Equity was one of the first casualties of change when schools closed in March 2020 and teachers and students were suddenly physically separated from each other. This talk will describe the experiences of Ontario teachers and the students facing disproportionate academic, psychological and social consequences. These findings can inform how to best create equitable and inclusive classrooms online.  

Brought to you by 91��ɫ’s Office of Alumni Engagement, the Scholars’ Hub @ Home speaker series features discussions on a broad range of topics, with engaging lectures from some of 91��ɫ’s best and brightest minds. Students, alumni and all members of the community are invited to attend. All sessions take place at noon via Zoom.

Events are held in partnership with Vaughan Public Libraries, Markham Public Library and Aurora Public Library.

To register for this event, visit .

Courtesy of YFile.

The post Next Scholars’ Hub @ Home looks at equity and inclusion in online classrooms appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Each webinar will run one hour in an interactive format and present relevant information on teaching with Zoom. The series is organized through Contact North | Contact Nord, which offers training sessions and resources for faculty and instructors from Ontario’s public post-secondary education and training sectors.

Owston has hosted several webinars on effective use of Zoom for teaching. He is a University Professor Emeritus and senior scholar at 91��ɫ, as well as former dean of the Faculty of Education and founding director of the Institute for Research in Learning Technologies.

The webinars in the upcoming series are:

• ��– Aug. 26,  11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Register .
• ��– Sept. 17, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Register .
• ��– Oct. 13, 1 to 2 p.m. Register .

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It promotes the centring of silenced knowledges and knowledge systems, so that transformative possibilities for leading and schooling can be imagined. It explores questions such as: what is leadership; who can be a leader; and what informs how leadership is enacted?

"Seemingly neutral and apolitical approaches to leadership have inadequately met the longstanding inequities and challenges in Ontario’s public education system," says project lead , assistant professor in 91��ɫ's Faculty of Education. "The undeniable evidence from academic literature, policy, reports, and public outcry speaks to the need for urgent work in transforming systems that can respond to the diverse identities and needs of students and families in Ontario."

The UnLeading team – made up of Shah; 91��ɫ Faculty of Education course directors �����Ի���; and 91��ɫ master of education student Amanda Lima – was intentional about honouring and affirming the ways in which leadership operates in multiple spaces, within individuals, among collectives and organizations, through ideas and in all of the spaces in between. The intention of UnLeading is to turn leadership on its head and imagine the possibilities that emerge.

The UnLeading website contains the guiding questions that have helped the team to really frame what it is they are attempting to do with this project. The Systems of Oppression tab identifies some of the key logics in each of these systems that are often normalized and naturalized as the status quo. The website also contains teasers for the first set of podcast episodes.

The podcast series – launching on Aug. 31, with one new episode to be released each week thereafter – is designed for aspiring leaders and people currently in formal leadership positions, but it is also for those who don't see themselves as leaders and those who are actively resisting formal leadership roles because they are worried about how these roles might change them. Listeners will notice that the podcast’s guests come from the community, classrooms, schools, school districts and the academy, providing a range of perspectives and approaches to leadership. Podcast topics include: decolonizing and uncolonizing leadership, community-centred leadership, culturally relevant and anti-racist leadership, queering leadership and critical spirituality in leadership.

For more information about the project and the podcast, visit the UnLeading website at .

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�ʰ��Ǵڱ�����ǰ����� (Faculty of Education),  (Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change),  (Lassonde School of Engineering) and  (Osgoode Hall Law School) are the principal investigators on the winning projects, which were announced in late May.

“91��ɫ is delighted to see Professors Cristina Delgado Vintimilla, Sarah Flicker, Matthew Perras and Dayna Scott receive these highly competitive NFRF Exploration grants. My heartiest congratulations to them,” said Vice-President Research and Innovation Amir Asif. “These grants allow Canada’s foremost researchers to build strength in high-risk, high-reward and interdisciplinary research for societal benefit – an historical strength for the University.”

Cristina Delgado Vintimilla is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Education. Delgado Vintimilla’s project, titled “Ecological Devastation in Extractive Zones: Resistance, Recuperation and Regeneration,” received $248,053.00. Working with a multidisciplinary team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous researchers, artists and activists from across Canada and Ecuador, including Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies sociology Professor Denielle Elliott, the research team will explore what it takes to recuperate the devastation of the “Capitalocene.”

The project considers the urgent nature of ecological and environmental challenges posed by the devastation of blasted landscapes (Mountaintop removal mining, open-pit mining, strip mining). Women and children who are targets of annihilation through capitalism and colonialism, specifically, Black, Indigenous and people of colour (BIPOC), understand the value of non-hegemonic knowledges/practices to heal ruined places. The challenge is in recognizing their unconventional ways of knowing and doing as legitimate healing alternatives to the technological “fixes” that damaged blasted landscapes.

This research will congregate a diverse team of scholars, students, Indigenous activists, Elders, knowledge keepers and healers to lead an interdisciplinary project that draws from and contributes to education, anthropology, biology and the arts. The researchers’ approach is to codesign recuperative practices in “blasted landscapes” in Canada and Ecuador in an urgent effort to address the damage of extractive capitalism and exploitative investments. The sites— built on the dispossession and enslavement of BIPOC—are connected through capitalist, extractive industries that have left the environments forever changed.

The ecological devastation of these sites is the point of departure for this project. The researchers will ask: How are women and children who identify as BIPOC staging unconventional relations with the land to regenerate “blasted landscapes”? And how are they activating alternative modes of belonging in the process? How can we approach blasted landscapes as sites for imagining other futures?

Sarah Flicker, a professor in the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, is the principal investigator on the project “Transnational Perspectives on COVID-19’s Impact on Youth Sexuality, Risk and Relationships.” The project, which involves an international research team that includes Faculty of Education Assistant Professor Jen Gilbert, received $249,038.00 in funding.

COVID-19 has fundamentally altered nearly every aspect of youths’ relational lives; new norms regarding physical and social intimacy and access to public and private spaces affect family, peer, and sexual connections. The challenge of navigating this new terrain coincides with adolescence, a developmental period when choices regarding risk and well-being are already fraught and complicated. Though decisions around how to connect, date, and love continue to be influenced by factors including gender, race, sexual cultures, community, and space, pandemic logics cause a profound shift: behaviors that once sparked alarm are now endorsed as low risk (e.g., sexting); practices that were up for debate are now decidedly off limits (e.g., sleepovers); and what were idealized as innocuous romantic gestures are now the height of danger (e.g., kissing). Changing policies and regulations (e.g., wearing masks, keeping distance, forming pods) influence sexual and intimate possibilities in new and unanticipated ways.

The international and interdisciplinary team brings together scholars in education, psychology, public health, social work, sociology, and youth studies with expertise in participatory methods, sexuality, and global health research. The project’s multi-method, multidisciplinary, and multi-site research will examine how COVID-19 is redefining risk and re-forming youth sexuality in Australia, Canada, and the United States, all countries with liberal democracies with comparable discourses and debates surrounding youth sexuality, but starkly different experiences of and responses to the pandemic.

Results will be used to develop site-specific and transnational briefings, videos, podcasts, and other resources to help sex educators, parents and youth navigate social norms, health risks, and sexual relationships during (and, eventually, in the wake of) a pandemic.

Matthew Perras, assistant professor, Department of Civil Engineering at the Lassonde School of Engineering is the principal investigator on the project “Using machine learning to understand ancient climatic influences on the stability of cliffs and tombs in the Theban Necropolis of Egypt.” Working with an international research team that includes his colleague Usman Khan, also an assistant professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Lassonde, who is a co-principal investigator on the project, the research focuses on the Theban Necropolis, a UNESCO World Heritage site comprised of tombs and temples near Luxor, Egypt. The project received $250,000 in funding.

The tombs in the Theban Necropolis are often shallow excavations with entrances at the base of cliffs. The tombs hold evidence of rock mass collapses during construction through to recent deterioration leading to potential instabilities. Climatic variations are known to cause rock to deteriorate, however, there is debate about the exact influence on crack growth rates. Due to lack of detailed observations and experiments on long-term crack growth in rock, since such experiments span many months or even years, current numerical tools are not capable of capturing the influences of climate change on crack growth. This leads to challenges in determining when instabilities will develop and problems designing preservation strategies. To address these challenges, Perras and the research team propose to utilize machine learning (ML) to aid in analyzing existing climate data and crack growth indicators to predict instability. A ML algorithm will be trained on current measurements (weather & crack movement), then on historic climate & photographs of crack growth.

Ancient climate records and models (Nile sedimentation, tomb flooding & collapses) could be used to back analyze the influence on crack growth with time. With the expertise of geotechnical engineering, geology, archaeology, data and climate science, the researchers will seek to understand the prevailing conditions that led to the current state of stability and develop guidelines for preserving the stability into the future. The novelty of this research is in the combination of machine learning with archaeology and geological engineering. Machine learning in both fields is in its infancy, however, such techniques allow for nuanced behaviors to be extracted from large and complex data sets as in this project. Understanding the current measurements, past influences and applying it to predict future instabilities will help to identify key areas for protection and aid in preserving this UNESCO site for generations to come.

Dayna Scott, 91��ɫ Research Chair in Environmental Law & Justice in the Green Economy; associate professor, Osgoode Hall Law School and the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change, is the principal investigator of the project titled, “Jurisdiction Back: Infrastructure beyond Extractivism.” The project received $ 246,725.00 in funding.

Resource conflicts and legal uncertainties have dominated the political landscape over the last decade. From Standing Rock to the TransMountain pipeline, conflicts over extraction and its infrastructures have intensified, catalyzing a fierce Indigenous resurgence. As Scott and the research team conceived this project, Wet'suwet'en hereditary leaders were blocking a pipeline company from accessing their lands, inspiring solidarity actions that blocked rail lines, ports, highways, and political offices. The situation dramatically demonstrated that when corporate interests thrust contested projects onto Indigenous homelands - even with governmental approvals – they must contend with Indigenous governing authority.

The research project offers a transformative way forward: a fundamentally new set of relations based on different underlying assumptions about law and land. It is a vision that insists the future is not foreclosed, but pregnant with potential for renewed relations of jurisdiction and infrastructure. If anything, the new COVID-19 reality has only made this more obvious. Will we rebuild? Should we rebuild? Or, even more importantly, what should we build anew? The ground-breaking 2019 Yellowhead Red Paper documents how Indigenous-led consent processes based on fulfilling responsibilities are already having the effect of restoring Indigenous jurisdiction and reclaiming Indigenous lands and waterways, foodways and lifeways. Scott proposes to systematically document, support, expand and evaluate this work to determine which strategies and approaches have the most success. How can remaking the material systems that sustain collective life enact Indigenous jurisdiction? What does infrastructure resilience look like for Indigenous communities emerging out of COVID-19 in an era of ongoing climate crisis? How can the “just transition” to sustainable economies be imagined and infrastructured to foreground Indigenous governance systems? This project offers an agenda for fundamentally re-making our socio-technical systems; for both conceptualizing and building infrastructure otherwise.

Courtesy of YFile.

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91��ɫ is a leading international teaching and research university that provides a highly valued educational experience. The University is preparing students for meaningful careers and long-term success. One recent instance is exemplary.

Two educators, an ocean apart, have joined forces to create a new online resource for those considering becoming educational developers and those beginning this vocation. 91��ɫ Faculty of Education Professor and the Founding Director of Teaching Commons Celia Popovic together with Associate Professor Fiona Smart, head of the Department of Learning and Teaching Enhancement at Edinburgh Napier University in the United Kingdom, created Educational Developers Thinking Allowed (2020).

“With this new resource, we aim to open up our work, to make it more accessible to those who might be interested in becoming educational developers and to help support those of us who are educational developers,” says Popovic.

“It provides answers to key questions such as: What are our key concerns and fundamental practices? Where can we get help? How can we help each other?” says Smart. “We want this resource to develop as an interactive, dynamic conversation.”

Popovic has helped to put 91��ɫ on the map in higher education. A prolific author, she has provided extensive contributions to the fields of higher education and educational development. She has co-edited and/or co-authored several books, including Advancing Practice in Academic Development (with David Baume), Understanding Undergraduates (with David Green), and Learning from Academic Conferences: Realizing the benefits on individual and institutional practice.

Both Popovic and Smart believe there is a pressing need for this resource.

What is an educational developer?

A growing and vibrant field aimed at enhancing teaching, educational development is a relatively recent entry into the Canadian educational landscape. It has been described as “a key lever for ensuring institutional quality and supporting institutional change” (Sorcinelli et al., Creating the future of faculty development).

Popovic believes there’s a quickly growing appreciation for the expertise that education developers bring to the post-secondary landscape. This is because they offer support and guidance in all things relating to teaching and learning in post-secondary education.

This role varies from institution to institution and country to country. Popovic elaborates: “In most countries, educational developers are established in centres such as the Teaching Commons [at 91��ɫ] or embedded in Faculties and departments. Often a faculty member with a passion for teaching will become an educational developer, either by switching roles to become a developer, or by incorporating elements of educational development into their day-to-day work with colleagues.”

New resource is both accessible and engaging

The 14-chapter tool the academics created, Educational Developers Thinking Allowed, is accessible and easy to follow. Popovic and Smart lay the groundwork in the introduction to the first chapter. Subsequent sections discuss working in groups and one-on-one, working online – ideal for today’s context, getting organized, making connections and even fake news. There’s also a link to a community site.

Importantly, many international experts contributed to this original resource, introducing and facilitating the best practices from around the world. These scholars include academics from Coventry University, the University of Edinburgh, the University of London and Brock University.

Vignettes open the chapters, while examples, tables, hyperlinks and photographs are woven into the material. Fulsome reference sections and source citations at the end of most chapters offer visitors the chance to dig deeper on certain subjects.

Videos are embedded in a few locations, where Popovic and Smart speak directly to their audiences about key issues in education development, making the topic all the more accessible. Illustrations, by designer Liz Smith, also add visual appeal and aid accessibility.

Engagement, dialoguing and reciprocity – truly connecting with the audience – was of paramount importance to Popovic and Smart, so they included sections for dialogue, questions and comments at the end of most chapters.

“Initially, we planned a book but, on reflection, we realized that what we wanted was something more open than a book, something that could be updated regularly and, possibly most importantly, would allow for dialogue,” says Popovic.

What they have created is an indispensable new tool for today’s and tomorrow’s educators.

To see the new resource, visit the . To learn more about Popovic, visit her .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ, follow us at ; watch our new , which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, Research Communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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91��ɫ has an enduring commitment to the pursuit of knowledge that comes from many differing perspectives and ways of knowing. Indigenous leadership is vital in this. In the coming years, Indigenous leadership in 91��ɫ’s research will create a unique space to support contributions to Indigenous knowledges within and beyond the academy.

Enter Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies Professor Carolyn Podruchny, an academic in the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies and an expert in Indigenous and French relations and Métis history.

Three years ago (2018), she won a Partnership Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Her project, “Aandse: Anishinaabe Ways of Knowing and the Transformation of University-based Knowledge Creation and Transfer,” has come to fruition.

Podruchny sits down with 'Brainstorm' to discuss.

Q: This project was highly collaborative and interdisciplinary. Who were your partners and how did co-creation work?

A: This was the brainchild of the late Lewis Debassige, an Elder from M’Chigeeng First Nations. I had been visiting the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation (OCF), and he was an Elder there. When I first visited, he said, “Why don’t you bring some students?” So, that started an annual visit with students.

Then Lewis suggested, “Why don’t you make this more formal, bring more students, come and stay for a while, and we will set up a program.” He also emphasized that Anishinaabe knowledge needs to start entering the university.

My initial partner was the OCF. Then we expanded to include the Wikwemikong Heritage Organization, and another group, co-founded by one of my former PhD students, called Active History.

The program was an expansion of the History of Indigenous Peoples Network, which is a research cluster at the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies. The Robarts Centre has been incredibly supportive. They were the first believers in our project. They provided us with valuable administrative support and space; they created the loveliest welcoming environment.

More broadly, 91��ɫ has been nothing but supportive as well – the Provost, VPRI, LA&PS, the Libraries, etc.

Q: What were the project’s objectives?

A: The objectives were to create the context for sharing and learning, both in Anishinaabe spaces and in university spaces, and to bring university people to Anishinaabe spaces and Anishinaabe people to university spaces.

Q: Please describe the project, its themes and audiences.

A: Our big feature event is an annual summer institute called Manitoulin Island Summer Historical Institute (MISHI). In 2017, we focused on the theme of land. In 2018, the theme was clans or Doodemag. The focus of the third was women’s leadership.

We’ve had students, faculty members, librarians, university administrators, as well as Anishinaabe people from different parts of Canada and the United States. And people from Manitoulin Island wanted to participate as well. For example, the former Chief of Wiikwemkoong, Peggy Pitawanakwat, who is coordinator, First Peoples, at Seneca College.

Q: Who were the instructors, speakers and supporters?

A: The main instructors at the institute have been Lewis Debassige and Alan Corbiere (History Department at 91��ɫ). Deborah McGregor (Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Environmental Justice, in both the Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change and Osgoode Hall Law School at 91��ɫ) has also been an essential contributor.

We’ve had Elders some in to speak, including Rita Corbiere from Wikwemikong and Marion McGregor from White Fish River.

Q: What are some activities?

A: Our summer schools are a blend of lectures and tours – learning in place but also different learning activities. We focused on learning by doing and storytelling.

In terms of activities, we’ve done bannock-making, medicine gathering, clay-making and ceramic work, birch bark and willow work to create baskets, and porcupine quill and beading workshops.

We’ve also done language learning, developing vocabulary lists and creating spaces where students can speak Anishinaabe and learn useful, everyday phrases. We brought in specialists in Anishinaabe history from different places.

Q: Art has always been a key part of this.

A: Yes. We have attracted artists in this project. One of our co-applicants, artist Anong Beam, former director of the OCF and daughter of well-known artist Carl Beam, insisted from the beginning that we should always have artists at our summer institute. So, we invited Michael Belmore, Nico Williams, Alan Corbiere, Steven George, Deborah McGregor and others. Art has always been the big focus.

Q: Part of this project involved a literature review. What did you glean from this? How have universities, 91��ɫ in particular, been handling decolonializing?

A: Universities have been colonizing institutions. They objectified Indigenous people and shut Indigenous people out of the process through structural inequalities.

The way to decolonize the university is to bring Indigenous people to the university and have them change the structures to suit Indigenous epistemologies and pedagogies.

91��ɫ has been doing fairly well, but it needs to keep hiring Indigenous people. I have one great success story: my former PhD student Alan Corbiere, mentioned earlier. He was hired by the History Department a year ago in a tenure-track position.

Also, 91��ɫ has supported the Center for Aboriginal Students Services for recruiting and supporting Indigenous students.

Furthermore, I believe this project has allowed 91��ɫ in its journey to decolonize by bringing in curricular activities and creating new forms of classes. Some students in Indigenous studies earned their experiential education course by attending MISHI, for example.

To learn more about Podruchny, visit her . It is noteworthy that she plans to publish a scholarly article describing the kinds of Anishinaabe pedagogies gathered through this process.

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ, follow us at ; watch our new , which profiles current research strengths and areas of opportunity, such as Artificial Intelligence and Indigenous futurities; and see the snapshot infographic, a glimpse of the year’s successes.

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, Research Communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

The post Study on Anishinaabe ways of knowing could transform universities’ knowledge creation appeared first on Research & Innovation.

La version française suit la version anglaise.

Dear Colleagues,

The 2021 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings were released earlier Wednesday and 91��ɫ has once again been recognized as a global leader in furthering the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

While a growing number of universities are competing in the Impact Rankings, 91��ɫ has ranked in the top 75 institutions in the world for the third consecutive year. 91��ɫ’s vision and values are reflected in our top 100 rankings in 12 of the 17 SDG categories.

Of particular note are our impressive results in the following categories: 

• 24th in the world for SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities
• 27th in the world for SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals
• 31st in the world for SDG 15: Life on Land
• 55th in the world for SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

91��ɫ’s strong performance in the rankings this year is a result of the extraordinary efforts of our students, faculty, course directors, staff and alumni, whose dedication to our communities and our planet has helped us make great strides in furthering the UN SDGs. It also reflects our progress in advancing the University Academic Plan 2020–2025, which challenged us to build a better future, bringing our unique capacities to bear on the most urgent issues facing the world, while deepening our collective contributions to the SDGs.

We would like to thank all of you for the significant contributions you have made over the past year to advancing our University Academic Plan and addressing complex global issues — from climate change to inequality to the pandemic — and congratulate you on this achievement.

We are proud of the way our community has come together in support of the Sustainable Development Goals, and sincerely grateful for your passion, enthusiasm, and continued commitment to driving positive change in our local and global communities.

Warmest regards,

Rhonda Lenton
President and Vice-Chancellor 

Lisa Philipps
Vice-President Academic and Provost

L’Université 91��ɫ est reconnue comme un chef de file mondial au palmarès Times Higher Education en matière d’impact

Chers collègues,

Le palmarès du Times Higher Education en matière d’impact a été dévoilé en début de journée et, une fois de plus, l’Université 91��ɫ est reconnue comme étant un chef de file mondial dans l’avancement des 17 objectifs de développement durable (ODD) des Nations Unies.

Alors qu’un nombre croissant d’universités rivalisent chaque année, 91��ɫ se classe parmi les 75 meilleures institutions mondiales pour la troisième année consécutive, maintenant sa position parmi les 6 % des institutions mondiales les mieux placées. La vision et les valeurs de 91��ɫ sont reflétées dans 12 catégories sur 17 où elle occupe l’une des 100 premières places. Ses résultats dans les catégories suivantes sont particulièrement impressionnants :

• 24e au monde pour l’ODD 11 : Villes et communautés durables
• 27e au monde pour l’ODD 17 : Partenariats pour la réalisation des objectifs
• 31e au monde pour l’ODD 15 : Vie terrestre
• 55e au monde pour l’ODD 16 : Paix, justice et institutions efficaces

Les résultats solides de 91��ɫ au palmarès de cette année sont le fruit des efforts extraordinaires du corps étudiant, du corps professoral, de nos directeurs et directrices de cours, de notre personnel ainsi que de nos diplômés et de leur dévouement constant envers nos communautés et la planète, qui nous a permis de faire de grands progrès dans l’atteinte des ODD de l’ONU. Ces résultats témoignent de nos avancées dans la réalisation du Plan académique de l’Université 2020-2025, qui nous a mis au défi de bâtir un avenir meilleur, en mettant nos talents au service des problèmes mondiaux les plus pressants, tout en renforçant nos contributions collectives aux ODD.

Nous tenons à vous exprimer notre gratitude pour vos contributions significatives au cours de l’année écoulée afin de faire progresser le Plan académique de l’Université et de gérer des questions mondiales complexes — allant du changement climatique aux inégalités en passant par la pandémie — et à vous féliciter pour ces réalisations.

Nous sommes fières de la façon dont notre communauté s’est rassemblée pour appuyer les objectifs de développement durable. Nous vous remercions sincèrement pour votre passion, votre enthousiasme et votre engagement continu envers la création de changements positifs dans nos communautés locales et mondiales.

Cordialement,

Rhonda Lenton
Présidente et vice-chancelière

Lisa Philipps
Vice-présidente aux affaires académiques et rectrice

Courtesy of YFile.

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It is almost one year since schools began to close in Ontario, with closures happening again in January of this year. Barrett, a professor in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Education, surveyed 764 teachers in May and June of 2020, and did in-depth interviews with 50 of them. These interviews informed specific recommendations which are documented in a new report. 

A number of themes emerged in the teachers’ responses outlined in the report, titled "Emergency Distance Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Teachers’ Perspectives." Many were concerned about the sudden disruption to relationships with students of all ages. Play-based learning for young children became next to impossible, they said. They also cited lack of student engagement, exacerbated in special education courses in particular when students learned their grades would not drop below where they were on March 13.

The following were key recommendations informed by the data from the report:

• Emergency plans to ensure all students have equitable access to quality education should school buildings have to be shut down again.
• Communication that is two-way and timely during a crisis between the Ministry of Education and school boards and teacher federations, between school boards and schools, and between schools and teachers. 
• Flexibility as one size does not fit all student learning and teaching.
• Professional development through coaching rather than courses.

Due to the suddenness of the change to online learning, some disruption was inevitable. However, the experiences with shutdowns this year have highlighted the need for emergency planning, so the logistics are in place to address the needs of vulnerable students, says Barrett.

Emergency planning will be especially important in ensuring equitable access to education for students with special needs, those living in poverty, racialized or Indigenous students, English-language learners and adult students, she said.

“We now have a very good idea of what students need when school buildings are shut down. Having emergency plans in place which reflect what we have learned would help school boards and teachers respond to them more quickly in any future lockdowns,” says Barrett.

Read the full report here.

Courtesy of YFile.

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What does LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) mean to you? This was the key question that 91��ɫ Faculty of Education Professor Jen Gilbert posed to launch the Beyond Bullying Project. With colleagues in the United States, she marshalled support for this idea and collected stories in Minneapolis, New 91��ɫ and San Francisco that reflect the many ways LGBTQ sexuality comes up in schools.

“Students, teachers and administrators went inside the [recording] booths and told their stories about LGBTQ sexuality – school assignments, crushes, families, friendships, break-ups, coming out, harassment, bravery and aspirations,” Gilbert explains.

Gilbert sees education and social equity as inextricably linked and has made it her mission to make schools more welcoming for all students.

At a time when sex education is being revisited in Ontario, this project is highly relevant. It shows how the school system can support LGBTQ youth and, therefore, should be of great interest to those in the education system, including: teachers and administrators; LGBTQ youth and their peers and parents; government policy-makers, setting curriculum around sex education; and anyone interested in equity.

This international joint venture was sponsored by 91��ɫ, San Francisco State University, the Center for Research & Education on Gender & Sexuality, the Health Equity Institute, the Ford Foundation and the Bay Area Video Coalition.

How it all began

The researchers in this large collaborative venture wanted to know what happens when we think about LGBTQ sexuality in schools beyond risks like bullying, poor mental health and dropping out. They sought to learn about love, family, friendship and even favourite movie and television stars.

The goal of the project was to collect stories from American high schools, from students, teachers and staff, about LGBTQ gender and sexuality in their lives. “Any story was welcome. It didn’t even have to be true,” Gilbert explains.

The methodology was straight forward: the participants went into a private booth and shared stories that were recorded by video or audio. Their words were transcribed and in cases where the individuals or parents allowed the researchers to release the audio or video, this was posted on the website, so that visitors could hear the actual voices of these individuals.

First-hand experiences have great impact, immediacy

Some of these high-impact stories speak of an existential struggle around gender and sexuality followed by acceptance and support. For example, a Grade 12 student, an 18-year-old African-American straight girl, describes her best friend:

“I knew he was gay and he knew he was gay, but everybody else knew, too. But he had this whole fear if he should hide it or he should show it…. And now I see him today, he’s the most beautifulest girl you could ever imagine. He dresses like a girl. Wear hair like a girl. Does everything like a girl. You would even mistake him for a girl. So you can’t judge what’s on the outside if you don’t know what’s on the inside. I loved him for him.”

In another, an 11th-grade pan-sexual teenager describes the difficult path to acceptance:

“I’m gender fluid. And it was a really, really rough experience coming out as in just kind of being, you know. Something you weren’t born by…. My parents, I, I couldn’t, I didn’t tell them for a while…. We went to dinner together and I just started asking him [my father] questions of what his views were on, um, gender. And I finally told them I feel like I’m both genders…. He didn’t understand it. But now he did the research cause he cared for me and he was very supportive and I’m really happy that he is because now he’s my biggest supporter in this.”

One gay Latino high-school student turned the homophobia of his classmates into a call for leadership after being supported by teachers in his school.

“When I started in school, was kind of hard for me…. When I come out as a gay boy, people just start, like, surprised…. They start talking about me behind me and saying I am the stupid boy…. Everyone’s coming like my enemy, trying to push me down, talking behind me, talk about me bad things…. I just feel bad about myself because I, I thought that was wrong…. But when I started getting enough support from my teachers, I just let everything go. Just be myself. Just start doing leadership things…. I feel more strong.”

Policy-applicable message for educators

These narratives could never have been made public 20 or 30 years ago. More than anything, they tell the story of change, progress and equity.

The underlying message is that young people’s experience of gender and sexuality is far more complex than their teachers imagine. Beyond bullying lie stories of acceptance and support.

Teachers and the education system have an important role to play. Gilbert not only wanted to know how these stories of LGBTQ life came up, but also what schools need to do to make room for these individuals.

Website is very much a living thing

The Beyond Bullying Project continues. Gilbert encourages others to participate by adding an entry.

For those in the LGBTQ community, the website also offers resources at school, home or in the community; online resources that can help a person think more about storytelling; resources to help a person think more about sexuality and faith; online sources of news and critique regarding gender and sexuality; and much more.

To read more about this project, visit the or follow the project on , Twitter (@BBPStories) or . To share a story, visit on the website. To learn more about Gilbert, visit her . To read an interview with Gilbert, visit the “Get to Know Our Faculty” .

To learn more about Research & Innovation at 91��ɫ, follow us at , watch the and see the .

By Megan Mueller, senior manager, research communications, Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation, 91��ɫ, muellerm@yorku.ca

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Ontario EcoSchools now reaches more than 900,000 Kindergarten to Grade 12 students every year, empowering them to effect change within the school community. It also trains and supports teachers, school staff and school board officials to provide guidance to these young leaders. In doing so, it certifies more than 38 per cent of public schools in Ontario, representing 56 of the 72 school boards in the province. It also promotes environmental learning and action, helping schools become more environmentally responsible.

Lewis Molot

91��ɫ U FES Professor Lewis Molot, current Chair of the Ontario EcoSchools Program Advisory Committee, led the initial incubation of the , which emerged from his work as associate dean of FES. The Faculty formed a consortium with several Ontario school boards in 1998 to better integrate environmental education into the school system. The consortium then adopted the EcoSchools program, created by the Toronto District School Board, and launched with a federal grant for climate change education.

Within the 12 years as an incubation project, Ontario EcoSchools has doubled in staff size and operational budget and is now setting its sights on scaling the program across the province and beyond. After being administered by 91��ɫ, the organization is launching as an independent charity.

As the first environmental-focused Faculty in Canada, it’s no surprise that FES was the incubator of Ontario EcoSchools. The University is recognized internationally for excellence in research, transdisciplinary studies and sustainability, as well as for progressiveness, commitment to social justice, accessibility and inclusivity.

The Ontario EcoSchools program follows a strong history of the University as a leader in addressing global climate change through pedagogical initiatives.

“Our partnership with 91��ɫ has been essential to becoming a leading environmental education organization in Ontario,” said Elanor Waslander, executive director of Ontario EcoSchools. “By providing stability, administrative support and community, 91��ɫ has helped our growth and impact. We are excited to foster a renewed partnership in the years ahead.”

By supporting a fledgling program nearly 15 years ago, 91��ɫ has made an exceptional impact on integrating environmental literacy in schools across Ontario.

Courtesy of YFile.

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