I. General Information
School Name: NIDES
School District: SD#71 Comox Valley
Inquiry Team Members:
Kyle Timms: Kyle.Timms@sd71.bc.ca
Erica Black: Erica.Black@sd71.bc.ca
Murray McRae
Charles Schilling
Inquiry Team Contact Email: gerald.fussell@sd71.bc.ca
II. Inquiry Project Information
Type of Inquiry: NOIIE Case Study
Grade Levels Addressed Through Inquiry: Primary (K-3), Intermediate (4-7), Secondary (8-12)
Curricular Areas Addressed: Other: Online Learning
Focus Addressed: Differentiated instruction, Flexible learning, Inclusion and inclusive instructional strategies, Indigenous pedagogy, Universal design for learning
In one sentence, what was your focus for the year? How do we increase success for our Indigenous Learners?
III. Spirals of Inquiry Details
Scanning: We used the four key questions to identify areas that we could target to increase student connection and efficacy.
Focus: By having students throughout the province working in a variety of contexts anchored by online learning, we realized that there was little connection between them and our school community. We were hoping to increase the sense of community and connection experiences by our Indigenous students.
Hunch: We thought that by increasing contact, individually with our remote learners, we would be able to develop stronger connections. We also thought that by supporting our online learning platform with blended learning, we would increase student connection and efficacy. We were concerned that our students were working in isolation and not connecting meaningfully to their work: that there was a separation between what they were being asked to do and their communities.
New Professional Learning: We had leaders attend the FNESC conference. Our entire staff used our staff meetings to study Wayi Wah! by Jo Chrona. We challenged each other individually to increase knowledge and understanding, and to then put those into practice. We also began to identify ways we can assess whether we are increasing student success. Throughout, we had open and challenging conversations with each other and with our different communities.
Taking Action: We made sure to have one adult, other than the student’s teachers, reach out and make contact with our Indigenous learners a minimum of once/month. We hosted “Chew and Chat” sessions online for students around the province to participate in. We had guest presenters that were broadcasted live to our students around the province. We provided individual advocacy for families and students who requested it, or who we thought would benefit from it. We also began to identify ways that we can assess the success of our efforts.
Checking: We did not make enough of a difference because we are beginning to focus on the work and get things into place to support our work. This is a long term project that is going to take significant time to establish before we will see systemic improvement. We did see significant improvements in pockets of excellence and in some isolated situations. Until we get meaningful baseline data, we will not be able to ascertain our level of success. Having said that, we will never make ‘enough of a difference.”
Reflections/Advice: We learned that the challenge is massive and that we are at the embryonic stage of this work. Our students need this to be a primary focus of our energy and resources. This is also very complex work as each person has a different measure for success. Having said that, our goal is for each of our students to cross the stage with dignity, purpose, and options.