Indigenous Education Commons^™

The Grace To Grow Deeper: A Case Study Of Environmentalism In A Canadian Christian School, Allyson Jule, Adrienne R. Castellon

International Christian Community of Teacher Educators Journal

Successful environmental pedagogy in faith-based schools has not been well explored even while most Christian schools in Canada are governed by provincial curricula and provincial teacher standards that require commitments to environmentalism. Conflicts within mainline Christianity in regards to the importance of environmental justice may be why some Christian schools do not engage in environmental pedagogy (Mann & Schleifer, 2020). This study draws on data from one Christian school in the province of Ontario, Canada. The methodology used is case study approached through an Appreciative Inquiry lens – a methodology that is particularly useful in school-based research (Stavros, et al. …

Social Emotional Learning For Social Emotional Justice: A Conceptual Framework For Education In The Midst Of Pandemics, Zoe Higheagle Strong, Emma M. Mcmain

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

US education is situated not only in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic but also in longstanding “pandemics” of oppression, including but not limited to systemic racism. In this paper, the authors critique the oppressive aspects of traditional SEL and introduce the concept of Social Emotional Learning for Social Emotional Justice (SEL-SEJ). An emergent concept for re-imagining SEL, SEL-SEJ is explicitly oriented toward social justice. Drawing on a decolonial understanding of “resilience,” SEL-SEJ builds from principles of reciprocity and relationships. SEL-SEJ can help educators support students, communities support educators, and school systems support communities.

A Personal, Indigenous Feminist Experience With Centering Relationships During Covid-19, Stephany Runninghawk Johnson

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

I am an Indigenous woman, a mother, a researcher, a scholar, a partner, a daughter. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the value and consequence connection with others has on my life has become more apparent. During this time, I am finding that technology can both help and hinder in building and maintaining relationships. Perhaps I can illuminate a bit for others who are struggling with the same things I am. I share Indigenous feminist theories and I believe these ways of knowing and being in the world help us to reclaim our past and to reimagine our futures.

Developing A Common Language Of Ethical Engagement In Teaching: Lessons For And From A Time Of Crisis, Richard D. Sawyer

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This article explores how educators may develop and contribute to a common language of ethical engagement, a language that rises above specific actions but is grounded in ethical practice and scholarship. Questions are raised about how online education may further the patterns educational inequities in the United States. An ethics framework is explored through a comparison. The author explores the educational principles--not standards—that educators can surface in their teaching practice. A discussion is included of recent dilemmas and problems with online teaching environments, underscoring the need for ethical principles helping to frame practice.

Socially Just Trauma-Informed Responses To Covid-19 With Undocumented Communities, Daniela Dominguez

Journal of Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reclamation: Returning To Matrilineal Traditions, Building A New Generation Of Indigenous Girl Societies, Kelly Hallman, Stephanie Martinez, Lisa Polen, Angel Del Valle

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Created in 2017, the Indigenous Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment Network (IMAGEN) brings together organizations from rural and urban indigenous communities in the United States to strengthen the protection, safety, and resilience of girls by reclaiming neighborhood spaces and building local female-relative-led mentorship programs. IMAGEN, headquartered at the Girl Innovation, Research, and Learning (GIRL) Center in New York City, promotes the use of data-driven approaches in building assets for these adolescent girls. This report highlights the results of the IMAGEN Program Planning Workshop held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, December 3–5, 2019. The workshop stressed an urgent need for culturally grounded programming …

A Language Barrier To Human Capital Development: The Case Of Guatemalan Students, Fidel Pérez Macal

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Not being proficient in a school’s predominant language of instruction can represent a language barrier for students’ human capital development. In Guatemala, 24 languages are spoken apart from Spanish, which is the language of instruction in the majority of schools, and about 40 percent of the total population has a non-Spanish language as a mother tongue. National standardized tests show that non-Spanish mother tongue (non-SMT) students are outperformed by SMT students in elementary and secondary schools.

My thesis analyzes whether non-SMT students face a language barrier and traces its source. Two main findings emerge. First, non-SMT students are not yet …

Grassroots Tales: Journeys Of Inward Healing And Outward Movement Building – “A Story Of Youth Development And Healing”, Andrew Cory Greene

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Rooted in Liberation Psychology epistemology, this dissertation was engaged to liberate myself as well as psychology. Positing Healing Justice and Sociopolitical Development as theoretical guides, this dissertation explored a community specific approach of radical healing to develop urban youth’s abilities to sustain (build) spirit and collective hope for grassroot movement building. This dissertation asks, what are the possibilities of bringing urban youth (n=9) together who shared similar realities, dared to dream together (i.e., think tank), and turn those dreams into a Grassroot Movement Building?

The methodological praxis of this dissertation project was politically and theoretically situated to study learnings at …

Improving Physical Literacy In Middle School Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Students, Jarod-Lee P. Milko

The Organizational Improvement Plan at Western University

Physical activity levels in Canadian youth are decreasing. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) focuses on improving physical literacy in middle school Indigenous and non-Indigenous students in a Northern Ontario urban school. The Daily Physical Activity (DPA) policy in Ontario public elementary schools has achieved about 50% fidelity in classrooms since its inception in 2005 (Allison, et al., 2016; Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion, 2015, p. 60). Leading a physically active lifestyle is essential for education outcomes, public health, and general health and wellbeing. Improving physical literacy in youth increases their motivation to be physically active, and through a …

Weaving The Braid Of Culturally Responsive Leadership Within Policy And Governance To Improve Indigenous Student Success, Shelly L. Niemi

The Organizational Improvement Plan at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores a Problem of Practice (PoP) that highlights the need for why the Board of Education and the Senior Administration team within the Raven Bay School Division (RBSD, pseudonym) would benefit from using a culturally responsive leadership approach when making decisions and how this may be achieved through policy and governance to guide their practice. The goal of this OIP is to examine why this leadership approach would be relevant for the Board of Education and the Senior Leadership team when they are making any policy and governance decisions, as it relates to Indigenous …

Building Leadership Capacity For The Effective Implementation Of A Professional Development Tool In K-12 School In A Region In Arctic Canada, Sonia Osbourne

The Organizational Improvement Plan at Western University

This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) aims to identify and remediate the organizational factors that are presently leading to the faulty delivery of a professional development framework (PDFM) tool in an educational organization in the Canadian Arctic. Implementation of change initiatives in organizations is a complex undertaking and can be further complicated by contextual factors such as culture. In this region, a large percentage of students are Inuit, and teachers and school leaders are both Inuit and non-Inuit. Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ), translated as Inuit traditional knowledge, is a foundation upon which education is delivered in the region. Therefore, this organizational change …

Toward A Culturally Inclusive Canon Of Multimodal Picture Books: Developing Multiliteracies Practices And Assessments For Ontario’S Classrooms, Arwa Jammali

Major Papers

Multimodal picture books are a critical component of children’s literacy development, and in a multicultural province such as Ontario, it is vital that literacy development include cultural literacy. The demographics of the province’s classrooms are increasingly diverse; however, minoritized cultures are underrepresented among teachers, and there are sparse training mandates related to cultural inclusion. Thus, Ontario’s culturally diverse student body is encountering a number of barriers related to gender, ethnicity, perceived race, sexual identity, ability, class, and other social markers. To provide teachers with the tools needed to support their students, the current study utilizes a theoretical framework derived from …

Traditional Values And Local Community In The Formal Educational System In Senegal: A Year As A High School Teacher In Thies, Maguette Diame

Doctoral Dissertations

The dissertation explores the discourses of traditional values, local practices, and community engagement within a selected community in Thies, Senegal and its high school environment. The study investigates the ways in which these cultural elements are present in the daily life of the community as well as how they are or could be integrated in formal teaching. In particular, I studied the concepts of Jom (hard work, pride, dignity), Kersa (decency), Suturë (discretion), Muñ (endurance), Teranga (hospitality), Maslaa (negotiation), Kal (kinship), and Suture (Protection) in particular. My own experience as a language teacher who has lived and studied in the …

Supporting Social And Emotional Learning In The Efl/Esl Classroom: How The New Science Of Child Development Can Inform Second Language Acquisition Theory And Practice, Matthew Nall

Journal of English Learner Education

Research in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) generally falls within two categories: the cognitive/psycholinguistic camp, and the sociocultural camp (Fazel, 2014). These distinct approaches to empirical research in SLA have diverse epistemologies, methods, and implications for the second language classroom. Scholars within the sociocultural camp have made significant contributions to the field concerning social and emotional learning in the second language classroom. Concerning this, the current paper reviews recent developments in the field of developmental psychology and examines ways in which the new science of child development can inform SLA theory and practice in regard to social and …

Sel For Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students, Sophie Cuocci, Rebeca Arndt

Journal of English Learner Education

There is abundant research about the benefits of SEL programs on social and emotional core competencies (e.g., increase in self-esteem, improvement of academic performance); however, general SEL programs are not necessarily designed with the English learners’ (ELs) needs in mind. Aiming at exploring valid and reliable SEL programs that meet the needs of the ELs, the article first examines the theoretical groundwork on which SEL is built upon. Next, this paper will first discuss Piaget’s, Vygotsky’s, and Dörnyei’s theories surrounding the cognitive, emotional, and sociocultural aspects involved in the learning process and language learning. It will then consider the needs …

Social Emotional Learning And Hope Theory Connections: Perceptions Of Teachers And School Counselors In Training, Donita Grissom Ph.D., Viki Kelchner

Journal of English Learner Education

This qualitative survey study explored the interrelationship between hope as defined by Hope Theory (HT) and social emotional learning (SEL). Participants (N=161) were teachers and counselors in training (TCT) learning to work with English learners (ELs) in K-12 settings. Participants' perspectives of hope, strategies and future plans to integrate hope into the classroom were explored. Findings indicated that TCT in training have some knowledge of hope. Participants’ knowledge was limited in applications of hope in the classroom. There is a need for increased training of SEL and HT to prepare TCT to work with ELs and all students …

Social-Emotional Learning In Tesol: What, Why, And How, Luis Javier Pentón Herrera

Journal of English Learner Education

In this article, I advocate for the adoption of SEL in Teaching English to speakers of other languages (TESOL) as a promising pedagogy for ESOL educators and ELs. For this, I divide the remainder of the manuscript into four sections in addition to the introduction. In the first section—What is SEL? —I provide a brief theoretical description of SEL as it remains a fairly new concept in the ESOL field. In the second section—Why SEL in TESOL? —I elucidate my position of why we (ESOL educators) should embrace SEL pedagogies in our learning spaces using personal vignettes as support. The …

Integrating Gwich'in And Inuvialuit Perspectives In A Community School In The Northwest Territories: A Case Study, Janna M. Wolki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study explores how teachers, staff, and community members in one school in the Northwest Territories are integrating Inuvialuit and Gwich’in issues, perspectives, and languages into the school and curriculum. Through the Education Renewal Initiative (2013), the Government of the Northwest Territories identified Indigenous languages and culture-based education as a priority to improving education in the NWT, while recognizing that this is a challenging task for teachers coming into the NWT from southern communities. Utilizing a generic qualitative case study methodology, this study recognizes and celebrates the many successful cultural initiatives that are currently occurring within this one school, and …

Understanding Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Perspectives Of Reconciliation: A Case Study, Kaitlyn Watson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Reconciliation in the Canadian context is difficult to define (Graeme & Mandawe, 2017; Martin, 2009), but is often linked to the residential school system (Chrisjohn & Wasacase, 2011; Nagy, 2012). This instrumental case study examines how reconciliation is understood and activated among a group of educators and community members involved with a professional learning event held in Southern Ontario inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Employing narrative inquiry, and informed by decolonizing methodologies, seven event organizers, four presenters, and five attendees participated in conversational interviews. Two main themes were uncovered from the interview data. The first, reconciliation …

Nolan Alvater Receives Honorable Mention For The Udall Scholarship In Native American Policy, Margaret Nagle

General University of Maine Publications

Nolan Altvater of Milford, a University of Maine rising senior majoring in secondary education and minoring in English, was selected as one of 55 students nationwide to receive Honorable Mention for the Udall Scholarship in the Native American policy category.