Appendix C: “Teacher as Leader” Indigenized Syllabus Excerpts
University of Victoria
Faculty of Education
Department of Educational Psychology & Leadership Studies
Teacher as Leader: The Professional Role
ED-D 410 A01, Unit Value 1.5
Instructor: Dr. Lindsay Herriot
Web Site: http://www.uvic.ca/epls/
Note: courses may be cancelled within first two weeks of classes if enrolment drops below required minimums
Calendar Description
A seminar in contemporary professional issues, including structures and governance within the BC School system, school law, and legal requirements for the teaching professional. The role of the professional as an ethical, reflective and critically engaged practitioner is emphasized. Themes include teacher leadership, professional growth and collaboration, and maintaining professional relationships in schools and communities. Authentic assessment tools, including rubrics, portfolios, and professional benchmarks will be used for assessing professional growth.
Goals of the Course
to have prospective teachers understand the organization and administration of schools in British Columbia with particular reference to provincial governance in education and its relationship to and effect upon the roles of students, parents, teachers, administrators, school and district support staff, and the community.
- to familiarize students with school and classroom organizations and administrative structures.
- to acquaint students with the influence of legislation, policies, and practices on professional decision- making.
- to encourage students to explore educational, cultural and social issues in education; learn how these issues are addressed in district and school policies; and consider how such issues affect their professional lives.
- to foster professional attitudes such as critical inquiry, reflection and self-assessment
- to help students articulate the goals and values of their professional practice.
All course readings will be available on CourseSpaces. The following are helpful websites that you will want to refer to throughout the course, and keep in your professional library:
Teacher Education Committee (2004) Handbook for New Teachers.: http://bctf.ca/uploadedfiles/public/NewTeachers/handbook.pdf
NOTE: Also, locate the website for your practicum school and for the School District in which the school resides – these will be invaluable resources for you!
BC Ministry of Education (MoE) www.bced.gov.bc.ca
Aboriginal Education (MoE) http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/abed/
BC Teachers’ Federation www.bctf.ca
BC Teacher Regulation Branch www.bcteacherregulation.ca/
BC Confederation of PACs www.bccpac.bc.ca
Charter for Public Education www.charter.publiced.ca
Transforming BC Curriculum & Assessment https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/
B.C. School Trustees Association www.bcsta.org
B.C. Principals’& Vice Principals’ Assoc. www.bcpvpa.bc.ca
B.C. School Superintendents’ Association www.bcssa.org
University of Vancouver Island http://records.viu.ca/homeroom
Network of Performance Based Schools http://www.npbs.ca
Canadian Education Association http://www.cea-ace.ca/
Canadian Council of Education Ministers http://www.cmec.ca/en/
Assignments
This course has two assignments, the Statement of Teaching Beliefs (submitted twice), and the Values Assignment (submitted three times). Assignments are submitted on CourseSpaces.
ASSIGNMENT A: Statement of Teaching Beliefs
Please prepare a two or three-page, double-spaced, statement of teaching beliefs that describes what being a teaching professional means to you. This document will be submitted twice, once for formative feedback on Friday, 20 October, and then the final version on Tuesday, 28 November. Your statement will become a “signature piece” in your professional teaching portfolio and will be helpful as you apply for teaching positions and respond to questioning in interviews, so you will want to:
- Write in the first person, with your intended audience in mind (use appropriate language and terms).
- Identify your values and beliefs about teaching, and use examples and details that indicate how these values and beliefs are embodied in practice.
- Highlight your goals for practice and key aspects (e.g., specific teaching strategies, ways to organize for learning, assessment and evaluation approaches, role of parents/community etc.) that will facilitate students’ success.
- Be authentic, reflective, and concise. Ensure that your writing is persuasive, coherent, and error-free.
ASSIGNMENT B: Values Assignment
Our own values around teaching and professionalism influence our thinking, and in turn, our professional practice. Yet these values are seldom explicitly examined, challenged, and/or reflected on. The purpose of this assignment is to get you thinking about your own values regarding the teaching profession, where they come from, and how they evolve or change over time.
You will submit this assignment three times (Tuesday, 12 September, Tuesday, 7 November, Friday, 1 December). The first submission, made in the first week of class, will obviously incorporate few, if any, of the course materials. That’s okay, that’s by design. The rationale sections are for you to specifically name what influences your thinking for each value. Your family? Your faith heritage? Your ethnic background? Your schooling? Your professional practice? Etc. etc. Be specific!
Your second submission, on the same document as the first, but in a different colour, should show how you’ve grown or changed as a result of this course. Mark the line using a different colour, and fill in the second rationale box. It’s 100% okay if you don’t move on the line, if you stay in exactly the same place. But what should change is your rationale. You should have new or more complex ideas about the topics than you did before taking this course. And your rationale on this second submission should reflect the materials you’ve engaged with in the course.
Much like the second submission, the third submission should reflect deeper and more nuanced understandings of the issues.
You will respond to ten (or more!) of the fourteen statements by:
- Dragging a color coded triangle to the place on the scale that represents your opinion.
- Providing a written rationale for the why you chose that place on the scale.
Course Outline/Reading List
Guest speakers are highlighted in yellow
Assignments and other writing tasks are highlighted in turquoise
Week 1: Introductions and Expectations, Friday, September 8
- No preparatory materials required!
Week 2: Teachers Values/Teachers Bodies
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Parker Palmer “The Courage to Teach”
- Complete 1st submission of the values assignment
Before Friday’s Class
- Oppression in a 3 piece suit
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/02/professionalism-and-oppression/ - Gender nonconforming and getting dressed for work:https://mic.com/articles/137315/what-it-s-really-like-to-get-dressed-for-work-when-you-re-gender-nonconforming#.jfvEXNk2P
- Should teachers be able to have tattoos?https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jul/04/should-teachers-have-tattoos-school?CMP=fb_gu
- The Invisible Tax on teachers of color: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-invisible-tax-on-black-teachers/2016/05/15/6b7bea06-16f7-11e6-aa55-670cabef46e0_story.html?utm_term=.4d032e59dff9
Week 3: Teacher Regulation Branch
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Review “Professional Standards in Education” (will be posted on CourseSpaces)
- Guest Speaker- Shawn McMullin, Teacher Regulation Branch
- Skim/Have in Your Professional Library:
- BC Handbook of Child Abuse (pp. 23-45).
- BCTF Handbook for New Teachers
- TRB Discipline Outcomes https://www.bcteacherregulation.ca/ProfessionalConduct/DisciplineOutcomes.aspx
Before Friday’s Class
- Cases to Consider:
- Read these 3 cases (found on CourseSpaces)
- Haddrell
- Dunderdale
- Skenea
Week 4: Teachers and Schools: What’s the Point?
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Noddings, N. Schooling for Democracy. In Philosophy of Education (chapter 13).
- Ruitenberg, C. W. “That’s just your opinion” (chapter 7)
- There is No Apolitical Classroom (skim/familiarize yourself with any three resources listed): http://blogs.ncte.org/index.php/2017/08/there-is-no-apolitical-classroom-resources-for-teaching-in-these-times/
Before Friday’s Class
- Sears & Hirshkorn (in press). “The Controlling Hand: Canadian Teacher Education in a Global Context”
- Steeves, (2015). Teach for Canada
- Go Home Quallnat:http://www.teacherresearch.ca/blog/article/2015/12/27/277-go-home-qallunaat—decolonizing-student-teacher-discourse-in-nunavuts-classrooms-a-pedagogy-of-reconciliation
Week 5: Parents, Caregivers, and Families
Before Tuesday’s Class
- NYTimes: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/22/opinion/poor-neighborhoods-black-parents-child-services.html?ref=opinion&_r=0
- 60s Scoop: https://indiancountrymedianetwork.com/culture/health-wellness/stealing-children-a-look-at-indigenous-child-removal-policies/
- Pushor and Murphy (2004) Parent marginalization, marginalized parents: Creating a place for parents on the school landscape
- Herriot, Burns, and Yeung (in press). Contested Spaces: Trans-inclusive policies and parental sovereignty in Canada. Gender & Education
Before Friday’s Class
- Parents: Backgrounder
- Flom (2010) A Teacher’s Field Guide to Parents
- Write reflection on your experience with parents in schools
- Guest Speaker: Audrey Smith, Victoria School District PAC Leader
Week 6: Governance and Leadership
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Excerpts from Priscilla Alderson’s Institutional Rites and Rights
- Herriot, L. (2014). The presence of an absence: Youth participation in macro level education reform. Citizenship Teaching and Learning http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/stevens/ct-life-stevens-friday-evanston-dress-code-0825-story.html
Before Friday’s Class
- John A. MacDonald’s name on schools: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/john-a-macdonald-etfo-schools-analysis-aaron-wherry-1.4260366
- Phillips, R. (2011). The absentee Minister of Education of Canada: The Canadian federal government’s constitutional role in First Nations
- Mendelson, M. (2008). Improving education on reserves: A First Nations Education Authority Act. Caledon Institute of Social Policy. Ottawa, Canada
Week 7: Developing a Professional Identity Part I
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Beauchamp & Thomas (2009). Understanding Teacher Identity: Lit Review
- Rules for women teachers: http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/rules-for-teachers-in-1872-1915-no-drinking-smoking-or-trips-to-barber-shops-and-ice-cream-parlors.html
- Watch Argentine Teacher with Down’s Syndrome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN52MkpOJ4w
Before Friday’s Class
- Choose one (or more!) of the scanned chapters from the International handbook of research on teacher’s beliefs.
- Submit 1st draft of Statement of Teaching Beliefs
Week 8: Developing a Professional Identity Part II
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Thomas and Beauchamp (2011) New Teachers Identity through Metaphor
- Oskineegish and Berger (2013). Non-Native Teachers in Native Communities
Before Friday’s Class
- Guest Speakers from Ministry of Education
Week 9: Teacher’s Unions and Associations
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Guest Speaker: Glen Hansmen, BCTF
- Skim/Have In Your Professional Library:
- BCTF Code of Ethics: https://bctf.ca/ProfessionalResponsibility.aspx?id=4292
- Provincial Collective Agreement- 2013-2019
Before Friday’s Class
- Canadian Teacher’s Federation (2013). The changing context facing teacher unions in Canada.
- Education Next: A Different Role for Teachers Unions. http://educationnext.org/a-different-role-for-teachers-unions/
- Apple and Junck (1990).
Week 10: Working with Colleagues/Indigenous Education Part I
Before Tuesday’s Class
- BCTF – Teachers and Educational Assistants
- Radford et al. 2015.
- Second Submission of Values Assignment
Before Friday’s Class
- Prep materials TBA
- Guest Speakers: Students from Life School
NO CLASS – READING BREAK
Week 11: Indigenous Education Part II
Before Friday’s Class
- McGregor (2012) Decolonizing Pedagogies Booklet
- Conflicts and Lessons in First Nations Secondary Education: An Analysis of BC First Nations Studies, Rachel Mason
- Other prep TBA
- Guest Speaker: Chaw-win-is, Indigenous Resurgence Coordinator
Week 12: Getting a Job
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Bring draft CV and cover letter to class
- Guest Speaker: Michelle Floyd, UVic Career Services
Before Friday’s Class
- Sample questions and Preferred Responses.
- Review makeafuture.com
- Check district websites for careers info
- Guest Speaker: Breanne Stoudt, Human Resources Manager, School District 63 AND Mark Walsh, Secretary-Treasurer, School District 6
Week 13: Controversial Issues
Before Tuesday’s Class
- Forrest, M. Sensitive controversy in teaching to be critical (chapter 8)
- Scott, E. C. What’s wrong with the “Teach the Controversy” slogan? (chapter 9)
- Submit Final Teaching Statement of Beliefs Assignment
Before Friday’s Class
- Submit final Values Assignment