Tackling Poverty through Professional Development

Image created by LA Johnson

Some Back Story:

In the 2014-2015 school year, I had two teachers refer a grade 11 student named Omar to me (I’ve changed the student’s name for the sake of anonymity). He continuously handed in assignments late and would often leave uncompleted class work meant to be done outside of school. Teachers were frustrated with the student; they found that, although Omar was very bright and engaged in class, his lack of effort outside of the classroom significantly impacted his performance in their classes. When I met with Omar, he explained that his family’s financial situation was dire; he didn’t have a computer at home, let alone internet access, and he spent much of his time caring for his younger sibling. The school I taught at was in a relatively affluent area; nonetheless, staff members like me came across situations like Omar’s more frequently that most people would imagine.

In an informal needs-assessment completed the year prior, staff identified that meeting the needs of diverse students was an area where more training was needed. As Carol Campbell et al. determine in their extraordinary review of educators’ professional learning across Canada, a number of factors lead to identifying professional development topics:

Evidence from research and from a range of data are being drawn on and used to inform provincial policies, professional development processes, and areas of focus within provinces and territories, districts, and schools. While data is used extensively it does not exclusively drive decisions. Rather, a professional process of inquiry and judgement are important to bring together a range of evidence and expertise. (p. 4, 2016).

The input of a number of school leaders was required as I determined why and when to lead this professional learning in my school.

The Team

I actively sought out two teachers at my school to work with me:

• ·         Mr. H. is a teacher who is passionate about addressing issues related to social justice. He teaches a course focusing on social justice issues locally and internationally. In discussion with him, he also noted the disparity between students in our community and our staff’s need for professional learning.
• ·         The other teacher, Ms. F., was the equity designate in our school. She was already seen amongst the staff as an advocate for underrepresented students and a source of knowledge on socio-cultural issues. In addition, she had previously led professional development related to serving the needs of under-served students.

Finally, I consulted with administration, the special education department, and the student success teacher - asking for input about other student needs that we might be unaware of/.

What We Did

As Campbell, Liberman, and Yashkina (2016) explain, a Working Table on Teacher Development was created in 2005 “to design and develop new policies for teachers’ professional development” in Ontario (p. 224). Amongst five key characteristics of effective professional learning that the Working Table identified, evidence informed professional development was seen as a key consideration (p. 225). For this reason, I reviewed and summarized relevant statistics from York Region Public Health, Statistics Canada, and my school board’s local data.  Together with my two colleagues, we created an interactive workshop with three aims in mind.

• Honouring the work that had already been done throughout the school and furthering the discussion concerning poverty in our school’s community by looking at data.
• Allowing staff members the opportunity to challenge their personal stereotypes and norms in safe manner
• Sharing and co-creating solutions to serve the needs of our students.

After securing permission to run this workshop, I approached key staff members who I believed would benefit from the opportunity to learn in this area. In addition, I personally invited informal leaders throughout the school in the hope that they would bring along colleagues.

What Were The Outcomes?

I was very happy that staff members were engaged in this professional learning opportunity and took their reflection and learning deeper afterwards. Hargreaves and Fullan, in their essay entitled “The Power of Professional Capital” (2013), explain that “Finland does so well in education because of the amount of time teachers spend in their day outside of the classroom. They spend less time in the classroom per day than any other country, which gives them time to reflect, [and] discuss.” It was through purposeful reflection and discussion amongst staff members that the following outcomes arose:

• During the workshop, I mentioned that other schools had breakfast clubs to serve the needs of students who didn’t have access to breakfast at home. Four teachers approached me afterward the workshop, inspired by this idea. Over the course of the next few months, they applied for grants, arranged volunteers, and initiated a free breakfast program.
• Teachers were more aware of student needs and consequently the Guidance Department and Administration experienced a greater number of referrals for students in need. Teachers shared their observations and concerns about students with each other more regularly as well.
• We utilized the services of Settlement Workers to a much greater extent for newcomers to Canada. These individuals ran workshops for parents and they also had access to specialized community resources.
• Staff members donated older laptops and iPads for students to sign out for nightly homework.
• I had initially created a Google Doc of anti poverty resources; this quickly became a living document – with staff members continuously sharing the Doc and regularly adding additional resources.
• Upon deeper reflection and as concerns arose, teachers initiated discussions in their workrooms and with their classes about the needs in our community.

How Am I Sharing My Learning?

At Regional guidance counsellor meetings I have shared the process of building staff capacity and understanding of the financial and circumstantial needs in our community. In collaboration with other guidance leaders, we have made explicit links to initiatives within our board and the Ministry of Education.

In addition, as a member of my board’s Mental Health Teacher Network, I share my experience planning and executing professional learning as we now plan a teacher learning conference.

Learning About Leadership

I was happy to relearn the principal that educators are far more willing to engage in supporting student needs when they perceive and understand those needs.

In addition, honouring the work that teachers had already done to meet student needs created a collaborative atmosphere during my workshop. This spirit of collaboration continued into the many outcomes and initiatives that staff undertook afterwards.

I also learned that, even where there has been a professional learning need established by staff, some educators may not fully join in to learning opportunities that do not have direct curricular links to their content area. Thankfully, these educators are few and far between.  

Finally, and most notably, I was struck with how effective a number of educators, sharing the same vision, can be at tackling social justice issues in a school. James Ryan (2006) reveals how school leaders effectively tackle social justice issues:

Schools improve not necessarily as the result of individual people doing remarkable things in isolation, but from a variety of people working together in many different ways and roles, using the multitude of different resources that are available to them. Leadership is best seen not in terms of individuals but as a collective process. (p. 7)

As I continue my efforts to meet the needs of students in poverty, I must remember that many informal leaders must share the work together.

Works Cited

Carol Campbell Ann Lieberman Anna Yashkina , (2016),"Developing professional capital in policy and

practice", Journal of Professional Capital and Community, Vol. 1 Iss 3 pp. 219 – 236.

Campbell, C., Osmond-Johnson, P., Faubert, B., Zeichner, K., & Hobbs-Johnson, A. (with Brown,

S., DaCosta, P., Hales, A., Kuehn, L., Sohn, J., & Steffensen, K.). (2016). The state of educators’

professional learning in Canada. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward.

Leithwood, K. A., Louis, K., Anderson, S., Wahlstrom, K, University of Minnesota., Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto., & Wallace Foundation. (2004). How leadership influences student learning: Review of research. Minneapolis, MN: Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement, University of Minnesota.

Ryan, J. (2006). Inclusive Leadership and Social Justice in Schools.  Leadership and Policy in Schools, 5: 3-17.