Toward School Improvement for Liberation
摘要
School improvement is a continuous change process and an accountability measure that implements ongoing adult improvement to the benefit of students and their families. Engaging in a comprehensive school improvement process remains the primary mechanism to achieve progressive change in elementary and secondary schools. Exploring education in a Canadian context, we posit that the ways in which many schools have engaged in the school improvement process have reproduced unequal educational outcomes along raceRace, class, and ability lines. On the contrary, if anti-discriminatory practices are at the core of the school improvement process and a part of the expectation of school culture, then schools will inherently become more equitable and inclusive learning spaces. This chapter draws on the fieldwork of three educational leaders engaging in school improvement processes in Ontario, Canada. The findings illuminate core components of a liberatory school improvement process. For too long, liberatory leadership practices have been “in addition to” or done by the goodwill of individuals. As leaders, our job is to support schools with the implementation of a co-constructed change process that challenges discriminatory practices by working with individuals, as well as groups of students, staff, and community to improve relationships, classroom practice, and school processes. With respect to our leadership practices, if we know that we are committed to change and why, then the improvement process becomes about shifting away from dominant norms. We believe that a liberatory education is needed and is consistent with the policies of many districts and boards of education in North America and beyond. To start from a liberatory philosophy and pedagogy, a leader must begin with guiding questions such as, “How might we commit to strengthening our individual critical consciousness while creating a liberatory culture of action and improvement?” This question centers anti-discrimination and anti-oppression, thus challenging discriminatory practices such as streaming and exclusion. To address discriminatory practices within the education system, we must utilize the school improvement process as a systemic tool for change—one grounded in the critical consciousness of the lead educators facilitating the change process. Implications for Further Study Both within and outside of the scope of “equity” in our school board, there is an intentional focus on implementing decolonizing education and fulfilling our responsibilities as it relates to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and Truth and Reconciliation for Indigenous peoples (United Nations (n.d.) United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples for Indigenous Peoples. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https:// www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html ; National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation; University of Manitoba (n.d.) Home. NCTR. Retrieved October 30, 2022, from https://nctr.ca/ ). We recognize that we are making suggestions towards liberation within a colonized structure. The work of decolonizing education would need to be co-constructed, or constructed by those who identify as Indigenous, using Indigenous pedagogies and approaches.