School Jurisdictions Research Articles

Cosmopolitanism and Decolonization: Contradictory Perspectives on School Reform to Advance Reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples

Canadian school jurisdictions have taken steps to accommodate objectives to advance cosmopolitan education reflecting principles such as global citizenship, compassion, tolerance, responsibility, and respect within school curricula and educational practice. At the same time, a parallel set of reconciliation-related educational reforms, aligned with the Calls to Action that accompanied the 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report, have also gained urgency. Elements of reconciliation processes complement visions of cosmopolitanism, including objectives to foster dialogue and understanding between groups and advancements towards more holistic orientations to pedagogy and knowledge. However, conceptually and in practice, several tensions emerge, especially in a context in which educational priorities are contested. In this paper, we explore these connections and tensions with reference to findings from our research examining public perspectives on educational reforms to support reconciliation.

Emergence in School Systems: Lessons from Complexity and Pedagogical Leadership

The theoretical framework for this study draws on conceptual advances from two bodies of scholarship: 1) complexity thinking in education, which has recently focused on school system change and, 2) school leadership research, which has recently attended to the effects of leadership interventions to school improvement. Using a complexity-thinking framework, the purpose of this study was to understand how leadership practices contribute to shaping change in school systems and how change occurred across the system. Our study was conducted in an urban centre in Alberta within a public-school jurisdiction and in an area of the city that had a high population of students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds from low-income households compared to other areas across the school jurisdiction. Students in this area typically scored in the lowest quartile on provincial standardized examinations. Our findings are significant because complexity thinking in the context of school leadership has not received sufficient empirical attention. In our study we identified and described pedagogical leadership practices that play a central role in redressing disparities currently found in schools.

Associations Between LGBTQ-Affirming School Climate and Intimate Partner Violence Victimization Among Adolescents.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) impacts sexual minority adolescents at rates equal to or greater than the rate it impacts heterosexual adolescents. We investigated whether reports of physical and sexual IPV were less frequent in school jurisdictions with more affirming climates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) students; and whether these associations varied for sexual orientation subgroups. We combined student-level data from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Surveys on demographics and experiences with physical and sexual IPV with jurisdiction-level data from the 2014 School Health Profiles on LGBTQ-affirming school climate. Multilevel logistic regression models examined associations between LGBTQ-affirming school climates and IPV. We stratified our data by sex and examined whether these associations differed by sexual orientation subgroups using cross-level interaction terms between school climate and sexual orientation (assessed via sexual identity and behavior). Sexual minority youth were more likely to report experiencing past-year physical and sexual IPV than their heterosexual counterparts. Attending schools with more LGBTQ-affirming climates reduced the likelihood of reporting physical IPV, but not sexual IPV, for female students. More LGBTQ-affirming school climates increased risk for sexual IPV among gay male students. Establishing LGBTQ-affirming school climates may reduce physical IPV for female students, but may have unintended consequences on sexual IPV prevalence for gay male students. More work is necessary to ensure that these climates are affirming for all sexual minority students and to address sexual violence prevention.

Public Schooling and Contested Public Discourses Concerning Reconciliation

The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report and accompanying Calls to Action have prompted educational reforms in school jurisdictions across Canada. Drawing on data from a survey of public perspectives in Alberta and Saskatchewan, this article explores how these reforms are understood by community members to highlight the significance of competing discourses conveyed through public perspectives on reconciliation processes. General support for the idea of reconciliation conceals the limited extent to which respondents are willing to engage with important realities of settler colonial societies, embedded within discourses that are more likely to defend than challenge the dominant frameworks within which Indigenous–settler relations have been constituted in the Canadian context.

Implementing an Intervention into a Grade Six Learning Environment: A Design-Based Research Framework

Educators in some Canadian schools are especially challenged in developing innovative pedagogical approaches that can intellectually engage their students in deep learning of core curriculum content, while equipping them with 21st century competencies. In this paper, we discuss some key ideas on how an intervention, the design and building of digital video games, was implemented and explored, to address this challenge, in four grade 6 social studies classes at a Calgary charter school, utilizing a design-based research framework. Findings revealed that: (i) to effectively implement this intervention in the classroom context, teachers needed to shift/modify their design of instructional activities compared to how they would normally design them in their social studies classes to teach the same chosen content; and (ii) the intervention, as implemented, seem to have the potential to be an effective innovative pedagogy for deep learning and one that promotes the intellectual engagement of students and their development and application of 21st century competencies. Some implications of these findings for the implementation of interventions in school, in terms of transforming the classroom environment, assessing the type of theoretical support needed, using design-based research as an effective framework to study how interventions and developing policy for the implementation of interventions are listed for K-12 educators, school jurisdictions and Alberta Education.

Pedagogy, Precarity, and Persuasion: The Case for Re/mix Literacies

In the contemporary cultural conditions of unstable knowledge/truth, precarious economies and 24/7 media saturation, we need to rethink knowing and learning. While there is much general agreement that the means and modes of communication have changed, and, with it, the ways we approach media, education, culture, society, citizenship, commerce, politics, art, science and everyday life, there is a diversity of terms to describe the change, each with an animating spirit and intellectual tradition behind it. There is a disconnect between school pedagogies, situated literacy practices in everyday life, and the types of abilities and knowledges needed for workplace and civic participation. Further, even as school jurisdictions around the world rush to apply solutions to the technological impasse brought upon by the digitalization of communication, too often the answer is seen as adding training in new competencies to the existing curriculum, as though the crisis is one that can be fixed with a few adjustments. If the aspirational horizon of schooling is the preparation of young people for engaged participation in cultural, civic and economic spectrums, a renewed and comprehensive model of literacy is urgently needed.

Mobilizing the CASS Framework for School System Success

Educational research is increasingly focused on the role that leaders play in the improvement of teaching and learning. Although there is little disagreement concerning the belief that school jurisdiction leaders have an impact on the lives of school based leaders, teacher, and students, the nature and degree of impact continues to be debated. There is recognition that the interplay is complex and context sensitive. The intent of this paper is to explore the work the College of Alberta School Superintendents (CASS) is doing to building system leadership capacity within Alberta's political landscape of reform in order to facilitate mobilizing knowledge for the purpose of improving student learning. I begin with identifying the Alberta educational context that has led to the commencement of this work. Next, I explore the four dimensions of the CASS framework. The paper concludes with how CASS and system leaders can mobilize leadership knowledge and best practice to improve student learning.

A Cross Canada Inventory: Evidence of 21st Century Educational Reform in Canada

This paper reports on an initial website review of Ministries of Education, provincial teacher associations and select school jurisdictions across Canada with respect to their publically available and visible policy commitments to 21st century educational reforms. This review was conducted for the purposes of drawing conclusions about the current state of these reform efforts in Canada and, consequently, to provide implications for the future. Through the implementation of thematic analysis findings revealed that the publically available 21st century reform policy of provincial Ministries of Education tended to be best described by one of three frames: the futurist frame, the political frame and the teacher as change agent frame.

Principals’ Technology Leadership

A multifaceted conceptual framework of principals’ technology leadership informed the design of a mixed methods case study exploring leadership practices across three school jurisdictions in Alberta, Canada. Leadership practices of K-12 school principals involved in making school-wide improvements integrating technology were examined The intent of this article is to discuss how the conceptual framework influenced the research process as an interconnection of learning theory based on the learning sciences, transformative knowledge-building pedagogies, and the complexities for school leaders as they cultivate a growth-oriented culture. Findings are related to three key areas: (1) leadership preparation is needed in instructional leadership and technological fluency; (2) online networks can support professional learning; and (3) practitioner–researcher partnerships can support innovation in schools.

Interventions to Support System-level Implementation of Health Promoting Schools: A Scoping Review.

Health promoting schools (HPS) is recognized globally as a multifaceted approach that can support health behaviours. There is increasing clarity around factors that influence HPS at a school level but limited synthesized knowledge on the broader system-level elements that may impact local implementation barriers and support uptake of a HPS approach. This study comprised a scoping review to identify, summarise and disseminate the range of research to support the uptake of a HPS approach across school systems. Two reviewers screened and extracted data according to inclusion/exclusion criteria. Relevant studies were identified using a multi-phased approach including searching electronic bibliographic databases of peer reviewed literature, hand-searching reference lists and article recommendations from experts. In total, 41 articles met the inclusion criteria for the review, representing studies across nine international school systems. Overall, studies described policies that provided high-level direction and resources within school jurisdictions to support implementation of a HPS approach. Various multifaceted organizational and professional interventions were identified, including strategies to enable and restructure school environments through education, training, modelling and incentives. A systematic realist review of the literature may be warranted to identify the types of intervention that work best for whom, in what circumstance to create healthier schools and students.

Moving Forward with School Nutrition Policies: A Case Study of Policy Adherence in Nova Scotia.

Many Canadian school jurisdictions have developed nutrition policies to promote health and improve the nutritional status of children, but research is needed to clarify adherence, guide practice-related decisions, and move policy action forward. The purpose of this research was to evaluate policy adherence with a review of online lunch menus of elementary schools in Nova Scotia (NS) while also providing transferable evidence for other jurisdictions. School menus in NS were scanned and a list of commonly offered items were categorized, according to minimum, moderate, or maximum nutrition categories in the NS policy. The results of the menu review showed variability in policy adherence that depended on food preparation practices by schools. Although further research is needed to clarify preparation practices, the previously reported challenges of healthy food preparations (e.g., cost, social norms) suggest that many schools in NS are likely not able to use these healthy preparations, signifying potential noncompliance to the policy. Leadership and partnerships are needed among researchers, policy makers, and nutrition practitioners to address the complexity of issues related to food marketing and social norms that influence school food environments to inspire a culture where healthy and nutritious food is available and accessible to children.

The DELF in Canada: Perceptions of Students, Teachers, and Parents

Abstract: The Diplôme d’études de langue française (DELF) has recently gained attention in Canada for its potential as a national French second language (FSL) proficiency test. This article explores the perceptions of students, teachers, and parents in various school jurisdictions across Canada on a range of issues related to the DELF test and diploma. Participants completed online questionnaires. Findings showed that a high percentage of all respondent groups deemed the DELF to be a fair and appropriate measure of FSL proficiency and would recommend the test to others. This result suggests that the DELF shows promise as an appropriate measure of FSL proficiency; however, some factors will need attention before the DELF can fully realize that potential. The article concludes with implications of the findings for FSL proficiency testing in Canada and suggestions for further research.

Disrupting Colonial Mindsets: The Power of Learning Networks

If changes that make a difference to Aboriginal learners are to be effected in public schools, then transformational change is required (Menzies, Archibald, & Smith, 2004). How is transformational change best achieved? In this article, I argue, based on a recently completed study (McGregor, 2013) that teacher learning—particularly among non-Aboriginal teachers—is critical to effecting transformation in how teachers think about Aboriginal learners as well as how they plan and deliver fully inclusive learning opportunities. After outlining a theoretical framework for transformation focused on networked, inquiry-based learning and culturally inclusive practices, I explore how one particular teacher-learning network—the Aboriginal Enhancement Schools Network (AESN) in British Columbia, Canada, offers a powerful example of how teacher learning networks can enable deep and transformational change among participating teachers and leaders. I provide exemplary stories of transformation to illustrate the power of this model to effect changes in teacher beliefs and mindsets about Aboriginal learners and culturally inclusive practices. Following this, I identify several key enabling features of the AESN, including socially just, distributed forms of leadership, relational accountability (Wilson, 2008), and affiliative, catalytic models of implementation, a focus on “new, strong and wise ways” (Halbert & Kaser, 2012, p.11) of learning, and provincial and district resources that support network learning activity. The conclusion highlights implications of this study for school jurisdictions and policy makers. Keywords: networked teacher learning; transformational change; socially just leadership

Can School Choice Improve More Than Just Academic Achievement? An Analysis of Post‐Katrina New Orleans

Recent evaluations of school choice school reforms have focused on improving academic achievement but have ignored associations with adolescent health and the risk of interpersonal violence. The innovative school choice model implemented in post-Katrina New Orleans provides a unique opportunity to examine these effects. Using a sample of approximately 1700 students from the 2009 School Health Connection Survey, the relationships between the type of school attended and depression, suicide planning, absences attributable to fears for personal safety, and threats of violence at school are examined. Multivariate regression analysis adjusting for self-selection into the type of school attended-a city-run high-performing school, a state-run failing school, or an independent charter school-estimates the effects of school type on student health. Relative to students at state-run schools, students who choose to attend city-run schools are less likely to plan for suicide or to miss school because they are afraid of becoming victims of violence. These beneficial effects tend to be larger for students traveling from higher violence neighborhoods. The effects for charter schools are similar but less robust. Local school jurisdictions that implement reforms allowing adolescents and their families greater freedom in school choice may also improve adolescent health.

Healthy Eating Guidelines for a School Jurisdiction: Collaborative Design and Implementation

Healthy eating is a determinant of optimal growth, and schools provide an ideal setting in which to influence students' diets. The Healthy Eating Guidelines Initiative (HEGI) was a partnership among education, health, and community stakeholders to develop and implement healthy eating guidelines across a school jurisdiction. An evaluation was conducted to examine the potential impact of the HEGI on the school food environment and students' self-reported diets. All schools in the jurisdiction were invited to participate in the evaluation. Participating schools included elementary, middle, high, and mixed grades schools. A school environment assessment and a student questionnaire were used to collect data before and after the HEGI. Twenty-two (71%) of 31 schools participated in the evaluation. The guidelines were successfully implemented in 17 of these 22 schools. Overall, a greater proportion of students reported healthier eating behaviours at the conclusion of the HEGI. In particular, a greater proportion of students in schools with cafeteria-style food service showed significantly improved self-reported dietary behaviours. These changes were not seen among students at schools with limited or no on-site food service. The findings are consistent with those of previous studies, and indicate that guidelines for a school jurisdiction can have a positive impact on the school food environment and students' food intake. The HEGI shows promise as a strategy to promote healthy eating among students.

Understanding school districts as learning systems: Some lessons from three cases of complex transformation

We report on a study of three school jurisdictions in the province of Alberta. The original premise for the research on which this report is based was to investigate the diverse ways that school districts had administered resources that were provided through a major initiative to improve learning in the province. This account is not centrally concerned with how funds were utilized; rather, we report on how districts’ strategies and emphases within the initiative offer windows into the their systemic characters. The range of manifest characters, we argue, is a useful construct to inform policy, ensure the presence of necessary supports and structures, implement appropriate accountability measures, and set reasonable goals for large-scale initiatives in education.

FOCJ as Model for Financing the Estonian General Education

The share of GDP used for financing education in Estonia is somewhat lower in comparison to the EU average, the nominal amount of per capita education funds is much more lower due to a low level of economic development. Moreover, because of thin population per square km many small schools exist in Estonia without a sufficient number of pupils, which makes the education system more costly. We consider two different basic strategies to improve the situation.The current strategy of financing Estonian general education refers mainly to the prevailing educational and spatial organization. This strategy is not based on a fair equal treatment of cases. Therefore a new strategy of improvement of education financing system is discussed. It is based on the idea of Functional Overlapping Competitive Jurisdictions (FOCJ). The municipalities voluntarily form FOCJ that are operating schools. In this way municipalities may form a school jurisdiction that can negotiate with central government institutions for the loan and the school equipment etc. A municipality can act individually or the FOCJ negotiates for the municipal members in total. Theories of FOCJ-establishment, FOCJ-contribution determination and FOCJ-negotiations with central government are demonstrated. The FOCJ can supplement positively the first strategy of reform.

The devil is in the details

Objective: Guidelines from a variety of jurisdictions for the health-promoting schools (HPS) approach include healthy school policy as a critical element. Research also supports the importance of policy; however, there seems to be a lack of information on how to develop and implement policy. The article examines the processes involved in one school division’s development and implementation of healthy school policy. Design: The study emerged from the Battle River Project, a multilevel partnership designed to explore the efficacy of implementing HPS at a school division level. The project intervention involved support for schools, a division-level steering committee, and a framework for implementation. Setting: The Battle River School Division is located in Alberta, Canada, and serves both rural and urban school communities. The study involved 21 of the 36 schools in the division and was initiated by the Ever Active Schools programme. Method: Development and implementation of policy and procedure were examined using case study methodology. Data gathered included interviews, focus groups, documents and observation. Results: Four primary themes were revealed through data analysis. Perceptions and misconceptions; bottom–up/top–down; flexible rigidity; and the way we do business. Conclusion: The process of developing and implementing healthy school policy can be streamlined by planning for clear communication, involving all stakeholders, and by embedding health into the structures of a school jurisdiction.

Strategies in the Fiscal Reform of Estonian General Education

In order to develop the necessary Estonian measures and policies the prevailing distribution of expenditures for these purposes are presented. Although the share of GDP used for financing education in Estonia is somewhat above the EU average the nominal amount of per capita education funds is comparatively low due to a low level of economic development. Moreover, because of thin population per square km many small schools exist in Estonia without a sufficient number of pupils, which makes the education system more costly. We consider two different basic strategies to improve the situation. The first strategy is an extension of a reform approach that was performed since January 2008 that refers mainly to the prevailing educational and spatial organization. We discuss the consequences and regional impacts of that policy. Criteria for a SWOT-analysis such as expenditure distribution, preserving regionally clear investment criteria, source of investment, etc. are used. The first strategy refers to improvements into the current system of financing schools that shows a state investment program for schools that considers the number of pupils per school and special educational needs. However, the performance of this policy is not based on a fair equal treatment of cases. Therefore a second strategy of improvement is discussed. It is based on the idea of Functional Overlapping Competitive Jurisdictions (FOCJ). The municipalities form FOCJ that are operating schools. In this way municipalities may form a school jurisdiction that can negotiate with central government institutions for the loan and the school equipment etc. A municipality can act individually or the FOCJ negotiates for the municipal members in total. Theories of FOCJ-establishment, FOCJ-contribution determination and FOCJ-negotiations with central government are demonstrated. The FOCJ can supplement positively the first strategy of reform.

Computer Skill Requirements for New and Existing Teachers: Implications for Policy and Practice

The integration of technology into the classroom is a major issue in education today. Many national and provincial initiatives specify the technology skills that students must demonstrate at each grade level. The Government of the Province of Alberta in Canada, has mandated the implementation of a new curriculum which began in September of 2000, called Information and Communication Technology. This curriculum is infused within core courses and specifies what students are “expected to know, be able to do, and be like with respect to technology” (Alberta Learning, 2000). Since teachers are required to implement this new curriculum, school jurisdictions are turning to professional development strategies and hiring standards to upgrade
 teachers’ computer skills to meet this goal. This paper summarizes the results of a telephone survey administered to all public school jurisdictions in the Province of Alberta with a 100% response rate. We examined the computer skills that school jurisdictions require of newly hired teachers, and the support strategies employed for currently employed teachers.