You’re invited to take part in the search for an Associate or Assistant Professor of Indigenous Education on Oct. 7, 8 and 9. We have three candidates selected for interviews. Presentations are open to all Okanagan School of Education (OSE) students, staff and faculty and will take place starting at 9:30 a.m. in EME 3112. Following a brief break, there is an opportunity for students to have a conversation with each candidate.

Your involvement and feedback is valuable – download the feedback forms for each candidate below. Forms are due to Lindsay Cox at Lindsay.Cox@ubc.ca by 9 a.m. on Thursday, October 10.

Interview Schedule

October 7: Lois Edge – Download feedback form, view presentation (begins at approximately the 7 minute mark)
October 8: Jennifer Markides – Download feedback form, view presentation (begins at approximately the 4:30 minute mark)
October 9: William (Bill) Cohen – Download feedback form, view presentation (begins at approximately the 5:30 minute mark)

Detailed Agenda

9:30–10:45
Presentation (45 min) & Questions (30 min) in EME 3112
10:45-11:00
Break
11:00-11:30
Conversation with students in EME 3112

Search Committee Members
Dr. Margaret Macintyre Latta, Professor & Director, OSE, & Committee Chair
Dr. Jeannette Armstrong, Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair in Okanagan Indigenous Knowledge and Philosophy, Community, Culture, & Global Studies, UBC Okanagan
Terry-Lee Beaudry, Adjunct Professor, OSE, & Deputy Superindendent, Central Okanagan School District
Dr. Robert Campbell, Associate Professor, OSE
Dr. Scott Roy Douglas, Associate Professor, OSE
Dr. Jan Hare, Professor & Associate Dean, Indigenous Education, UBC
Dr. Karen Ragoonaden, Professeure titulaire/Professor of Teaching, OSE
Camille X. Rousseau, Graduate Student, OSE
Kristin Schuppener, Faculty Administrator, OSE

PINTS Speaker Series and Centre for Mindful Engagement presents Beyond the Classroom Walls: Teaching in Challenging Social Contexts

The Okanagan School of Education is pleased to welcome Dr. Jerome Cranston, Professor and Dean, Faculty of Education, University of Regina to UBCO on Thursday, October 3 for two presentations. The presentations will focus on his recent book, Beyond the Classroom Walls: Teaching in Challenging Social Contexts, which provides a richly descriptive, research-based inside-look at informal education in some challenging international socio-political and ethnocultural settings.

“We live in an increasingly globalized world, yet teachers in the majority of North American contexts know relatively little about what teaching looks or sounds like in non-traditional settings,” says Cranston.

His presentation will highlight that by developing a deeper sense of critical, intercultural awareness of teaching and learning at a global-level, teachers will be better able to develop relationships with students and families who come from quite different life experiences than many of us have.

“I have two hopes from the research work reflected in ‘Beyond the Classroom Walls: Teaching in challenging social contexts,’” says Cranston. “I would like to believe that it offers a level of critical awareness and, perhaps, some level of understanding of the very real challenges that many teachers encounter across the globe as they try to create better futures for children and youth. And, I want to believe that the ethnographic narratives contained in it offer us all a sense that we collectively can make a difference in the face of some unimaginable challenges.”

Both events are open to the public, UBCO staff, faculty and students. While attendance is free, you still need to register as limited seating is available.

• October 3 from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. at beyondtheclassroomwallsam.eventbrite.com
• October 3 from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. at beyondtheclassroomwallspm.eventbrite.com
• Current Bachelor of Education candidates do not need to register as the presentation takes place during class time

“As an educator who is committed to anti-racist, anti-oppressive and decolonizing approaches to education, I have been fortunate to find myself invited to work with some marginalized communities who want to be represented in the literature developed around the lives of teachers and their commitment to teach,” says Cranston. “It is my privilege to be invited to work with them and I see myself as related to them and the stories they share with me.”

About the speaker

Cranston holds a Ph.D. (Manitoba), M. Ed. (Lethbridge), B.Ed After-Degree and B.Sc. (Alberta). Prior to becoming an academic he spent 16 years in the K-12 education system as a teacher, principal and superintendent in a career that spanned Canada’s “prairie” provinces. He researches and teaches as part of an interdisciplinary, international “community of inquiry” on topics that explore formal and non-formal teacher preparation and the ethical dimensions of school leadership with a particular focus on how capacity building in the education system can transform a set of seemingly random acts – like teacher hiring – into a just enterprise.

His maternal grandparents originated from tribal communities in what are now Nepal and Burma/Myanmar and who were anglicized and evangelized as part of the colonial contagion. His paternal grandfather, a travelling book-keeper with the East Indian Rail Company was killed in 1941 during a Japanese bombing of a railway station. His then widowed grandmother, a mother of five, died in 1942 of malnutrition; an outcome of the British manufactured famine in West Bengal. He accepts a distant yet unvarying connection to the trauma that echoes through their colonized histories.

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Kelly who graduated with her PhD in June 2019!

Jennifer is a district literacy specialist in the North Okanagan-Shuswap School District (School District 83) in Salmon Arm. For more than 20 years, she has been teaching in a number of different capacities; including courses in early reading behaviour at Thompson Rivers University and at the Okanagan School of Education.

Her passion for teaching students to read created a belief that literacy can change a student’s life trajectory.

Question and Answer Session with Jennifer

What was your research project?

My case study examined the professional learning experiences of ten teachers engaged in a provincially-developed professional learning community (PLC) over a period of two years, that was formed as part of the Changing Results for Young Readers (CR4YR) British Columbia provincial initiative.

I found that teachers can engage in wholistic professional learning, which involves experiences connecting the mind and heart while learning in relation to others. I suggest that teacher professional learning ought to focus on providing time for professional to develop learning relationships, encourage teachers to theorize, and allow on-going learning experiences for teachers.

What difference do you hope your research will make?

I’ve noticed in my teaching practice and witnessed in my colleagues, professional learning is an area of attention that can add sustenance to teaching. It can be one of the things that develops excitement and engagement in teaching. It can reinvigorate or simply be one of the areas of teaching that allows teachers to survive a complex role.

I know that professional learning can be all those things, but there is no recipe to follow to ensure teachers are motivated to participate and that the learning experiences are relevant, valuable, and meaningful. In my role (in the district), it is very important to me to create conditions for teachers’ learning that are impactful to each teacher personally and professionally.

This urgent need to work with teachers in ways that not only increased their knowledge, but their professionalism led me to this research to further understand how teachers are experiencing learning.

My fondest hope is that my research will contribute to the elevation of the role of a teacher to one of deep admiration and value.

What advice do you have for future graduate students?

1. Be open to other perspectives and alternate ways of thinking about research.
2. Read, read, read, and then read some more.
3. Set a schedule for writing and talk about your research as much as possible with anyone who will listen.
4. Enjoy the process and celebrate every little accomplishment along your journey.

Learn more about her research by reading her thesis: Teaching professional learning: focusing on a wholistic experience linking the mind and the heart through relational learning.

Our 2019 Doctoral Studies Outstanding Dissertation Award recipient is Donna Kozak with her dissertation on Parents with teachers re-authoring the home-school interface: a critical participatory action research study.

A familiar face around UBCO, Donna Kozak (or Dr. Donna Kozak we can officially say!) has been an adjunct professor co-teaching a literacy course for our Bachelor of Education students for seven years – and prior to that had been teaching a language and literacy course for our year one Elementary Teacher Education Program  (ETEP) students from 2008-2011.

In 2012, Donna was approached to develop a Central Okanagan School District/UBCO partnership to create a Learning Centre focused on language arts and literacy for the then ETEP – and now Bachelor of Education students. It may have been hard to believe back then that that partnership would lead her to inspiring change in parent-teacher partnerships. Her journey to pursuing her PhD through Interdisciplinary Studies at the Okanagan School of Education is one that she calls a “gift.”

When Donna began her PhD, her initial research sought to answer a question she had reflected on for nearly her entire three decade career.

“In all my years as a teacher, I wondered about how we position ourselves with parents as partners, because there’s the assumption that we’re partners in children’s education. So my wonder led to let’s figure out historically why parents and teachers, home and school, are positioned the way they are.”

Following the completion of her initial research, Donna asked herself, “Now that I understand why this relationship exists the way it does, could my research disrupt that? Could it suggest to the profession that there is another way for parents and teachers to interact and what it might take for that to happen.”

Thinking outside of the traditional research box, Donna engaged in critical participatory action research for her dissertation.

She approached teachers from Kindergarten to grade four and asked them to invite one or two parents per classroom during that academic year to join a committee. A total of twenty-five teachers and parents then co-created a learning community that met on five occasions over four months. Through guiding questions, they shared their stories, experiences, and knowledge which led them to better understand each other’s perspectives. Ultimately this transformative research experience had them disrupt how parent-teacher relationships have been historically and unquestioningly defined.

While reflecting on her experience, Donna remarked that her highlight was being true to participatory research by taking a step into the unknown and trusting the process.

“The unpredictability of it and how well it turned out. That was a highlight,” she says with a laugh and further explains that her theoretical framework was the concept of third space, where combined diverse voices resulted in a new hybrid form of knowledge. “Everyone brings a different perspective and out of that diversity, something new is born.”

She has two pieces of advice for prospective graduate students:

One, find a supervisor that really believes in you and supports you, and is on the same page as you.

“Know your people that are surrounding you. If your people aren’t aligned with you it can cause some heartache and problems. So surround yourself with people that really understand and support you and that you connect with. “

Two, have patience and be kind to your self.

“I really chunked the journey. There are definable steps that you take within the PhD program so I always took it one step a time and that was more manageable because to think of the overall big picture was really scary,” says Donna. “Find what works for you – a study schedule, setting short term goals and celebrating the goals when you’ve achieved them. It’s on your mind 24/7 so I found I worked best in chunks of time and gave myself a rest – or tried to give myself a rest.”

Donna crossed her last milestone off her list after she crossed the stage in June, 2019.

You can read her thesis on Parents with teachers re-authoring the home-school interface: a critical participatory action research study online.

Our 2019 Outstanding Master-Level Graduate Student Award recipient is Master of Arts student, Leslie Shayer. An award that’s not often bestowed, Leslie has gone above and beyond since joining us at the Okanagan School of Education (OSE). She is a Grad Student Representative, the Secretary for the Stress, Coping, and Resilience Special Interest Group in the American Educational Research Association, and is always a cheerful presence at events – helping out whenever she can.

In addition to her course-work, Leslie has worked on two funded projects with Dr. Karen Ragoonaden: one on Mindfulness and Indigenous Knowledges: Shared Narratives about Identity and Well-Being; and another on a research cluster studying Culture, Creativity, Health and Well-Being.

On top of all her recent work at the OSE, Leslie has been a Professor of Mathematics and Statistics at Okanagan College, Kelowna Campus since 2006.

Question and Answer Session with Leslie

What is your research project, and what stage are you at?

My thesis research considers the impact of contemplative (e.g., mindfulness) practices on math anxiety. We all know people who are made uncomfortable or anxious by math. I would like to support them to feel less uncomfortable, using different breathing, visualization and meditation techniques. If I can help anyone feel better about math to make learning easier, then that would be a great success.

I am hoping to begin my research in the fall, ethics pending. I have submitted my ethics applications to both UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College. My committee has been formed and my proposal is complete. I will be working on the first few chapters of my thesis this summer.

Why did you choose that topic and what difference do you hope your research will make?

I’ve been teaching math, primarily at the post-secondary level, for almost twenty years. During that time, I have seen a lot of struggling students. I am hoping that this pilot project will offer ways to support students to achieve greater math success and no longer limit their career choices.

What did your research work with Karen Ragoonaden entail, and how has it influenced you?

During Mindfulness and Indigenous Knowledges: Shared Narratives about Identity and Well-Being, I had the opportunity to learn more about contemplative practices as well as Indigenous ways of knowing and being. To support Karen’s work, I performed qualitative analysis on four different surveys for her, something that I had never done before. Because of this work, I learned of the insights gained by considering written responses and searching for connecting themes. This is a concept that I previously overlooked by simply considering quantitative data, yet will use going forward.

The other project was also with Dr. Virginie Magnat and it related to a cluster studying Culture, Creativity, Health and Well-Being. Working as research assistant on this project was truly eye-opening. First of all, I was treated by all as a member of the team, despite only being a grad student. I had no expectation of such and felt truly flattered and included. I was exposed to numerous deep and informative discussions that still haunt my sleep. Though I continue to digest many thoughts, there is one that I may share. True wellness is not an individual thing, it is a community affair – something that we all need to work toward.

What advice do you have for future graduate students?

Dive in and participate as much as you can.  Try not to get frustrated when you think your readings are in a foreign language — you aren’t alone feeling this way. Take advantage of the supportive and engaging learning environment. Enjoy the journey!

Our 2019 Stephen Daniel Pope Graduate Award recipient is PhD candidate, Kelly Hanson.

Kelly Hanson is well-known around the Okanagan School of Education. She completed her Master of Arts in Education in 2014, and was a much loved Faculty Advisor for the last two years.

Question and Answer Session with Kelly

What is your research project and what stage are you in?

I am currently in the final drafting and rewriting stage of my dissertation — a self-study situated within the context of a current provincial curricular change. Supporting the curriculum plan is the First Peoples Principles of Learning (FNESC), a learning philosophy that offers nine descriptions of what learning is, what it supports, involves, recognizes, and embeds from a First Nation perspective.

My research shares how the principles were an opportunity for me to learn about First Peoples pedagogies and perspectives as central to the flourishing of all teachers and students, and to deepen my understanding of teacher education towards such an aim.

Why did you choose that topic and what difference do you hope your research will make?

As an educator, I hope my engagement with the First Peoples Principles of Learning will facilitate conversations about the B.C. curriculum that influence an unlearning of limiting ideologies and practices in schools. I hope it will support teachers to sit with the discomfort of that process in order to cultivate more inclusive and loving ways of being with one another.

What advice do you have for future graduate students?

I am a big advocate that teaching is a lifelong pursuit of meaning and learning. For me the trick is to:

• Pay attention and be mindful.
• Follow the small moments of curiosity, the moments that make you feel most alive, and the communities that make you feel supported. It doesn’t always take a massive effort.
• Pause for an instant- breathe. Respond to what has caught your attention. Listen to your heart.
• Share your insights with your community and be open to what comes back to you in return.

Learn more about Kelly and her research by reading her profile piece on Our Stories.

Stephen Daniel Pope Graduate Award

This award is offered by family in memory of Dr. Stephen Daniel Pope to a graduate student in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan campus. The student shows great promise in the field of education. Dr. Stephen Daniel Pope is remembered for his passion for education and his significant contributions to the public education system of British Columbia in the 1800s.

Margaret Macintyre Latta, Director of the Okanagan School of Education

We are pleased to announce that Dr. Margaret Macintyre Latta has been appointed Director of the Okanagan School of Education.

Macintyre Latta has served as the Interim Director since 2018 with the Okanagan School of Education and was formally the Director of Graduate Programs for more than four years.

She received her Bachelor of Education from the University of Lethbridge and her graduate degrees from the University of Calgary. She is a former classroom teacher at the elementary, junior high and high school levels. She began her post-secondary academic career as a Practicum Advisor and Professional Seminar Instructor at the University of Calgary in 1994, but spent most of her academic career at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, starting in 2000 as an Assistant Professor in the College of Education & Human Sciences and as a Faculty Affiliate with Women and Gender Studies.  Over the course of her education career, Macintyre Latta has published and presented extensively– demonstrating her scholarly commitment to teacher education, foregrounding the primacy of educators in the lives of students.

As Director of the Okanagan School of Education, Macintyre Latta envisions the development of a vibrant community of educators, across all phases of career growth, and from  multiple disciplines, interests, and contexts, invested in learning together. At the heart of the OSE programs is the notion of a Scholar-Practitioner—cultivating educator identities as students of learning.

We look forward to continuing to work with Macintyre Latta as she brings her leadership approach of “pedagogically leading from within” – strengthening a learning culture that is learner and learning-orientated, responsive to place, research informed, organizationally dynamic, and inherently relational.

Twenty-two proud children from Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs recently received their graduation certificates after a 6-week program with the Building Academic Retention through K9’s (B.A.R.K.) team.

Thanks to a generous grant provided by the Telus Thompson Okanagan Community Board, this was the second year that the club partnered with B.A.R.K. The program saw children aged 5-12 work in small groups with a student mentor, a dog and a volunteer handler to learn valuable social skills like self-control strategies, leadership and empathy.

Each session began with a class discussion on the skills the children were to work on that day, followed by practice in a supportive, non-judgmental environment created by the friendly canines and volunteers. The final part of class had the children move outside of the classroom and practice their skills around campus with university students.

“What I find really rewarding about this program is the positive impact it seems to have on everyone involved,” says Freya Green, B.A.R.K. program coordinator and student mentor. “It’s lovely to watch the program fostering skills in the children as well as the students, and bringing joy to the handlers and the university students we visit.”

This year’s program saw the return of some students from the previous year. That allowed the B.A.R.K. team to observe the longer-term impact the program has had on many of the participants. B.A.R.K. volunteers noticed several returning children “stepping-up” to help other who were nervous or struggling with the lessons.

UBC Okanagan PhD student Camille Rousseau, who joined the fun this year as a mentor, says she was pleasantly surprised by the emotional growth shown by some of the participants.

“It was humbling to be a part of this program and to witness children develop conscientiousness towards others – humans and canines alike – and self-compassion. The impact of this program really grabbed me when one of the children was deeply moved by the story of Phyllis, Dr. Binfet’s three-legged dog, and wanted to know how to deal with the sadness of her story.”

Both Green and Rousseau point out that the benefits of the program aren’t just felt by the children of Okanagan Boys and Girls Clubs. The research and teaching opportunities provided by the partnership were invaluable to the B.A.R.K. team comprised of several UBC Okanagan students and volunteers. Along with Green and Rousseau, the program is led by Education graduate students Carson McKay and Nicole Harris. Harris is completing her MA thesis through the framework of the program.

“This is designed to be a beneficial opportunity for the kids to develop their social skills in the safe, fun environment of a dog program,” says Green. “But it also seems to have benefits on the students who work with them, who are given opportunities to develop their own leadership skills.”

Sabre Cherkowski, associate professor, Director, Graduate Programs at the Okanagan School of Education

UBC Okanagan Education associate professor Sabre Cherkwoski recently wrapped up a three-year study that culminated in her latest book: “Perspectives on Flourishing in Schools” (edited with Keith Walker, University of Saskatchewan).

The third book to emerge from this study was a slight departure from Dr. Cherkowski’s earlier work. This time, contributions came from the educators and researchers themselves, resulting in a collection of wide-ranging perspectives.

So what does it mean to ‘flourish’? We caught up with Dr. Cherkowski to learn more.

How did the idea for ‘Flourishing in Schools’ come about?

I’ve long been researching learning communities in schools and was finding myself drawn to the idea of understanding the more ‘human side’ of organizational structures. I started doing some reading on compassion in organizations and noticed that a lot of research into this was coming out of the business world. With my research colleague, Dr. Keith Walker, we asked ourselves, “Why don’t we have this research in Education? What if research on school improvement focused more on ways to support and grow positive capacities for educators?” We tend to focus on deficits– what’s wrong and what’s not working for students, rather than what’s right and how we can help educators thrive even more in their roles. This led us to the key guiding research question that shaped this project and the books that we developed from it– what are the factors, forces and dynamics that explain how certain schools and certain people in schools flourish?

What did you find?

Through appreciative interviews and focus group conversations with educators in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, we guided participants to reflect on what works well and gives them a sense of flourishing in their work.

In analyzing our data we found that as teachers move towards flourishing they will notice that their relationships with their students, colleagues and the larger learning community become more positive– and perhaps even more fun. Teachers described how flourishing meant feeling a sense of belonging to a “group with purpose” from which they could derive meaning for their work and lives.

What does teachers flourishing in schools look like?

Teachers who flourish told us that they appreciate and feel supported when working in a climate of fun— laughter, joking and friendly banter. They feel that what they do matters. They feel seen and valued in their work, and think they contribute to making the group better in some way. Teachers who flourish shared how they work together in ongoing innovation for continued connection, growth and thriving guided by their shared values and higher purpose. They value creativity and enjoy rising to challenges in their work. They feel they are supported, challenged and encouraged by their administrators. They flourish when their students do.

Why is exploring flourishing important?

We’re facing growing levels of stress, anxiety and burnout among teachers across the world, along with increasing international trend toward improving student wellbeing in school. Teachers need support, encouragement and inspiration to attend to their wellbeing as a foundational aspect of their work.

How can we help a teacher that is communicating a displeasure with their current situation?

Part of well-being work is recognizing that challenges, stressors and frustrations aren’t going away. You can’t eliminate them. Sometimes you can’t even mitigate them. Some people feel the need to vent those frustrations, but our research finds that noticing and encouraging the positive is often more beneficial than trying to get rid of the negative.

My advice to school administrators is to support teachers to engage in appreciative mindsets in how they view their school, their work and their lives. Encourage teachers to get together, engage with their colleagues, share ideas and celebrate what is working well. While positive scholarship does not deny the existence of negative experiences and the suffering and trauma that can afflict all of us, a deliberate focus on the positive can create an environment where all can thrive and flourish.

Learn more:

• • Perspectives on Flourishing in School
  • Teacher Wellbeing: Noticing, Nurturing, Sustaining and Flourishing in Schools
  • Mindful Alignment: Foundations of Educator Flourishing

Karen Ragoonaden, Professor of Teaching, Director, Centre for Mindful Engagement

French-speaking degree holders take note – the BC Ministry of Education has recently announced funding for an additional 20 prospective French educators for the Bachelor of Education program at UBC Okanagan.

This is a huge opportunity for prospective French educators in this province. Not only are these extra spaces in our BEd program being created for our 2019 intake, but a bursary of up to $1,600 may also be available to help these student offset their tuition costs.

Okanagan School of Education professor Karen Ragoonaden spoke with CBC Radio-Canada to fill in the details.

Listen Now (7 min 46 s)

Learn more:

• • Bachelor of Education at UBC Okanagan
  • Province celebrates new French teacher education students and expands training efforts