here - Department of Educational Studies

Transcription

GRADUATES SPEAK:
Impacts of the
UBC Doctorate
in Educational
Leadership &
Policy on
Professional
Practice
JOANNA ASHWORTH, EDD
DEIRDRE KELLY, PHD
Katherine Fukuyama
COHORT 2006
GRADUATES SPEAK: Impacts of the UBC Doctorate in Educational Leadership
& Policy on Professional Practice
Credits:
Authors: Joanna Ashworth and Deirdre Kelly
Graphic Design: Brenda Hewer Design
Photography: Allison Penko and Joanna Ashworth
Project Website Design: Alexandra Wozny
Copyright 2016 University of British Columbia
ISBN: 978-0-88865-261-4
This research was made possible through funding from the EdD Program
Enhancement Fund, with the support of the Department of Educational Studies,
at the University of British Columbia.
Website URL: http://edst.educ.ubc.ca/programs/edd-in-educational-leadership-and-policy/
JOANNA ASHWORTH, EDD
DEIRDRE KELLY, PHD
GRADUATES SPEAK: IMPACTS OF THE UBC DOCTORATE IN EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP & POLICY ON PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Table of
Contents
5
INTRODUCTION: Researching Practice
by Joanna Ashworth & Deirdre Kelly
7
FOREWORD: Impressions of the EdD
by David Coulter
9
PROFILES OF PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
11 Kathleen Coyne
17 Nadine Fabbi
21 Katherine Fukuyama
27 Wendy Johnson
33 Larry Kuehn
37 Kenneth (Sandy) MacIver
40 Christine Perkins
56 Jeanette Robertson
53 Patricia Rosborough
59 Tom Weegar
65 Amea Wilbur
3
INTRODUCTION:
Researching Practice
The Department of Educational Studies’ EdD in Educational Leadership and Policy
at the University of British Columbia is “centrally concerned with educational
practice. It assumes that students and faculty will contribute broad knowledge from
diverse backgrounds to scholarly dialogue about theory, practice and the complex
interrelationship between the two. Special attention is given to the program’s five key
topics: education, leadership, ethics, research, and policy…. The entire program is
meant to be an integrated dialogue between practice and scholarship.”1
This dialogue between practice and scholarship has been going for more than
19 years now, and while not a traditional milestone, changes in long-time faculty
leadership make it a good time to take stock, ask questions and document the stories
about what difference the program has made to some of the over 80 educational
professionals who have completed their doctorates since 1997. According to one
formal and several informal surveys of the UBC EdD graduates, there is evidence
to suggest that the program’s various components have contributed to significant
changes in these individuals’ professional practices and their respective institutions
and organizations where they are based, as well as their particular fields of practice.
The profiles in this publication come out of a year-long research project that aimed
to understand the day-to-day challenges of specific professional practice and what
aspects of the EdD program (i.e., the course work, the cohort model, the annual EdD
Institute, the faculty-student relationships, the doctoral research experience) have had
lasting impact. The study examined the meaning the graduates give their experiences
both during, and since completing, the program. The purpose was both to document
these experiences as well as to learn more about the strengths of the EdD program
and glean intelligence about how to keep improving it over the years to come.
Improving professional practice is one of the central aims of the EdD in Educational
Leadership and Policy. But what does this mean, and what does it look like in everyday
life? Improving professional practice is linked to the notions of action and of wise
judgment. These are central concepts in the program, largely understood as the
capacity to act in intentional and mindful ways on the basis of the principles, ethics,
and/or standards demanded by a particular set of circumstances. How can we observe
the practice of wise judgment? And even more important, in what ways has the EdD
program contributed to wise judgment in our graduates’ professional practice?
As researchers we elected to inquire phenomenologically into the lived experiences
of 11 graduates of the EdD program; to capture their stories through participant
observation, semi-structured and informal interviews, film and photography. These
1
http://edst.educ.ubc.ca/programs/edd-in-educational-leadership-and-policy/
5
INTRODUCTION
educational professionals are in diverse educational leadership roles, in various kinds
of units and departments in school boards, universities, community colleges, union
offices, and community agencies. They work in a range of educational fields and
disciplines—Arctic Studies; Indigenous language preservation; social work; nursing;
business; vocational, adult and community education; and English as an Additional
Language instruction. Their practices are located in rural and urban settings in
British Columbia, Washington State, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan. Writing this
set of profiles draws on narrative inquiry traditions that pay close attention to the
nuances of language, imagery, and metaphor when describing or observing particular
instances within each educational leader’s everyday working life.2 Instances of conflict,
questioning, interaction with colleagues, and other encounters contribute to shaping
the stories of these educational leaders in ways that reveal their mental models, their
wise action, and their meta-reflection on the way that their practice continues to make
links to their EdD learning.
Their stories reveal the complexities of their quotidian educational leadership and
policy challenges and what most concerns them. We discovered that practical
wisdom is alive in the quality of their questions, the sensitivity of their interventions
and collaborations, and the insightfulness of their policy and program planning.
These profiles represent our attempts to capture and share the knowledge of these
remarkable educational professionals. They will no doubt inspire others to take this
kind of learning journey as well.
DEIRDRE KELLY, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
JOANNA ASHWORTH, RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
JULY 2016
2 Jardine, D. (1998). To dwell with a boundless heart. New York: Peter Lang Publishing.
6
FORWARD:
Impressions
of the EdD
Associate Professor Emeritus David Coulter is the founding director of the UBC
EdD program and was chair of the management committee intermittently from
1997-2015. Only recently has he stepped down from these positions, and thus his
impressions of the program are timely and based not only on his experiences at UBC,
but also over 25 years in Quebec and Manitoba working variously as a classroom
teacher in both elementary and secondary schools, a consultant, a school principal,
and a superintendent. These reflections (shared with us in an interview) helpfully
set the context for understanding the aims of the EdD and have been organized
according to the key themes and concepts of the program.
EDUCATIONAL “RULERSHIP” AND EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
The EdD focuses on educational leadership rather than on the way leadership is often
practiced in our institutions, which is actually organizational “rulership.” Educational
leadership is about working with people, engaging others in conversations about
what education is. It is about the scholarship of educational practice and involves
examining the ethical, political, epistemological and spiritual dimensions of education.
TWO WORLDS
The worlds of educators working in universities and in schools and other sites of
educational practice seem sharply divided: too often academics ignore the world of
schools, and practitioners respond by ignoring them right back. Indeed, scholars and
practitioners generally speak different languages. At its best, the EdD tries to connect
these two worlds by fostering people who are bilingual—who speak both “research”
and “practice.”
The EdD aims to build a common space in which people who aim to educate don’t
feel so alone with the challenges they face in their practices. The EdD can be a place
where, as the literary scholar Debra Nelson suggests, we can stand beside one other
to see the world—perhaps not to see the same thing, but to be with others in our
exploration.
The EdD creates connections between people who work in institutions that may be
hostile to these kinds of connections. We talk about ways to create environments that
don’t get in the way of caring for people and for looking after them.
The EdD creates a space—“an island of freedom,” as political philosopher Hannah
7
FORWARD
Arendt says—where we can test our assumptions and understandings of what should
happen in educational institutions with other people. It’s a safe space where both
our successes and our failures can be examined and understood. The goal of all
scholarship is to understand, and the assumption of the EdD is that if we understand
something more profoundly, we will do things differently.
EDUCATIONAL INTEGRITY
I have been impressed by the way people become more certain about what they
stand for as they move through the program. They are clearer about what offends
them and are willing to act in small and large ways. This wise action, this phronesis, is
about both having the understanding and courage to act and the capacity to do so in
particular situations. That is the essence of educational judgment. The EdD program is
not about preparing graduates for new jobs, but about exploring how we treat other
people and our responsibilities to others. It is crucial, as Arendt suggests, that we
remain able to live with ourselves.
I have learned much from the people I have worked with in the EdD program. I am
constantly impressed by their willingness to be disrupted, not to shut down, but to
go deeper into their certainties and to know what to do when things come apart.
Together we try to articulate what we stand for and attempt to challenge ourselves
and others; respectful collective exploration sometimes happens—and for me that is
education at its best.
DAVID COULTER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR EMERITUS
OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
FORMER CHAIR, EDD MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE
JUNE, 2016
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Profiles of
Professional Practice
KATHLEEN COYNE
WENDY JOHNSON
NADINE FABBI
LARRY KUEHN
KATHERINE FUKUYAMA
KENNETH (SANDY)
MACIVER
CHRISTINE PERKINS
9
JEANETTE ROBERTSON
PATRICIA ROSBOROUGH
TOM WEEGAR
AMEA WILBUR
Kathleen
Coyne
The EdD helped me to
recognize that people
need to go through a
process to find their own
leadership voice. And
that they cannot achieve
their potential as leaders
without bringing forth
their own voice—that
nobody else can give
that to them, until
they find out what
they are passionate
about.
FACULTY MEMBER, COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT AND OUTREACH,
CAPILANO UNIVERSITY;
EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT
COHORT 1997
KATHLEEN COYNE
EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP:
Helping Others Join
the Conversation
It was like cracking open a door. That is what Kathy Coyne remembers most about
being in the EdD program, and what she began to discover was that educational
leadership was much more than she previously thought. Back in 1997, she was
working at the Vancouver East Community Skills Connection in the Downtown
Eastside in community development, adult education and training and was looking
for ways to make a difference there.
I was very interested in how to better articulate the pathways
to post-secondary for people who are vulnerable, and I guess I
really was quite personally affected by how much an education
made a difference in my life and how much the support of
people around me in the community made a difference.
Kathy had raised three children as a single parent and knows that her journey into
post-secondary education played a huge role for herself and her family in terms of
career opportunities. There were often difficult and frightening times, and she tried to
keep those experiences present as reminders of what other people seeking access to
post-secondary education might be going through. Back in 1997 she wanted to find
a way to help forge partnerships between post-secondary institutions,
...so that people could be supported to get a real education
instead of these three-week job training programs that are
supposed to get you into a place.
When Kathy started her EdD (in the inaugural cohort), all she knew for sure was
that it was an educational doctoral program that invited students to embed their life
and experience in their research and analysis and encouraged them to design their
research and course assignments around their work. That had a strong appeal.
One thing that I remember is there was a really strong
underscoring of the fact that we were intended to integrate
our academic studies with our work. And I took that seriously if
I had to write a proposal or do a project design or something, I
would write it and use that as part of my assignment.
12
Being supported by her workplace to take the EdD with time off for course work and
assignment preparation was a particularly important memory.
KATHLEEN COYNE
I was quite struck by when I went to my board to ask for the
time in the summer to do it, how supportive they were and how
excited they were for me. I remember that moment.
In the early graduate seminars in the program, the disarmingly open conversations
and the powerful questions and readings introduced by faculty members worked on
her in unexpected ways. They provoked the beginning of a personal and professional
exploration that took Kathy and many of her cohort members into surprising places.
I think we were all doing quite personal journeys at the time. I
certainly was finding my way back to a passion for spirituality
and an understanding of who I was in the universe.
Those first seminars had Kathy exploring ideas about educational leadership and
creative uses of adult education methods to engage people. It was both “inspiring and
empowering.” These lessons remain imprinted on her current educational practice
setting of a university’s community education department, and as a community
development consultant.
The first graduate seminar really stimulated a lot of thinking and
conversation about that, and I think it cracked open the door
to thinking of leadership differently. And I think now, when I
cracked open that door, I started to look at all of the different
learning that happens in the community—in so many sectors
around wellness, and around transformational thinking...
beyond peer reviewed journals on leadership.
Much of the EdD program’s first- and second-year seminar work is dialogue-based,
an approach that Kathy at first resisted. She was not convinced they were “academic
enough,” and when she eventually embraced them, it was in recognition that
this form of dialogic learning was more profound than simply studying theoretical
definitions of leadership.
The EdD helped me to recognize that people need to go
through a process to find their own leadership voice. And that
they cannot achieve their potential as leaders without bringing
forth their own voice—that NOBODY else can give that to them,
until they find out what they are passionate about.
Kathy’s research focused on the importance of low-income people having a voice
about the way their community is discussed and planned. She wanted to profile their
point of view in relation to the policy and program planning that was taking place
in their neighbourhood. Kathy took an experimental approach to the structure of
her thesis; placing a community document she had written collaboratively with and
for the community at the front-end of the thesis, and then analyzing the document
in a way that privileged the community voice. In working with the material of her
community development practice, she had the full encouragement from her thesis
supervisor and committee members.
13
KATHLEEN COYNE
I think that the most growth happened in writing the thesis. I
would say that the whole process felt incredibly supported and
[I had] a lot of permission to do whatever I wanted.
Having the EdD has had an impact on Kathy’s more recent work at Capilano University
where she has been busy these last ten year developing innovative literacy, job-readiness
and community leadership programs that bridge low-income students or people with
other learning barriers to the university.
I have much more credibility. And I think people liked the idea
of having someone involved who had an EdD behind their
name… It was something that they could use to give credibility
to projects we were working on.
Although she does not define herself as a research academic, the process of writing
her dissertation gave her first-hand experience in conducting a systematic inquiry
in which she was able to clearly define and thoughtfully organize her evidence to
present and defend her arguments. These days writing reports comes easily, and
she uses her knowledge to assist not-for-profit organizations to select appropriate
research methods that are within their reach and resources and fit their own goals for
evaluating and assessing their work.
I think it’s been helpful to people is to say, “You are using
research methods... to do monitoring and you’re not doing it
to identify new knowledge or identify best practices... you’re
doing it to strengthen your programs. AND you’re doing it within
the resources of your program so you want to get some basic
research methods and apply them as best that you can, so that
they are as systematic as you can make them, while honouring
your program. Your program is your priority.” So I think I’ve
been able to successfully assist others within the city, within
the community health part of the Health Authority, Canadian
Heritage, different organizations, to really articulate that. A
colleague and I wrote a document called “The Splash and Ripple
Manual,” and it is used to help organizations learn how to do
Outcome-Based Planning...So having some credibility in some
way has been helpful.
These days Kathy has come to terms with the legitimacy of her research capacity and
focuses on helping program managers look for methods that match their particular
assessment and learning goals. Kathy sees this as one of the legacies of the EdD.
She is now quite comfortable saying to others that “Your practice is really worthy of
research, and there are methods that will work for you.” And having the EdD, she
says, has helped her “have the guts to do that.”
14
Clearly, there is more to the program than having those letters “EdD” after your
name, says Kathy. The EdD experience as a whole is woven into the development
of new programs and her approach to policy. That experience is embedded in the
KATHLEEN COYNE
collaborative approach she takes when she holds her ground and designs new
programming with at-risk and low-income learners. She’s not willing to let these values
of access and equity go ignored for students she believes deserve the opportunity for
post-secondary education.
It would be so easy to just “high-grade” and just get the kids that
walk through the doors and work with them, but we know that
there’s a growing gap between rich and poor in the post-secondary
system—between rich and poor in our society—and education
[has the potential to close the gap]. It is the biggest piece.
I want to, in some way, give some traction to the idea of an
access policy. So that there is a clear commitment on the part
of the university to design programs that are comfortable and
accessible to newcomers, to low-income families, to people in
recovery, whatever that might be. Plus, some way of honouring
that people’s experience is as important as academic study. A
lot of my students come in with different types of experience.
They might be experienced in refugee camps, they might be
experienced in poverty, they might be experienced as single
moms, and I honour those experiences with my ability to analyze
situations and to say, it’s got to be worth something, and so I
want to get the university talking about that.
And then there is the confidence boost, one that has not let up since finishing the
program in 2002. It forms part of everything Kathy takes on, even as she moves closer
to retirement.
The EdD gave me confidence to try new things at work, like
Outcome-Based Planning and using different analytical tools…
in different ways and, of course, we did a lot of writing and that
has been really helpful. I’ve kind of become the writer in this
department … I’ve stayed working at a community level, and it’s
given me the courage to stay with something and not give up.
When the door cracks open, you need to open it and walk through. Kathy credits
the EdD with providing an entry way to creating knowledge and embracing greater
creativity in all her educational program planning. Walking through that door has
transformed Kathy into a defender—and an active practitioner—of alternative
ways of knowing. And she is an active advocate for students to have access to
knowledge to remove obstacles and include their marginalized voices in their own
educational journey. Kathy has come to understand educational leadership as all of
these dimensions since she began her EdD program in 1997, and this change of
understanding has changed everything she does.
Read Kathleen Coyne’s dissertation: “Listening for the words and the music: learning about
community development from low-income residents” https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/
ubctheses/831/items/1.0055489
15
16
Nadine
Fabbi
So much of what seems
to happen in institutions is
about administration. You
can just get caught up in
the nuts and bolts of it.
The EdD has brought me
back to the initial love for
the educational process;
it helped me to ask,
“What are we doing
educationally here?”
MANAGING DIRECTOR, CANADIAN
STUDIES CENTER & ARCTIC &
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS,
UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
COHORT 2009
NADINE FABBI
EDUCATION—
“The Most Beautiful
Part of Life”
Nadine Fabbi had worked as the Managing Director of the Canadian Studies Center
at the University of Washington for more than a decade before applying to the EdD
program in Educational Leadership and Policy at UBC in 2009. Nadine completed
the EdD program in 2015. Nadine applied to the program because she was “looking
for something new,” something that would advance her educational practice. On
her EdD application she stated that her aim was to develop a degree minor in Arctic
Studies at the university where she worked. As she was to discover, not only did
the EdD program provide a vehicle for doing research on the Arctic Studies minor,
it awakened her to her potential as an educational leader. She found a stronger
voice for questioning and reflecting on the purpose and aims of programs she was
responsible for planning and managing.
For Nadine, the first three courses of the EdD program, the doctoral seminar, ethics
course and then the educational policy course, “were real turning points for me. I
was shocked and inspired by the thoughtfulness of the instructors; the leadership that
we witnessed in these classes changed my life dramatically.” Nadine said she began
to be more conscious of the concepts of care, community, and voice. She observed
the care taken by the instructors in the EdD program and the way they modeled
leadership in the classroom. “This alignment,” said Nadine, “is a powerful part of the
curriculum and shows the importance of attention to care for the student through
precise attention to teaching.”
The EdD wasn’t a perfect experience. Nadine noted that there were gaps between the
end of the course work and the beginning of the dissertation work when more support
and coaching from the EdD staff or faculty would have been helpful. What Nadine
learned from her own struggles during the research period of the program produced
greater insight into what students in her own institution might be experiencing. And
so, where she works, she has made it her mission to create an intentional community
of learners—to ensure that more of her own students complete their programs in a
timely way.
While Nadine had a clear intent when registering for the EdD—she wanted to develop
a new minor degree in Arctic Studies at her institution—she also honed her abilities
to lead in a collaborative and respectful style. Her approach was to gather many
viewpoints and to respectfully engage her colleagues and other experts in Arctic area
studies. This is how she describes the process:
18
NADINE FABBI
Heading up the Arctic Minor initiative was very much a part
of my dissertation and my work with the EdD. That is really
the first time that I have led a major initiative with faculty on
campus... [I received] a tremendous amount of feedback and
appreciation for an interdisciplinary approach to this Arctic
minor; appreciation for the policy inclusion, for the Indigenous
inclusion and for the way the colleagues all worked together on
this. There were many people involved in the process; it wasn’t
just me.
Before enrolling in the EdD program, Nadine was responsible for developing a number
of programs at the Center such as lecture series, roundtables, conferences and other
community events. Reflecting on that 10-year period, she realized that while she had
a strong influence on the shape and the focus of these gatherings, her approach then
was not as transparent and intentional as it has now become.
She credits the “confidence in both practice and research” she gained while pursuing
her EdD for the increased leadership she began to model at the Center. By showing
more clarity of purpose, she won more respect and recognition among her peers. She
began to seek teaching and speaking opportunities. As well, she has been finding
ways to create space for Indigenous perspectives and experiences in her ongoing
program planning, research and policy work. She is creating more space—for new,
more critical research and for a community of students and faculty.
Nadine discovered that policy work in the Center—the analysis and development of
guidelines for action—was ripe for reexamination. Core to Nadine’s role as managing
director is to prepare the grant applications, including the US Department of Education
Title VI program grant that funds much of the work conducted by her Center. Nadine
said her EdD course work and the self-study component of her dissertation helped
her expand her understanding of policy as a type of public dialogue. This insight
guided her as she helped change the way that the Title VI grant proposal is now
researched, framed and written. For example, though Nadine works for a centre
officially committed to Canadian Studies, she and her group have successfully drafted
proposals focusing on the Arctic, drawing from the Inuit Nunaat (homeland), which
itself encompasses four nations: Canada but also the United States, Russia and
Greenland (Denmark).
Building on what she had learned in the EdD policy course and her original dissertation
research, Nadine made “policy” consonant with strategy, agency and activism. As a
policy activist, Nadine worked to open up the process to appropriate participation
from relevant actors, including Indigenous faculty members and students. This also
had her learning from Arctic Indigenous worldviews, drawing from the activities and
writing of the Inuit leaders and scholars to challenge her own thinking about territory
(e.g., does it include sea and ice as well as land?) and what constitutes foreign policy
(e.g., can declarations on sovereignty by Indigenous nations not formally recognized
as nation states count as foreign policy?). It inspired the successful request by
Nadine’s Center to include Inuktitut as a language funded under a Canadian Studies
umbrella (in addition to French). By subtly redefining the work of the Center, Nadine
19
NADINE FABBI
is helping to question the basic assumptions about what the area studies program
could and should be. She talks about her new understanding of policy work as a
change in perception. Instead of “pushing against the river,” she is making change
that works with the system. Her technique is to ask questions and work through
related frustrations.
Nadine has reinvented her practice and reinvigorated her role. She has expanded her
understanding of her responsibilities and reshaped them in such a way as to ensure
that the students taking her courses, and the programs she develops at the Center,
are built on a strong ethic of care that was fostered by an EdD course on ethics and,
in particular, the work of philosopher Nel Noddings. For Nadine, the ethic of care
in education is about valuing students as human beings and recognizing that their
lives—and what and how they study—matters. It has become Nadine’s business to
care about how these students get on. The Director of the Center has commented on
the positive impact of this student mentorship focus in terms of the improved quality
of the students’ work and their engagement in the courses.
When Nadine faces resistance to her aim of involving students significantly in the
workings of the Center, she draws on her time in the EdD program, which, she said,
“has really given me the confidence to stick to my guns.” When asked what it means
to her to have an EdD in Educational Leadership and Policy, Nadine said she was glad
for the question.
The EdD for me is about love of education and value for, and
dedication and commitment to, the art of education. Since I was
a kid, it has always been who I am.
The program re-connected Nadine to something deeply personal, to her values about
what education can and should be. Education, in Nadine’s words, is “the most beautiful
part of life.” To her, that means a process of opening up possibilities for learners
by creating a place for them to grow and to flourish. Education is much more than
administration, although so much of the work of educators is tied up in administrative
work. What matters in education is critical reflection and a willingness to act based
on her analysis of a situation. Through her own EdD learning journey, Nadine has
deepened her intent to create educational community when and wherever she can,
and to use her enhanced sense of effectiveness, credibility and voice to make it so.
Read Nadine Fabbi’s dissertation: “Inuit Nunaat as an emerging region in area studies: building
an Arctic studies program south of the tree line” https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/
ubctheses/24/items/1.0135711
20
Katherine
Fukuyama
The scholarly part of the
EdD program helped me
set up the scholarly part
of this degree program
at VCC…and being able
to use the language of
research—because of the
research courses we took.
DIRECTOR, BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
IN NURSING, VANCOUVER
COMMUNITY COLLEGE
COHORT 2006
KATHERINE FUKUYAMA
THROUGH A KALEIDOSCOPE:
Seeing What’s
Missing and What’s
Needed
Kathy Fukuyama is the Director and driving force behind Vancouver Community
College’s (VCC) Bachelor of Science in Nursing program (BScN). Kathy’s decision to
apply to the UBC EdD program in 2006 was informed by what she could see at VCC
as changes on the horizon. At that time, Kathy was the Department Head of Practical
Nursing at VCC and for a while, acting Dean of the Health Programs. The College
wanted to have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.
And so in my mind I thought, “Oh, if we’re going to have a
BSN program, I am going to have to get my doctorate or I can’t
be leading in it.” So I did the EdD just so I could shepherd this
program in and see it through to accreditation.
While Kathy didn’t begin the EdD with a clear image of what her dissertation would
focus on, she was already acutely aware of how important it was for nurse educators
to assist student nurses to do the right thing in a health care setting—a much more
chaotic and complex environment than the relative calm of the classroom. Their
students often asked why a clinical procedure taught in school as the “right way”
did not always line up with what nurses did in the clinical, real-world setting. Kathy
wanted to assist other teaching nurse clinicians to think more deeply about this gap
and to examine their own practice for clues as to how this occurs and what to do
about it. The title of her thesis says it all: “Negotiating the Education and Practice
Disjuncture in Nursing Clinical Placements: Nursing Faculty’s Perspectives.”
When Kathy did land on her research question, she found that many skilled clinical
educators resonated strongly with it.
So the question was: How do clinical faculty help nursing
students negotiate the differences, or the disjunctures, between
what is taught in the School of Nursing and then what they see
in practice?
For Kathy, the conditions within a healthcare setting are complex, and the responses
to those conditions of student nurses and their instructors are often fraught.
22
Not only are we short staffed, but there are also lots of burnedout staff, and patients are more acutely ill than they used to
be...and there are more people with dementia and that leads to
more aggressive action by patients.
KATHERINE FUKUYAMA
And yet, clinical instructors’ ethical responsibility is to teach the student nurses to
be advocates for their patients and thus they need to learn not only the correct
clinical practices, but how to stand up for their patients when they see a disjuncture
between theory and practice, and to help them navigate that gap with skill and
discernment.
Bringing a scholarly lens to this complex professional practice situation was
enlightening, not just for Kathy but as well for the clinical instructors that she
interviewed for her research. Her questions illuminated these nurse instructors’
experiences in exciting ways.
I asked other nurse instructors about this, and I thought OK,
nurses always teach with examples. We always hire nurses
to teach nurses because they teach by sharing stories about
patients and what they did in that situation. So I thought well,
I can just ask them to tell me that thing that they remember
the most about when they had a disjuncture. And everyone,
everybody had one instantly. AND, some people were holding
things for 30 years—something that happened 30 years ago. For
the experienced faculty, they said that it put into words exactly
what was happening and that it validated their discomfort at
times.
EdD students have access to many concepts and ideas throughout the program’s
course work, from faculty members and the research process. Kathy drew key ideas
from Dorothy Smith’s work on institutional ethnography and Iris Marion Young’s work
on the meaning of what is equitable, equal, fair—and the power dynamics involved in
addressing injustices. These were some of the most powerful ideas that informed her
research and continue to inform her professional decision-making today.
I’m more confident, even if my idea is different than everyone
else’s. I can now say, without making any big explanation, I
can just say, “Fair is not equal,” and I have the evidence. I can
validate my claims.
Every time I have to back up a decision, I feel more confident,
because I’ve also learned to bring that evidence forward so I
don’t just make a random decision. If I’m going to do something,
I’ve got evidence backing me up.
The EdD program as a whole, including the course work, doing her own research,
and having to be more scholarly at the same time in her professional role—all had a
direct influence on the way Kathy approached developing a degree program at her
own institution.
The scholarly part of that program helped me set up the
scholarly part of this degree program at VCC; I was able to use
the language of research—because of the two courses we had
to take on research methods.
23
KATHERINE FUKUYAMA
The cohort experience also contributed to Kathy’s learning in the EdD program. Being
a part of a small group that moved through the course work together in the first two
years of the program made the learning culture more satisfying, more supported and
kept students motivated to keep the pace.
I think that really does help. You could easily put off taking your
courses one summer, but you don’t want to because you’re with
your cohort.
I never did feel alone…and our cohort was really…collaborative.
If you had a question, you could send it out to the group and
say, “Are we supposed to do this?”
Back at the office on the 7th floor of the VCC Nursing Program offices, on a typical
day Kathy is thinking long-term and strategically while dealing with issues that arise
in the moment. Depending on the time of the year, her role as the Director of the
BScN may involve dealing with a student issue, a staffing situation, writing up
sessional faculty contracts, going to curriculum meetings, reviewing program
evaluations and student feedback, or writing reports. And then, of course, there are
the “fires that need to be put out” and situations that cannot be put off. One surmises
that even in the heat of the moment, Kathy brings a calm, reflective approach to the
large and small challenges.
One lasting impact of the EdD program is Kathy’s deepened understanding of
policy. As she observes, some policies don’t always work the way they should, even
by her own department. One policy story Kathy tells relates to progression, that is,
the way students move progressively through a set of courses and curriculum; one
of the common stumbling blocks relates to math fluency. Completing the math
requirements has at times held some students back, and they are unable to progress
through their program. The policy is quite strict in this regard. However, Kathy has
found a way to ensure that students meet the math standard by giving them more
time, and more than one chance to repeat the exam, without them falling behind
in their other course work. Kathy guides this kaleidoscope of perspectives by being
flexible, getting feedback from students and making sure the policies are seen from
multiple viewpoints.
I learned how to think critically and ask questions like, “Who
does the policy speak for?” “Who does it leave out?”
…because of my understanding of the complexity of policy and
the unintended consequences…I have looked at policies that we
have especially around progressions, and to me, sometimes they
are so prescriptive that they don’t give a student who doesn’t
follow the normal progression of being able to move from one
course, or from one level, to the next. And maybe you have to
look at that individual student’s situation.
24
Recognizing the complexity of policy has contributed to Kathy’s evolving approach to
leadership. She has learned that to lead transformative change and be a transformative
leader means that “leadership is not being top down, but it is collaboration among
KATHERINE FUKUYAMA
equals.” She now thinks with care about how to systematically create the kind of
change she wants. This involves research and good listening, so that one is able to see
the issues from other people’s perspectives:
You really do have to work at it, and you have to get buy-in
from everybody and to be more thoughtful about the kinds of
change you want to see.
Ultimately, Kathy has found that the EdD was more than just a good career move.
For her, having an EdD in Educational Leadership and Policy was “a selfactualization move.” Kathy has gained personal satisfaction from knowing she has
contributed to the scholarship in her field, while becoming a more confident,
scholarly and collaborative leader and policy maker.
Read Katherine Fukuyama’s dissertation: “Negotiating the education and practice disjuncture
in nursing clinical placements: nursing faculty’s perspectives” https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/
collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0165868
25
26
Wendy
Johnson
I thought I was a
community builder, but
my concern was far
greater than that. It was
about democracy and
democracy in schools
and how much I value
that. And coming
to understand that
community building was
just part of that whole
process of educating for
democratic citizenship.
SECONDARY PRINCIPAL RETIRED;
FORMER CHAIR, LANGLEY BOARD
OF EDUCATION;
EDUCATIONAL CONSULTANT
COHORT 2001
WENDY JOHNSON
Helpful Theory for
Creating Democratic
Participation
Wendy Johnson has been a teacher, an elementary school vice principal, a secondary
school principal and more recently a school trustee. Wendy would say that everything
she has done around educational leadership has been intuitive, and by all accounts
her instincts have been very good indeed. Back in 2001 Wendy was attracted to the
EdD program by her strong interest in understanding why her intuition worked so
well and by her desire to ground this intuition in theory.
So that was why the EdD program really intrigued and interested
me, because it was concerned with researching your practice,
which is exactly what I wanted to do.
There was theory that was explaining the kind of things that I
did, the way I thought about things, how I related to people.
And it was just reassuring to know, “This is grounded in
theory.” I didn’t know that. But it feels good. And it makes me
more determined to keep doing what I’m doing, because you
wonder sometimes, “Maybe I shouldn’t have done that, maybe
I shouldn’t have thought that, said that.” But when you start
reading the theorists, you’re going to go, “Yeah, yeah this is all
making sense.”
The shifts from old Wendy to new Wendy began right from the start. First it was
a move from being a principal at an elementary school to vice principal secondary
during the first year of the EdD. The confidence of an already confident leader was
growing. It came with a shift in perspective about educational leadership. It became
OK not to always have the best idea or always be right.
I guess coming to terms with not all your ideas are good ones
or accepted or… but that’s OK too, it’s OK to put it out there.
And let’s look at it, let’s talk about it. It’s not about me, as they
say, it’s not the ego that’s engaged. It’s the ideas we’re talking
about here.
28
“It’s about the ideas first,” says Wendy. And there were many ideas to engage with
during the first years of the EdD. Having come with a long experience of teaching in
community schools, Wendy considered herself a community builder, someone who
consulted widely with staff, students, parents to inform her plans and policies. But
WENDY JOHNSON
there was, she found, even more room to grow and learn. And she found there was
another, wider and more powerful lens to use in examining what she did and why.
I thought I was a community builder, but it was far greater than
that. It was about democracy and democracy in schools and how
much I value that. And coming to understand that community
building was just part of that whole process.
Democracy became a way to understand what real inclusion and participation in
schools could be. And it began with some new language: what the educational
philosopher Nel Noddings calls the “Ethic of Care.” This idea spoke loudly to Wendy,
and the language of ethics and care deepened her understanding of how children
in schools deserved to be treated. This respect for the inclusion of students in the
decisions that affect them, and the idea that the school can and should be a space
for the practice of democracy is a notion, however, that was severely challenged
when Wendy was the principal of a secondary school in Langley for more than a
year. She learned that her school was being considered for closure, a plan that the
Superintendent of Schools had failed to tell her was in the works. This situation
prompted Wendy to consider using this situation as the subject of her dissertation.
As the threat of school closure became public, the students themselves decided to do
something to stop it.
Wendy observed as their protest became their training ground to become engaged,
democratic citizens. The students’ campaign of resistance became the central
question in Wendy’s dissertation, torn right from the pages of her professional
practice day timer. She was determined to document the ways young voices could, as
education scholar Michael Fielding suggests, engage in conversations with each other
and adults to create opportunities for democratic education. As the decision-making
process played out, Wendy worked hard as a participant observer to document the
experiences of the youth voices. She heard youth reflect on what they were learning
in the process. As she noted in the introduction to her dissertation, the students
“became educated about what it means to participate as citizens in a democracy.
They said they also learned about power. They understood…that ‘making a difference
in the world involves going into the public realm’.”
Through her dissertation research, Wendy discovered what she calls “helpful theory.”
She drew on this theory to understand and make sense of the meaning of the students’
activism to stop the school closure. These theories came from diverse disciplines,
including Georg Hans Gadamer’s philosophical hermeneutics, Nel Noddings’ Ethic
of Care, Jürgen Habermas’ ideal speech conditions, Nancy Fraser’s democratic
counterpublic and Hannah Arendt’s notion of action in the public sphere.
Wendy was in the role of principal during the school closure situation, and thus
was required to stay neutral in the conflict and keep out of the way of parents and
students. But she had a front row seat as she observed their efforts to express their
views. She paid attention to the processes that students used to engage parents,
teachers and the wider public; she attended to the power dynamics while keeping field
notes on the students’ plans, the response of teachers and parents and the positions
taken by the Superintendent and the School Trustees in the process. Ultimately, she
documented how a group of high school students in a small city in British Columbia
29
WENDY JOHNSON
organized a sophisticated 10-month campaign to prevent their high school from
being reconfigured into a middle school. The campaign included protests, letters to
the editor of the local newspapers, lobbying trustees, presentations at the Board of
Education meetings, and appearances on radio and television.
When the final decision came down to close the school, Wendy was still writing her
dissertation. She decided it was time for retirement. But no sooner had she submitted
her thesis for examination, Wendy found herself running for election as school trustee
in her township. She won with huge youth support and served for six exciting years.
The whirl of activities—both scholarly and day-to-day—and her work in the EdD
program with her cohort members and her supervising faculty kept her grounded
and focused on continuing her research and writing. And when the dissertation was
published (she received her doctorate in 2009), it was the recognition and appreciation
of her peers and students that she valued most.
The closure of the school was so emotional and highly charged,
that writing the thesis was cathartic in lots of ways. It really
helped me process, understand it, and you know what kids said
to me, too, “Thank you for inviting us to come and be part
of focus groups, because this is closure.” Particularly those kids
who were most involved in the organizational stuff, they said,
“This is really closure for us. Thank you.”
Wendy’s collaborative style of leadership was recognized by many who had
encountered her. This example is telling:
The husband of the band teacher came to me at one point,
and he just said, “Thank you for being you.” And gave me a
hug, and he said, “That means so much to Patty.” And I said,
“What do you mean, ‘being you’?” He said, “Just who you are
as a leader, it means so much to her.” And Patty was a fabulous
music teacher, just totally immersed in her kids, and so, what it
said to me was that I was valuing what she valued; we had the
same shared values. So there would be little things like that. So,
I don’t think it was huge or profound, it was just stuff like that
that got said from time to time.
Since stepping down from the school board, Wendy has continued to share her
understanding of educational leadership and policy. Through her EdD work Wendy’s
definition of policy evolved from “what a bore” and “what a pain” to “you need to
know policy so you can… get the best for your school and your kids.”
Studying policy in the EdD helped me understand that policy
makers are not brilliant people sometimes, they need to
understand context, and what’s driving it, where it came from,
and sometimes suggest a time for change, right?
30
But as with policy, Wendy says leadership involves listening to all voices and being
able to take the perspectives of others into account.
WENDY JOHNSON
You need to listen first. And that sort of became a mantra,
particularly dealing with kids. “I haven’t walked in your shoes;
how could I possibly guess, right?” And the same with teachers.
Yeah, you need to hear them out, you need to hear what’s that
like, right? But then, at the same time, it is asking them if they’re
being listened to, and considering other people’s positions,
perspectives, and their life experience as well—we all bring that.
Wendy’s professional practice took numerous turns during the time she was enrolled
in the EdD. There were self-described shifts, some deep disappointments, many
successes. Reflecting now on what it means to have an EdD in Educational Leadership
and Policy seems to come down to some simple, but not simplistic, qualities.
I started it because I thought, “I want to learn, I want to know, I
want to understand,” and so it did all of that. I don’t call myself
doctor, so it’s not, it’s never about the prestige or the title; it was
the coming to know. And it’s just made my life richer every time I
approach some new challenge.
Most recently, Wendy was working with students on a youth leadership conference,
and when she met the students she couldn’t help but ask them, “Where are the
students from the alternative schools? Where is the diversity? How can we get their
voices at the table?” In asking the questions, she realizes that some people do get
uncomfortable, but she is convinced that asking the questions will lead to awareness
and that will lead to action and greater inclusion. This story of planning the student
leadership forum characterizes Wendy’s leadership philosophy, something she
expresses best in her own words:
It’s about the dialogue again, bringing all members of the
community together because everybody has the right to be
heard. And why aren’t we, as leaders in the system, facilitating
that? We should be. And I guess, I’m just a little amazed: here
I am, all these years later and still asking the same questions.
Read Wendy Johnson’s dissertation: “Preparing to appear: a case study of student activism”
https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0067211
31
32
Larry
Kuehn
Good pedagogical practice
is about “empowering
students, creating
opportunities for them,
providing some guidance
and support, but trying to
help them to identify what
it is that they should, and
will, learn.”
DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH AND
TECHNOLOGY, BRITISH COLUMBIA
TEACHERS’ FEDERATION
COHORT 1998
LARRY KUEHN
INTERCAMBIO—
Educational
Leadership as Making
Space to Learn From
Each Other
Vancouver, 1918. Educators gathered for the second Annual General Meeting of
the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, and the minutes of the AGM record that
Mrs. Templar introduced a motion calling for “Equal pay for equal work, with equal
privileges for women.” As Larry Kuehn tells the story, the resolution was thoroughly
debated but then rejected on a technicality; the Constitution did not provide for
dealing with such a question. Although Mrs. Templar and other advocates of gender
equity lost that particular fight, Larry’s point is that the BCTF has been on the “cutting
edge” of pushing to “expand social and human rights” for a century now. He is
proud of the union’s enduring commitments to social justice in both local and global
contexts, the site of his educational leadership practice for over 30 years.
Currently, Larry is the Director of Research and Technology at the BCTF, a position he
took up in 1991 after serving in various staff and elected roles, including president.
In 1998, Larry saw an ad for the EdD and, as he recalls, it looked more interesting
than going for a PhD. The program was his opportunity to reflect deeply on the many
dimensions of his educational practice.
The EdD program proved to be a good home for Larry. In particular, he flags the
diversity of people in his cohort, the dialogical approach taken in core courses,
the opportunity to read about critical perspectives on educational technology in
elective courses, the concept of policy archeology, and the considered and sustained
conversations about ethics, including Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “banality of
evil” as applied in the modern context of bureaucratic governance. These and other
provocations to thought in the EdD program gave Larry “more clarity” about the
longstanding core values embedded in his professional practice and how these social
justice ideals inform his thinking about ongoing and future projects within the BCTF.
34
Perhaps the prime example is his dissertation, which allowed Larry to delve deeply
into the BCTF’s international program—a program he has been directly involved
with, in one form or another, for decades. As BCTF President in the early 1980s, for
instance, he drafted the recommendations to the executive committee that set up
the International Solidarity Committee. Researching and writing about this set of
international program initiatives allowed him to articulate the underlying vision and
its implications with more precision:
LARRY KUEHN
It made me more conscious of the value base of what we were
doing, and so, consequently, of another way of evaluating as
we are going along. Should we be doing this, or should we
be doing that? What are the values that we have tried to build
into the [international] program that give us some criteria for
the decisions we make about the things that we are doing now
and in the future?
Part of Larry’s dissertation is a history of teacher union internationalism in BC; through
his research, he learned that the BCTF had been doing this international work since
1923. In documenting how this long tradition had evolved, he saw more clearly
that the era he helped initiate—that began with a shift in name and philosophy
from “assistance” to “solidarity” — has become a distinct direction, informed by
anti-colonial values. Larry named this strategy intercambio, from the Spanish word
meaning exchange or interchange. Intercambio, as he explains in his dissertation, “is
aimed in both its intentions and activities to reflect solidarity, mutuality and reciprocity
in relationships between the BCTF and the unions with which the BCTF works”
(Kuehn, 2006, p. ii).
The dissertation research and writing, specifically, and the EdD program, more
generally, helped Larry to see and name a pattern evident across his career; as much
as intercambio describes a vision, strategy, and process for BCTF internationalism, it
also captures well Larry’s approach to educational leadership and classroom pedagogy.
As a secondary school English teacher in the 1970s, Larry saw good pedagogical
practice as “empowering students, creating opportunities for them, providing . . .
some guidance and support, but trying to help them to identify what it is that they
should, and will, learn.”
In a related way, the BCTF’s message when working with unions in, say, Latin America
is: “we are here to support and to learn, not to tell you what it is you should be
doing.” Larry describes a participatory approach to policy research that he witnessed
in Central America among teachers and union activists interested in the uses of
educational technology; he plans to invite some of his colleagues from countries
like Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua to provide workshops in this
grassroots, dialogic approach to research to teachers in BC. “Part of what we’re
trying to do,” explains Larry, “is show that solidarity really is a chance to learn from
each other, rather than just giving money for something.”
Indicative of his low-key style, buried in his enthusiastic description of this participatory
approach to teacher research, is the fact that the Central American teachers had invited
him to their regional meeting to speak on a topic he is an expert on—the political
economy of educational technology. Indeed, in reflecting on his leadership style in the
BCTF’s international work for his dissertation, he describes himself as a “reluctant leader.”
Initiating an activity, and framing and structuring it so that it
will lead toward the desired objective, gives me the greatest
satisfaction. Finding ways to communicate so that others share
the vision and see how the work supports and leads toward
that objective is the other key part of the process. Then it is time
to back off, to leave a space for others to carry on the work
35
LARRY KUEHN
and reshape it and reframe it in the process, so that it is the
work of all of us. That does not mean abandoning the work and
just leaving it to others. Paying attention and intervening when,
from my perspective, things are going off the track or when
requested are important aspects. (Kuehn, 2006, pp. 230-231)
From this perspective, his current position as Director of Research and Technology has
been an ideal platform for his temperament and talents. He oversees research in the
department to shed light on the realities of teachers’ everyday work and factors that bear
directly on BCTF members’ working conditions, including education finance and class size.
We do a funding brief every year to the Standing Committee on
Finance at the Legislature and produce reports all along. One of
the researchers does much of the ground work on it, but I have
to have an overall sense [as Director], and I take that research
and write the brief, then, that tries to give the arguments that
uses all that concrete research that has been done there.
Behind the scenes, then, Larry works to frame the debate about public education
in the province, from the perspective of the BCTF and its executive. He also writes
about important educational issues for teacher audiences in BC (Teacher Magazine),
Canada (Our Schools, Our Selves), and internationally (Intercambio: Bulletin of the
IDEA Education Research Network).
His latest writing project is for an idea partly inspired by the historical research Larry
did for his dissertation: an online history museum, currently under construction as a
way to mark the BCTF’s centennial year. Eventually, the online museum will
host a variety of exhibits about different aspects of the
Federation’s history such as collective bargaining, professional
development, pensions, governance, social justice unionism,
and international solidarity. A series of virtual “rooms” will
display articles, photos, artifacts, and collections including
editorial cartoons, campaign materials, and . . . videos of oral
history interviews . . . (Teacher Magazine, March 2016, p. 4)
What delights Larry most about this is the idea that the museum will “create a basic
resource that our members can make their own interpretations of”; not only teachers,
but “also academics or whoever is interested . . . will have easy access to important
resources in understanding an organization that really has significance in the
province—not just in education, but in [the BCTF’s] social justice focus.” Once again,
Larry puts this initiative in an intercambio framework. “We’re telling some stories”
about the role that the BCTF has played in struggles to expand human rights, such
as the early fight for pay equity for women teachers. “But we want to give people
resources to figure out the stories as well”—stories they want to tell for themselves,
based on the archival materials that will be available in the online museum.
36
Read Larry Kuehn’s dissertation: “Intercambio: social justice union internationalism in the B.C.
Teachers’ Federation” https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0058222
Kenneth (Sandy)
MacIver
What has changed as a
result of the EdD experience
is the depth of my
emotional understanding
and my internalization of
the issues. This has helped
me become a behind-thescenes leader and able to
have more constructive
dialogue…something I
would not have been able
to contribute at anything
like the same level without
the EdD learning…
DIRECTOR, RON JOYCE CENTRE FOR
BUSINESS STUDIES, MOUNT ALLISON
UNIVERSITY, NEW BRUNSWICK
COHORT 2001
37
KENNETH (SANDY) MACIVER
COMING FULL CIRCLE:
A Journey of
Educational Integrity
Sandy MacIver is the Director of the Ron Joyce Centre for Business Studies at Mount
Allison University in New Brunswick. He completed the EdD in 2005. For many years
before his doctoral work began, and then several years following, he has engaged in
a successful and busy organizational change consulting practice. Just recently Sandy
has, as he says, come full circle to return to the post-secondary institution that meant
so much to him as an undergraduate. Before he earned a Rhodes Scholarship at
Mount Allison, Sandy was a kid from a troubled family with a potentially shaky future.
His time at the university as a young man changed him profoundly. Now he is deeply
satisfied to be appointed to the Centre for Business Studies in a role that allows him
to support other students in their educational journey.
The first thing you notice about Sandy is that he is very tall and has a deep voice. It’s
interesting that these characteristics have been a source of learning for him in the EdD
program. After self-reflection and feedback from members of his learning cohort, he
has come to use his physical and vocal power with a greater awareness of his male
privilege. That self-awareness is essential to forging the partnerships his university
seeks in pursuing changes on many fronts, including Indigenizing the campus, and
enhancing gender parity.
My EdD learning has helped me to be a positive “voice” for
change and sensitivity. I am also more aware of issues behind
the issues that have been raised in various forums on campus.
These issues have related to everything from subtle forms of
racial micro-aggression and instances of Islamophobia to valuing
the way women on our campus are putting on our 16th annual
rendition of the “Vagina Monologues.”
Sandy experienced the connection and support of the cohort model in Royal Roads
University Masters programs and sought something similar in choosing a doctoral
program. When Sandy began the EdD program, almost immediately he recognized
the potential of this diverse group of colleagues: 12 people would prove to be rich
sources of personal learning about how to collaborate, show support and develop
trust. The cohort would become a source of scholarly learning as well, because Sandy
did his EdD dissertation on the conditions for trust in organizational leadership and
change. He recalls that in the first graduate seminar, when all members of the cohort
and faculty members introduced themselves, his learning about leadership began:
38
The key moment for me occurred in the first week of the program.
We started with David Coulter’s class the first Graduate Seminar
in Year One, and we decided as a group that we were going
to meet after class and just talk about what we wanted to do.
And I was one of the initiators but not the sole initiator; there
were a whole bunch of us that wanted to have this meeting. We
wanted to support each other in getting through the program,
and we established a joint vision and some values, in particular
the value of inclusivity.
I was there in part because of the cohort model, and here were
a bunch of people that seemed to have the same idea of the
cohort model that I had—that it could be highly cooperative,
supportive, professionally challenging.
The cohort provided a consistent laboratory for learning and the group seemed
particularly skilled at group process. Thus the cohort was able to provide a functioning
“space” to review and share learning on an ongoing basis: a sounding board and
support group for each other as the EdD candidates moved through their course
work, comprehensive exam preparation, and their individual research projects.
Ironically, belonging to a group provided space for individual learning.
Prior to applying to the EdD, Sandy had a highly successful consulting and teaching
practice. And he also had a gnawing sense that there was something more he wanted
to explore; something as yet unfinished. But he didn’t have the time or the knowledge
resources to articulate what was missing.
For the longest time, personally and professionally, I had wanted
to write something significant, and I knew …that without the
discipline of some kind of program…I was unlikely to write this
thing I wanted to write.
If the cohort model and the set of graduate seminars were not enough, Sandy had an
epiphany about the meaning of power and trust when he encountered the material
explored in the qualitative research methods course. Learning about these methods
served him well as he progressed through his dissertation research, including what he
learned about the power relations inherent in conducting research. The cohort and
teaching faculty gave Sandy the space to inquire into many assumptions.
From the moment I got into qualitative research, I felt like I had
found a home… Because we were dealing with feminist and
First Nations research methods, and there are...some important
and real issues that are explored as part of that research, we
reached a new level of honesty and expression.
Sandy found his home in a scholarly community of practice and in his dissertation
research on the concept of trust in organizational settings, but it was the holistic
nature of the EdD that he credits with a kind of personal transformation.
The program enabled me to pull it all together; it enabled me
to live it; it enabled me to take a longer-term perspective on
it. Someone who knew me well in my client organization in
39
Texas came up to me after I’d finished, and said to me, “There’s
something different about you, since you got involved in that
doctoral program,” and I said, “Well yeah, I think there is
something different about me, but I’m interested, what would
you say the difference is?” By this time I had been working with
the outfit in Texas for 15 years, and I’d been with them in a
lot of challenging situations. I was credited with helping handle
some really dicey situations in the development of the company,
and with helping it becoming successful. So in describing how
I was different, this person said, “Well, you were really good
before and you were really committed and all of that kind of
stuff, but there’s a whole depth to what you do now that is just
so much greater than what it was before you did the program.”
And so through my being able to bring things together, the way I
did, and to go back and read original sources...I got to write this
significant thing, which I had wanted to do for decades. But I also
had this life experience that was just absolutely awesome, and has
stayed with me as part of who I have become to this day.
The EdD expanded Sandy’s understanding of leadership. He says it’s not just about
adding theory to his understanding of how to lead in an educational setting. It is more
of a whole person experience. It’s about integrity.
What has changed as a result of the EdD experience is the depth
of my emotional understanding and my internalization of the
issues. This has helped me become an even better behind-thescenes leader who is able to have more constructive dialogue
on these issues. That is something I would not have been able
to contribute at anything like the same level without the EdD
learning and without the “education” my colleagues gave me in
class time and outside class time in our many cohort meetings
and talks.
When he talks about his learning experience in the EdD program, Sandy recognizes
that it is difficult to articulate the changes in the way he approaches challenges in his
past and current roles. He goes deeper, is more subtle, and more consistent. What
does it mean to Sandy to “go deeper” in the way he works and leads others in? For
someone who loves to communicate, to share ideas and visions, it has meant to listen
with greater depth and with “stillness.” When he’d like to be changing policy and
programs in his new role by jumping into action, instead he is reflecting more, taking
the time to be present, and asking better questions about how things work and why,
before moving too quickly to make his mark.
40
It’s not surprising that Sandy talks about trust as an integral part of educational
leadership. It was the core of his EdD dissertation and what has long been a dimension
of his personal and professional inquiry. The EdD learning journey has led him back to
a new beginning—returning to work at the university that was so significant for his
early development and growth. Now it is his turn to lead others in that place. He has
now come home: full circle to a leadership practice of great integrity.
Christine
Perkins
Having an EdD gives
me credibility when I
speak on a particular
topic, especially around
anything to do with
human rights, which
I’m passionate about…
It really helped me get
my voice out there.
ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT
FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT #58
NICOLA-SIMILKAMEEN
COHORT 2006
CHRISTINE PERKINS
THE ETHICS OF INCLUSION:
Developing Diversity
Policy in Schools
As a teacher and secondary school principal, Christine Perkins has always been deeply
interested in democratic citizenship and the idea of student inclusion. Now Christine
is the Assistant Superintendent for School District #58 Nicola-Similkameen, a district
that embraces Merritt, Princeton, and the traditional territories of Upper Nicola, Lower
Nicola, Coldwater, Shackan, Nooaitch, and Upper Similkameen Bands.
Christine notes, with a laugh, that when she first began the EdD in 2006 she was not
alone in feeling she was in over her head. But as the cohort became immersed in deep
discussions in their new language, they soon discovered the applicability of theory to
their diverse professional work settings.
We had nurses in our cohort, we had RCMP, we had educators in
private education, post-secondary and public; so we had a variety
of people on board. And I think at first we weren’t all sure how
we were all going to fit together. But we figured it out.
Very quickly Christine discovered that the program was taking her where she wanted
to go, raising questions for her about praxis, that is, the relationship between theory
and practice and how each informs the other. Her quest was to learn how to use
that information to move things forward and make this world better. This ethical
dimension was a central concern for Christine.
She recalled that very early in the program, a learning assignment had her writing and
reflecting on her educational journey; an exercise that would cement the relationships
within her cohort of learners, in spite of their differences.
The thing that struck me, in hearing everyone’s stories and
everyone’s history was that, we all came to this place on such
totally different journeys and we were going to take it on
completely different journeys.
There was a lot of sharing and trust among the members of the cohort, and those
connections made a world of difference, as did the relationships with those members
of the teaching faculty who shared Christine’s passion for social justice.
42
The journey to Christine’s dissertation research question began with a deep interest
in democratic citizenship and the idea of inclusion. This interest pivoted over time
through deep reading, conversations with faculty and peers, to examining the power
of policy to include people who have been marginalized.
CHRISTINE PERKINS
Ultimately, and not surprisingly, it was her own workplace that called Christine’s
attention to an urgent social injustice: her school and the school district at the time,
did not have a sexual orientation policy. So she invited her colleagues into her research
and with their cooperation and involvement, undertook a dissertation on How School
Principals Understand and Respond to Homophobia. Following completion of the
dissertation…
I was involved in writing the district sexual orientation policy,
which tied in directly to my thesis. And a lot of that came
out of the fact that we didn’t have one; that we had a high
school where there wasn’t a gay-straight alliance… and yet all
evidence, all research proves that if you have supports of that
kind in place, you have safer schools. And you have kids who
are hurting less, kids who are more open, more inclusive, and
more trusting.
Christine’s studies and research taught her to ask questions about policy in terms of
what impact it has—negatively or positively—on those it is meant to influence. She is
particularly mindful of those students who already face barriers to learning, such as
First Nations students and students with special needs. Her dissertation research was
instrumental in catalyzing the creation of a gay-straight alliance in the school where
she was principal.
That research created many opportunities for professional learning, policy
development, and program design. From time to time, Christine is called by other
districts to advise on policy on LGBTQ+ policy and other human rights and social
justice issues in schools. The main approach she takes in all policy formulation is to
look at the potential impacts from all sides and angles, and to ask, “Who is included?
Who is excluded? Does it marginalize? What are the potential negative impacts?”
Christine’s dissertation allowed her to “have a conversation” with the literature—
with the big ideas of philosophers and educational scholars, including many members
of the EdD faculty. These conversations then informed her emerging, more complex
understanding of the issues, as they related to policy and to her own approach to
leadership. Maxine Greene’s notion of “wide-awakeness” inspired Christine to ask
many questions, and to invite others to see a situation from many angles. Iris Marion
Young’s work on social justice influenced Christine’s view of power. Young’s lens
continues to help Christine see how power abuses occur in schools all the time—in
terms of grades, access to programs, sports teams and other ways that students are
included, privileged or excluded.
The many theoretical lenses offered throughout the program supported Christine’s
confidence; the theory and practice lens strengthened her perspective on past
situations. She notes that the EdD’s policy course provided an overview of the history
of public education in the province and thus a sense that the policy is political.
Christine also notes that the government’s philosophy of education influences public
policy and educational practice. This includes curriculum reforms and safe schools.
43
Christine confirms that her confidence and steadfastness in all issues related to power,
social justice and human rights are high. She is open about the need to deal directly
CHRISTINE PERKINS
with such issues: to gather the facts, listen for all the perspectives and ultimately to
deal with people in an ethical and fair way. Christine is very clear that her time in the
EdD program contributed directly to this confidence and capacity to pay attention
to the situational context and to the particular cultural values and perspectives each
situation represents. Where possible, she tries to honour all sides of an issue, seeking
a way forward that is inclusive and that does minimal harm.
These days Christine’s typical week includes meeting with district principals about
growth plans, reviewing a process to develop a District Parent Advisory Committee
in the region, meeting with special education departments to talk about high school
completions, and meeting with district secondary school principals regarding various
services and programs offered like alternate schools and adult education. She attends
community events and professional development trainings and sits down individually
with parents and teachers concerned about a student with autism. These encounters
have her listening, asking questions and making thoughtful decisions every day.
Christine attributes her approach to decision-making to what she learned in the EdD
program.
Christine sees educational leadership as a gift, a gift she has been given to use in acting
and advocating on behalf of others—in this case, students and their families—and
she is quite comfortable with being both an activist and a good listener. She has no
problem being clear about her values and beliefs; this transparency, she says, is really
important. In a recent meeting with a family to talk about their autistic son, who was
struggling to complete a welding program, Christine assisted the family to see that
although their son might not advance immediately into the apprenticeship program,
he will complete high school with valuable experience and other opportunities for
work. Christine is aware of the importance of language—that it matters how things
are framed. When she heard the father refer to his son’s failure to complete the
apprenticeship program as “all for naught,” she encouraged the family to consider
that perhaps there was much to be proud of; despite not meeting the apprenticeship
program’s requirements, the student was able to graduate from high school. Christine
wanted to help the family leave that meeting with a sense of pride, dignity and
accomplishment.
But this encounter made Christine question how the system was working for others.
“The schooling system is a big ship to turn around,” she says. And so, to advocate for
folks takes time and sometimes is done in incremental measures. This does not stop
her from asking the tough questions, such as, “Who has access to programs? Who
does not? and Why not?”
Special Education and Aboriginal Education are personal
passions of mine. I think there are a lot of blockages put up in
the way of students and families, or a lot of stigmatizing and
harmful attitudes put in their way sometimes. And so those are
areas that I really like to help people navigate through.
44
Christine wants to make a difference for those students who are constantly faced
with messages that they can’t do things. This direct approach to advocacy is her
personal passion. Her approach is more like:
CHRISTINE PERKINS
Let’s figure out what your child can do. Let’s figure out what’s
blocking you. Let’s get the barriers out of the way. Then let’s
figure out how we can help you get there.
Since completing her dissertation, Christine has published an article for the BC
Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Association’s Adminfo magazine titled “Putin, Pride
and Policy.” She has been consulted on and contributed to other policy work in
a variety of school districts and is currently re-working the ethno-drama that was
central to her thesis into a dramatic form.
Completing the EdD courses and the dissertation research and writing proved to be a
challenging journey. Christine notes that the commitment the program requires should
not be underestimated. Working, studying and creating a space to reflect and write
while holding down leadership roles was not easy. But, she adds, it was a journey that
yielded insight, learning and increased clarity about the kind of educational leader
she wanted to become. The EdD has contributed to both external recognition and a
marked increase in confidence.
Having an EdD gives me credibility when I speak on a particular
topic, especially around anything to do human rights, which I’m
passionate about. It gives me that confidence … and I think it
gives me voice. It really helped me get my voice out there.
Christine hopes the EdD will continue to push ahead leading ideas and asking
questions about what is happening in public education; testing the boundaries and
being creative. She wants to see more educational leaders with these qualities. Being
an educational leader is not just having access to theory; it is, in the end, about how
wisely one acts in a given challenging situation. And so Christine will continue to
bring her thoughtful leadership to her current work with staff and students in School
District #58 as they strive to reach their vision of “Success for ALL Learners … Today
and Tomorrow.”
Read Christine Perkins’ dissertation: “How school principals understand and respond to
homophobia: a study of one B.C. public school district using ethnodrama” https://open.library.ubc.
ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0073260
45
50
Jeanette
Robertson
Since exploring parts of
my practice through the
program, I have a greater
level of acuity, a higher
level of consciousness
and just more of a
framework to situate the
daily encounters I have
as an educational leader,
a practitioner and a
teacher.
CHAIR, SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
AND HUMAN SERVICE,
THOMPSON RIVERS UNIVERSITY,
COHORT 2004
JEANETTE ROBERTSON
WISE ACTION:
Starting a National
Conversation
on Social Work
Education
Jeanette Robertson is the Chair of the School of Social Work and Human Service
at Thompson Rivers University (TRU), formerly University College of the Cariboo,
located in Kamloops, British Columbia. When Jeanette contemplated her educational
pathway back in 2004, the university college was transiting to a full university. When
the college became TRU in 2005, faculty members were encouraged to consider
doctoral work in order to take on important leadership roles in the academy. At that
time, Jeanette was the Coordinator of Social Work Field Education, a central part
of every social work student’s education and professional development. The field
component of social work education is critical to students’ success; TRU social work
students spend almost 700 hours working in the community with diverse individuals
and families addressing real world struggles.
Through her dissertation research, Jeanette explored the important role field
education coordinators play as leaders and “gatekeepers” in the development of
social work students’ professional practice. Jeanette’s research was national in scope,
involving those educators who set, oversee, and support students in field placements.
Jeanette’s research resulted in a national conversation about the value and importance
of this role and the need for field coordinators to conduct their work in a fair and
transparent manner. This is a role that calls for wise judgment.
The EdD program gave me a framework for looking at
professional suitability and how to navigate the various interests
involved. It’s an onerous piece and most social work educators
would rather avoid talking about it.
Fast-forward 10 years. Jeanette is now a recognized national authority on the
subject of “professional suitability.” She continues to be involved in research on this
subject and also to contribute to the nation-wide conversation on the regulation and
education of social workers.
48
It’s not just in the field where Jeanette’s wisdom has proven valuable. When dealing
with any number of the School of Social Work’s ethical dilemmas and tough issues
related to students, faculty or university issues, Jeanette has learned to pause and be
more reflective in her deliberations. One key idea from the EdD program stands out.
JEANETTE ROBERTSON
Phronesis is the Greek term used by Aristotle to describe acting wisely in a particular
situation. This powerful idea is rooted in what Jeanette describes as “doing the right
thing, for the right reason, at the right time.” Phronesis requires careful attention to
actual experience, that is, practice. Engaging in a thoughtful process as to the suitability
or readiness of social work students for the profession turns out to be more complex
than it may appear. Jeanette says another key idea from the EdD program is the notion
of “problematizing” situations that might seem straightforward, but are not.
Now when I talk about “suitability,” it can mean many things.
If a student is having difficulty making appropriate decisions,
or demonstrating a lack of insight in handling a challenging
situation in their field placement, it doesn’t automatically mean
they are not suitable for social work; they may require more
experience and support to learn.
Determining who has the moral disposition or capacity to uphold a code of ethical
standards for social work means weighing notions of fairness for the student and
for the vulnerable populations they may work with. The questions Jeanette asks
now demonstrate a kind of mindfulness; applying the insight that how a problem
gets framed will shape the range of solutions considered (or ignored). Appropriate
framing leads to a more in-depth consideration of social and historical context and
political interests. From this analysis, a different set of possibilities for action may
emerge. When questions about suitability arise, Jeanette pauses to consider what the
philosopher, Hannah Arendt, refers to as “the particulars” of a situation.
I take the time to sit down with students and, if necessary,
other faculty to look at the context of how we can guide people
through this process in a respectful and caring way.
The EdD program contributed to Jeanette’s understanding that there is an ethical
dimension to each and every case. This means using her professional judgment to
weigh what is right and what is fair and to be able to provide good reasons for
any recommendations for “withdrawing, suspending, expelling or supporting a
student based on our professional evaluation.” Paying attention to the particulars is
about “Being more mindful as an educational leader and asking, “What am I paying
attention to? What might I be missing in this situation? How can I again just pause
and be a little more reflective?”
Social Work Education, particularly field education, doesn’t always get the academic
respect it deserves. Jeanette has the sense that in the hierarchy of the academy,
researching what field education coordinators do is not an obvious choice for
scholarship. Bringing a scholarly lens to field education—writing peer-reviewed papers
and professional publications, for example— has shifted Jeanette’s sense of confidence
and authority in this area and has elevated this previously little-researched subject and
her own professional credibility with it. She modestly notes that her “research has
provided some thoughtfulness around the issue of ‘professional suitability’.” At the
same time, Jeanette’s dissertation highlighted the diverse and often isolated and/or
ignored perspectives of social work field coordinators across the country and brought
their voices into a national dialogue.
49
JEANETTE ROBERTSON
The research question was really a very experiential one, so
bringing forth social work field education coordinators’ voices
and what are they experiencing...has been a vehicle for sharing
[research insights] on a broader scale and bringing together field
education coordinators who usually work in isolation.
Through this research Jeanette discovered that many of her colleagues shared her
passion for providing quality field experiences for social work students, and they cared
just as much about providing the right kind of support for these students, as well as
being alert to potentially “unsuitable” social work students.
For Jeanette, the EdD journey has been a gradual emergence from “the shadows.”
For me, coming out of the shadows means being wide awake.
Paying attention to what is going on in the university, with the
faculty, and with the students. Not accepting what should not
be accepted.
With this enlarged sense of context and complexity, Jeanette has since thrown herself
into greater service to TRU, in an effort to learn and understand how the “bigger
systems” work that influence her world of Social Work.
I have been on the Senate, Educational Program Committee,
Promotions and Tenure Committees, Performance Review
Committees... I hear from my colleagues, and I notice that
everywhere we are trying to do more with less.
Jeanette sees this resourcing situation as having an impact on social work education,
and she is doing her best to create safe spaces for herself and her colleagues to learn,
critique and research the conditions that contribute to successful professional practice
in a challenging fiscal environment. It’s clear that Jeanette has found her voice when
she says,
You shouldn’t have to accept the way things are and what the
world should be or the way systems and dictates are structured.
I am confident to ask the questions if something is not sitting
right.
Reflecting on what it means to have completed the EdD program, Jeanette sees her
doctorate in Educational Leadership and Policy as sparking her passion and a sense of
deep integration of learning and personal transformation.
Since exploring parts of my practice through the program, I have
a greater level of acuity, a higher level of consciousness and just
more of a framework to situate the daily encounters I have as an
educational leader, a practitioner and a teacher.
50
As Jeanette begins her term as Chair of the School of Social Work and Human Service
at TRU, she recognizes anew the wealth of knowledge she has developed since first
beginning the EdD program in 2004. Jeanette notes that it’s an exciting time in which
JEANETTE ROBERTSON
she will bring to bear her knowledge, awareness and experience; in truth, her practical
wisdom. And in this way the EdD lives on in day-to-day practice.
The EdD in Leadership and Policy at UBC is a program where, she says,
You leave it, but you are still a part of it. I find that really, really
unique. I have made some incredible friends that I still connect
with. And there is a high level of mutual regard and respect.
For Jeanette Robertson, the EdD is not just about the dissertation or even about gaining
new ideas or concepts. Knowledge can be very cerebral, but it is also embodied, she
says. As Jeanette continues to bring leadership to her colleagues and to the students
in her program, she will keep the principles of justice, fairness and inclusion at the
forefront. Her approach will include an emphasis on relationships, on research, on
attention to the quality of teaching and student supervision and oh yes, on the many,
many questions that remain to be asked.
Read Jeanette Robertson’s dissertation: “Addressing professional suitability in social work
education: the experience and approach of field education coordinators” https://open.library.ubc.
ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0064604
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56
Patricia
Rosborough
There is a lot of pride in
achieving a doctorate. The
door that it has opened for
me as assistant professor is
the closest I have come to
making a living in a way that
is so aligned with what I care
about. I am able to bring a
lot of passion to my work
with Indigenous language
revitalization… That I get to
be a part of effecting better
understanding of, and better
approaches to, Indigenous
language revitalization,
is a privilege.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, INDIGENOUS
EDUCATION, CURRICULUM AND
INSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT,
UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA
COHORT 2004
PATRICIA ROSBOROUGH
A LEGACY OF SERVICE:
Connecting
Teaching, Language
and Culture
When an admired mentor suggests that you pursue a doctorate, you listen! That’s
how Trish Rosborough remembers a conversation with UBC Professor of Education
Jo-Ann Archibald that led her to apply to the EdD program in 2004. At the time
she was fully occupied professionally as the Provincial Coordinator, later promoted
to the Director of the Aboriginal Education program for the province of British
Columbia. After graduating with her doctorate in 2012, Trish was appointed Assistant
Professor, Indigenous Education, in the Curriculum and Instruction Department at the
University of Victoria—one of UVic’s largest and more interdisciplinary departments.
In this academic role she continues to influence the province’s educational policies,
particularly with regard to integration of Indigenous knowledge into the curriculum.
I have been in interesting places in the system and have many
perspectives because of this—as a member of the British
Columbia School Trustees Association, Chair of the Aboriginal
Education Committee, in the Ministry of Education and now
as an academic. As I have moved around, I have acquired a
different view of who does what. I see that the policy we need
to understand is one that we all need to own. We need to
recognize what is in our control and how to empower others.
Trish’s dissertation examined Indigenous language revitalization and the significant
way language serves as a communicator of culture. In her research Trish argued
that acquiring language becomes a profound form of personal decolonization
and healing. Trish studied the barriers to, and supports for, Indigenous language
learning and explored the cultural values, beliefs and understandings embedded in
language—what are referred to as “the teachings”—as well as the role of language
as the container of “making meaning” within a culture. Indigenous languages, Trish
points out, are endangered, with half of the world’s 7,000 Indigenous languages
globally predicted to disappear by 2100. In British Columbia there are 32 Indigenous
languages, and they are all in peril. In taking up this research in the EdD program,
Trish immersed herself in the study of the Kwak’wala language and apprenticed with
one of the 148 fluent Kwak’wala speakers in BC. Her research asserts the powerful
conclusion that “to have language is to have culture.”
54
But when first starting the EdD program, Trish did not know she would take this exact
research direction. The discoveries she would make through her course work and
PATRICIA ROSBOROUGH
research project were as yet unknowns; Trish graciously notes that helpful teachers,
other students and supportive learning spaces assisted her along the way.
The EdD program includes required graduate seminars as well as elective courses.
As it happened, Trish took an elective at UVic on Indigenous Language Restoration.
This course, along with encounters with faculty at UBC, were indispensable to her
learning. Conversations with Patricia Shaw, Founding Chair of the First Nations
Languages Program at University of British Columbia and Professor of Anthropological
Linguistics; Graham Smith, a Visiting Distinguished Professor and a leading Maori
scholar from New Zealand; and Jo-Ann Archibald, Associate Dean for Indigenous
Education and Professor of Educational Studies, were among the Indigenous scholars
who were particularly significant. They gave Trish a sense of being part of a scholarly,
Indigenous community.
Within the EdD program Trish studied the role of public policy on language
revitalization.
Understanding policy was really important and Professors
Michelle Stack and André Mazawi, who taught the policy
course, were important in this regard. While the course was
really challenging academically, this scholarly approach to policy
bridged to my work at the Ministry. The readings and the class
time contributed to my practice of conducting curriculum
review of Indigenous programs. This course helped me be a
better critical thinker.
Another encounter early into the EdD program would contribute to Trish’s research
focus. The annual EdD Institute is a retreat for current and past EdD students to
share research ideas and challenges. Hearing about alumnus Jack Miller’s research on
Aboriginal education at Thompson Rivers University was of “great interest,” and the
Institute also provided opportunities to engage with other researchers who shared
her passion.
Now an assistant professor at UVic, Trish is required to divide her time between
teaching, research and service. She displays a strong sense of service on and off
campus. For example, Trish often travels to Deese Lake to co-teach a course on
language revitalization, and while there she makes a point of connecting with the
local elders and others who are involved in finding better ways to recover endangered
languages.
I celebrate the learning with the students and apply the learning
to the interest I have in participating in the recovery of my own
Indigenous language.
This outreach and connection with the local community is vitally important to Trish.
She wants to do what she can to create a learning community wherever possible. And
while, typically, service within the university means participating on academic advisory
or hiring committees, for Trish this notion of service goes beyond those official, formal
roles and includes engaging with communities in a variety of ways.

PATRICIA ROSBOROUGH
For example, when teaching in Indigenous communities, I
don’t just teach my course and leave; I aim to connect with
the community – this means getting to know and supporting
the goals and values of the community and, in my case, the
language revitalization communities.
To serve and to give back is a core guiding principle in Trish’s community engagement
and in her work to create change—within her own university and in BC’s educational
institutions. Her approach is inclusive, collaborative and informed by the analysis of
the situation:
I am constantly trying to move and influence the institution [the
university] and am still working on a political movement scale
with the Truth and Reconciliation Committee recommendations.
Many people are working in their own particular areas of
interest and don’t understand what it means to Indigenize
the institution. The EdD tools have helped me understand
how to enter into this conversation and how to hold critical
conversations. Without the EdD I would have done these things
differently.
Trish’s dissertation used an Indigenous framework, in the form of the Button Blanket,
to explore the subject of language learning within the social and political context of
colonialism. She found a unique way for her research to explore how this revered
tradition of crafting the button blanket represents way of knowing and research that
is particular to cultural practices.
Now in her role as research supervisor for other emerging Indigenous scholars at the
university, Trish is experimenting with what a master’s thesis should look like. For
example, she suggests that, in the same way a potlatch is a form of dissemination of
learning, a thesis should produce a tangible artefact. She wonders if the production
of a potlatch could be, in itself, a form of knowledge creation.
I am interested in deep engagement with students, with ideas;
and this idea of the thesis being different is risky for me, for the
students and for the unit, as I don’t want it to be understood as
less valuable or valid than a more traditional thesis.
So making space for Indigenous approaches to knowledge production and
dissemination is a central concern for Trish. But she is aware, too, that making space
is not without risks and challenges:
56
This means not just accepting the norms of the institutions but
validating Indigenous approaches to knowledge. This might
mean that for an Indigenous student, presenting work through
forms of oral tradition or other culturally relevant processes
might be more meaningful than a standard thesis. There’s a
danger that Indigenous approaches to knowledge might be
misunderstood as somehow being less rigorous and scholarly
than what is usually accepted in academia—when in fact, these
PATRICIA ROSBOROUGH
forms might be even more rigorous and scholarly. This means
we need to be constantly educating the institution and building
understanding.
There were times during her EdD experience when Trish was frustrated by the ongoing
need to educate others about Indigenous ways of knowing. There did not seem to
be as strong a recognition of Indigenous worldviews at that time as she would have
liked. And although some of the literature her cohort explored did look at this focus,
Trish was often called upon to share her knowledge of Indigenous worldviews with
her cohort members. The additional and important scholarly support she needed
came from her connection with UBC’s First Nations House of Learning.
Completing the EdD in 2012 has opened up new worlds of opportunity and ways
of service for Trish. These opportunities are deeply aligned with her research and her
personal values:
There is a lot of pride in achieving a doctorate. The door that
it has opened for me as assistant professor is the closest I have
come to making a living in a way that is so aligned with what I
care about. I am able to bring a lot of passion to my work with
Indigenous language revitalization. Much of what I do is work
I would want to be engaged with, even if it wasn’t my day job
and the way I make my living. I care deeply about what I teach,
about what I study, and about what I’m learning. That I get
to be a part of effecting better understanding of, and better
approaches to, Indigenous language revitalization, is a privilege.
Read Patricia Rosborough’s dissertation: “Kangextola sewn-on-top: Kwak’wala revitalization and
being indigenous” https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0073018
57
62
Tom
Weegar
It’s not acceptable to me to
have an Indigenizing process
at our college that’s led by us,
you know, well-intentioned
white guys. It needs to be led
by some Aboriginal people,
and that’s what the Indigenous
Council I have formed is set
up to do. This kind of shared
leadership is really critical
in my work.
PRESIDENT, CUMBERLAND COLLEGE,
NIPAWIN, SASKATCHEWAN
COHORT 2006
TOM WEEGAR
The Actual Practice
of Shared Leadership
Tom Weegar is the President of Cumberland College in Nipawin, Saskatchewan, a
position he has held since 2013. Previously, Tom was Campus Director of North Island
College’s Port Alberni Campus for almost nine years (2004-2013). During this period,
Tom began his EdD in Educational Leadership and Policy.
It was early in the EdD program that the opportunity for free exploration of ideas,
particularly related to leadership, “grabbed” him. Suddenly he had the time, space,
and intellectual resources to think deeply about post-secondary education—rarely
possible in the rush of a busy professional practice.
It was the philosophical conversations and discussions that we
wouldn’t otherwise engage in typically in our work lives... those
conversations really picked us up and inspired us and grabbed
us and carried us into a deeper academic dimension that we
hadn’t been in, in a long time.
The conversations about philosophy, ethics, policy, and leadership continued to
resonate and eventually led him to further investigate an already present passion—the
practice of shared leadership in higher education. This then led him to his dissertation
topic, Appreciative Leadership within BC Community Colleges, and the idea that many
people could be involved in substantive decision-making, not just those in centralized
administration or in the board room.
Just a year after completing the EdD, Tom took on the leadership of Cumberland
College, where these ideas are very much alive and highly integrated in his leadership
practice.
I often have conversations with my colleagues that are related
to some of the conversations I had at UBC in the EdD program.
Certainly, conversations around power and privilege and, you
know, some of the power differentials between us as faculty
and support staff and our students, who are often coming to us
from disadvantaged or poverty-related situations and are trying
to change their lives.
60
Such challenging conversations about power, change, participation, autonomy, and
fairness are central to shared leadership and to Tom’s day-to-day work.
TOM WEEGAR
We don’t have to necessarily agree with one another’s
perspectives, but it’s important that we just have the
conversation, and I think a lot of my colleagues are of like-mind
around the need to undertake the “Indigenizing
the College” initiative and move in that direction.
One of Tom’s first tasks in leading the process of Indigenizing the college has been
to establish a First Nations and Métis Council, which serves in an advisory capacity
to Cumberland’s Board of Director’s decision-making process and the Office of the
President. In the two years that Tom has been President, this has been a mammoth
initiative—aiming to change the way all students understand the world and their
place in it, particularly the Aboriginal students who attend the College (almost 70
percent of the student population). But such a large-scale system transformation also
raises questions and resistance; and some concerns about academic freedom and
the autonomy of faculty have arisen. Tom’s research on shared leadership gave him
insight into the dissonance of values that may occur during a change process; it
also provided him with tools to engage with faculty members who have very strong
perspectives and opinions about these significant changes in educational policies in
the college.
Educational policy is a central theme in the EdD program, and Tom’s course work
enabled him to understand that policy is messy and iterative. He came to see that
the benefit of shared leadership and Appreciative Leadership is in how it focuses on
“power-with” rather than “power-over” conceptions of authority, with the leader
striving to make decisions in a cooperative fashion with others to try to ensure one
has the best information available to make a significant decision.
The policy course opened my eyes to the need to involve a lot
of people in policy development. Having the teaching faculty
where I work take the perspective that policy development is
a messy process and involves a lot of people and a number
of different levels and you bring [versions of the policy] back
and forth in an iterative way. In a very direct way, that’s kind
of like “Shared Leadership.” Rather than executives around a
boardroom table developing policy, you open it up to everybody
to be involved in, to be comfortable with it, to have a say in it.
Tom’s colleagues are not always as interested in this messy approach as he is. They
say they have enough to do, and there isn’t enough time or personnel for this level of
participation. “I just want to teach in my classroom,” they tell him, and he recognizes
that shared leadership isn’t for everyone or for every situation.
They’re more interested in, “OK, if we develop policy, let’s just
get the job done, get it developed and get on with it and move
on” and not really shepherding it around through a number
of different committee levels or constituent groups within the
college. ...sometimes it does take a bit of training with staff
and faculty as well around consensus-building, around conflict
resolution, around respectful discourse and that sort of thing.
61
TOM WEEGAR
The ideas for Appreciative Leadership—consensus, respect, dealing with differences,
listening—started to percolate and formed part of Tom’s learning in the EdD,
particularly with his cohort colleagues:
We were always respectful of one another’s perspectives,
opinions and values and where each of us was coming from. And
I think so were our instructors. I really can’t think of a situation
where we felt like we were having a particular perspective
imposed on us, or our own perspectives weren’t being valued
and honoured and legitimized. So I think very much, that the
founding philosophy of the EdD program at UBC is really one of
respect—respectful discourse and conversation about some of
the hard questions that we need to be asking ourselves in postsecondary education.
Asking the hard questions are part and parcel of shared leadership, and Tom is
convinced that this approach leads to better decisions and better policy, regardless of
the setting. As the college president he is bringing this culture shift to Cumberland;
as he addresses decisions regarding skills training programs and community-based
research approaches or curriculum revisions:
Rather than a president making a decision or a president
and his select team of executives making a decision; if you’re
involving the brain base of your faculty and your staff and your
students and you’re making a Shared Leadership approach
to those decisions, you’re getting a better decision, I would
argue. It’s going to take a bit more time, yes, absolutely. And
it might be a little messier, for sure, because you start to raise
different perspectivesand some of those perspectives might be
contentious with one another. But ultimately you’re going to
get a better decision and you’re going to get probably better
buy-in to that decision as well.
When he analyzed his research data, Tom discovered there is a gender dimension to
appreciative leadership. Seven of the nine leaders he interviewed were women. His
research supervisory team connected him with some valuable resources, including Crys
Brunner’s scholarly work on the collegial, co-creative work of the appreciative leader.
The process of research, analysis and writing deepened Tom’s awareness of male
privilege, something that was noted by his female colleagues at Cumberland.
62
I remember we were at a retreat; it was last November, so
roughly about a year ago. Most of the folks I work with on my
management committee, well, all of the folks that I work with
on my management committee, and my executive committee of
this college, are women. There are not a lot of men, in non-faculty
roles. And we were having a retreat...I don’t even remember
exactly what we were talking about, but I started talking about
issues around power and privilege around our students. And
the facilitator...made the comment, she said, “You don’t often
TOM WEEGAR
see presidents talk about issues of power and privilege; you just
don’t see that conversation taking place a lot.” And I accepted it
as a compliment and thought to myself, “You know, that’s kind
of the result of some of the discussion and the conversation and
discourse that took place for me within many of my courses at
UBC.” So, I mean, those are the critical perspectives that the
EdD program offers that you don’t always have the opportunity
to reflect on a whole lot in your working life. Things are just too
busy and moving along too quickly.
And Tom’s comfort with uncomfortable conversations has increased, something he
attributes to the EdD experience:
I think my willingness to have those kinds of discussions that can
be uncomfortable and, you know, I’m OK to do it. Talking about
white privilege and that kind of thing, I’m OK to have those
conversations and to do so respectfully and in a more informed
manner.
I still have much to learn around this important issue… but at
least the EdD program has started me on this journey.
And he is increasingly not comfortable with excluding important voices from decisionmaking, such as having meaningful participation by Aboriginal leaders on an advisory
council:
I’ve been very proud of the Council, and the Council is going
very strongly and doing some really positive things for us in
terms of advising us on proper cultural protocol with Aboriginal
communities and Aboriginal students.
Having the EdD has created opportunities for Tom to expand his understanding and
practice of leadership and to transform the college system. It’s also personal:
First of all, I’m very proud to carry it. I know the rigour that it
comes from. I worked hard for it. It took me seven years to do
it. I’m very proud of ... the integrity of the program...I think
certainly in terms of...ensuring that all voices are heard and
people have a chance to have their input, I think it’s very huge.
He has learned that to lead is to persist and to keep persisting, but gently and
persuasively:
I’m pushing for some of the big picture items around the notion
of affording colleges the right to grant credits in Saskatchewan,
not just the universities.
So Tom has learned about moving ideas forward by engaging other people, welcoming
diverse perspectives, sharing power, and opening up conversations—even when
they become contentious and there is disagreement. He keeps pushing forward,
respectfully and inclusively:
63
TOM WEEGAR
You know, I don’t really want to beat them over the head with
this. And I also say to them, “To me, it’s not one way or another.”
Fortunately my colleagues are good around that. What’s the
best word? They humour me, I guess. But I still need to sell it
properly; I still need to sell a case properly to them, and I keep
working at that, and it’s getting there.
Read Tom Weegar’s dissertation: “Excellence in educational leadership: appreciative leadership
within BC community colleges” https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/
items/1.006469
64
Amea
Wilbur
The EdD research experience
afforded me an opportunity
to connect to the broader
community and people that
were like-minded, in terms
of their philosophies around
education and creating
classrooms that support
students.
MANAGER, PACIFIC IMMIGRANT
RESOURCES SOCIETY,
VANCOUVER
COHORT 2007
AMEA WILBUR
COMING IN FROM THE COLD:
Creating Welcoming
Places to Learn and
Belong
The immigrant and refugee sector in a major urban centre is full of challenges. This is
where Amea Wilbur has chosen to locate her professional practice for more than 10
years and where wisdom, commitment and compassion are so very needed. When
she began the EdD program in 2008, Amea was working for Vancouver Coastal
Health, teaching in a small program that provided English as an Additional Language
(EAL) and offered life skills to people with chronic and severe mental health issues.
While that job came to an end because the program was cancelled, Amea was just
gearing up for the life of a practical scholar.
In spite of program closures and funding shortfalls, Amea stayed in the sector out of
a desire to contribute to improving the quality and experience of English language
services and particularly the way EAL teachers are trained. She wanted her EdD
research to examine the way EAL teachers are traditionally trained and make the case
for teachers to learn to teach more than the English language. She wanted them to
learn how to create more inclusive classrooms and for these teachers to have a greater
understanding of the complexity of the learning needs of their immigrant and refugee
students. Understanding the impact of trauma, pre-existing mental health issues, and
the circumstances that led these newly arrived refugees to arrive in Vancouver are an
important part of who they are. Their need for social justice and inclusion in their new
society is, as far as Amea is concerned, also part of the equation.
The EdD offered Amea the learning environment she needed to explore and work
through her own understanding of the interplay between immigration policy,
educational planning and pedagogy for the most severely challenged newcomers.
She became alert to the struggles these teachers were having in doing so.
My colleagues and I would go to these professional conferences,
and people would say, “What do I do? I have somebody in my
class that has trauma and ... and I don’t know how to deal
with it.” And that’s when I went, “OK, this is where I want my
research to go.”
66
The EdD course on policy lit a spark in Amea. The spark came from the substantive
content of the course, the conversations about the material, and, in particular, the
supportive connection with faculty. Through this experience she came to recognize
and articulate the power of public policy to shape and change educational programs
in her sector. As she researched the landscape of immigration policy and how it
AMEA WILBUR
influenced priorities concerning resources and investment in programs, it became
apparent to Amea that refugees with mental health issues or who are living with the
trauma as a consequence of their migration experience were marginalized by the
system. Not only struggling with housing, finances, and other daily living issues, these
students struggled, too, in the classroom, and their teachers were largely at sea about
what to do to help them.
Coming from a family that valued social justice advocacy, Amea understood that it
was essential to attend to multiple forms of oppression that these populations might
be experiencing, such as poverty, racism, sexism and classism. These experiences of
oppression and the role of pedagogical practices that ignore or liberate the students
in the classroom were what focused Amea’s attention in her research. She thinks
teachers of English must pay attention to more than just language training. She refers
to this as recognizing people’s experiences as being part of the conversation, and
she considers it vitally important for teachers to intentionally create inclusion in a
classroom for refugees living with trauma or mental illness of any kind. Her passion
for inclusive classrooms was further stirred and informed by the close reading of
political theorists, such as Iris Marion Young and Nancy Fraser, and community activist
and scholar, Paolo Freire.
The learning experience in the EdD program was largely collaborative and created
many new connections, says Amea:
I did a lot of collaborative work in my course work, and then in
my research, I would say there was a lot of collaboration there,
too, with the other English Language Teachers that I interviewed.
The EdD research experience afforded me an opportunity to
connect to the broader community and people who were likeminded, in terms of their philosophies around education and
creating classrooms that support students.
Being a member of the EdD community of scholarly practitioners breaks the isolation
that often comes with professional practice. This sense of connection and belonging
was the antithesis of how Amea had been working previously and how others in her
sector were working as well. She has been working hard to help EAL teachers and
refugees find a way out of this isolation.
I’ve often worked in isolation in lots of ways because of the kind
of work that I was doing. In the EdD I also had that community
with someone like Professor Michelle Stack and a couple of
other people who were in the same cohort as me and who
ended up being supervised by my professor, Michelle Stack.
Opportunities to form collaborative relationships that break down social isolation
were also an important, and unexpected, benefit for Amea’s research subjects as well:
One of my participants said during the interview, “This is the
FIRST time that I’ve had an opportunity to talk about these
things.” And I thought, “In some ways this is the first time
67
AMEA WILBUR
I’ve had the opportunity to talk about these things with other
teachers.” It’s really hard to find those opportunities.
Now a manager at a Vancouver-based non-profit organization, Pacific Immigrant
Resources Society, Amea is well positioned to lead change within the sector, to reimagine ways to support newly-arrived refugees and design new capacity-building
training for EAL teachers to respond holistically to the complex experiences of their
students. She is asking questions about public policy, too, and what it means to teach
and to lead conversations about class, poverty, gender and other difficult subjects,
not easily addressed or understood. She wants these conversations about inclusion,
social justice and representation to be part of what good teachers do in the EAL
classroom besides teaching English. And she wants public policy to recognize these
issues as well.
The policy climate has changed since 2008, and with more than 25,000 refugees
arriving in Canada in 2016, it is even more important to pay attention to what
Amea has been talking about for the last 10 years—through her research and her
professional practice. Amea’s expertise in the field of inclusive classrooms for EAL
adult learners is now widely recognized by the media, by other researchers and by
her colleagues. These ideas have finally and happily become relevant to a very wide
audience. Her EdD research and the subsequent training sessions she has offered to
EAL teachers are changing the conversation about what matters in immigrant and
refugee services. But as Amea points out in the conclusion to her EdD thesis:
I have come to realize that the writing of this dissertation is
only the beginning of my action research project. This project to
create inclusive classrooms, as well as the building of a strong
community of practice, is an ongoing process with no end in
sight.
It seems that the EdD is good for lighting up your mind and your heart, and it certainly
is a warm and welcoming place for companionable learning and belonging and for
creating such welcoming spaces for others to come in from the cold.
Read Amea Wilbur’s dissertation: “Creating inclusive EAL classrooms: how LINC instructors
understand and mitigate barriers, for students who have experienced trauma” https://open.library.
ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/24/items/1.0166644
68
Department of Educational Studies
EdD in Educational Leadership and Policy
For more information contact: [email protected]

here - Department of Educational Studies

Transcription

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