School Name: Charles Hays Secondary School

School District: SD#52 Prince Rupert

Inquiry Team Members: Anna Ashley: anna.ashley@sd52.bc.ca,
Lori Burger: Lori.burger@sd52.bc.ca,
Coretta O’Brien: coretta.obrien@sd52.bc.ca,
Amber Mossini: amber.mossini@sd52.bc.ca,
Carla Rourke: Carla.rourke@sd52.bc.ca,
Raegan Sawka: raegan.sawka@sd52.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: Carla.rourke@sd52.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Career Education, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing, Science, Social Studies

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Community-based learning, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Growth mindset, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Social and emotional learning, Universal design for learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To use a supported cohort model to increase the transitions rate by providing a greater sense of belonging and connection.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Early in our scanning process we noticed a group of learners in their grade 9 year who expressed not feeling connected to the school community. They couldn’t name adults who believed in them, they were not attending school consistently, they were not fully engaged in their learning. The school team (administrators, Indigenous mentor, educational assistants, teachers and counsellors) flagged these students as requiring a more intentional focus into building connections to feel a sense of belonging at school and positive sense of themselves as learners. We’d recently had success of a four-year supported cohort model, so the school principal, Carla, approached the educational team of Anna, Raegan, and Coretta to consider launching a three-year cohort for grades 10-12. Central to our scanning process was; How could we build a supportive, cross-curricular experience around the First Peoples Principles of Learning?

Focus: We hoped to create an educational environment for two cohorts of learners that offered a real sense of community, support, and authentic engagement into place-based curriculum. The goal is for students to get to know each other and the educational team over three school years, focusing each year on four core academic courses needed for graduation. We envisioned this model lending itself more readily to land-based, community-based learning opportunities. The team could better understand learner strengths, interests, and needs in order to design universal supports so each individual can reach their full potential. With the multi-year model we could also provide continuous learning, taking into account the patience and time many students need at this point in their education.

Hunch: We wondered at the reasons why these students were finding less success and connection in grade 9. Of course, the pandemic was a factor, but that didn’t account for everything. We had a hunch that while this group had various needs/interests that one thing they missed was connection. The duration of each course at the secondary level can be a limiting factor to relationship building and creates constraints on field trips and community involvement. Our hunch was by providing more time to get to know our learners across the grades and through multiple courses, that we could better understand what they needed from their educational team. We could go deeper into project-based, cross-curricular learning that met their interests.

New Professional Learning:
– Each member of the team found professional conversations and the sharing of our knowledge and expertise immensely helpful. The two teachers, Indigenous mentor, and educational assistant have a collective 100 years of educational experience. We have
backgrounds in Indigenous education, FPPoL, inclusive education, English, and science.
– Together we attended workshops, resource development committees, read literature from Indigenous authors, and even hosted our own workshops for colleagues on what we were learning from the inquiry project.

Taking Action:
– The school team built the supported cohort, two classes of 20-25 grade 10 learners. Each class worked with two team members in the morning (Teacher/Indigenous mentor), (Teacher/EA) and switched groups for the afternoon. Our school is on a quarter system with two classes a day. Each team member brings a variety of strengths and perspectives. Coretta, is an Indigenous mentor at the school, who has responsibility for connecting with students beyond our cohort model. She brings a wealth of experience and expertise in making connection. Her role is to specifically address equity gaps tied to graduation. Amber, is an educational assistant, who also works with students in courses outside of the cohort. Her role comes from the learning services
department, but her support is offered universally.
– The team regularly co-planned projects and field trip experiences. The cohorts came together for activities at least once a week. Each member of the educational team had their unique relationships with the learners. We communicated seamlessly if concerns came up as each of us had a piece of the puzzle and perspective on what was happening for learners. The learning activities were all designed with universal supports in mind.
– We ensured each learner had an entry point and access to the tools they needed to engage with the curricular content and explore their interests within it. Students help portfolios of learning and we provide formative assessment. Communicating student learning with parents/families was regular and seamless. At the end of the year not every student passed all four courses, but because they are moving to grade 11 with the same teachers that curriculum can be addressed.

Checking:
– We had some base-line data of student attendance and performance from the previous school year and during the courses they were not in the cohort from this school year. We had anecdotal data from learning services teachers, parents, and counsellors. Our learners provided insights through multiple points of data collection (questionnaires, writing reflections, and using the four questions) on how they felt the supported cohort worked for them.
– We were incredibly pleased with the outcomes of the first year of the inquiry. Learners all reported they had multiple adults that believed in them, they could go to for help, and encouraged them. Many reported feeling more success this year than in the past several years of school. They felt expectations were high, but they wanted to meet them because they knew the adults were counting on them to be there. Parents/families reported an enthusiasm in their child they hadn’t seen for a while. Their child would come home talking about what they were learning, how they were achieving in school, and seemed genuinely excited about school. It was no longer a fight to get them to attend. The parents expressed wanting to see more cohort models like this. Students were keen to ensure they were enrolled for the following years. The counsellors and LSTs checked in with them individually to see that they wished to continue. They did and more students enrolled because they felt it would be a good fit for them.

Reflections/Advice:
– We are planning to continue with this model at CHSS. There have been school-wide conversations about planning further cohorts as this team moves to grade 11.
– The key advice we have is to allow teacher/EA teams to opt in if they are genuinely interested and feel they have a compatible educational philosophy. This particular team really works well together. They are fast and efficient in planning and communications. They have a shared vision for their work together and are deeply respectful of each other’s opinions. There is a trust to raise any issue and constructive advice is valued. It is a true learning-working collaborative team.

School Name: Shuswap Middle School

School District: SD#83 North Okanagan-Shuswap

Inquiry Team Members: Theresa Johnson tjohnson@sd83.bc.ca
Kaeli Hawrys khawrys@sd83.bc.ca
Mishel Quaal mquaal@sd83.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: tjohnson@sd83.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Physical & Health Education

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Community-based learning, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Experiential learning, Flexible learning, Inquiry-based learning, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Social and emotional learning, Transitions

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? To build social, emotional and cultural connections for priority students in Grade 6 to foster a sense of belonging and community within the school.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We had discussions/check-ins with students during their first few months at middle school. We noticed a need to increase social and emotional connections for these students. We considered the first people’s principles of learning through experience to build these relationships. We included support staff of certain students to participate in these activities to encourage learning in the process and when the students return to their classes.

Focus: We noticed that many of our past Indigenous students took a few years in some cases to feel a sense of belonging at school. We thought if we were able to offer social, outdoor/cultural and artistic experiences with their peers this could potentially foster a greater sense of belonging. We were hoping to encourage strong friendships and dependable relationships with staff members that are a daily part of their school life.

Hunch: Learning through experiences and doing activities promotes a stronger connection with the world around you. This is an Indigenous principle of learning. We wanted to explore the idea that our students would build better relationships with staff, one another and connections to the school through these activities. We thought if we focused on a smaller number of kids who needed priority attention, this program could offer them these opportunities.

New Professional Learning: We collaborated with outside agencies in the community: inclusive arts, local hiking trails and significant geographical locations, and businesses that support physical literacy. We referenced the Spiral of Inquiry handbook regularly to stay on track and checked in as a team to debrief after each day out.

Taking Action: We provided feedback to classroom teachers about the day, and they followed-up with students to check-in. This encouraged additional connections. We wanted to include support staff in our activities to build the relationships between our students and the people they work with every day. Prior to each activity, students met in the Indigenous room for a snack and we provided them with a space and time to connect with each other. We mixed up the groups when we transported them to introduce them to other school mates and familiarize everyone with one another in a safe space.

Checking: We noticed that once these series of activities were complete, students checked in with us on a very regular basis and voluntarily. They accessed our programs and resources on a more regular basis. They were also easily engaging with one another because they had made new friends and were familiar with one another and this space.

In a group sharing circle, students shared how much they enjoyed hanging out with us and each other, and how much fun they had during our activities. We even had other students seek us out to see if they could participate in the next one.

Reflections/Advice: We learned that small groups often foster stronger connections. We would like to continue offering these focused groups to our more priority Indigenous students. Our advice is to collaborate! There are many local businesses, resources, and staff willing to think outside the box and offer options to students in need. Just start the student list and schedule a few activities and revise along the way:)

School Name: Burnaby North

School District: SD#41 Burnaby

Inquiry Team Members: Maria Nikolidakis maria.nikolidakis@burnabyschools.ca
Katie Coughlin katie.coughlin@burnabyschools.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: maria.nikolidakis@burnabyschools.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Writing, Science, Social Studies

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), First Peoples Principles of Learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Cross curricular learning that centers Indigenous land based pedagogy.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We mostly relied on the principles of learning and learner responses to design our year. Both through casual conversations in our Indigenous Room and through formal discussions with students, we were able to identify common threads. Our Indigenous students are diverse and have many needs and desires in their learning. Some feel connected to school curriculum, others do not care at all. One thread that consistently came up, however, was a desire to learn more about their culture and connect to the land. They also named goals in university – attending post secondary and studying sciences, humanities, and social-sciences was a major thread in ‘where they are going.’ In collaboration with a Biology 12 class and English 12 class, we designed a cross curricular experience that brought together scientific inquiry, self-reflection, and connectedness to the land. It demonstrated to students that learning does not need to be a silo – we can expand our learning in a multi-literate approach.

Focus: Our focus on a cross-curricular land-based program was a clear choice after reviewing student needs and desires. After 2 years of COVID, they were desperate for a feeling of community and connectedness, but also wanted to maintain an academic focus. This activity allowed us to incorporate core-competencies and curricular competencies while centering First People’s Principles of Learning.

Hunch: First, COVID was, and to many extents still is, the core of what is impacting students in our school. They lost connection and community for over 2 years, resulting in very little buy-in, motivation, and desire to connect to academic life. Despite this, many of our learners still have goals of attending university and taking academic courses like Physics and Biology. COVID also impacted their sense of community in schools and connection to other learners.

Second, there is always a desire for more Indigenous content for Indigenous students. Teachers are trying, and curriculum is attempting to catch up with the needs of students, but Indigenous students want more than just curriculum. They consistently want Indigenous culture tied into their learning.

New Professional Learning: We explored cross curricular learning – learning that incorporated both curricular competencies and core competencies for science, language arts, and Indigenous ways of knowing.

Collaboration time was the most helpful – teachers needed to meet and brainstorm in order to offer students a comprehensive, fun, and engaging experience.

Taking Action: We wanted to focus on being on the land and having fun. We knew that students hadn’t had a chance to go on a field trip in a long time due to COVID, so knew that a land-based experience would be an amazing trip.

We then wanted to collaborate on curriculum – we wanted to demonstrate to students and learning is embedded in everything we do. We went through Biology 11 and 12 competencies and English 10-12 competencies and identified big questions and common themes. Based on these themes, we planned activities that would occur on the land and that would engage the curiosity and reflection of students. This included exploring the shoreline, using all of their senses to ask questions about sea-life, noticing the landscape and how it might have changed since colonization, etc.

As a cross curricular team, we met many times leading up to our days on the land. All of the participating teachers designed their units prior to the day to tie into learning that would occur. For example, in Biology, they were learning about tidal zones and the impact of industry on shell fish.

Checking: This was hopefully one of many cross curricular experiences that we can offer students. It was very successful – we had students fully engaged in the activities, curious and excited to be exploring the land around them and asking questions, reflecting on where they are today and the history of the land they are on. Is it enough, no. Students need activities like this much more than what we can currently offer. However, it did noticeably build community among our students.

Reflections/Advice: We learned that kids really just want to connect and have fun together. We are still learning the extent to which COVID has affected our Indigenous students, but I know that it is much more than what we are seeing on the surface. We also learned that students are capable and wanting Indigenous ways of knowing to be incorporated in a seamless way, not a tokenizing way, into their learning.

School Name: Lakewood Elementary

School District: SD#62 Sooke

Inquiry Team Members: Kerry Arnot: karnot@sd62.bc.ca
Lisa Stuart: lstuart@sd62.bc.ca
Chelsea Marle: cmarle@sd62.bc.ca
Tiffany Adams: tadams@sd62.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: karnot@sd62.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Applied Design, skills & Technology, Arts Education, Language Arts – Literacy, Language Arts – Oral Language, Language Arts – Reading, Language Arts – Writing, Mathematics / Numeracy, Physical & Health Education, Science, Social Studies

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Community-based learning, Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving), Differentiated instruction, Experiential learning, First Peoples Principles of Learning, Flexible learning, Growth mindset, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Indigenous pedagogy, Inquiry-based learning, Land, Nature or Place-based learning, Self-regulation, Social and emotional learning, Transitions

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? We investigated the gaps that could be filled in order for teachers to increase time spent on land-based, experiential learning activities for their students.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We paid attention to which teachers were taking the students outdoors to learn and which ones were hesitant. We listened to general comments made by teachers during meetings, etc., as to why or why not they were moving to experiential learning. We observed what teachers’ general knowledge of place was mainly in relation to flora, fauna and local Indigenous communities. We kept the following FPPOL’s in mind as we observed teacher’s comfort levels with taking kids outdoors and with their knowledge of place:

• Learning is holistic, reflexive, reflective, experiential, and relational (focused on connectedness, on reciprocal relationships, and a sense of place).
• Learning involves generational roles and responsibilities.
• Learning recognizes the role of Indigenous knowledge.
• Learning involves patience and time.

We referred to the OECD’s while exploring our observations. It was particularly important to us to consider individual differences, the role of emotions in learning and student-centered learning during the scanning phase.

Focus: We have decided to focus on providing teachers with a resource to support them in either starting to use place-based, experiential learning (PBEL) as part of their teaching program or expanding their use of it if it is something they are already doing. We feel that PBEL is a powerful way to connect students to place, create compassionate and engaged learners, and provide an inclusive learning environment/style for all students. Our hope is to empower teachers to try, or to develop, their PBEL programs, while incorporating Indigenous knowledge authentically. The benefits will be passed directly on to students.

Hunch: It is our hunch that teachers are not feeling prepared to take on PBEL. Although there are many, many great resources available to guide teachers to take the learning outdoors and to incorporate the FPPOLs and Indigenous content, the time it takes to find these resources can be daunting and it takes time and energy that teachers may not have. Additional barriers might be that administrators may have reservations about teachers taking students off site, so teachers don’t feel supported; or there are few resources/materials/activities readily available for teachers to use outdoors; or additional adults to help supervise may not be available.

New Professional Learning: One of our team members did some professional development on Personal Inquiry provided by Kath Murdoch and NOIIE which was truly informative and practical. Another team member was inspired by all that she learned at the NOIIE symposium. All our team members have incorporated the First Peoples’ Principles of Learning into our teaching practices for several years now. Along the way, we have amassed many resources and contacts. As part of professional learning this year, we have been reviewing these resources to find ones that best fit our plans to create professional learning opportunities for our colleagues. This will be ongoing.

Taking Action: Taking action will be our main focus in the 2022-2023 school year. We will need to finish gathering data from our colleagues and students via “The Four Questions” and some further scanning. Next steps will include choosing a format for our professional learning resource and selecting the topics we want to cover. We have brainstormed a good list of possible formats and topics, so the task will be to select a format that we are all comfortable with and to whittle down the list of topics so that it is manageable for us and impactful for our intended audience. Once we have decided on a format, we can hopefully connect with local experts to assist and guide us, which is quite exciting.

Checking: Not yet at this stage.

Reflections/Advice: Our inquiry is ongoing at this point, but so far we have learned that an authentic and easy to use resource or professional development series may help fill the gaps and remove barriers that are preventing teachers from taking part in PBEL.

School Name: John Barsby Community Secondary School

School District: SD#68 Nanaimo-Ladysmith

Inquiry Team Members: Natalie Sorensen: nsorensen@sd68.bc.ca
Jacob Thom: jacob.thom@sd68.bc.ca
Val White: vwhite@sd68.bc.ca
Annette Favelle: afavelle@sd68.bc.ca
Theresa Kraeker: theresa.kraeker@sd68.bc.ca
Holly Knox: holly.knox@sd68.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: theresa.kraeker@sd68.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Not applicable

Focus Addressed: Transitions

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Does creating a sense of belonging and self for Indigenous students in grades 8-9, have an impact on remaining in their home school and successful grade to grade transitions in grades 10-12?

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We saw that a disproportionate number of Indigenous students were being referred to a Learning Alternatives program, being referred to the Adult Dogwood program, or simply leaving school without graduating. In addition, we saw under representation of Indigenous students in higher level senior academics (Physics 12, Chemistry 12, Calculus 12 and Pre Calculus 12), instead opting for Workplace Math and Earth Science as the path to graduation.

Focus: We want to tightly connect our Indigenous students to our school and create a deeper sense of belonging to the John Barsby community. We want our Indigenous students to stay with us from the moment they enter our building as grade 8 students, to when they exit our building after having successfully crossed the stage at the end of grade 12.

Hunch: Despite a large Indigenous presence in our student population, we noticed there is little (but now growing) representation of culture, art or language. Of note is the lack of equity thinking. Little consideration has been given to shining a spotlight on supporting the needs of our Indigenous students, differently.

In addition, it was noted that some staff expressed limiting assumptions on why one grad path was chosen over another. We have not yet begun to help staff uncover other limiting assumptions they may have – and purposefully challenge or pull apart, that thinking.

New Professional Learning: Denise Augustine, Kevin Lamoureux and Jo Chrona provided powerful insights that helped us reflect deeply and make strong connections. Kevin Lamoureux presented virtually to our district during a Professional Development day, this year. His time with us was both inspiring and motivating.

Some excerpts from Jo Chrona’s upcoming book Wayi Way! were gifted to one of our team members through a program they are taking – with the book release coming in September. This work had, and will have, a profound impact on our thinking about how to support moving our adult staff forward.

Taking Action: Peer mentoring: Our school is grades 8-12, and in May of each year we begin working with our grade 7 teachers to collect information that will support the grade 7 –> 8 transition process. We took a look at the information shared about our new Indigenous students and highlighted 24 students who were identified as students who were already missing a connection to school, shown through higher absenteeism. We then looked to our successful and confident senior Indigenous students to ask them if they would be a Peer Mentor to these junior students. Everyone was interested in participating, and so each senior student has two junior students they’re paired with.

Next year, we plan to bring the larger group together once a month for some community building time. The senior students will also receive school cafeteria gift cards, so they can take their younger student to lunch every once in a while. Finally, these Peer Mentor groups will serve as a way to informally check in and support our junior students, throughout the year.

Successful Role Models and Community Partnerships: We will support our Indigenous students who are in grades 10-12 by showcasing local role models. There are many successful, local, Indigenous adults in our community who we will invite to share their story with our students.

Checking: This work is planned for next school year.

Reflections/Advice: We are in the first year of a three year inquiry.

School Name: Ballenas Secondary

School District: SD#69 Qualicum

Inquiry Team Members: Nikki Morton nmorton@sd69.bc.ca
Loanna Clint lclint@sd69.bc.ca
Amanda Girgan agirgan@sd69.bc.ca
Mindy Holman mholman@sd69.bc.ca
Jessylee Spence jspence@sd69.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: Trish Cathrine/tcathrine@sd69.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed: Other: Whole School Learning

Focus Addressed: Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation), Social and emotional learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus this year was on education leading to action and the importance of story.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: Indigenous Education and support of all learners has always been of utmost importance to who we are here at Ballenas. This year, we were able to gather again in our formal homeroom/CLC structures which is a powerful structure to support whole-school learning on a variety of topics. We knew that Indigenous Education needs to be intertwined in all of our classes, but can also be very intentional and purposeful through the vehicle of CLC. We wanted to get back to this being a part of what we do and learn during this time. We wanted the education that takes place during that time support and nudge action. We know that with education comes understanding and action – this is our goal.

Focus: Supporting student transitions – ultimately leading to graduation: dignity, purpose, options, IDENTITY – picking up where we left off after our last transition study (focus: How can increasing Indigenous cultural awareness and understandings at Ballenas contribute to holistic reconciliation and the TRC’s calls to action for education?).

Hunch: We need to continue our learning. We need to go deeper with our learning. Learning needs to support and prompt action.

New Professional Learning: Equity Scan: this year our district began an equity scan. One of the most powerful pieces for our team, from that scan, were the stories from the students. We know that we need to prioritize the sharing of these stories, and before that can happen, we need to focus on creating connection and safe environments for those stories to be shared.

Taking Action: Student conversations/student voice: We need to continue with stories from students – starting with relationships and asking important questions (i.e. what is being shared/said and what is our response?). We also need to make more time to debrief with students after specific focuses (as noted below) – what was the impact? Ripple effect?

Education/action: Intentional focus on Truth and Reconciliation and calls to action; collection of QR codes and connections to actions our community can take NOW; focus on local language and “Mi Cep Nuwilum” – you all come in – as a thread through all that we do; specific focus on land acknowledgements and why; MMIWG and Moosehide Campaign learning, visuals, and pledges.

Photos (above): A few photos from some of the visuals created this year at Ballenas Secondary.

Checking: We feel that we re-engaged in intentional learning this year. We would like to spend more time talking with students in an authentic way to get a better sense of the impact that the learning has had on them, and where they want to go/learn next. Our hope is that some students were able to take this learning and share it more broadly within their own contexts. Education leading to action.

Reflections/Advice: Our plan for next year is to continue listening to and empowering the voices of our Indigenous youth. We have connected with 26 of approximately 100 youth and asked them about the adults in their life who believed they’d be a success; all were able to name two. We also asked about THEM and their story. What do they want US to know – this is the work that we need to continue. Our advice is to slow down; take time to lean into the process and be present with our youth.

School Name: Britannia Secondary

School District: SD#39 Vancouver

Inquiry Team Members: Simon Hayes: sshayes@vsb.bc.ca, Nekita Garcia Gravel: ngarciagravel@vsb.bc.ca, LawrenceDuong: lduong@vsb.bc.ca, Krista Ediger: kediger@vsb.bc.ca, Hubert Wong: htwong@vsb.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: Kailey Willetts/kwilletts@vsb.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed:

• Language Arts – Literacy
• Language Arts – Oral Language
• Language Arts – Reading
• Language Arts – Writing
• Mathematics / Numeracy

Focus Addressed:

• Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation)
• First Peoples Principles of Learning
• Indigenous pedagogy
• Inquiry-based learning
• Land, Nature or Place-based learning
• Transitions

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? The effect of place-based, non-Eurocentric outdoor education on students’ sense of belonging and confidence.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: We conducted student interviews to try and elicit deeper responses. In addition to asking the four key questions, we also asked questions about how students define success. We noticed many of our students defined success in terms of family and community. The First Peoples Principle of Learning about how learning is relational played a big role in our scanning process. To even begin getting our students to share honestly, we had to have pre-established relationships of trust. We decided to have non-enrolling team members conduct the interviews because they were able to establish relationships with students that weren’t mitigated by the classroom context of report cards, curriculum, etc.

Focus: We noticed that our students were often disengaged when doing curricular tasks, and that students didn’t always see what they were learning in school as relevant to themselves and their success. We hoped that by offering a new setting for learning, students would be able to both strengthen connections with their peers and be able to engage with learning in a new way. We also hoped they would be able to bring skills from areas outside of the classroom, where they felt confident in their learning. For us as educators, we hoped that seeing our students in a new context where they might feel more successful or comfortable, would help us shift away from deficit thinking.

Hunch: We suspected some of the more traditional, Eurocentric ways that learning was presented and curriculum was taught were not seen as relevant to the students and were causing disconnection and absenteeism. We also noticed a tendency to engage in deficit thinking related to students’ abilities with curriculum. We hoped by shifting the focus back on to us as educators, and looking at ways we were presenting curricular opportunities, we could shift our thinking. We also had a hunch that our energetic students who had trouble focusing in the classroom might thrive in a larger, outdoor setting.

New Professional Learning: We did not have the opportunity to explore as much new professional learning as we would have liked, and struggled to find opportunities to learn together. Some learning we did do included exploring the FNESC teacher resource guides, reading about the Walking Curriculum and Nature Journaling, connecting with and learning from a member of the Squamish Nation, and attending a professional development workshop on epistemic racism. We also explored new curricular resources for the students, including cross-curricular texts.

Next year, we hope to learn together and ground our learning in a book club reading of Wayi Wah! Indigenous Pedagogies by Jo Chrona, as well as connect with and learn from the three local nations.

Taking Action: We decided to try integrating place-based, experiential learning into our classrooms, as well as offer cross-curricular field studies opportunities. In English class, for example, we did a unit on nature journaling where students went outside to the community garden almost every day. The students were able to explore the garden thoroughly and make observations on a deeper level.

Due to COVID, we were only able to offer one cross-curricular field studies activity, where the students went snowshoeing with a guide from the Squamish Nation who talked to them about place and storytelling.

As suspected, students were more engaged when they were outside the classroom for the most part. In 2/3 English 8 classes, students showed enthusiasm for and engagement with nature journaling. In one class, the students rushed their work because they wanted to spend their time outside playing basketball. In the first two classes, the work the students submitted was thoughtful and fully reflective of their abilities. Students felt comfortable taking risks and exploring new vocabulary.

On the snowshoeing trip, engagement was high and students felt comfortable sharing their own stories and making connections to their own lives and experiences. However, they did not seem to connect this with the storytelling explored in the classroom. Students may need more support making cross-curricular connections.

We also explored having a grade-wide question or theme but that did not take root this year. We hope to try again next year.

Checking: While our students overall reported feeling a sense of belonging at the end of the year, and generally demonstrated increased engagement during outdoor, experiential learning, we think we have more work to do when it comes to rethinking traditional curricular structures. We did one-off units or lessons, but would like to work towards moving into grade-wide, cross-curricular integration of place-based learning and First Peoples Principles of Learning, instead of just dropping in units or lessons here and there. We hope this will help the students build connections between curricular areas as well as their lives outside school. We would like to narrow our focus moving forward to more easily be able to see the long-term changes in our students.

Reflections/Advice: We learned it’s challenging to tease out the impact of our specific inquiry action versus the natural shifts that happen from September to June. Next year, we will examine narrowing our focus to see if we can hone in on the specific impact of our inquiry. We also learned the importance of listening to our learners and being prepared to have our assumptions challenged; they don’t always say what you would expect!

School Name: Rutland Senior Secondary & Mount Boucherie Secondary

School District: SD#23 Central Okanagan

Inquiry Team Members: Teresa Jackson: teresa.jackson@sd23.bc.ca, Michelle Johnson: michelle.johnson@sd23.bc.ca, Ryan Mansley: ryan.mansley@sd23.bc.ca, Stacey Mee: stacey.mee@sd23.bc.ca, Mary Redfearn: mary.redfearn@sd23.bc.ca, Raquel Steen: raquel.steen@sd23.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: Raquel Steen/raquel.steen@sd23.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Intermediate (4-7), Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed:

• Career Education
• Other: Leadership

Focus Addressed:

• Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation)
• Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving)
• First Peoples Principles of Learning
• Growth mindset
• Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies
• Indigenous pedagogy
• Land, Nature or Place-based learning

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Students’ connections to staff in schools, beyond the teachers, and advocates directly involved in the Indigenous learning communities.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: One of the first steps of our project was to do a large-scale scan of our Indigenous student body within our high school, as part of my school’s participation in the Network of Inquiry and Indigenous Education project. NOIIE urges educators across Canada to use their Spiral of Inquiry to develop better programming and systems for Indigenous learners and content. The spiral consists of “scanning, focusing, developing a hunch, new professional learning, taking action and checking that a big enough difference has been made” (Spiral of Inquiry). Our NOIIE inquiry process started with scans asking our Indigenous students Kaser and Halbert’s Spiral Playbook inspired guiding questions:
1. Can you name two adults in your school who believe you will be a success in life? Where else in the school community are you connected? Are there other adults beyond these two?
2. Where in life are you learning? What are you learning? Why is it important?
3. What is your comfort level going into office spaces such as the front office and the counselling/career centre for support? What are the barriers in using these supports?
4. What things are standing in your way of connection? Trauma, internal, external?

In our scan, our team of teachers, administration, counselors, and Indigenous advocates consulted over 220 Indigenous students at RSS and MBSS – some who were directly involved in Indigenous learning communities, and some who were not. Together, we asked them if they had two adults in the building who believed they would be a success, where and what are they learning that they deem important, and their comfortability using various spaces within our school building. The results from this inquiry scan were not surprising, in that many of the students already invested in our Indigenous learning communities lean on our staff heavily for academic and social emotional support. They do not necessarily deem academics as their primary learning, and in fact many shared that they are learning from their relatives, the land, or themselves through self-guided practices. Similarly, they felt uncomfortable accessing supports in the office spaces outside of our Indigenous wing, such as the careers and counseling centers and the front office.

Focus: MBSS: We are hoping to create a learning community that allows for deeper connections, more holistic support, and greater opportunities to learn on the land in multiple seasons.

RSS: We need to find better connections for our students to our counsellors, administrators, learning assistant teachers and adults in similar supportive roles. This will ensure that Indigenous students will have a level of comfort necessary to reach out to the supports outside of Indigenous Education and the Indigenous Learning Community.

Hunch: MBSS: Our hunch was that many of the students already invested in our Indigenous Academy lean on our Academy specific staff heavily for academic and social emotional support, and that they feel uncomfortable accessing supports in office spaces outside of our Indigenous wing such as the careers and counseling centers and the front office.

RSS: From these scans we were able to look at the data and find a focus that helped us develop a hunch. Our hunch was that our Indigenous students are quite comfortable and connected to their Indigenous Learning Community teachers and advocates, but not well connected to adults in the building beyond that. The scans further showed that there were reasons that our Indigenous students were not reaching out to or feeling comfortable with other adults in the building. Specifically, students hesitated to reach out to adults in student supporting roles because they felt they had not developed trusting relationships. The thoughts were that if students could build a connection with these adults in their own safe spaces, they would feel more comfortable going into spaces in the building and reaching out to these adults. Ultimately, the students would feel more supported throughout the building.

New Professional Learning: Regular meetings between schools have provided an opportunity for school teams to learn from one another.

Taking Action: MBSS: Based upon this scan, we decided to take action. Our learning community was born from us wanting to make space for and honour these perspectives from our students, while also finding ways to fix the cracks that they shone lights on. We will be continuing this inquiry project through NOIIE over the next two school years. Next year, we have timetabled for an Indigenous Learning community in which students will obtain their Indigenous Leadership credit alongside a credit for Career and Life education. Students will be with the same two teachers for half a day, every other day, all year long. We anticipate that this new learning community will allow for deeper connections, more holistic support, and greater opportunities to learn on the land in multiple seasons.

RSS: Quite early into this initiative we saw some success. The school counselors and administrators started joining our students in the classroom for circle, classroom visits, and joining in on field trips. Students and these adults were getting to know each other and creating relationships. Seeing how well this was going, we very quickly realized that we needed to encourage our Indigenous students to step out of their comfort zones and go into other less comfortable areas in the building. Our students were encouraged to seek out our administrators by approaching them in the main office. Students sought out our admin team for the purpose of discussing their leadership projects, creating school-wide announcements and having other conversations.

Photos (above): Pictures from MBSS & RSS NOIIE Inquiry Project activities

Checking: MBSS: It is too early in the process to be able to determine what differences have been made. Next year, once the new format for the community is established, we will check with learners regarding the impact of the changes. We are excited to monitor progress within and beyond this community through the NOIIE process.

RSS: Through these initiatives, our students are starting to feel more comfortable with their administrators. Students are starting to see the administrators as trusting adults that they can go to for support. We are celebrating success stories seeing how comfortable our Indigenous students are becoming and how they are now becoming leaders. We recently had a non-Indigenous student needing to speak with an administrator, but they were too nervous to approach their vice principal on their own. Because our Indigenous students are becoming comfortable navigating the main office space, one of our Indigenous students accompanied the non-Indigenous student to the office, introducing them to the vice principal and helping guide the conversation. This is such an incredible change from last fall.

Reflections/Advice: Our Indigenous students are still working on developing their relationships with our school counsellors and administrators. They are starting to interact with them outside the counseling and office space more often, but the vast majority still say they would still not seek out our school counsellors for social-emotional support. They do like the counsellors, just have not built trusting relationships at this time.

The large umbrella that our focus has been is student mental wellness. An area where we were able to see immediate and significant growth in this area was with time spent with Elders on the land. The students had the opportunity to go to the home of two Elders. In this space, they participated in traditional on land learning, as well as listened to the transition story of one of the Elders’ daughters. The entire day benefitted mental health through tradition and story. The student’s voiced that to learn their traditions meant healing for the whole community. Listening to the stories of an Indigequeer woman allowed the students to gain confidence of voice and inspiration to move forward with their own healing. Students expressed their calmness and feeling of healing through being on the land, being in community, being with the Elders, and having Indigenous role models (both 2 spirit and others).

Although the initial goal of connecting students with people outside the classroom community is still important and we will continue in that route, it became very obvious the significant impact of walking in the Indigenous way with Indigenous community has on the students. My hunch is, that through supporting this action on a greater level, as well as continuing to make gains with counselors and administrators, the overall impact on positive mental well-being will be that much more significant.

Next Steps:
There has been great success thus far in our inquiry process connecting our Indigenous Learning Community students with our student support team, however, we seem to be falling short on connecting our Indigenous students outside the learning community to these supports. Our priority for the upcoming school year will be to include our Indigenous advocates in this inquiry project and share the work with them. From there, we will be in a better position to support not only our learning community students, but all of our Indigenous students as a whole. We are also looking at ways to better connect our Indigenous students to our counsellors. We are hoping to host an event for our grade nine students in the fall. The goal is to have our counsellors host the event, alongside our advocates, and invite the grade nine Indigenous students in for a lunch and meet & greet. Through these initiatives, we feel that we will be building stronger trusting relationships with our Indigenous students and the student supports outside their Indigenous Learning Community.

School Name: Pemberton Secondary School

School District: SD#48 Sea to Sky

Inquiry Team Members: Steve Evans: sevans@sd48.bc.ca, Kat Ast: kast@sd48.bc.ca, Emma Mulling: emullings@sd48.bc.ca, Jodie Petruzzellis: JPetruzzellis@sd48.bc.ca, Tanina Williams: twilliams@sd48.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Name/Email: Steve Evans: sevans@sd48.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Secondary (8-12)

Curricular Areas Addressed:

• Language Arts – Oral Language
• Language Arts – Writing
• Mathematics / Numeracy
• Science
• Social Studies

Focus Addressed:

• Indigenous understandings (for example, Traditional Knowledge, oral history, reconciliation)
• Community-based learning
• Core competencies (for example, critical thinking, communication, problem solving)
• Experiential learning
• First Peoples Principles of Learning
• Flexible learning
• Growth mindset
• Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies
• Indigenous pedagogy
• Land, Nature or Place-based learning
• Social and emotional learning
• STEM / STEAM
• Transitions

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Continue to use and deepen cultural and land-based education to centre Lil’wat and St’at’imc ways of knowing, doing and being into the daily functioning of learning at PSS.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: As explained in our initial report, our ideas this year stemmed from meetings with staff, students, the Satisfaction Survey data, ongoing staff observation/conversations and past interviews with students. Some of the data we analyzed really impacted us, including the realization that 45% of students felt safe attending the school (norm 66%), 23% of students felt they were bullied in the previous month and only 47% of students valued schooling outcomes (norm 69%).

One challenge that we observed in our scanning process this year was the void of losing the school’s Indigenous Cultural Worker. This was a big challenge both for student relationships and connections, and also for our own learning as staff. This led to further initial barriers in incorporating culturally relevant content in a manner that was realistic for most staff. As will be discussed later, we sought some new and creative ways to navigate this, which ultimately deepened our journey. We were able to step back and embrace the First People’s Principles of Learning, and apply the concept that “learning is relational…. And…. takes patience and time”.

Focus: Our focus was to continue to use and deepen cultural and land based education to centre Lil’wat and St’at’imc ways of knowing, doing and being into the daily functioning of learning at PSS. Through this re-centring and reclaiming of space, this will create greater accountability for the educators at PSS. This can be supported by creating ongoing opportunities for teachers to get involved. Increased staff learning will benefit Indigenous students. Based on the challenges we unexpectedly encountered this year, this area of focus became all the more relevant. As mentioned in the previous section, thinking reflectively about this helped us find new, and perhaps, more sustainable ways to do this work at decolonizing education at PSS.

Hunch: Our work this year has been guided by the hunch that land heals, land can provide a stable framework, it can build resilience, foster meaning and simultaneously help us as educators to unpack our positionality. As we follow this train of thought, we consider the question “how might we shift the inclusion at our school beyond the areas of recent growth in math and science?” Our hunch is that it deeply depends on individual teacher personalities, but perhaps using the new curriculum as a structure we can apply this to guide a new model of strength-based assessment. Self-assessment could then be the jumping off point to link land education with a trauma-informed assessment practice.

New Professional Learning: This year we reached out beyond the resources typically available in our school and wider school district. This included fostering new authentic relationships with Lil’wat knowledge keepers and working with them in a number of ways which navigated areas of expertise, Covid and accessibility. This included having an elder, Sawt (Martina Pierre), Zoom into several classes one per week to give powerful lessons. It also included a day on the land with Edwin Bikadie learning about a local village site which was wiped out by the smallpox epidemic of the 1880s. We organized medical plant walks and began working with BC Parks and Lil’wat regarding changing the official name of Nairn Falls campground back to its Ucwalmicts name. This helped us to authentically learn on the land and develop a far more visceral understanding of place. This was further contributed to, by the journey that I began on this year in applying to a PhD program in Educational Studies at UBC. I hope to continue this avenue of learning between land-based learning as a path for Truth and Reconciliation in education.

Taking Action: Future Actions:
1) Start early in the year with authentic experiences that set a tone for the path ahead. Tone setting in a cultural capacity helps to break down barriers and foster safety amongst the learners. It helps to get to know each other better beyond conventional models of instruction and assessment.
2) Go even deeper. We had some powerful experiences this year, but it was still only scratching the surface.
3) There is no such thing as too much learning on the land. More intentional experiential learning is always a positive experience.

Checking: We are unsure how much of a difference we made. We were not able to collect specific data at this time, however, the surface results from this year will be available next fall. Our sense is that we had an impact on the learning for participant staff and a number of students. This would specifically be students that participate in the affected programs: many math and science classes, Indigenous Studies, Middle School, and the Indigenous Leadership program. However, these changes are not even close to enough and we are not yet satisfied. A deeper sense of success will come with realizing these shifts as entrenched within the wider culture of the learning environment.

Reflections/Advice:
1) Learning is relational
2) Land and culture heals
3) Land provides a stable framework to address a decolonizing method of assessment and instruction
4) Land can build resilience, foster meaning and simultaneously help us as educators to unpack our positionality.
5) This is a multi-year journey that requires patience
6) Start the work with those interested and you will be surprised by who will join along the way
7) Continuous reflection is important