with toxic positivity comes with two kinds of costs. First, by mistakenly interpreting and silencing optimism as toxic positivity, individuals who embrace positivity as a coping mechanism are denied this support for their own resilience. Given Bonnano’s findings about the importance of optimism for resilience, we cannot afford to squelch this resource for teachers who need it to maintain their well-being. Second, observations of those we view as important to us serve as exemplars of how we normalize responses to change. If there are no longer voices of optimism because they have been silenced due to accusations of toxic positivity, then pathology and negativity by default become the exemplars. Just as it is OK to not be OK (and to seek supports for this response to what is clearly a very stressful situation), it is also OK to be OK.

  Collectively, we are all going through a very challenging time together. Each of us will need to use everything we can – both internally and externally – to face the future beyond the pandemic. However, teachers work in a variety of settings, with a spectrum of resources and challenges, and a range of student and family needs – not every teacher is “in the same boat” during this pandemic, even though we are all experiencing the same storm. There are other pathways to understanding teacher responses and contexts besides the false dichotomy between pathology and toxic positivity. In fact, a person can be both optimistic and realistic at the same time. Therefore, it is important to consider the cost to individuals as well as groups when we call out presumed “toxic positivity” – when in reality we are all just doing the best we can with the resources we have.

  The pandemic does not define us – it reveals us. Let it reveal our best selves, as teachers who show compassion, support, grace, and acceptance for both ourselves and our colleagues as we all respond to and recover from the challenges of COVID-19 in the best (yet different) ways we can.

  Photo: Adobe Stock

• Opportunism or Opportunity?

  October 21, 2020 4:27 PM Comments Off on Opportunism or Opportunity?

  Societal inequities are replicated in schooling along the lines of Indigeneity and race, gender, gender identity and sexuality, class, disability, citizenship, place of birth, faith, and more, and become more layered and complex when we consider intersecting identities. We see these long-standing inequities play out in practices such as academic streaming; disproportionate levels of punishment, suspension and expulsions for Black students; curricular violence that exists in the erasure of the histories, realities, and resistance of Indigenous, Black and racialized people in Canada; disproportionately higher proportions of White, middle-class students in gifted classes, French Immersion programs, specialty arts programs, and other “programs of choice”; limited accountability measures to address often persistent and traumatic experiences of discrimination and harassment for students, families, and staff that are racialized and marginalized; and more.

  In times of greater crisis and strain on systems and structures, long-standing inequities are simply exacerbated. In this time of a global pandemic, we see growing gaps between the ability of private and public schools to support the safety and well-being of children, we see massive inequities with regards to student access to technology and Wi-Fi, and we see the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on racialized families and communities and families marginalized by poverty.

  Many families and communities on these lands have been living through another pandemic that we have yet to name as a society. White supremacy and settler colonialism have existed in this place that some refer to as Canada, long before March 2020. The question is: Why haven’t we seen these oppressive structures as a global crisis? It makes me question which lives are deemed worthy and which lives are deemed disposable. Whose pain and suffering is avidly attended to, and whose pain and suffering is erased? In this current moment, we are seeing an upsurge in awareness of how Whiteness and White supremacy have and continue to construct anti-Blackness and perpetuate anti-Black racism politically, economically, socially, mentally, emotionally, and academically.

  How might this time of global upheaval, massive uncertainty, and racial reckoning influence who we choose to be and how we choose to live? How will it influence the how and why of schooling in ways that will both challenge and perpetuate historical barriers to educational access and opportunity?

  Perhaps a better question is: Who will view this time as an opportunity for collective transformation and freedom, and who will view it as opportunity for self-interest and self-protection?

  We have seen many examples of “opportunism” in the last few months. For example, the rise of pandemic pods, in which small groups of children from different families learn together outside of traditional school settings, similar to homeschooling or private schooling, demonstrate increases in privatization in education, which provide “choice” for more privileged families and result in disproportionately negative impacts for historically marginalized populations (Winton, 2020). We were already seeing calls for greater moves to e-learning prior to the pandemic, and the redirection of large amounts of public education dollars to private technology companies. As we move into an era of unprecedented online learning, we have to be vigilant about efforts to normalize a form of schooling that was developed in response to a pandemic. While educators are doing their best to recreate community and rich learning experiences online, mass efforts to increase online learning in a post-pandemic era will increase inequities in access and de-emphasize the importance of relationships, creativity, co-constructing knowledges, and developing critical consciousness that are such crucial aspects to the learning experience. This is all against the backdrop of an analysis by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, indicating that Canada’s top billionaires “added $37B to their fortunes since the pandemic started, during six of the most economically catastrophic months in the country’s history” (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2020).

  Crisis has the potential to breed opportunism, which has historical roots in colonialism, White supremacy, and capitalism, as well as contemporary manifestations in the form of grave injustices. But crisis also has the potential to return us to more just, humane, and compassionate approaches to schooling and society. We might seize this opportunity to resist traditional educational discourses, legitimize marginalized knowledges, and imagine future possibilities.

  Resisting traditional schooling discourses

  Resisting traditional educational discourses requires an active acknowledgement of the ways in which schooling has historically stratified students according to perceived abilities, social class, race, and gender and continues to underserve historically marginalized populations of students. Possibilities emerge when we make the distinction between education and schooling, with the former having transformative and liberatory possibilities, and the latter being a site of social reproduction and socialization (Patel, 2016). We might resist:

  • Low expectations and false, deficit narratives of Black, Indigenous, racialized, and marginalized students, families, and communities
  • The idea that the sole purpose of schooling is to prepare students for the workforce, resulting in curriculum that is disconnected, ahistorical, and decontextualized
  • The belief that schooling must be a highly individualistic and competitive system, creating winners and losers, those who can approximate wellness, and those whose safety is compromised
  • The notion that “to be thoroughly educated means to be educated away from your own life stories, educated away from your own voice, educated into inadequacy… ” (Akomolafe, 2019).

  Legitimizing marginalized knowledges

  Legitimizing marginalized knowledges requires an acknowledgement of the knowledge systems that are on the periphery of traditional schooling discourses. Their erasure constitutes a form of curricular violence for particular populations of students whose identities, histories, and worldviews are not represented in classrooms, creating a social, emotional, and mental disconnect. It’s a continuous reminder for particular students and educators that these spaces are not for them, that they do not belong here, and that they must conform to particular logics to be granted access, opportunity, and safety. We might legitimize:

  • Pedagogical approaches that foster critical self-reflection, relationality, wellness, humanity, and embodied ways of knowing
  • Curriculum that centres multiple histories, identities, lived experiences, and perspectives, especially those of Indigenous, Black, and racialized peoples
  • Fostering critical consciousness that disrupts the status quo by preparing students to be thoughtful, aware, and active citizens
  • Pedagogies that encourage curiosity, creativity, sustained analysis, and wonder.

  Imagining future possibilities

  Imagining future possibilities involves a critical eye to what needs repair, healing, truth, and justice in our current realities. It simultaneously requires a hopeful heart as we imagine the worlds we may create together. Oftentimes, the act of imagination can be a painful process when we consider current realities, but it is that place of critical hope that keeps us working toward new possibilities, different realities, and heightened levels of consciousness. We might imagine:

  • Schools being sites of collective and communal care in which every student, parent/guardian, and educator is honoured and valued, and feels a deep sense of belonging
  • Schools that honour histories of Indigenous, Black, and racialized resistance toward collective freedom and liberation by engaging in acts of solidarity and love
  • Schools that are deeply connected to the communities in which they are located, that are animated and guided by strong and meaningful relationships between the home, school, and community
  • Schools that believe all students can learn and all students deserve to learn.

  In the midst of these two global pandemics, one new and one centuries old, may we find the individual and collective courage to centre relationality, community, and collective care above our individual fears, insecurities, and self-interest. Students depend on it, our schools depend on it, and our futures depend on it.

   

  Anti-Racist Education in Action: Honouring children’s identity

  

  “When we leverage texts, we open up mirrors that reflect the lived experiences of children and windows that enter the lives of others, while sliding doors allow us to interact within the worlds of one another.”

  – Rudine Sims Bishop, 1990

  Kenisha Bynoe and Gail Bedeau are both Early Reading Coaches with the Toronto District School Board. They have collaborated with educators and invited them to situate who they are based on the intersections of their social identities and that of their learners. By using texts to reflect and honour the lived experiences of learners and themselves, educators came to realize that who we are influences how and what we teach. The Kindergarten-level activity described below is one example of how we can support the development of belonging, contributing, and well-being, as learners come to new understandings about themselves, others, and the world in which they live in.

  Book: I Like Myself (also in French), by Karen Beaumont
  This book is about a little girl who loves everything about herself, from her ears to her toes. It does not matter what others think or say because she has a strong sense of self and embraces all that she is, inside and out.

  Question: How do you see yourself?

  Materials: Skin-tone paint, paint brushes, mirrors, vials with chickpeas, cinnamon, cocoa powder, brown sugar, and Rice Krispies, Sharpie markers

   

  Anti-Racist Education in Action: Taking action against injustice

  

  The pandemic has further brought to light the inequities and injustices faced by marginalized groups. For Black and other racialized students in a North Toronto middle school, face-to face-class discussions on matters of anti-Black racism were replaced with virtual community circles. The highly publicized murder of George Floyd and subsequent outcries for justice for Black lives presented educators with an opportunity to critically unpack and explore these lived experiences. Above all, it was critical for all educators to listen to students and encourage social action in their local communities.

  Creating a socially distanced Public Service Announcement (www.youtube.com/watch?v= JOW5z3JmaFQ) was an opportunity for students to express, through poetry and spoken word, their deep-rooted trauma, hurt, anger, and resolve as they reflect on their very beings, representations of “Blackness,” and all this encompasses in society.

   

  Photos: courtesy Vidya Shah

  First published in Education Canada, January 2021

  References

  Akomolafe, B. (2019, Oct. 22). KWIC 30th Anniversary Keynote: Adebayo Akomolafe [Video]. YouTube. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7pauBaL_UE&t=6s

  The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. (2020, Sept. 16). Canada’s top billionaires are $37 billion richer since start of the pandemic, CCPA report finds [Press release]. www.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/billionaires-wealth-pandemic

  Patel, L. (2016). Pedagogies of resistance and survivance: Learning as marronage. Equity & Excellence in Education, 49(4), 397–401.

  Winton, S. (2020). Pandemic pods may undermine the promises of public education. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/pandemic-pods-may-undermine-promises-of-public-education-145237

• School Wellness Partnership Program

  October 16, 2020 2:13 PM Comments Off on School Wellness Partnership Program

  

  YOUR NEW WELLNESS JOURNEY STARTS RIGHT NOW, RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE.

  EdCan and TeacherFit are proud to present you the ONLY program designed specifically to meet the needs of educators through affordable, efficient, and effective mindfulness, fitness, and yoga classes. Plus nutrition challenges and programs for students!

  TeacherFit provides educators with the tools they need to take care of themselves mentally, physically, and emotionally for the long term.

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• Addressing Racism in the K-12 Workplace

  September 29, 2020 11:25 AM Comments Off on Addressing Racism in the K-12 Workplace

  

  Students have been subject to some of the most egregious and gross forms of racism that no one should ever experience, much less a child. In Ontario, two fairly recent examples of racist violence that students face have been documented in the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board and the Peel District School Board. On June 15, 2020, the CBC reported that Anne Stewart,¹ a teacher at Notre Dame Secondary School in Brampton, Ontario, used the N-word in class while teaching students. Stewart was reported to the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT), which concluded that the teacher had indeed used the N-word. However, Stewart only received a verbal reprimand and her case was not sent to the OCT’s discipline committee. The second case worth mentioning happened in 2016, when staff at an elementary school in the Peel District School Board called in the Peel Regional Police to address a situation where a six-year-old Black female student was in mental distress. The two white officers who arrived proceeded to shackle the hands and feet² of the little girl. She remained shackled and placed on her stomach for 28 minutes. The case was referred to the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario and, in 2020, the Tribunal ruled that the girl’s human rights were violated and that race was a factor in the way the police responded.

  What we must understand is that both of these cases were traumatizing events for the students involved; they will likely require mental health support for a long time as a result of the racial trauma they experienced. The same can probably be said about the many students who have also come to be aware of too many of these stories in which Black and racialized students, friends and family, experience racist violence in the school system. Students and their families are also re-traumatized when they find out that those who committed these racist acts are rarely held accountable for their actions.

  Since school districts are in the business of serving students, we can understand why we need to address these issues so that students can have the opportunity to be successful and not be under the threat of racial violence when they are expected to be learning and getting an education. But there’s another part to this conversation that often does not get the attention it deserves: the racism that Black, Indigenous and racialized staff experience in school districts across the country. The system of anti-Black racism that Black students are fighting against and resisting is the same anti-Black racism that Black staff have to contend with and navigate while they are expected to be teaching at a high level. A report titled The Voices of Ontario Black Educators, covered by the Toronto Star in 2015,³ stated that one-third of the Black teachers, principals and vice-principals who participated in the study indicated they were passed over for promotions because they were Black, 27 percent indicated that racism at work impacts their day-to-day work life, and 51 percent believed anti-Black racism impacts who gets promoted.

  School districts that want to take up the work of dismantling systemic racism to enhance student success and address the disparity in student outcomes must also address and dismantle the racism that Black and racialized educators are experiencing in the K-12 workplace. This can only be done by taking a comprehensive approach to staff mental health and well-being, and by drawing the connection between systemic racism, racism and anti-Black racism in the workplace and well-being in the workplace. The premise of this discussion must be that our education system, and by extension our school districts, are all inherently racist and anti-Black. The conversation should not be about, “Is racism operating in our school district?” The evidence and research detailing a variety of ways that racism and anti-Black racism impacts the education system is too strong and comprehensive for us to still be looking for more proof to establish its existence. The conversation must be about, “How we can gain a better understanding of how racism is operating in our sector or school district so that we can address the disparities that Black and racialized staff are experiencing?”

  It is important to note that although all racialized groups experience racism, not all racialized groups experience racism in the same way. When we examine outcome data, what we clearly see is that anti-Black racism and anti-Indigenous racism, across all sectors, produce the most significant negative outcomes among non-white populations. Disaggregated race-based outcome data is what should drive where and how school districts focus their attention and resources when doing anti-racism work. Anti-Black racism and systemic racism is a deeply entrenched problem in the education sector across the country, which has roots in the legacy of enslaved people in Canada.⁴ This is a very important point, because it is through a comprehensive understanding of colonialism and Canada’s participation and relationship with the trans-Atlantic slave trade, that you will understand how all of our major institutions, laws, social norms and such have been built on this foundation and reflected in present-day realities. However, as serious as the problem is, it is not readily understood in terms of its impact on stress, anxiety, trauma and overall well-being in the workplace. If school districts are serious about addressing anti-Black racism and systemic racism, then they must see it as one of the most pressing mental health challenges of our time that requires concentrated effort, attention and resources if our schools, classrooms and workplaces are to be safe and nurturing work and learning environments.

  Research indicates that teacher stress is directly linked to student performance and effective class management strategies. Teachers who are under chronic stress have been shown to have less effective classroom management,⁵ lack clear teaching instruction for students and have a lower ability to create safe and nurturing classrooms for all of their students. Research also shows that teachers who view and experience the demands and stress of teaching as outweighing the resources and support provided to them, are less likely than their peers with lower levels of stress to say they would still choose teaching if they had the chance to choose their career again.

  Now, imagine you layer the stress and anxiety that comes with managing a classroom with the stress, anxiety and trauma caused by anti-Black racism and systemic racism that Black and racialized educators experience in the workplace. Racial violence can lead to racial trauma. Dr. Erangler Turner defines racial trauma as “experiencing symptoms such as anxiety, hyper-vigilance to threat or lack of hopefulness for your future as a result of exposure to racism or discrimination.” The impact of racial trauma shows up not only as anxiety and stress but also as depression, low self-esteem, poor concentration and irritability.⁶ Research on racial trauma also indicates that as a result of anti-Black racism, Black people experience less sense of control over their own lives, as well as internalized racism and avoidance of valued action. Chronic stress related to anti-Black racism predisposes Black people to a variety of health problems, including memory impairment, neural atrophy and heart disease. Some research has also pointed out that anxiety can be more persistent among Black people compared to their non-Black counterparts, which researchers attribute to the intensity of anti-Black racism. The impact of anti-Black racism and racism in the workplace also has negative physical impacts on Black and racialized staff. Most notable is that chronic and prolonged stress related to racism can lead the body to release high levels of cortisol, which can impair the body’s ability to reduce inflammation. This in turn can impair the body’s ability to heal. This is what Black, Indigenous and racialized educators are having to contend with in the workplace, and much of these negative mental health and well-being outcomes are directly connected to school districts’ refusal to see racism as a mental health and well-being issue, along with their inability to effectively address racism for both staff and students.

  Anti-racism is integral to staff well-being

  Most school districts have some form of well-being plan. This might include a paid staff role that is responsible for coordinating and rolling out mental health and well-being programs and initiatives. There may also be a well-being committee made up of staff who help to direct the school district’s well-being initiatives.

  Although many staff well-being initiatives have value and help to improve the mental health and well-being of educators, the fact is that the vast majority of these programs take a race-neutral approach. Racism tends to not be factored into program design, and this type of approach only serves to further entrench anti-Black racism and other forms of racism in the workplace. By making anti-racism work a central feature of mental health and well-being plans, school districts will be centering the voices of those most vulnerable in the system and keeping the conversation about racism in the workplace at the forefront. These are both seen as best practices when doing anti-racism work.

  It is well established that better mental health leads to positive outcomes for organizations. When educators experience high levels of well-being and low levels of stress, this not only results in higher student well-being and educational outcomes, but it also improves:

  • employee productivity
  • employee health behaviours
  • rates of absenteeism
  • recruitment and retention efforts.

  School districts may roll out a variety of services and training opportunities, such as benefits programs that provide health supports like mental health counselling, massage or physiotherapy, or workshops that help educators communicate better, create a healthy work-life balance, and so on. From a mental health and well-being perspective, these initiatives are important and have value. They can and do have a positive impact on staff mental health and well-being. However, the problem with looking at workplace well-being solely through this lens is that it puts the onus of well-being on the staff, which fuels the idea that if staff can just learn a new skill or develop better coping mechanisms, then they can achieve optimal mental health and well-being. This approach lets school districts off the hook.

  Anti-Black racism is systemic and operates in every aspect of school districts’ operations, policies and programs. This can and does have a detrimental impact on Black and racialized staff. If your plan to disrupt racism in the workplace is to essentially develop programs that aim to help Black and non-white staff deal more effectively with their oppression, then you do not have much of a plan! (See “Anti-Racism Basics” below.) School districts that take this approach are complicit and perpetuate racist violence against Black and non-white staff; the onus of disrupting anti-Black racism in our K-12 workplaces falls on the shoulders of school district leadership. It is also not enough for districts to devise ways to address the racism that students face while neglecting to turn their attention towards how Black and racialized staff are also impacted by racism. All students can see the racial hierarchy of school settings, where Black and racialized educators are scarcely in positions of leadership such as principal and vice-principal. They can see what bodies are in positions of leadership, they can see what bodies are not in leadership roles, and they can see what bodies are less present overall in school spaces. They can see what bodies are valued and what bodies are not.

  If school districts are serious about staff well-being in the K-12 workplace and truly desire to have better student outcomes, then they must see anti-racism work as mental health and well-being work. School districts’ anti-racism work must include both staff and students. It is clear that when staff have lower stress and anxiety levels, they perform better as educators, which leads to better student outcomes. But workplace racism inflicts an additional level of stress, anxiety and racial trauma on Black, Indigenous and racialized staff. We know that racism and anti-Black racism has significant mental, emotional and physiological impacts on Black and other non-white educators in the workplace. This additional “tax” can and does lead to teacher performance being negatively impacted, which ultimately will impact student outcomes. Only a systemic approach to doing anti-racism work (that includes the needs of both students and staff, frames anti-racism work as a mental health and workplace well-being issue, and includes accountability) will turn our schools and districts into spaces where learning can happen and where Black and non-white staff can bring their whole selves to work – without having to shoulder the weight of systemic and anti-Black racism.

  Illustration: Diana Pham

  First published in Education Canada, September 2020

  Anti-Racism Basics

  A comprehensive discussion of effective anti-racism programs for school districts would require a whole other article. But as a starting place, they should feature:

  • Acknowledgment that our school systems are inherently racist due to the legacy of colonialism and slavery. We also have mounds of data and research that prove that anti-Black racism and systemic racism is a problem in education, and that it has significant impact on Black staff and student mental health. If we don’t acknowledge the problem that racism exists, how will know what problem we are trying to solve?

  • Community Partnership and Community Leadership Any efforts by school districts to do anti-racism work and disrupt anti-Black racism must be done with community, staff and student partnership. The voices of those most impacted must have a leadership role in developing the solutions.

  • Accountability Any plan to address systemic and anti-Black racism that does not have accountability measures is grossly incomplete. School districts that take anti-racism work seriously must have accountability measures in place for the district as a system and for racist behaviours when committed by staff.

  • Disaggregated Race-Based Data Collection Any anti-racism work, strategy or plan should be informed by disaggregated race-based data. The collection methodology and analysis of the data must be done by those who have expertise utilizing an anti-racism intersectional lens.

  • Transparent Monitoring and Reporting All policies, programs and initiatives must have a transparent process and transparent reporting mechanism. The community and staff need to know, clearly, what work the organization has committed to, what impact it has had and what the challenges have been.

  • Policy Development and Implementation To support the needed structural change to disrupt and dismantle anti-Black racism and systemic racism, the necessary policies need to be put in place. This helps to ensure that as staff change roles and new officials are elected, the work does not stop. Additionally, all existing new policies should be reviewed and developed using an anti-racism and anti-Black racism lens.

  Notes

  1 Shanifa Nasser, “High school teacher who used N-word in class allowed to keep working after apologizing,” CBC News (June 15, 2020). www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/brampton-teacher-notre-dame-n-word-1.5607961

  2 “Race was a factor in handcuffing of 6-year-old black girl in Mississauga school, tribunal says,” CBC News (March 3, 2020). www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/human-rights-tribunal-peel-police-girl-handcuffed-1.5483456

  3 Louise Brown, “Black teachers still face racism on the job in Ontario,” Toronto Star (May 29, 2015). www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2015/05/29/black-teachers-still-face-racism-on-the-job-in-ontario.html

  4 Natasha Henry, Anti-Black Racism in Ontario Schools: A historical perspective (Turner Consulting Group Inc., Research and Policy Brief No. 1, May 2019). www.turnerconsultinggroup.ca/uploads/2/9/5/6/29562979/policy_brief_-_no_1_may_2019.pdf

  5 Sarah D. Sparks, “How Teachers’ Stress Affects Students: A research roundup,” Education Week – Teacher (June 7, 2017). www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2017/06/07/how-teachers-stress-affects-students-a-research.html

  6 Rochaun Meadows-Fernandez, “The Little-Known Health Effect of Racial Trauma,” The Cut (June 7, 2017). www.thecut.com/2017/06/the-little-understood-mental-health-effects-of-racial-trauma.html

• Scylla and Charybdis

  11:24 AM Comments Off on Scylla and Charybdis

  In the Odyssey, Homer writes of the fear that Greek mariners felt as they attempted to cross the narrow channel of water flanked by Scylla, the six-headed monster on one side, and Charybdis, the violent whirlpool, on the other. My circumstances were not as dire, but I can empathize with the pressure these ancient sailors felt. My dilemma between the proverbial “rock and a hard place” occurred during the heated 2014 contractual dispute between the B.C. Ministry of Education and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, during which I walked an ethical tightrope between my responsibilities as teacher to my inner-city school, and as a representative of the Federation.

  The educational landscape of British Columbia in 2014 was marked by extreme tension, with heated contract negotiations that escalated into a full-scale strike and lockout. The union ordered members to discontinue participation in extracurricular programs. At the time, I had taken on many extracurricular duties at my school, which was situated within one of the poorest socio-economic pockets of the Lower Mainland. Many of our families found themselves in a constant state of crisis as a result of chronic poverty. Many of our children were in and out of the revolving doors of foster care. Some families were refugees who had fled civil and political strife in their home countries. Opportunities were sparse for the children of this community. This is not to say that the parents did not care for their children – some worked two or even three low-paying jobs to provide as many opportunities as were accessible to them. As a professional, I found it gut-wrenching to balance my response to these competing claims on my loyalty.

  On the one hand, I had a legal and professional responsibility to my union. Issues of key importance to me, such as benefits, working conditions, salary, student funding, and the overall integrity of public education had all been secured as a result of the tireless effort of the union. At a critical time when the union was engaged in negotiations, I recognized the importance of teachers presenting a united front. If the union needed us to withdraw extra-curricular activities and strike to pressure the government, I felt compelled to support their decisions. It was also clear to me that to maintain productive relationships with my colleagues, I needed to show the same level of commitment to the union as they did.

  On the other hand, I also felt a strong sense of obligation to my students and the community. I was acutely aware that many of the children at my school were already marginalized. I thought their extracurricular opportunities helped to address the lack in their lives and provided these children, who were at constant risk of becoming statistics themselves, with rare opportunities to engage in enriching and constructive activities. My conscience told me that I needed to exercise compassion for those less fortunate. The care of one’s fellow humans is a responsibility that I feel we are born with and should not abdicate, and this lay at the heart of my dilemma.

  I wrestled with finding a balance between the opposing claims. I believed in both! Was it possible to serve two masters when they were locked in conflict? This situation led me to a paralytic state of inaction. I was unable to make a move in either direction. The more I tried to find a way forward, the more paralyzed I became. Was it even possible to reconcile this ethical duality when the solutions were so mutually exclusive? How could I choose one side over the other, and how could I look at myself in the mirror after doing so? To choose one side would betray the other side and my ethical principles as well. These were unanswerable questions that preyed on my mind and put me in conflict with myself.

  But ultimately my story had a happier ending. Like the mariners who found the narrow channel between Scylla and Charybdis, I finally found a middle path through my dilemma. I was able to connect our underprivileged students with a non-profit agency that would provide extracurricular activities during the strike, which allowed me to withdraw my own extracurricular services in better conscience.

  Looking back, this dilemma did more good than harm for my practice, because it enabled me to clarify why I choose to teach and how I choose to do so.

  Illustration: iStock

  First published in Education Canada, September 2020

• Thriving in Stressful Times

  11:17 AM Comments Off on Thriving in Stressful Times

  Long before the new school year started, teachers, school and district leaders and Ministry staff were trying to plan for a safe and productive return to school. Or perhaps a partial return to school, supplemented with online learning. Or perhaps some other model. From wrestling with the logistics of keeping students physically distanced from each other in buildings designed and staffed for large groups, to seeking kid-friendly online learning approaches, it’s been an uncertain path toward a moving target. Parents and students, of course, also have new worries and challenges.

  So everyone in the education system is feeling an additional layer of stress. We are also finding new ways to connect with and support each other, experiencing satisfaction when we find effective ways to meet new challenges and taking pride in the successes that have been achieved so far.

  This issue of Education Canada is focused on you and your well-being at work, regardless of your role in the education system. Before we’d even heard of COVID-19, staff stress and burn-out was already a significant problem in education. Staff well-being is an issue that all school boards should be concerned about – and now more than ever.

  The authors in this issue offer thoughtful, evidence-based analysis of the stress educators experience and how this impacts the whole school community. Rohan Thompson and André Grace address the burden of stress that BIPOC and LGBTQ2+ staff and students endure due to systemic and explicit racism and homo/transphobia. Darcy Santor and Chris Bruckert report on the worrying increase in violence and harassment teachers are experiencing. Melanie Janzen and Anne Phelan examine how over-emphasizing self-help as the “cure” for teachers’ stress can actually increase anxiety and feelings of inadequacy, while overlooking both the systemic factors that create relentless stress and the inherent nature of the job for teachers who care.

  There is plenty of good news, too. Our authors also share initiatives, programs and policies that have strengthened educator well-being in their districts, and new ways of thinking about and addressing stress among teachers and students alike.

  I hope you find validation, useful information, and inspiring ideas in this issue to support you and help you stay well – both as we find our way through the pandemic, and in the future.

  First published in Education Canada, September 2020

  Write to us!

  We want to know what you think. Send your comments and article proposals to editor@edcan.ca – or join the conversation by using #EdCan on Twitter and Facebook.

• Educators’ SEL, Relationships, and Learning

  September 28, 2020 7:46 AM Comments Off on Educators’ SEL, Relationships, and Learning

  Joanne was a Grade 3 teacher in a high-need rural school. She was an incredibly conscientious person and she worried a lot. She worried about how good a teacher she was, how her colleagues perceived her, and what her principal was thinking, as well as being concerned about each student and how she could help them progress. This worry led to her doubting herself and working even harder, and over time she became emotionally exhausted. This, in turn, affected her family life and her health. Then a new principal arrived and set social and emotional learning as a central goal of their school.

  Joanne was mentored in the use of an evidence-based Social emotional learning (SEL) curriculum and the staff created a reading group on SEL. They then began to work on their own social and emotional awareness, which included some short and practical mindfulness practices. The staff also worked to create a more compassionate, caring culture for their school, children, and parents. Joanne found a new reserve of inner strength, loosened the grip of her worry, and celebrated the new sense of partnership with teachers and other staff. She developed closer relationships with her students and parents and she slowly gained back the joy of teaching.

  This story illustrates the power of community, leadership, and self-inquiry in supporting a teacher’s own journey as a professional. All three components supported Joanne and nurtured her abilities as a teacher. Over the past few decades, research has shown that teachers who develop and compassionately nurture their own social and emotional competencies are those who create caring classrooms and support their students’ SEL. Further, when children’s social and emotional competence is facilitated and the school nurtures healthy relationships with colleagues, students, and families, students become more engaged as learners and increase their school success.

  In the time of COVID-19, there are important lessons for us to remember. First, we need to nurture ourselves and make realistic plans for self-care. Second, we need to nurture our relationships with our colleagues, and especially reach out to our students and families. Third, secure and caring relationships are the base for learning and success and the more secure and confident we all feel, the more learning and growth will happen.

  First published in Education Canada, September 2020

• Growing Well-Being Across a System

  June 2, 2020 11:45 AM Comments Off on Growing Well-Being Across a System

  Five B.C. educators with different roles and a shared interest in supporting well-being, came together in a collaborative project to grow well-being across the Langley school district. Here’s how they did it, and what they learned from the process.

  What started out as four individuals from different work roles, each of us having a shared goal of supporting well-being in schools, has become a collaborative passion project to grow and sustain well-being across our district. Through this article, we look back on our journey of learning and collaborating, reflecting on some of the insights we have gained about supporting staff well-being in school districts.

  Thanks to an assistant superintendent who saw an unusual, but natural, alignment in our work, we formed our district wellness team in the fall of 2017. We each had different but complementary roles – a district principal for student services, a district teacher/counsellor and a human resources manager. We also brought a health authority partner onto our team, providing a valuable broader view of the communities within which the students and educators work and live.

  We started our plans with a district-wide learning series on social emotional learning and well-being, to help staff understand the importance of this learning in schools and the amazing outcomes these skills and practices provide around student health, happiness and success. It became apparent that these were the same skills and practices that we needed to build as adults, both so we could model and teach them to students and for our own health and happiness. We were starting to see the importance of adult well-being to positive outcomes for both the adults and the students.

  We decided to make teacher and staff well-being our project focus. One of our first objectives was to gain an awareness of how our staff were doing, and to understand their sense of well-being at work. We wanted to gather people together to start a discussion and generate some ideas to support well-being in our district. As with many exciting and challenging tasks, this project became much more complex than we anticipated, and also very rich and rewarding. We are now at the stage of reflecting on all that we have learned, to inform our plans for how to continue the work of supporting teacher and staff well-being in our district. We’d like to share some of the themes that have emerged for us so far as we analyze and reflect on our experiences and data.

  Three interconnected parts

  Our work to date has underscored that well-being is holistic, encompassing interconnecting aspects. In particular, we have become aware of three important facets of staff well-being.

  1. Well-being is individual. An important part of increasing well-being lies with the individual person. This assumption was our starting point, and it has remained an important aspect of how we understand well-being as holistic and interconnected. Focusing on growing staff well-being had us thinking about how to support practices of self-awareness and self-care. Much of the first year of our project was learning about social emotional skills and bringing that back to the district as learning conversations in the workplace. We found that sometimes just acknowledging that self-care matters and sharing what that looks like can go a long way in supporting people to take care of themselves, especially in helping professions where we are so used to caring for others.

  2. Well-being is relational. The second interconnected part that became very clear is that well-being is relational and that we are better together, both in terms of productivity/success and in terms of health, happiness and overall well-being. The main focus of our second year was on the relational aspects in our well-being work. This led us to connect with Dr. Sabre Cherkowski. She was completing a multi-year research project on teacher well-being, where she and her colleague, Dr. Keith Walker, had built a theoretical and practical understanding of what it means for educators to flourish in their work.¹ Her research was framed within a positive organizational perspective that highlighted how focusing on and supporting positive human capacities at work, such as compassion, humility, kindness, and forgiveness, had a positive and generative affect that often led to increases in other aspects of work such as creativity, productivity, innovation, and commitment to the organization.

  We were interested in Dr. Cherkowski’s research approach of using a strength-based, appreciative perspective to notice and nurture what was already working well and what already gives staff a sense of well-being in their work. We were also interested in learning more about an appreciative approach to positive change, focusing on what happens when the whole system is invited into the conversation to reflect on how we might promote and support well-being across our district. With Dr. Cherkowski and the consent of our district, we designed a continuation of our learning series, inviting staff across the district to join us for three dinner events that offered an opportunity to:

  • learn about research on well-being in educational workplaces
  • engage in conversations designed to gain a better sense of what well-being means to different individuals and teams across the district
  • learn how to design a collaborative, appreciative inquiry project to further build on what is already working well
  • ensure opportunities to analyze, tweak and share progress of the inquiries
  • provide a model for how staff might create conditions in their work contexts for appreciative conversations at and about work.

  At each event, Dr. Cherkowski guided some 150 attendees through a sequence of reflections and activities focused on:

  • Purpose (what makes us feel alive, engaged, connected and well in our work?)
  • Passion (what are our strengths, gifts, talents that we can draw on to help live out our purpose at work?)
  • Play (how might we innovate, create, design environments that enliven our passions and purpose?)
  • Plan (what resources, materials, supports and knowledge do we need to build and grow our flourishing?)

  The conversations that emerged created a safe, caring, uplifted environment where colleagues shared their dreams and desires in their work, as well as their challenges and struggles. The evenings became a space for building the relational processes necessary for the work of nurturing well-being for self and others in our own work contexts.

  We observed that teams and individuals were now working on plans to connect what they were learning about flourishing to things they might try out in their context. One example was a principal who designed a “tree of flourishing” that she took to her teachers and staff. She suggested they fill out all the ways that they, their students, and their school community were experiencing well-being. As they filled out the tree over a course of a few weeks and posted it around the school, this gave them a sense of pride and ownership for all that was working well. It also provided a touchpoint for conversations around struggles and challenges, as there was a sense of being cared for by a larger community that was working together to tend to the entire tree. Within the challenging and seemingly never-ending work of meeting school goals for all students, this principal developed a tool that evoked a sense of hope, of joy, and of agency about being well together at work.

  While participants in our dinner series were working on their inquiries, we were planning to find out more about how teachers and staff were doing with their well-being. We decided to conduct focus groups with teachers and staff in different roles. Our deeper learning from these focus groups is still to come as we work with this valuable data, but we have already learned some things from this process. The first is to bring your district leadership and your union groups into the process early. This was such a helpful process and a good reminder that everyone wants well-being. We are all working toward a common goal. The second one is that health and well-being is something people want to talk about. People want to tell their stories and they want to be heard. If you are going to ask the questions, you have to be prepared to listen to the answers and be willing to co-create a plan that moves discussion into action.

  3. Well-being is system-wide. Reminding ourselves to engage in our change work from the level of the system is an especially important piece, even though it often proves difficult to navigate and implement. Our commitment to growing staff well-being across the district meant that we needed to think about the system in all its interrelated parts to embed well-being for the long term. Looking back at our approach through a systems-lens, we:

  • interviewed as many staff as possible to get a sense of their experiences and what change might be necessary
  • established a structure for improving the quality of our communication about well-being through the dinner learning series
  • are now analyzing the data we’ve collected to see how we can continue to grow well-being across the system.

  We have learned that systems are relational entities, and that we need to take care to avoid assigning blame to any part of the system as a separate actor. At the same time, we need to avoid always looking outside the system for our solutions. We have come to understand that “we” are also the system – individuals and groups carrying out our work together toward shared goals, influencing and impacting all other parts of the system. There can be a feeling of empowerment in knowing that we are the ones who inform, create and follow (or not) the policies and practices of “the system.” Many of these practices are helpful to keep things moving. They create a sense of order and common understanding that help define and support our work. It can also be frustrating to realize that our implication in the system also means that many of our practices and our ways of doing things come from a historical context that is no longer applicable or helpful to us. As we learn more about systems change we are building the courage to look at our ways of working compassionately and to be open to the possibilities that follow.

  As we begin to understand the interconnectedness of the system, we are also reminded that the feeling of efficacy around systems change is also very important. There is a balance between knowing that some larger changes take time and will require patience, and that other small actions can happen quickly. Focusing our attention on the ways these small changes can impact the larger system over time and contribute to well-being is at the heart of Cherkowski and Walker’s work on flourishing in schools. We are developing a sense of agency, a power to be able co-create an emerging future where decisions and practices around well-being become a primary component of our culture: the way we do things.

  Multiple voices and ways of knowing

  One of our most important learnings so far, and what may turn out to be the “secret sauce” for the work of growing well-being for all in schools, is the importance of bringing in multiple voices and ways of knowing. We also need time, space and resources for this work to become sustainable. A few passionate people cannot do this alone or in their “spare time” without it impacting their own health and well-being. In the next part of our journey we will expand our team and look at ways to make this work sustainable and impactful for the long term.

  ---

  Illustration: iStock

  First published in Education Canada, June 2020

  NOTES

  1 S. Cherkowski and K. Walker, K. Teacher Wellbeing: Noticing, nurturing, and sustaining flourishing in schools (Burlington, ON: Word and Deed Press, 2018).

• Trauma and the Post-COVID Teacher

  May 14, 2020 11:03 AM Comments Off on Trauma and the Post-COVID Teacher

  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.

  Teaching students with trauma

  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.

  Knowledge of trauma

  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. 

  Relationships are key

  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

  Safety

  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.

  Teach to strengths and lacking skills

  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.

  Self-care and community support

  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. 

   Notes

  1. M. Blaustein and K. Kinniburgh, Treating Traumatic Stress in Children and Adolescents:  How to foster resilience through attachment, self-regulation, and competency (New York, NY: The Guildford Press, 2010).
  2. B. Perry and M. Szalavitz, The Boy who Was Raised by a Dog: And other stories from a psychiatrist’s notebook – what traumatized children can teach us about loss, love and healing, second edition (New York, NY: Basic Books, 2017). 
  3. Howard Bath, “The Three Pillars of Traumawise Care: Healing in the other 23 hours,” Reclaiming Children and Youth Journal, No. 4 (2015): 5-11.
  4. Perry, The Boy who Was Raised by a Dog, 307.
  5. Perry, The Boy who Was Raised by a Dog, 308.
  6. D. Zacharian, L. Alvarez-Ortiz, and J. Haynes, Teaching to Strengths: Supporting students living with trauma, violence and chronic stress (Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2017).
  7. Ross Greene, Lost at School: Why our kids with behavioural challenges are falling through the cracks and how we can help them (New York, NY: Scribner, 2014).

  PHOTO: ISTOCK

• Workplace Well-Being in K-12 Schools: What does it mean to “flourish” at work?

  March 5, 2020 2:35 PM Comments Off on Workplace Well-Being in K-12 Schools: What does it mean to “flourish” at work?

  Facing growing levels of stress and burnout, K-12 staff require a supportive workplace that encourages them to find ways to “flourish” within their school community. While flourishing may look different to staff members depending on what makes them personally feel most valued and connected to their work, a flourishing school environment generally has three main components:

  1. Subjective Well-Being: positive emotions, positive relationships, and a sense of making a difference are all aspects that contribute to a staff member’s sense of flourishing.

  2. Adaptive Community: an environment where staff are encouraged to communicate openly with colleagues, be creative, and resolve team conflicts when they arise.

  3. Leaderful Mindsets: staff are able to identify ways that their work contributes to the larger, shared goals of the school community, which provides a greater sense of ownership, engagement, and shared leadership.

  

  ---

  Along with these components, staff in flourishing school communities generally demonstrate key “professional characteristics,” including: 
  

  1. Compassion:  noticing and wanting to help ease the stress of others, and are aware of how their thoughts and actions impact their colleagues.

  2. Trust: having the support and autonomy to take creative risks and innovate, which is reflective of having positive relationships with colleagues.
  
  3. Hope: striving to improve the school environment as a whole-school community by recognizing both strengths and challenges, while building a shared vision for improvement.

  While schools come in all shapes and sizes,  a flourishing school community is supportive and provides staff members with a sense of purpose and belonging where they feel seen, valued, and ultimately find meaning in their work.

  ---

  

  This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

   

  Additional Resource Information

  Katz, J. (2019). Ensouling our schools. Winnipeg, MB: Portage and Main Press.

  SEL BC: http://www.selbc.ca/

  Growing Great Schools Worldwide: https://growinggreatschoolsworldwide.com/canada-effective-approaches-to-promote-teacher-wellbeing/

  SMART (Stress Management and Resiliency Techniques) https://education.ok.ubc.ca/research-partnerships/smarteducation/

  References

  Cherkowski, Sabre, and Keith Walker. (2018). Teacher wellbeing: Noticing, nurturing and sustaining flourishing in schools. Burlington, ON: Word and Deed Press.

  Cherkowski, Sabre, Kelly Hanson, and Keith Walker (2018). Mindful alignment: Foundations of educator flourishing. Lanham, MD: Lexington.

   Cherkowski, Sabre and Walker, Keith (Eds.). Perspectives on Flourishing. Lanham, MD: Lexington.

  Cherkowski. S. and Walker, K. (2019). Mentorship for flourishing in schools: An explicit shifttoward appreciative action International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, 8 (4), 345-360.

  Cherkowski, Sabre, and Keith Walker. (2018). Teacher wellbeing: Noticing, nurturing and sustaining

  flourishing in schools. Burlington, ON: Word and Deed Press.

  Cherkowski, Sabre, and Keith Walker(2014) Flourishing communities: Re-storying educational leadership using a positive research lens International Journal of Leadership in Education 17.2 (2014): 200-216.

  Cherkowski, Sabre, and Keith Walker (2016) Purpose, passion and play: Exploring the construct of flourishing from the perspective of school principals." Journal of Educational Administration 54.4 (2016): 378-392.

  Cherkowski, Sabre, Kelly Hanson, and Keith Walker (2018)Flourishing in adaptive community: balancing

  structures and flexibilities." Journal of Professional Capital and Community 3.2 (2018): 123-136.

   

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