Digital Commons Network^™

Feasibility Trial Of The School-Based Strong Intervention To Promote Resilience Among Newcomer Youth, Claire Crooks, Sharon Hoover, Alexandra C.G. Smith

Education Publications

There are thousands of refugee students in Canadian schools and many struggle with distress and trauma symptoms. Even those not demonstrating overt distress may face adjustment challenges. This paper describes the pilot of the Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups (STRONG) program in ten schools. STRONG is a 10-session, manualized program focused on building skills and helping students process their migration journey. This pilot used a pragmatic mixed-methods approach to evaluate the feasibility of STRONG, with a focus on acceptability, implementation, and perceived utility of the intervention. Clinicians (n = 16) provided data at the training, throughout the intervention …

A Call For Cautious Interpretation Of Meta-Analytic Reviews, Frank Boers, Lara Bryfonski, Farahnaz Faez, Todd Mckay

Education Publications

Meta-analytic reviews collect available empirical studies on a specified domain and calculate the average effect of a factor. Educators as well as researchers exploring a new domain of inquiry may rely on the conclusions from meta-analytic reviews rather than reading multiple primary studies. This article calls for caution in this regard, because the outcome of a meta-analysis is determined by how effect sizes are calculated, how factors are defined, and how studies are selected for inclusion. Three recently published meta-analyses are re-examined to illustrate these issues. One illustrates the risk of conflating effect sizes from studies with different design features, …

Who Are We Missing? The Impact Of Requiring Parental Or Guardian Consent On Research With Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Two-Spirit, Queer/Questioning Youth., Eli Cwinn, Courtney Cadieux, Claire V Crooks

Education Publications

PURPOSE: The purpose was to examine whether a requirement for parental or guardian consent systematically limits which lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, two-spirit, queer/questioning (LGBT2Q+) youth participate in research.

METHODS: A total of 60 LGBT2Q+ youth (aged 14-18 years) completed measures assessing gender and sexual minority identity, depression and anxiety, help-seeking intentions, and social support.

RESULTS: A substantial proportion (37.6%) of youth reported that they would not have participated in the research if parental or guardian consent was required. Those who would not have participated had more negative attitudes about their sexual and gender identity, less family support, lower levels of …

The Strong Resiliency Program For Newcomer Youth: A Mixed-Methods Exploration Of Youth Experiences And Impacts, Claire Crooks, Natalia Kubishyn, Maisha Syeda Dr., Lynn Dare

Education Publications

Many refugee and immigrant youth face significant adversity, pre- and post-migration, as well as during their migratory journey. Although these youth demonstrate considerable resilience, there is also an opportunity to bolster coping skills and adjustment with group-based interventions in schools. We utilized a mixed-methods approach to describe the impacts of one such program, as experienced by youth (n=19). The program is a ten-session strengths-based resilience intervention that promotes relaxation skills, healthy coping, communication, and problem-solving. There is also one individual session focused on helping each participant share their journey narrative. Youth from six intervention groups participated in this study through …

What Are We Saving? Tracing Governing Knowledge And Truth Discourse In Global Covid-19 Policy Papers, Lynette Shultz, Melody Viczko

Education Publications

As the world went into a swift lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sending individuals to their homes and shutting businesses and institutions, the closing of schools posed big problems. The majority of the world’s children were out of school leading to the largest period of school closures in history. We saw educators turning towards responses, not aimed at collegial and community-engaged strategies for education in an emergency but to online learning cast as education/business as usual. This study explores the logic driving this global response through the policy papers released by three key global education actors: 1) the OECD …

Impact Of Mindup Among Young Children: Improvements In Behavioral Problems, Adaptive Skills, And Executive Functioning, Claire Crooks, Karen Bax, Andrea Delaney, Sue Kim, Mostafa Shokoohi

Education Publications

Objectives

We evaluated the impacts of a mindfulness-based social and emotional learning (SEL) program on behavioral problems, adaptive skills, and executive functioning among kindergarten students.

Methods

A total of 23 classrooms were assigned to the intervention group, in which the teachers implemented MindUP, and 19 classrooms were assigned to the comparison group, in which the teachers delivered their classes as usual. Teachers assessed the behavior of students (N = 584; intervention n = 261; comparison n = 323) both pre- and post-intervention with two measures: the Behavior Assessment System for Children, Third Edition, Teacher Rating Scales (BASC-3 TRS) and …

Virus Interruptus: An Arendtian Exploration Of Political World Building In Pandemic Times, Rita A. Gardiner Ph.D, Katy Fulfer

Education Publications

Building upon a series of blog posts and conversations, two feminist scholars explore how political community, trust, responsibility, and solidarity are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We explore the ways in which we can engage in political world-building during pandemic times through the work of Hannah Arendt. Following Arendt’s notion of the world as the space for human togetherness, we ask: how can we respond to COVID-19’s interruptions to the familiarity of daily life and our relationship to public space? By extending relational accounts of public health and organizational ethics, we critique a narrow view of solidarity that focuses on …

How Do Leaders Judge What Is A Responsible Course Of Action?, Rita A. Gardiner Ph.D

Education Publications

In this chapter, I ask two interrelated questions. First, how do leaders judge what is a responsible course of action? Second, and relatedly, how do others judge what constitutes responsibility in leadership action? The core argument I put forward is that thinking with Hannah Arendt deepens our comprehension of what it might mean to lead responsibly. She encourages us to recognize that leading in a responsible manner is, above all, a judgment call. From an Arendtian perspective, to judge responsibly entails taking the time to reflect upon a decision so as to weigh up the different sides of an argument. …

Policy Problems: Preparing Students For The “Real World”, Shannon Mckechnie

Education Publications

Employability of students has risen as a key indicator of success of institutions, alongside an increased focus on policy for skills development in Canada. In Ontario, a hub for Canada’s economy, the issue of the “skills gap” has sustained interest as a significant but contested policy issue in public post-secondary education (Viczko, Lorusso, & McKechnie, 2019). Directed by policy and by public demand, significant resources at universities are invested into efforts to increase students’ skills capacities, career prospects, and overall employability. For student affairs staff (SAS), developing student career readiness and employability is central to many portfolios of our work …

Caring Leadership As Collective Responsibility, Rita A. Gardiner Ph.D

Education Publications

What constitutes caring leadership within a university environment? In addressing this question, I examine current discussions on care, leadership and higher education before turning to explore Hannah Arendt’s ideas about care, which was an important aspect of her relational approach to leadership. She was adamant that this kind of leadership was rarely found in universities, further arguing a kind of professional deformation pervaded academia, encouraging self-interest rather than collective well-being. Some professors live in a fantasy world, Arendt argued, failing to recognize how their actions demonstrate a care for self over a care for others. After exploring discourses of care …

Feasibility Trial Of The School-Based Strong Intervention To Promote Resilience Among Newcomer Youth, Claire Crooks, Sharon Hoover, Alexandra C.G. Smith

Education Publications

There are thousands of refugee students in Canadian schools and many struggle with distress and trauma symptoms. Even those not demonstrating overt distress may face adjustment challenges. This paper describes the pilot of the Supporting Transition Resilience of Newcomer Groups (STRONG) program in ten schools. STRONG is a 10-session, manualized program focused on building skills and helping students process their migration journey. This pilot used a pragmatic mixed-methods approach to evaluate the feasibility of STRONG, with a focus on acceptability, implementation, and perceived utility of the intervention. Clinicians (n = 16) provided data at the training, throughout the intervention …

Musical Self-Portraits And Representations Of Non/Conformity: In The Music Classroom With Preservice Generalist Teachers, Terry G. Sefton, Danielle Sirek

Education Publications

Self-portraits are a genre of art, but also constitute artefacts of identity. This research explores student-created musical self-portraits produced by more than 150 generalist teacher education students (preservice teachers) in Ontario, Canada over a period of three years. The self-portraits were completed and submitted as an assignment at the beginning of the term in a compulsory music education class. This paper examines the material practice, influences, and symbols that students used. Most of the selfportraits conformed to the idea of ‘the good teacher’, while only a few represented identities that lay outside social norms. The findings contribute to an understanding …

Using Literal Underpinnings To Help Learners Remember Figurative Idioms: Does The Connection Need To Be Crystal-Clear?, Xinqing Wang, Frank Boers, Paul Warren

Education Publications

No abstract provided.

“Where Love Prevails”: Student Resilience And Resistance In Precarious Spaces, Cristall Ferne, Susan Rodger, Kathy Hibbert

Education Publications

Growing concerns about school-based mental health (SBMH) in Canada have led to questions concerning how policymakers and educators can develop mental health competencies. Coincidental to this movement has been the emergence of a discourse of community and citizenship, emphasizing active, bottom-up decision-making and self-governance. However, in the rural context, in particular, the ability to engage as a community of citizens is too often thwarted by policies that privilege economic interests over the wellness of those affected—as in the case of school closures, which is our focus here. We adopt Jean Baker Miller’s (Toward a new psychology of women. Beacon …

School Leaders’ Work During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Two-Pronged Approach, Katina Pollock

Education Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the nature of school principals’ work. Today, principals are expected to be exceptional managers and excellent leaders in a time where the pace of change has increased exponentially. Preliminary data suggest that principals in Ontario, Canada are pivoting their work: They are engaging in a two-pronged approach to lead public schools during the pandemic crisis. They are extending their roles around (a) safe schooling and setting the context for future schooling while (b) simultaneously extending their role of instructional leader to digital instructional leader. This paper, informed by preliminary focus group data, poses thought-provoking questions …