Date of Submission
8-8-2023
Document Type
OIP
Degree
Doctor of Education
Department
Education
Keywords
critical social justice leadership, culturally responsive school leadership, transformative leadership, collective teacher efficacy, Indigenous learners, equity transformation cycle, reflexive pedagogy
Abstract
Professional learning in the areas of Indigenous education, reconciliation, and antiracism is as much a personal journey as a professional one for educators today. At New Beginnings Middle School (NBMS, a pseudonym), Indigenous learners experience a significant academic achievement gap. This Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) explores how to cultivate teaching practices that create a more inclusive school environment and improve academic achievement for all Indigenous students. It proposes to guide educators through bias mitigation with integrated professional learning to develop culturally responsive pedagogy. Given the compelling correlation between inclusiveness and academic success, NBMS educators must work collectively to build confidence in Indigenous learners, reduce racial barriers, mitigate ignorance, and develop programming that reflects student culture. Implementation of the proposed solution is interpreted through a critical social justice lens, and it relies on transformative leadership and culturally responsive and adaptive practices. A proposed blended change implementation plan encourages teachers to listen and awaken, uncover and mobilize, reimagine and accelerate, and move and institutionalize. Measuring and monitoring the plan includes a 10-month timeline, a teacher’s cultural proficiency receptivity scale, various student agency measurement surveys, and a classroom data dashboard tool. The NBMS administration will set conditions for educators to centre Indigenous students by implementing processes to build student voice and agency as cocreators of their learning. This OIP builds collective teacher efficacy for an envisioned state of continual reflexive pedagogy in teachers specific to Indigenous students, with an end goal to close the achievement gap for these learners at NBMS.
Recommended Citation
Saraceni, E. (2023). Counter-narratives and Revisionism: A Transformative Journey to Closing the Achievement Gap for Indigenous Learners through Culturally Responsive School Leadership, Equity Transformation, and Nurturing Collective Teacher Efficacy. The Organizational Improvement Plan at Western University, 324. Retrieved from https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/oip/324