< Previous30 ED ❚ Fall 2023 Inspir SPECIALTY SECTION: SCHOOL DESTINATIONSBritish Columbia School Superintendents Association 31 district? Without question, these will be uncomfortable conversations that will instinctively cause us to respond with the desire to escape. If we deploy our courage and stay curious, a space of trust can open and create opportunities for transparent, transformative relationship building. Many superintendents in B.C. do not know what it feels like for a racialized leader, staff member, or student to walk into a school or classroom as the only or maybe one of two; the sense of loneliness and isolation are overwhelming. Is it safe to show up as our authentic selves? Do we dare believe that it is possible for us to be included, seen, heard, valued, and treated with openness, understanding, and compassion? What if school districts became a reprieve for racialized district and school staff from the constant surveillance of society’s entrenched stereotypes? Oh, the joy, freedom, and lightheartedness that would bring! Oh the mental space that could open up to focus on intellectual tasks with a reduction in the chronic stress of monitoring the working environment for unpredictable racist behaviours and systemic barriers that can be traumatizing! We spend critical years of our lives in the K-12 system searching for identity, acceptance, and a place to belong. What will it take for districts to undertake the courageous work in the “Spirit of Leadership” to change the culture in schools across our province and fulfill the promise of creating “better life chances” for students. Researcher and teacher, Dr. Bruce Perry reminds us that, “To be excluded or dehumanized in an organization, community, or society you are part of results in prolonged uncontrollable stress that is sensitizing. Marginalization is a fundamental trauma. This is why [he believes] that a truly trauma-informed system is an anti-racist system.” 9 Our consistent, daily practices of equity, diversity, and inclusion in local districts are not only conscious anti-racist behaviours, but they also provide opportunities to expand connectedness and relational well-being, which is central in reducing the intense stress that racialized staff and students carry. Although this work is challenging, it is absolutely doable. We must continue to recognize the love and joy within racial equity and inclusion work. While being hopeful is important, actualizing the love and joy is vital: “Bringing love into the work environment can create the necessary transformation that can make any job we do, no matter how menial, a place where workers can express the best of themselves. When we work with love we renew the spirit; that renewal is an act of self-love, it nurtures our growth.” 10 True racial equity and inclusion work in school districts must look unlike anything we have seen in the past, because we have yet to successfully confront racial inequity at its deepest roots. We can, however, start today by bringing our fullest, most authentic selves to district spaces while intentionally holding space for racialized people to participate. District leaders must continue to ask critically reflective questions and empower those around them to do the same. Yet we cannot rest in curiosity – we must move beyond inquiry to action. We cannot wait for the “luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that [inaction] will choke us.” 11 (Lorde, 44). Do we have the courage to intentionally ground our curiosity in love and compassion? Will we emerge from our siloed identities and recognize the hope within our collective humanity? If so, we will “find ourselves in the other” 12 and create an education system that will best serve all British Columbians. Beth Applewhite is the Inaugural President of the British Columbia Black Educational Leaders Association (BCBELA). She is also the District Principal of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Reconciliation (EDI&R) for the Burnaby School District. Barbara White is the Secretary of BCBELA. She is also the Principal and Acting Education Director of Seabird Island Community School. 1. Ginwright, Shawn, PH.D. 2022. The Four Pivots: Reimagining Justice, Reimagining Ourselves. 2. British Columbia School Superintendents’ Association. The Spirit of Leadership, 2022. 3. hooks, bell. All About Love: New Visions. HarperCollins, 2001. (p.33). 4. www.washingtonpost.com/ lifestyle/2021/12/15/bell-hooks- real-name 5. www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC188521 6. www.fnha.ca/wellness/wellness- and-the-first-nations-health- authority/cultural-safety-and-humility 7. Brown, Brené. Dare to Lead. Penguin Random House, 2018. (p.12). 8. Ibid. 9. Perry, Bruce D., M.D., Ph.D. and Winfrey, Oprah. What Happened To You? Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, And Healing. Flatiron Books, 2021. 10. hooks, bell. All About Love: New Visions. 11. Lorde, Audre. Sister Outsider. The Crossing Press, 1996. (p.44). 12. hooks, bell. All About Love: New Visions. If we deploy our courage and stay curious, a space of trust can open and create opportunities for transparent, transformative relationship building. continued from page 29o you remember presenting a final project or piece of work, feeling proud, and thinking to yourself “this is it! This is the absolute best!” only to have feedback seemingly focused only on areas to improve? Sharing data in district meetings with rightsholders and stakeholders can sometimes feel this way. As educators, we are celebrators of success, and we at times focus only on that work, but we also need to be open to difficult questions that lead to better understandings and, hopefully, innovation. I think as educators, we have always focused on the positive. By Sarah Attrill, SD81 (Fort Nelson) Getting Curious About the Data in SD81 When our data fits the bell curve, we are doing well, aren’t we? We focus on the centre, and for the extra feel-good moments, we look at the high end of the bell curve – wow! Look at those high achievers. Everything is coming up gumdrops. The other end of the bell is explained away by issues of attendance, illness, lack of engagement, and so forth. Issues that are not necessarily a reflection of our practices or systems. We name our high achievers, but we leave nameless those who are struggling. However, when you work in a district with less than a thousand students and only five schools, it is impossible to not put names and stories to each data point. To become leaders who promote and create cultures of trust, where ongoing inquiry and reflection drive our practices forward, we need to get comfortable being uncomfortable. We need to get curious about the data. The difficult data. Small districts have small teams. In SD81 (For Nelson), our senior team includes me, district principal, and our superintendent and secretary treasurer. All of us are new to these roles, so when we presented the literacy and numeracy data to our Indigenous Education Council (IEC) we were feeling optimistic. Our data supports our understanding that SD81 is providing a great education for the learners. However, our perspective and reflection on the data was perceived differently by our rightsholders and stakeholders. The IEC reviewed the information from a lens different than our own and began to ask questions. They brought to us the lived experiences and understandings we had not considered that changed our data into a story with individuals at the centre. When there is trust and a deep understanding of our purpose, we can hear the stories of our struggling learners, which sparks a continued on page 3534 ED ❚ Fall 2023 Inspir SPECIALTY SECTION: SCHOOL DESTINATIONSBritish Columbia School Superintendents Association 35 deep commitment to fostering curiosity and innovation in our practices. While we continue to do well overall, we now have a starting place for inquiry in literacy. Our IEC members examined the data and started asking deeper questions: “What is the story behind the few Indigenous students who didn’t write the assessment? Were they absent that day? Were they given another opportunity to write?” and “what is the district doing to support those students who are not yet on track?” This last question led us to examine current practices. You see, we have an agreement in place to provide Indigenous students additional supports in literacy until they are one grade level above expectations. Knowing this, the team asked, “how are we responding to students who are ‘emerging’ in grade four and still ‘emerging’ in grade seven?” These data driven conversations promote inquiry and drive innovation in our district, which has many programs that teachers use to support student learning in literacy. What we have overlooked is what to do when things are not working. Are more and different programs that address literacy really what we need? Or is there a better way? This is where the work begins. We are now in the process of examining our current practices to figure out what we can do differently to support literacy. We are asking ourselves what we can do to create a richer literacy experience for the learners in SD81. For example, instead of pulling students to work on literacy in a 1:1 or small group environment, will we see greater gains if we allow students time to learn about their own interests and use these interests to strengthen their literacy skills? Conversations that expose vulnerabilities cannot happen without a foundation of trust and a shared sense of responsibility to provide the best education to all the students we serve. We are a team. Each of us join these discussions with a unique perspective that helps the team dig deeper into the data, asking the difficult questions, and being open to the possibilities of trying something different. Through relationships we build the trust needed to be curious. These conversations lead us into a process of inquiry which is essential to innovation. Demonstrating these processes at the district level and sharing what we experience and learn with our teams at the school level makes the practice normative and opens the door for all levels of our organization to take risks and get curious. I was once told by an elder in Nunavut that we learn by watching. So, lead by example, take risks, get uncomfortable, ask the hard questions and share these experiences broadly with your teams, so they too can get curious. Sarah Jane Attrill is the District Principal in SD81 (Fort Nelson). continued from page 33British Columbia School Superintendents Association 39 housands of educators have accepted the invitation to join in a personal learning journey towards Truth and Reconciliation this school year. The 4 Seasons of Indigenous Learning initiative invites educators of all types to deepen their understanding of Indigenous knowledge and perspectives while strengthening connections with the local land. This learning initiative was co-created by Jenna Jasek, District Vice-Principal of Indigenous Learning and Equity in Rocky Mountain School District No. 6, and Duncan Whittick, Executive Director of The Outdoor Learning Partnership – a B.C.-based charitable social enterprise, where 100 per cent of proceeds go back to supporting outdoor learning non-profit initiatives. It started as, “We wanted to do our part in Truth and Reconciliation and felt the urgency, as the 215 children from the Kamloops Residential School had Written with expertise from Jenna Jasek, SD6 (Rocky Mountain); and Duncan Whittick and Jade Berrill, Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network (CBEEN) Begin (Continue!) Your Personal Learning Journey Towards Truth and Reconciliation Jenna Jasek (second from right) and Duncan Whittick co-founded the Every Child Matters Year-long Challenge in October 2021, the day after Canada’s first official Truth and Reconciliation Day. All images courtesy of The Learning Partnership. The land provides a safe space to ask questions and learn. continued on page 41Next >