Ecole Glenrosa Middle School SD#23 Central Okanagan

I. General Information

School Name: Ecole Glenrosa Middle School

School District: SD#23 Central Okanagan

Inquiry Team Members: Spencer Kellington: spencer.kellington@sd23.bc.ca, Alison Goubault: alison.goubault.sd23.bc.ca

Inquiry Team Contact Email: spencer.kellington@sd23.bc.ca

II. Inquiry Project Information

Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study

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

Curricular Areas Addressed: Not applicable

Focus Addressed: Other: Belonging and Agency

In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? Our focus for the year was exploring how educators can move students of colour from simply sharing their voices, towards exercising meaningful agency and leadership in ways that strengthen their sense of school belonging.

III. Spirals of Inquiry Details

Scanning: My scanning process focused on listening to the lived experiences of students involved in the Student Matters Committee, particularly around belonging, voice, and agency. Using the questions *“What’s going on for our learners?”* and *“How do we know?”*, I gathered insights through conversations, observations, reflection, and student feedback.

I learned that students felt a stronger sense of belonging when they were trusted with authentic opportunities to contribute, lead, and create change within the school community. The inquiry was guided by the OECD principles of learner agency and engagement, as well as the First Peoples Principles of Learning, which emphasize relationships, identity, reflection, and learning through connection to community.

Focus: I selected this area because street-level data collected through empathy interviews revealed that many of our students of colour experienced a diminished sense of belonging within both the school and broader community. Students shared experiences of exclusion, stereotyping, and feeling unseen, which highlighted the importance of creating spaces where students felt heard, valued, and empowered. Through my work with the Student Matters Committee, I wanted to better understand how educators could support students in moving beyond simply sharing their perspectives toward exercising meaningful agency and leadership, with the hope of strengthening students’ sense of belonging and their ability to create positive change within the school community.

Hunch: My hunch was that schools often create opportunities for student voice without creating meaningful opportunities for student agency or shared decision-making. I also wondered if some school structures and practices unintentionally positioned students (particularly students of colour) as passive participants rather than active contributors to school culture and change. Additionally, I believed that belonging was strengthened not simply through inclusion initiatives, but through authentic relationships, trust, and opportunities for students to lead meaningful work within the school community.

New Professional Learning: Through this inquiry, I deepened my learning around student agency, school belonging, narrative inquiry, and equity-centered leadership practices as part of my Master of Education research project through Vancouver Island University. This project allowed me to formally study the work of the Student Matters Committee and explore the relationship between belonging, voice, agency, and student leadership. Findings from this research project will be linked within this application.

Resources that were particularly helpful included *Street Data* by Shane Safir and Jamila Dugan, the OECD framework on student agency, and the First Peoples Principles of Learning.

To support the learning of colleagues, I shared student stories, empathy interview findings, reflective prompts, and examples from the Student Matters Committee through collaborative discussions and professional conversations. I focused on creating reflective, dialogue-based opportunities that encouraged staff to think critically about belonging, voice, and how schools can move toward more authentic student partnership.

Taking Action: Our work centered on creating authentic, student-led opportunities for belonging, dialogue, and leadership through the Student Matters Committee. Students participated in empathy interviews, shared lived experiences with staff, engaged in reflective dialogue, and helped identify areas where students of colour experienced barriers to belonging within the school and broader community.

From there, we intentionally shifted from simply gathering student voice toward supporting student agency. Students co-planned initiatives, facilitated conversations, presented to Grade 5 feeder schools about anti-racism and belonging, wrote letters to district leadership, organized community-building events such as The Common Ground Café, and helped create spaces where students could connect and feel valued.

As educators, our role was to protect relational spaces, scaffold student leadership, gradually share responsibility, and support students in taking meaningful action. Reflection was embedded throughout the process through ongoing conversations, narrative inquiry journaling, and collaborative dialogue with students and colleagues.

Checking: The inquiry demonstrated meaningful growth in students’ sense of belonging, agency, and leadership within the school community. Through the work, a continuum emerged (belonging → agency → leadership → stewardship) which became an important framework for understanding how students grew over time. As students experienced stronger relationships and a greater sense of belonging, they became more willing to share their perspectives, take action, lead initiatives, and eventually steward spaces and conversations for others.

Evidence of change came through student reflections, empathy interview data, observations, conversations, and the increasing confidence students showed in facilitating dialogue, organizing initiatives, and advocating for change within the school and district. While I was encouraged by the impact of the work, the inquiry also reinforced that belonging and equity work are ongoing processes that require continual reflection, relationship-building, and shared responsibility.

Reflections/Advice: This inquiry reinforced for me that belonging is foundational to student growth, and that authentic student agency cannot emerge without strong relationships, trust, and meaningful opportunities for students to contribute to their communities. I learned that when educators intentionally move beyond simply listening to students and begin sharing responsibility and leadership with them, students are capable of creating powerful change within schools. The belonging → agency → leadership → stewardship continuum that emerged from this work will continue to shape both my practice and future research.

Moving forward, I hope to continue expanding opportunities for authentic student partnership and explore how these ideas can be embedded more intentionally across school and district structures. I also hope to continue sharing the findings from this work through professional learning and collaboration with colleagues.

My advice to other schools would be to begin by listening deeply to students (especially students whose experiences are often marginalized) and to approach this work relationally rather than programmatically. Creating spaces for belonging takes time, trust, and a willingness to share power with students in meaningful ways.