Date of Submission

5-31-2020

Document Type

OIP

Degree

Doctor of Education

Department

Education

Keywords

Critical Race Theory, Images and Texts, Learning Climate, Racialized Students

Abstract

Racialized students often perceive a more negative learning climate than their White peers (Salle, Zabek, & Meyers, 2016). According to Statistics Canada (2017), the region that School Board (SB) is part of is drastically growing in the number of people that self-identify as racialized. This is important to recognize because internal board data already highlights that many students within SB currently do not rate their learning climates as positive (SB, 2017). This organizational improvement plan (OIP) uses critical race theory to highlight issues with the unintentional reinscription of White dominance in texts and images within SB, and the effects that this reinscription has on racialized students’ perceptions of their learning climates. This OIP connects a positive learning climate to an authentically inclusive learning climate where students are reflected without the unintentional reinscription of White dominance. Although texts and images are not the only way to build an inclusive and positive learning climate, Glass (2012)’s article highlights that a significant part of creating an inclusive learning climate involves reflecting students’ racial identities. Images and texts provide a tangible way of creating this representation. The problem of practice (PoP) in this OIP hopes to change the negative impact that current and imminent images and texts (both in print and online) have on students’ perceptions of their learning climates. The PoP being addressed is how can school resources, such as images and texts, be utilized to better reflect the diversity of SB and in particular racialized students? Through both transformational and behavioural leadership, this OIP uses Kotter’s 8-stage change model to implement change goals to address the PoP.

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