Dr. Bill Cohen receives 2023/24 Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation

Dr. Bill Cohen receives 2023/24 Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation

EDST’s EdD graduate Dr. Bill Cohen (OSE) has been selected as the recipient of the Provost’s Award for Teaching Excellence and Innovation for his remarkable contributions, passion, and dedication to fostering reconciliation and decolonization through education.

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EDST May 2024 Department Meeting

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Date: Thu, May 16, 2024
Time: 12 pm to 2:30 pm

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Felt Understanding, and Showing Contradiction: Indigenous Education and Applied Theatre

ḥaḥuupač̓akckʷakqin ʔiqḥmuut ciqy̓ak ‘Teachings from our Ancestral Language’: Innovation and Ancestral Continuity in the Hesquiaht Language Community Movement

Congratulations to Dominique Bautista

Please join us in congratulating Mercedes Dominique Bautista who successfully defended her M.A. Thesis on April 12 of 2024.

Title:
Investigating Vancouver School Board teachers’ capacity building experiences with anti-racism mentorship and learning support

Abstract:

The murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020 spurred an increased commitment to combatting racism, particularly in schools. In Canada, despite the anti-racism education policies and initiatives taken up by local school districts and at a provincial level, including British Columbia’s Ministry of Education, there remains a lack of policies, programming, and research that support teachers’ abilities to respond to racist incidents in their classrooms and to teach using anti-racist pedagogy.

The purpose of this research was to attempt to fill this gap and to investigate the experiences of Vancouver School Board (VSB) teachers who participated in anti-racism mentorship and professional learning support offered by the VSB by working with the District Resource Teacher for Diversity and Anti-Racism. Grounded in a combined anti-racist and feminist theoretical framework, this study uses interviews to centre and amplify the voices of the educators themselves. Five VSB teachers who received mentorship and learning support from the District Resource Teacher for Anti-Racism and Diversity were interviewed about their experiences with this initiative. The research questions aimed to gain a greater understanding of the reasons for the participants’ involvement in the anti-racism mentorship program; the strengths, learnings and opportunities that emerged through their engagement, and finally their recommendations for change in the coming years. The participants’ responses revealed valuable insights about their complex anti-racism learning journeys — both personally and professionally. The findings of this study contribute to a deeper understanding of the value of anti-racism professional development and mentorship for educators, and how educational leaders can re-imagine their commitments and approaches to district-wide anti-racism professional development, mentorship, and capacity building.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Jo-ann Archibald appointed as Chancellor of the University of the Fraser Valley

Dear EDST Members, Greetings.

Please join me in expressing EDST’s congratulations to EDST Emeritus Professor of Educational Studies, Jo-ann Archibald, also know as Q’um Q’um Xiiem, former Associate Dean (Indigenous Education), UBC Faculty of Education. Professor Archibald has been appointed as Chancellor of the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV): <https://blogs.ufv.ca/blog/2024/03/dr-jo-ann-archibald-named-ufv-chancellor/>.

In her work and engagements, Professor Archibald ’s continues to exert a tremendous impact and an enduring scholarly influence on the field of Indigenous education. She promoted and elaborated on the concept of Indigenous Storywork, particularly in her book entitled Indigenous Storywork: Educating the heart, mind body and spirit (UBC Press, 2008). Associated with the founding of NITEP: The Indigenous Teacher Education Program at UBC, Professor Archibald played a pivotal role in the fostering of generations of Indigenous educators and scholars (1). Her legacy in the field of Indigenous Education has been recognized with her appointment as Officer of the Order of Canada in 2018 (2).

With the 2024 celebration of EDST’s 30th Anniversary (1994-2024), Professor Archibald’s appointment at this very temporal juncture reflects this Department’s continued commitment to Indigenous education, and to engaging Canadian society’s multifaceted “crises in the fields of climate, social, and economic issues”. This commitment resonates with Professor Archibald’s observation that “Stó:lō  Elders have taught us that the environment and the land have to thrive in order for people to thrive. I believe that the university can play an even greater role in realizing this teaching” (3).  

Congratulations to Professor Jo-ann Archibald!

 

On behalf of EDST’s community,

André Elias Mazawi

EDST HOD

 

——

Notes:

 

(1) On Professor Archibald’s role and involvement in NITEP, refer to her chapter in Mazawi & Stack (2020) at the UBC Library.

(2) Refer to this CBC report.

(3) Refer to <https://blogs.ufv.ca/blog/2024/03/dr-jo-ann-archibald-named-ufv-chancellor/>.

Dr. Lauren E. Jerke – Forum with faculty

Forum with faculty – Wednesday, April 24th 2024

Time: 11:30 am to 1:00 pm

Location: PCN Multipurpose Room #2012

Format: In person

 

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chuutsqa L. Rorick – Forum with faculty

Forum with faculty – Tuesday, April 30th 2024

Time: 11:30 am to 1:00 pm

Location: PCN Multipurpose Room #2012

Format: In person

 

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Congrats Ji Ai Cho

Please join us in congratulating Ji Ai Cho who successfully defended her EdD Dissertation on March 27 of 2024.

Title:
Transformative Learning Through Collaboration: Experiences Of Education Beyond Borders’ Members From Canada And Kenya

Abstract:
Lay Summary

Equitable transnational collaboration can be complex, as issues of power, privilege, and hierarchy come into play. This research examines the transformative learning by educators from Canada and Kenya as they came together to collaborate as members of Education Beyond Borders (EBB). The research reveals that in order to develop meaningful, deep collaborative relationships, the participants engaged in border work where they came to understand each other better by questioning cultural differences, and imbalances in power and knowledge due to the colonial legacy in Kenya and the Canadians members’ positionality in the Global North. Some elements of the indigenous African philosophy, Ubuntu, were visible in the working relationship among the educators developed. The participants experienced transformative learning that resulted in deeper self-awareness and a sense of solidarity with each other. This research is significant as it can add to conversations on transnational collaboration, teachers’ community of practice, transformative learning, the role of the indigenous African philosophy Ubuntu in the classrooms, and finally, the indigenization of education.

 

Supervisory Committee:

Dr. Bathseba Opini
Dr. Michelle Stack

We are thankful for the Examining Committee’s contribution and expertise.

Dr. Wanja Gitari, University of Toronto, External Examiner

Dr. Samson Nashon, Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy, University Examiner

Dr. Shauna Butterwick, Department of Educational Studies, University Examiner

Dr. Kerry Renwick, Chair of Examination Committee

 

 

 

Congratulations Ji Ai!

Dr. Hongxia Shan, Supervisor

Congratulations Shirley Shxwha:yathel Hardman

On April 3, 2024, Shirley Shxwha:yathel Hardman successfully defended her PhD dissertation, Indigenizing: One Heart at a Time. Her hybrid oral examination was held at the Indigenous Gathering Place, University of the Fraser Valley, Chilliwack Campus with Elders, Cultural Knowledge Holders, participant storytellers, family, and friends attending both in-person and virtually. The oral examination reflected her dissertation in practice as this event honoured Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and doing as an exemplar of Indigenization within university education.

 

Thank you to the examining committee:

Dr. Jean Paul Restoule  (External Examiner, University of Victoria)

Dr. Margery Fee (English, Chair)

Dr. Charles Menzies (Anthropology, University Examiner)

Dr. Margaret Kovach (EDST, University Examiner)

Dr. Eric Davis (Professor Emeritus, University of the Fraser Valley, Committee Member)

 

Congratulations Shirley-Shxwha:yathel,

 

Dr. Jo-ann Archibald & Dr. Cash Ahenakew (Co-Supervisors)

 

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