Canadian School District Research Articles

Does Menstrual Health and Endometriosis Education Affect Knowledge Among Middle and Secondary School Students? A Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial

ObjectivesTo evaluate whether endometriosis and menstrual health education improves knowledge and attitudes among adolescents and is acceptable. MethodsWe conducted a cluster-randomised controlled trial in a Canadian school district. Eligible classes were grades 8–12, co-educational, and English. Classes were randomly assigned either to a 60-minute virtual menstrual health and endometriosis education program before (intervention) or after (waitlist control) primary data collection. The primary outcome was change in endometriosis knowledge from baseline to follow-up (∼4 weeks later, 6-item questionnaire). Secondary outcomes were changes in confidence in endometriosis knowledge, prioritisation of menstrual health knowledge, and comfort in discussing menstrual health, as well as intervention acceptability. The sexual health educator and statistician were masked. ResultsIn April and May 2021, 2 intervention classes and 2 control classes completed the study. In total, 71 students enrolled, and 48 were present on both baseline and follow-up days. Mean age was 15.7 ± 1.6 years, 55% identified as non-White ethnicities, and 53% were female. The knowledge score increased by 1.86 points in the intervention classes compared with 0.30 points in the control classes, with an estimated mean difference of 1.56 (95% CI 1.12–2.00). The intervention classes showed increased confidence in endometriosis knowledge, prioritisation of menstrual health knowledge, and comfort in discussing menstrual health, compared to the control classes. The mean acceptability index was 80 (SD = 10) in the intervention classes and 70 (SD = 20) in the control classes. ConclusionsA brief menstrual health and endometriosis education program improved knowledge and attitudes among adolescents, who considered the program acceptable.

School Districts’ Assessment of the French Language Proficiency of Prospective FSL Teachers

It is a widespread practice among Canadian school districts to assess the French language proficiency of candidates applying for French as a Second Language (FSL) teaching positions. This pan-Canadian study used surveys, interviews, and website data to examine the French language proficiency assessment practices and processes used by Canadian schools when hiring FSL teachers. The findings show that almost 90% of Canadian school districts assess French language proficiency when hiring FSL teachers and that the most common form of assessment is to ask one to three questions in French (with candidates responding in French) during the employment interview. Evaluation of the candidates’ responses is rarely informed by a language proficiency framework or rubric; instead, evaluators’ decisions are informed by their overall impressions of the candidate’s language proficiency. Other promising assessment practices are described, along with suggestions about how districts may improve their French language proficiency assessments when hiring FSL teachers.

Prioritizing well-being in K-12 education: lessons from a multiple case study of Canadian school districts.

Increasingly, school districts are looking for insights on how to embed a well-being focus across school communities. Well-being in K-12 education is proven to support positive mental health, improve academic performance and contribute to positive outcomes for students and staff. How districts transition to deeply integrate well-being into existing priorities and practices is not well understood. Insights on such shifts can help inform widespread change in education. In 2020, six Canadian school districts participated in case study research to examine how and why districts were able to shift their culture to one that prioritizes well-being. Fifty-five school community members participated in individual semi-structured interviews to explore their perception of well-being in their school communities. Analysis identified six themes: well-being is wholistic and requires balance, student and staff well-being are interconnected, organizational leadership sustains implementation, connection and voice as a catalyst to well-being, building capacity to support well-being action, and charting and re-charting a course. Findings increase our understanding of system-level change, and provide insights to support well-being in education.

Achieving Equity in Graduation Rates and Other Indicators of Success for Indigenous Learners in Canada

This research project was designed to attend to inequity for Indigenous students, communities, and knowledges in a northern British Columbian district. The aims of the article are to share the systemic and individual transformation for Indigenous learners and their families based on the strengths and barriers they perceive in the system. Presented here are the results of extensive engagement with students, parents or guardians, teachers, administrators, and Indigenous communities that have led to novel practical approaches to governance, policy, programmatic design, and practice in a mainstream school district, resulting in improved school experiences for Indigenous learners. Through this research we illuminate the voices of Indigenous students and show how they guided the pursuit of equity in a Canadian school district. We examined the unconscious colonial agenda to understand how it emerges visibly and invisibly in a given context (Louie, 2020), while simultaneously creating distinct responses emerging from the teachings of Indigenous stakeholders and rights holders. Internal and external pressures on school districts often result in urgent demands for transformation, or at minimum, the urgent shift in perception of transformation (Daigle, 2019), but real and sustaining change cannot be rushed, borrowed, or created in isolation from the rest of the system.

Long-term impact of a mental health literacy resource applied by regular classroom teachers in a Canadian school cohort.

To report results that extend these positive findings for a period of one year. In a naturalistic cohort study, 332 grade 9 students (ages 14-15) in a Canadian school district learned from an evidence-based curriculum resource (the Guide) applied by classroom teachers who trained in its use. Evaluations of knowledge and stigma were conducted before the Guide, immediately following the Guide delivery and at one-year follow-up. Students showed significant (p < .001) and substantial (d = 0.68 and 0.67) short-term and significant (p < .001) and substantial (d = 0.44 and 0.58) long-term improvements in knowledge and reductions in stigma. Significant stigma reduction was found among female students than male students, but no gender differences on knowledge were found at long-term follow-up. Educators showed significant and substantial short-term improvements in knowledge (p < .001; d = 1.03) and reductions in stigma (p < .05; d = 0.35). The Guide resource delivered by trained classroom teachers may have value in enhancing MHL outcomes for young people.

Transitioning towards inclusion: a triangulated view of the role of educational assistants

AbstractThe current work employs the use of multiple lenses to illuminate the integral role of the Educational Assistant (EA) in a Canadian school district’s transition from a segregated to inclusive service delivery model for students with special needs. Often compatible, but also distinctive viewpoints and understandings shape the role of EA in this journey towards inclusive practice in the context of a district that deployed Inclusion Coaches to support educators over the course of five years. Through deductive analysis, qualitative data (interviews, focus groups, blog‐style reflections) were analysed from EAs (n = 6), elementary and secondary school teachers (n = 31), and Inclusion Coaches (n = 13). Findings indicated that the voices of EAs, teachers, and Inclusion Coaches all align on three main themes: necessity of collaboration among educators, coordinated and dedicated time for programming and redefining relationships within the inclusive model. During the transition from segregated classrooms to full inclusion, it is imperative that the role of the Educational Assistant (EA) is understood by administrators, teachers and the EAs themselves. With a more clearly delineated and mutually understood role, EAs and educators can develop collaborative relationships, working towards incorporating differentiation and supporting all students in a diverse learning and social community.

Supporting Students with Visual Impairments Who Are Culturally and Linguistically Diverse: The Role of the Cultural Liaison Within Educational Teams

Introduction:This study explored the role of the cultural liaison on educational teams that support families from culturally and linguistically diverse (hereafter, diverse) backgrounds who have a child with visual impairment.Methods:Focus groups were conducted with teachers of students with visual impairments, cultural liaisons, and classroom teachers, all who had worked with diverse families and students with visual impairments in an urban Canadian school district. Transcripts of the focus groups were coded for common and divergent themes within and across groups.Results:The groups identified a need for better understanding the role of the cultural liaison, clearer communication in the translation process including messages that may be lost in translation, and more opportunities for teachers of students with visual impairments and classroom teachers to connect with cultural liaisons to develop cultural competency.Discussion:The findings highlight the importance of having access to cultural liaisons and the need to make sure all members are clear about their roles. Cultural liaisons may need additional support about resources from teachers of students with visual impairments, while those same teachers would benefit from understanding the parent perspective on visual impairment.Implications for practitioners:Classroom teachers and teachers of students with visual impairments may want to seek out professional development from cultural liaisons. Teachers of students with visual impairments can provide cultural liaisons with a list of common visual impairment terms to allow time for appropriate translation and questions before a meeting. Cultural liaisons may want to ensure that differing cultural viewpoints of the family are communicated clearly to team members and vice versa.

Supporting Data-Driven Decision Making in a Canadian School District

Supporting Data-Driven Decision Making in a Canadian School District

Educational leaders’ perceptions of multicultural education in teachers’ professional development: a case study from a Canadian school district

ABSTRACTThis Paper presents and discusses the findings of an empirical qualitative study that was conducted in one school district in British Columbia, Canada. The paper explores the perspectives of the educational leaders and their understanding of multicultural education and how they implement it in the school district's teachers' professional development (ProD) and in-service education. It discusses the theoretical frameworks that shape the participants’ choices and actions concerning how they educate and support teachers to handle the complexities of diversity and the changing demographics in the school district. The findings highlight the dominant liberal framework of multicultural education, the systemic barriers to move beyond the tokenistic approach of cultures and the organizational constraints to move towards transformative, critical multiculturalism and anti-racism education in teachers’ training and professional development. The paper proposes critical transformative multiculturalism as an alternative to transform teacher education and engage with educational reform from a social justice framework.

Creativity and pedagogical innovation: Exploring teachers’ experiences of risk-taking

ABSTRACTObjective: The purpose of this paper is to share the results of research into the experience of teacher risk-taking in the classroom. The development of children as risk-takers is featured prominently in curriculum documents and reports calling for the competencies of 21st century learning. Teachers are expected to become 21st century learners who model risk-taking. The repeated calls for the development of risk-taking students through the modelling of risk-taking teachers makes the experience of risk an important pedagogical question. However, 21st century learning documents do not take up substantively the meaning of teacher risk-taking.Research Design: Phenomenological research is concerned with the unique and the individual and in that regards each teacher-participant represents particular perceptions of risk-taking experiences and responses to risk in the classroom. The six (6) teacher-participants responded to a call distributed widely to teaching staff in a Canadian school district. The inquiry relied on phenomenological interviews and experiential life world material. In this paper three phenomenological themes are described: risk and readiness; risk and the in-between spaces of pedagogy, and risk as exploration and finding a way. This research allows us to understand teachers’ lived experience rather than assume the meaning of the terms risk and risk-taking.

A Population-Based Study of Children’s Well-Being and Health: The Relative Importance of Social Relationships, Health-Related Activities, and Income

This study investigated how various risk and protective factors interface with child health and well-being at the population level. Specifically, we examined the association of income, social-contextual variables, and indicators of health-related habits and activities to children’s life satisfaction and perceived overall health. Child data were collected via a self-report survey, the Middle Years Development Instrument, which was administered in three demographically diverse Canadian school districts to 5026 grade 4 students (83 % of the students had complete data and were included in the analyses). Multiple regression and mediation analyses were conducted to examine the joint associations of social relationships with adults and peers, nutrition and sleep habits, and after school sports activities with children’s satisfaction with life and perceived health. Results indicate that peer belonging and relationships with adults at home and school were the strongest predictors of life satisfaction. Furthermore, the (small) association between income and life satisfaction was mediated by social relationship variables. Child reports of perceived health were predicted by peer belonging, adult relationships (home, school, neighborhood), after-school team sports, and nutrition habits. The (small) association between income and health was mediated by social relationships and team sports participation. Findings are discussed in light of previous research on social determinants and socio-economic gradients of children’s health and life satisfaction.

Research Use by Leaders in Canadian School Districts

This paper, part of a larger study, investigates the ways research is used by leaders in Canadian schools and districts, an area in which there is relatively little empirical evidence. The paper analyzes survey results from 188 education leaders in 11 school districts across Canada about school and district practices related to the use of research. Results indicate a growing awareness in districts of the importance of research use, reported district capacity, and many kinds of support available for research-related activities; however, actual research use remains modest. Districts appear to have relatively weak processes and systems for finding, sharing and using relevant research.

Rethinking Knowledge Management: Strategies for Enhancing District-Level Teacher and Leader Tacit Knowledge Sharing

Grounded within knowledge management (KM) theory and conceptions of tacit and explicit knowledge, this article draws on historical evidence from the Early Years Literacy Project (EYLP), a four-year instructional renewal strategy implemented across 100 schools in a large Canadian school district. The EYLP management approach included a series of interconnected crosscutting committees supporting powerful knowledge-sharing opportunities. The factors influencing tacit knowledge sharing and the unanticipated consequences for program implementation are explored. Finally, the implications of the findings for research and practice related to tacit and explicit knowledge and KM are discussed, along with recommendations for future research and practice.

A case study of district leadership using knowledge management for educational change

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the work of district leadership of a large Canadian school district in becoming a learning organization over four years using knowledge management practices.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative study conducted from 2000‐2004 using a naturalistic research paradigm with the underlying principles of grounded theory. Data were collected from a sample of six supervisory officers through individual and focus group interviews.FindingsUsing knowledge management practices, the senior leaders of a large school district organically developed a unified new amalgamated super‐district. They redefined their roles from managers to knowledge leaders in order to reshape the district into a learning organization that could positively respond to the continual changes being rained down on them.Practical implicationsThis paper offers insights that are both theoretical and practical on how senior leaders transform their role from operational managers to knowledge leaders for school improvement. The conceptual framework proves valuable in understanding how change can work in practice.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the study is limited by the specific context from which data were drawn, it offers useful lessons and direction for large districts undergoing major reforms.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the role of senior leadership as knowledge leaders managing a district towards becoming a learning organization via organic processes that promote knowledge flow.

Teachers’ perspectives on the effectiveness of a locally planned professional development program for implementing new curriculum

Preparing teachers to implement a new curriculum presents a significant but important challenge. While formal professional development programs can assist in this preparation, finding prescribed experiences that meet the needs of all teachers can be formidable and indeed may not always be the best option for promoting change in practice. Decisions about what experiences to provide and how and when to provide them need to be made in an informed manner. Studies such as the one being reported on in this article provide insights into teachers’ perspectives on what works and what doesn’t work. This research project examined how elementary teachers in one Canadian school district were handling implementation of a new social studies curriculum over the 2009–10 school year, three to five years after they experienced a formal district-level program of professional development. An interpretive case study method was used to uncover the successes and challenges of implementing the new curriculum and to provide insights into what the teachers felt constituted effective professional development for improving practice and student learning. Findings from the study suggest that effective professional development needs to be based on teachers’ needs; involve active learning, collaboration and modeling; be supported by a culture of learning in schools; and considerate of teacher resistance to change. Going forward, the study also highlights the need for a more intentional focus on the use of technology, and specifically digital networks, to enhance and extend the effectiveness of future curricular change initiatives.

Teaching Mathematical Biology in High School Using Adapted Primary Literature

The study compared the effect of two adaptations of a scientific article on students’ comprehension and use of scientific inquiry skills. One adaptation preserved as much as possible the canonical form of the original article (APL, Adapted Primary Literature) and the other was written in a more narrative mode typical of secondary literature (SL). Both adaptations contained the same content. Two hundred and eleven senior high school students in a Western Canadian school district participated. The numbers of males and females were approximately equal, and all students were registered in an introductory calculus course. All students were given a 90 min class by their teachers that introduced them to the basic mathematical concepts needed to read the articles. Students were randomly assigned to read either the APL or the SL and afterwards to complete a questionnaire, which was common to both groups. Major findings showed that the SL students better understood the article, that the APL students thought more critically about the article, that females understood the article better than males, and that students’ attitudes towards reading the articles, regardless of group, were positively associated with their comprehension and use of inquiry skills. The results coincide in important ways with those of similar studies in Israel, and show that asking students to read text that resembles scientific writing increases their use of critical thinking skills when reading.

“Let's Hear it for the Men”: A Men's Studies Curriculum in the School System

This qualitative research explored the impetus, implementation, and barriers to the creation of a men's studies program in a rural Canadian school district. Student engagement in several countries and continents has drawn significant academic attention over the last decade and statistical evidence of lack of engagement, poor attendance, inappropriate behaviour, school suspension, special education enrolment, and low graduation rates demonstrates an oversubscription by male students. Using a synthesis of international research literature and supporting materials from a variety of sources, and to answer the research question, “Grounded in the professional literature, what characteristics might be the scope and sequence of a curriculum of Men's Studies 12, designed for identified at-risk youth?”, we outlined an actual men's studies program based on curriculum design guidelines and grounded in the professional literature.

Evaluation of Social and Academic Effects of School-wide Positive Behaviour Support in a Canadian School District

This article discusses School-wide Positive Behaviour Support (SWPBS), an evi-dence-based approach to teaching social competencies and enhancing the school social environment. The focus of this article is on the value of evaluation and evaluation plans at a district level for maintaining and increasing the effective-ness of SWPBS in a district. We review the key components of evaluation plans and describe a framework for creating evaluation plans created for British Co-lumbia. We also provide an example of the evaluation efforts using this framework in a medium sized school district in British Columbia. Results showed decreased levels of problem behaviour, decreased numbers of students at risk for significant behaviour challenges, and increased academic achievement and stu-dent perceptions of school safety for schools implementing SWPBS, in comparison to low implementing schools and district and provincial averages.

Tumultuous times of education reform: a critical reflection on caring in policy and practice

This article examines ‘caring’ in the context of radical education reform in one Canadian province and school district. Historical provincial policy documents set the context for the district analysis. Drawing on our experiences both as participants and researchers, we use theories of care, critical policy, and the tools of critical discourse analysis to interrogate how care is manifested in district policy and practice as well as the extent to which competing discourses, contradictions and multiple perspectives exist. We confront passive compliance to dominant global discourses and identify critical spaces for negotiation, intervention and creativity in order to maintain humanistic and caring values and relationships in everyday work in education.

Rites of Passage: Coercion, Compliance, and Complicity in the Socialization of New Vice-Principals

Background/Context Over four decades ago, Arnold van Gennep used the term rites of passage to describe the ceremonial and ritualistic behaviors that marked the passage between social roles. Although the transition from teaching to administration is not as clearly delineated as passages in traditional societies, it is also characterized by socialization rites, rituals, and ceremonies that communicate information about approved administrative behaviors and reinforce organizational roles and structures. Focus of Study This research examined the socialization structures and processes that impacted the transition from teaching to administration. Eight newly appointed vice-principals from an urban Canadian school district were interviewed throughout the school year to determine the people, structures, and events that facilitated or hindered their transition and the challenges they encountered in leading and managing diverse urban schools. Research Design Qualitative methodology was used to explore new vice-principals’ experiences. Purposive sampling was used to represent the diversity of voices based on gender, ethnocultural background, type of school, and number of years of experience as a vice-principal. The vice-principals participated in two semistructured interviews during the school year. Individual responses were coded according to the research questions and further analyzed to determine recurring themes and patterns. Findings/Results The findings revealed that the novice vice-principals experienced separation, initiation, and incorporation rites that tested them physically, mentally, and emotionally. The pervasive pressure of these socialization tactics forced them to comply with normative expectations of the vice-principalship as a custodial disciplinary role and violated their professional rights. Conclusion/Recommendations Coercive socialization practices impact new administrators and their communities negatively and are antithetical to institutional goals of creating equitable schools. School districts, along with regulatory, training, and professional bodies, need to address core issues related to the vice-principalship and the ways in which new school leaders are socialized into administrative roles. Coordinated partnerships and interventions are also needed so that new administrators can develop leadership skills in emotionally and physically safe environments.