Leadership Research: Vol 15, No 1. (2024)

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https://hdl.handle.net/10613/28207

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    An appreciative inquiry towards school-based mindfulness in the Comox Valley School District
    (Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2024) Heartland, Nova
    Wellness tools that have proven to promote school-based mental health (SBMH) exist in schools, yet students continue to report a decline in mental health. Evidence illustrating how educators’ professional experiences influence students’ access to mental health resources is needed to help understand how to advance the promotion of student educational experiences. This study utilized the Inner Explorer mindfulness program as a wellness tool example that promotes SBMH. Comox Valley School District was chosen as this research’s case study considering their implementation of the Inner Explorer program as a district-wide student resource. This study applied qualitative case study as its methodology and data was collected through written and spoken interviews with six focal primary and secondary school educators from the district. The theoretical framework, Appreciative Inquiry, helped make meaning of the thematic findings that were analyzed. Insights about educators’ experiences of delivering Inner Explorer and their perceptions of the quality of student mental health because of the program were collected. Results discovered that SBMH programs that are financially accessible, user-friendly, contextually compatible for schools, and industry and student-endorsed were strengths that made these programs approachable to educators to adopt into their practices. Advancing and sustaining industry potentials and strengths in SBMH promotional efforts are ideal to support students develop their mental health quality, emotional literacy, and resiliency as self-sustainable and lifelong competencies. Embracing the Whole Child approach, supporting educator wellness, and providing educators with the knowledge to optimize the delivery of Inner Explorer was needed. Considering education’s critical ability to foster positive SBMH, this study’s findings were significant as they informed about the evolution of the Canadian education system and civic development, as well as the overarching progression of student mental health promotion.
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    Dungeons & Dragons & professional development: inquiring as to whether, how, and why D&D provides a space in which pedagogical and epistemological beliefs can be explored by educators
    (Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2024) Graboski, Stephen
    In the following thesis, the principal investigator begins an initial exploration into the possibilities of using Dungeons & Dragons as a tool of professional development for educators based on some key anecdotal experiences hinting at its potential. More specifically, this inquiry aims to examine whether using D&D in this way provides a safe and effective space for teacher‘s beliefs and perspectives to be explored, reflected upon, and perhaps even shifted. After grounding the inquiry in academic literature on the subjects of difficult-to-alter teacher beliefs and their importance, the impact of fun and collaboration on education, and some direct research into role-playing as a form of learning, the principal investigator will lead a group of secondary colleagues through several sessions of Dungeons & Dragons while asking them to reflect upon some key educational implications. What the participants report back in their written reflections and a subsequent focus group discussion represents a vast, complex array of reflective thoughts on subjects like the role of the teacher, the role of the student, the role of the classroom, pedagogy, and epistemology. Though this is intended to be just an initial inquiry as to whether further research on this topic is warranted, the depth and quality of the reflection is encouraging enough to provide ample justification to continue this exploration.
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    Practical approaches: decolonizing academic integrity
    (Electronic version published by Vancouver Island University, 2024) Hagen, Erin
    Looking through a critical transformative lens at the current practices and policies in post-secondary institutions regarding academic integrity and the perceptions of academic integrity in these practices, there emerged an understanding of the ways in which these practices and policies at times contribute to negative academic integrity outcomes in these same institutions. Specifically, this study examines how the current punitive and legalistic perception of academic integrity within colonialist and capitalist structures can lead to inequitable outcomes and harm for both learners and educators and offers a means to begin to address these issues of inequity. The literature review describes the historical context of academic integrity in Canada and takes a critical look at this history, followed by literature on the decolonization of academic integrity and the possible benefits offered by taking decolonized and restorative practice approaches to academic integrity. These approaches were explored as possible avenues or solutions put forward to avoid perpetuating harms that exist in current practices and will be summarized in this project, featuring research-based recommendations for faculty, administrators, and institutional leadership on how to apply decolonization methods and changes to various levels of the academy. This project and its resources fill a current gap in research by emphasizing and making this knowledge accessible, actionable, and adaptable.