Leadership Research: Vol 10, No 1. (2019)
Permanent URI for this collection
Browse
Recent Submissions
Item Reflecting on Reggio inspired practices in Kindergarten: a narrative self-study(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2019) Blow, AimeeIn this qualitative narrative self-study, I used critical reflection as a means to deepen my understanding of Reggio inspired practices in British Columbia. My daily actions and thoughts were collected for a period of 15 weeks over a five-month period in the 2018 school year. Collecting data through writing narratives provided a means for me to reflect on my practice during the process of writing them and reflect on afterwards during the analysis. From this data, the themes that emerged in this data showed that in my own Reggio inspired practices I began to share my pedagogical choices in my practice with others in my context. Also, I was able to make changes to the way I structured time in order to bring to living qualities in the classroom environment with my learner’s inquires. With those changes brought new changes and the need for further critical reflection on my role as the teacher. In beginning to discover my role as teacher as researcher, I found joy in being present with my learners. I was also faced with challenges, specifically around the use of pedagogical documentation in my practice. Collaboration with others in my practice often resulted in possibilities for my practice and my learners that I could not have anticipated before the collaboration had taken place. Lastly, using critical friends in this study helped me to identify assumptions in my practices and proved to be a way for me to clearly identify my next steps in finding what it means for me to become Reggio inspired in my own context of British Columbia.Item Transformational leadership in teacher unions for member engagement(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2019) Querengesser, Stephen J.This project includes a literature review of leadership styles, union member engagement, and leadership training. The review is the foundation for a workshop designed to educate union activists in their role as leaders and how it relates to union member engagement for the local associations throughout British Columbia. The workshop is comprised of a variety of informational, hands-on, and practical methods, which offers learning opportunities for the development of a growth mindset (Dweck, 2006). Key principles for member engagement aligned closely with the elements of a transformational leader (Bass and Avolio, 1994). The implications of this project advocate investing in transformational leadership training for increased member engagement within the union setting. Lacerenza and colleagues (2017) outline steps to build effective leadership training programs.Item The importance of being an ally in Indigenous education(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2019) Dennis, Trine E.This project is a framework for three days of professional learning, enabling Yukon educators to establish lasting relationships with Yukon First Nations communities whose learners’ achievement and graduation rates are significantly lower than non-First Nations learners (Auditor General of Canada, 2019). Indigenous students are disconnected in classrooms, yet colonial perspective teaching continues. Through this project, non-Indigenous allies are developed for Yukon First Nations communities, essential to disengage systemic racism and colonization in schools. Bishop (as cited in Wallace, 2011) explained: Allies are distinguished by several characteristics: their sense of connection with other people, all other people; their grasp of the concept of collectivity and collective responsibility; their sense of process and change; their understanding of their own process of learning; their realistic sense of their own power - somewhere between all powerful and powerless; their grasp of "power-with" as an alternative to "power-over;" their honesty, openness and lack of shame about their own limitations; their knowledge and sense of history; their acceptance of struggle; their understanding that good intentions do not matter if there is no action against oppression; their knowledge of their own roots (p. 164). Educators are positioned to be curious and learn to fulfill their responsibility to embed Yukon First Nations ways of knowing and doing in curriculum, resulting in increases of achievement and graduation rates for Indigenous learners.Item Learning with heart: one teacher’s experiences unsettling her inner settler(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2019) Langlois, Stephanie C.The purpose of this study was to use my experiences to explore the shifts in values and practice that resulted from three years of exploration of my place in the context of First Peoples’ history in Canada. I wondered, what was it about my own experience that ignited new awareness of and appreciation for Indigenous ways of knowing in me? Was it possible to spark this passion in others and, if so, how? An autoethnographic lens was used to share, analyse, and reflect on key moments in the development of my own sociocultural awareness over a three year period. Through composite narrative vignettes and corresponding analyses, I was able to identify key themes in my own journey and implications for myself and other Settler educators on a path toward Unsettling.Item Proposal for a professional learning community of mathematics teachers at a South Australian metropolitan senior secondary college(Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2019) Kuchel, Naomi K.The Australian Academy of Science has identified three main issues in mathematics education in Australia: reduced participation in the highest levels of school mathematics, a decline in student achievement in international testing and high levels of underqualified mathematics teachers (Australian Academy of Science, 2016). The Australian Academy of Science has made a number of recommendations, some of which can be enacted at the school level. This major project focused on the recommendation to “Increase and sustain Australia’s commitment to ongoing, systematic, high quality, mathematics specific professional learning for teachers of mathematics at all levels of schooling” (Australian Academy of Science, 2016a, p. 5). The nature of what constitutes effective professional learning was considered and a proposal for student-focused, mathematics- specific, regular, ongoing and reflective professional learning, based on collaborative inquiry, was developed for our school. The aim of the proposed professional learning is to build teacher collective efficacy and improve student achievement, participation, and enjoyment in mathematics across all levels at our school. It is my intention that if implemented that this type of professional learning could be extended to other faculties at our school and other schools in South Australia.