Date of Submission

8-27-2024

Document Type

DiP

Degree

Doctor of Education

Department

Education

Keywords

Student Mental Health, Catholic High School, Catholic Social Teaching, Transformative Leadership, Critical Social Justice, Faith-Based Leadership, Catholic Leadership, Catholic School System, Catholic Faith, Collective Teacher Efficacy, Appreciative Inquiry

Abstract

A significant proportion of youth enrolled in Ontario high schools struggle with mental health challenges, and educators lack the necessary readiness and capacities to address these issues. To address the problem of practice (PoP), this dissertation-in-practice (DiP) endeavours to create subject-specific professional learning communities (PLCs) with the dual objective of improving teacher preparation to effectively deal with student mental health challenges and foster collective teacher efficacy (CTE) at Central Catholic High School (CCHS). There is a definite correlation between the recent global pandemic, student well-being, mental health, and academic achievement. Considering this, CCHS must increase teacher interventions, engage policies that promote greater equity, and enhance coordination across its teaching staff and student support systems. The DiP is framed by critical social justice and Catholic social teaching (CST). The combined framework is incorporated into Kotter’s (2014) eight-step change model, which is supplemented by collaborative teacher inquiry (CTI) and appreciative inquiry (AI), to facilitate a comprehensive, school-wide improvement plan to enhance collective teacher efficacy (CTE) and support student mental health. The implementation and communication strategies are guided by the Kotter change model and AI to promote learning throughout the change process.

Keywords: appreciative inquiry, Catholic social teaching, collective teacher efficacy, collaborative teacher inquiry, critical social justice, faith-based leadership, transformative leadership

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