Constructing learning and leading

To increase student engagement in learning, teachers and leaders must seek out student interests, work these interests into the material to increase relevance, and allow students to get involved in the whole process. This starts with listening. We must listen to students and pay attention to what they do, what they talk about, who they spend time with, and where they are coming from. Careful and focused listening is the first step in ethical practice that demonstrates respect and care, to establish trust. With these in place, students will become more involved when given the opportunity, and encouragement through strategic questions to drive further interest and inquiry. When students become co-constructors of their knowledge and have the opportunity, they can create change. The “First Nation girls suit up” http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/first-nations-donated-hockey-equipment-1.3897249 article is a fine example of how one student can make a difference when given the encouragement, chance, and support. A constructivist approach to a sports management project gave this student the opportunity to develop a project in which she was interested, hockey. She said herself that “it was just a small thing, and then it went crazy.” Boosting opportunity through connections and collaboration with the community, enabled this student to bring the project to fruition. Through community hockey equipment donations, parental help and support, the truck driver friend, the construction crew support, and the school teacher’s and administration’s support, the student was able to fly hockey equipment out to girls in northern Ontario. It took people thinking and working together to make it happen, but began with one student with an idea. Before this, it began with leadership that allowed this to happen. In Building Relationships and Developing People (OCLF), the school leaders, in this example, have fostered and facilitated a collaborative school/community culture, and have enabled this student to connect to the wider community. They have also supported and Improved Instructional Programing (OCLF) that embraces the constructivist approach, as students, teachers, and other members of the learning community become co-constructors of knowledge and resulting transformative action.

A Catholic school leader can begin with getting to know the school community and listening to the students, educational staff, and families. Facilitating PD to familiarize educators with constructivist and student-centered teaching can be another early step. While constructivist approaches have been around for a long time, there are still many teachers who cling to the security of traditional teacher-centered approaches that counter risk-taking. The leader can also model collaborative constructivist processes in their leadership style, inviting input from the learning community, to inform decision-making. The leader can encourage and participate in school-wide project teams to develop social justice initiatives that both involve and give back to the community. This participation is imperative to being accountable for modeling and supporting desired practices. Leaders must walk the talk.

Social media offers a plethora of sites and learning communities that focus on various social justice issues. Responsible use that includes distinguishing safe and valid web sources is imperative. My own students are teacher candidates who are developing their own Digital Hubs to curate information and topics of interest as well as link to digital learning communities to support or enhance these topics of interest (often social justice issues). This kind of hub could also be developed by any classroom teacher through the use of his/her class website, to include social justice topics and other topics of interest important to the students and the curriculum.

During the Community Service Learning component of our Teacher Education Program, our students are encouraged to get involved and even initiate school-wide projects within the schools in which they are placed. I am privileged to read their reflections, which share a wide variety of initiatives in a variety of school settings. Some schools are very involved with these types of activities, while others are not. The leadership is paramount to allowing and encouraging these activities. This begins right when teacher candidates begin in a school, where some dedicated school leaders welcome and meet with the teacher candidates, and immediately open up communication about what is available to them and how open that administrator is to new initiatives. Other administrators have very little interaction with teacher candidates, and as a result, these student teachers feel the opportunity is not presented or even exists. It has been brought to my attention by some of my students that in certain schools, social justice committees like a Gay-Straight Alliance are under supported. This is more common in Catholic schools where the student support is perhaps there if the student seeks it out, but is not openly discussed or advertised. Again this becomes a leadership decision that is political in a Catholic school setting. The leader is forced to negotiate what goes on in the school and how the parent community will react. I have experienced similar sensitivities in the debate of inviting live models into a life-drawing class in a Catholic school. In my opinion, the number one concern of any school, above all else has to be the students’ safety and learning. This is clear-cut from a teacher’s perspective and does become more challenging from the principal’s perspective, but I think it is a good guide to administrative decision-making. If it is best for the students, then arguments must be made to support this to other learning community members, including parents. This all supports developing the organization to support desired practices (OCLF).