Inclusion isn’t built in a day. It takes ongoing reflection and effort. When Dr. Nikki Yee was a classroom and special education teacher, they believed in inclusion, but weren’t always sure how to achieve it. Through years of layering experiences across diverse fields, Dr. Yee expresses the ways self-regulated learning is helping them achieve their goals.
“SRL supportive practices have given me a great blueprint for understanding how to structure learning opportunities that support student autonomy and growth.” – Dr. Yee
Dr. Yee’s work invites educators to look at the ongoing impacts of colonialism in schools and reimagine what inclusive education can be. Through community-based research and critical reflection, they explore how SRL-informed teaching approaches can help educators move beyond harm and toward personally relevant and uplifting learning in relationship with diverse learners.
Dr. Yee’s scholarship involves collaboration with educators, students, parents, community members, and researchers in communities of inquiry to advance opportunities for inclusive, decolonizing practices. By inviting students to inquire collaboratively, Dr. Yee is creating a context where students can influence the very change initiatives that impact them. Self-regulated learning frameworks emphasize the importance of students’ opportunities to make decisions for their learning, so that they grow in their capacities to take control over their possibilities for success. Dr. Yee’s work extends this idea beyond classrooms to create real change at the school-level, as educational stakeholders and students co-inquire for change by creating goals, making plans to achieve them, reflecting on how their efforts are playing out, and making adjustments as and in the ways needed.
“In my mind, SRL supportive strategies offer a way to move beyond colonial ideas of teaching to the norm” — Dr. Yee
