Growth

 

“Reflection as a way of life”. I think it is important to really read this statement moving forward and realize that you need to make time for reflection in your life. Not just because you have to because it’s an assignment because you have to in order to make informed decisions in your professional and personal life. We live in a busy world and too often we do not stop to see our reflection, get unstuck from the mud or recognize our growth.

Through this learning journey I have been able to explore some alternative learning schools near me. I have been able to spend some time thinking about what I would like to accomplish moving forward in my career. I have learned a lot about myself and about my profession. I am curious to see where my next steps will lead me and what I will do with these ideas about innovation, teaching and learning.

Thank you to all who contributed to my learning!

Building a Philosophy of Practice

 

Building a philosophy of practice or revisiting your philosophy of education that you created in your 3rd year of teacher training is an important reflection piece for teachers. I think too often teachers forget their professional and personal values and begin teaching through the curriculum or the expectations rather than why they believe is important.

Brené Brown is a professor and author who has done some pretty amazing research on vulnerability, values, shame and leadership. I feel like teaching is a form of leadership and one thing I am trying to do to keep myself fresh over this break from teaching is get in touch with my own values and beliefs and recognize how they translate into my teaching.

Brené Brown has a podcast that I have been listening to and I would really love to share a specific episode with you all that I have found helpful.

Podcast episode 

https://brenebrown.com/podcast/living-into-our-values/

Accompanied worksheets

https://brenebrown.com/resources/dare-to-lead-list-of-values/

https://brenebrown.com/resources/living-into-our-values/

I have found this particularly helpful as I build my own philosophy of life but also that of my professional practice.

Women in Positions of Leadership in Education

I want to side track from my questions for this post and address my curiosity about some articles and conversations I had this week.

After reading a classmate’s response to The Contradiction and the Challenge of the Educated Woman, I found a question that really baffled me.

Why in a profession dominated by women are the majority of positions of “power” (i.e. principal) dominated by men?

I remember when I was a child all of my principals being men. I remember in high school we had a female vice principal and I remember thinking that was pretty cool. At my past teaching job over the 7 years I was there, there were 2 male principals, 3 male vice principals, and 1 female vice principal (me).

So, I decided to ask a few teacher friends what they though about this and do a little research myself.

“I think that the traditionally feminine professions... have been immensely devalued because women have been devalued for many of years” -WNA (school counselor)

Another friend (JL-primary educator) said that she thinks there is a hesitancy in females towards roles of leadership because, “although teaching is a very feminized, gendered role, (in a patriarchal kind of sense), when it comes to leadership, the qualities from a post-modern, patriarchal perspective, those traits for leadership are counter to what the traits are for educators”

I did a little digging trying to find statistic on this. I found a lot of statistics from the United States but didn’t find many from Canada. From the Canadian Teacher’s Federation I found a statistic from 2002-2003 that stated that the average percentage of women across Canada that were in the role of principal was 39.5%, and in some provinces was as high as 48% and 51%. This is still surprising considering the ration of men to women in our profession in 2020/21 was roughly 100 females to every 32 males (Statistics Canada, 2022).

(Alberta Teacher Association, 2018)

The most recent stats I could find related specifically to BC was a newsletter from 2020 for the BC Principals and Vice Principals Association. In the newsletter it showed that 59.2% of their members were female and 39.9% were male. Now this is just membership, there are probably many principals and vice principals that are not members. Regardless, when I saw this  number in made me realize that women are making moves in positions of power and being leaders for educators.

(BCPVPA, 2020)

So, have we made changes in regards to women and women’s rights? Yes. Do we still need to make more? Probably. Are women happy with their positions in the world? I’m not sure. I guess it just depends who you ask.

Thanks for coming with me on this side track journey, I hope it was as interesting for you as it was for me.

References:

Alberta Teachers Association. (2018). Gender and leadership. https://legacy.teachers.ab.ca/News%20Room/ata%20magazine/Volume%2085/Number%203/Articles/Pages/Gender%20and%20Leadership.aspx

BC Principals' & vice-principals' association. (2020.). BCPVP June 2020 Newsletter. https://www.bcpvpa.org/

Martin, J. R. (1991). The contradiction and the challenge of the educated woman. Women’s Studies Quarterly [Special Issue on Women, Girls, and the Culture of Education], 19(1/2), 6–27.

Maryville University. (n.d.). MVU-DEHEL-2020-Q4-Skyscraper-Empowering-Women-in-Higher-Education-Leadership-Header [image]. Maryville Educational Blog. https://online.maryville.edu/blog/women-in-higher-ed-leadership/

Statistics Canada. (2022). Educators in public elementary and secondary schools, by work status, age group and sex. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=3710015301&pickMembers%5B0%5D=2.2&pickMembers%5B1%5D=3.1&pickMembers%5B2%5D=4.3&cubeTimeFrame.startYear=2020%2B%2F%2B2021&cubeTimeFrame.endYear=2020%2B%2F%2B2021&referencePeriods=20200101%2C20200101

Indigenous Perspectives at Q'SHINTUL Mill Bay Nature School

(Mill Bay Nature School, 2018)

After reading about Indigenous perspectives, I decided to dig a little deeper into the Q’shintul Mill Bay Nature School. I was really hoping to visit the school before making this post but unfortunately have not had the opportunity yet, so all the information I will share with you is based off their official website and field guide.

“Aboriginal students require a learning environment that honours who they are and where they have come from. These strategies nurture the self-esteem – the positive interconnection between the physical, emotional-mental, intellectual and spiritual realms – of Aboriginal students” (Toulouse, 2018, p. 1). It is very evident that Q’shintul Mill Bay Nature School has innovated it’s approach to meet the needs of their aboriginal students. In their Field Guide (2018) they say that their school represents a culture where “the Cowichan and Malahat cultures are deeply respected, will be a focus supported by Elders-in Residence and aboriginal educators. Mill Bay Nature School seeks to practice these principles as they are natural to the life found in this place” (p. 10).

In addition to working with elders in the community, having a holistic approach to teaching, connecting students to the land and teaching through indigenous tratdions and culture, Mill Bay Nature school also uses the First’s People’s Principles of Learning. Most schools in BC u
se these principles as a guide to teaching and learning in their schools.

The First People’s Principles of learning are a set of principles created by “Indigenous Elders, scholars and knowledge keepers” (First Nations Education Steering Committee, 2006) to guide teachers with some Indigenous approaches to teaching and learning common to most First People’s in BC. ** “It must be recognized that they do not capture the full reality of the approach used in any single First Peoples’ society” (First Nations Education Steering Committee, n.d.).

 (First Nations Education Steering Committee, 2006)

 

References:

First Nations Education Steering Committee. (n.d.). Quality first nations education in BC. First Nations Education Steering Committee FNESC. http://www.fnesc.ca/

First Nations Education Steering Committee. (2006) First People’s Principals of Learning. http://www.fnesc.ca/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/PUB-LFP-POSTER-Principles-of-Learning-First-Peoples-poster-11x17.pdf

Mill Bay Nature School. (2018). Mill Bay Nature School Field Guide. https://natureschool.sd79.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/143/2018/08/Mill-Bay-Nature-School-Field-Guide-best.pdf

Toulouse, P. R. (2008). Integrating Aboriginal teaching and values into the classroom. What Works? Research into Practice(Research monograph #11).