Author: mizzblue (Page 2 of 5)

Influences in SEL – Annotated Bibliography

April 22, 2025 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

Justice-Doing and Abolitionist Frameworks

Love, B. (2019). We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. Beacon Press.

This book addresses the inequities of the American education system through an abolitionist lens. It problematizes the status quo in education, arguing it needs to be dismantled and rebuilt from the ground up, not reformed. Love argues that educational inequities for racialised students cannot be fixed if teachers are not aware of the underlying systems of racism and colonialism that impact them. She touches on the intersectional ways education can be an oppressive force for marginalized students who are not just racialised but also queer, trans, disabled, poor, or otherwise impacted by inequities in society. The book describes a variety of strategies for abolitionist teaching – this is not presented as a pedagogy but as many different ways educators may engage in pursuing educational freedom. At the center is the concept of “mattering” in the solution to educational inequity – students need to have a sense of “mattering” to succeed. Ultimately, the author describes the importance of loving our students and knowing their collective histories so we can best serve them as educators.

Reynolds, V (2012). An Ethical Stance for Justice Doing in Community Work and Therapy Journal of Systemic Therapies Vol. 31 (4). 18-33

Reynolds writes from a place of deliberate imperfection about the action of “justice-doing” in a world that is largely failing to provide social or other forms of justice to oppressed and colonised peoples. She explores the benefits of what we traditionally considered to be therapy or wellness, things like counselling and medication, and acknowledges their imperfect benefits, but suggests that what we really wish for is a world in which we can offer justice. She speaks to the concept of being in solidarity not as theory but as a way of rooting our practices, using the Zapatista phrase “we are you.” While emphasizing the value of solidarity she also engages with the realities of power dynamics and the imperfections of allyship. She emphasizes the way we co-create both spaces of justice-doing, and the practices themselves. In these ways, she emphasizes the ways social and emotional wellness require that we pursue a just world.

Thom, K. C. (2019). I hope we choose Love: A trans girl’s notes from the end of the world. Arsenal Pulp Press.

This book is written in a variety of formats including poetry, memoire, and essay. While it is not specific to the school context, it offers a politically and personally grounded perspective on community, inclusion, and politics of disposability. I read this book early on in my teaching career, and have found it to be continuously helpful in understanding the many ways students are impacted not just by identity, but the challenges and blessings of being part of a “community.” I go back to Thom’s nuanced views of the world often, and find their praxis of choosing love to be central to how I show up to support the social and emotional wellbeing of my students.

Indigenous Language Revitalisation and Social-Emotional Outcomes

McIvor, O. (2013). Protective effects of language learning, use and culture on the health and well-being of Indigenous people in Canada. Proceedings of the 17th FEL Conference. FEL XVII: Endangered Languages Beyond Boundaries: Community Connections, Collaborative Approaches and Cross-Disciplinary Research, Ottawa, ON (pp. 123-131). Foundation for Endangered Languages in association with Carleton University.

Dr. Onowa McIvor’s work on Indigenous language revitalisation has been foundational to my understanding of language revitalisation not just as a linguistic act, or even a political act, but as a movement that is essential to the health and wellbeing of Indigenous peoples. In particular, I chose this article to include as it outlines the impacts of developing fluency on the health outcomes of Indigenous people, finding that those who feel meaningfully connected to their language and culture, and reach a conversational level of fluency, are at lower risk of death by suicide, not just as compared to Indigenous peers, but as compared to all peoples in cka canada. In beginning to understand language as a non-metaphorical act of decolonisation with the potential to reverse the health (including mental health) impacts of colonisation, my entire understanding of the systemic nature of SEL shifted.

Whalen DH, Lewis ME, Gillson S, McBeath B, Alexander B, Nyhan K. Health effects of Indigenous language use and revitalization: a realist review. Int J Equity Health. 2022 Nov 28;21(1):169. doi: 10.1186/s12939-022-01782-6. PMID: 36437457; PMCID: PMC9703682.

This article outlines similar outcomes to that of McIvor’s 2013 research. While the outcomes vary slightly more, and the context is less localized to BC, this paper is still helpful in understanding the ways in which language learning are essentially connected to the physical and mental health of Indigenous students. In particular, when considering 5 factors of cultural access and involvement, as well as conversational or higher language fluency, Indigenous youth have fewer health disparities (including higher life expectancy), higher literacy rates, and nearly 0 risk of suicide attempt.

Wilson, W. H. (2006). Näwahï Hawaiian Laboratory School. Journal of American Indian Education, 45(2), 42–44.

Building further on this, the case example of theNäwahï Hawaiian Laboratory School is particularly relevant. While Native Hawaiian students in Hawaii have generally high rates of substance use difficulties and mental health challenges including suicide and suicidal behaviours, students who graduate from Nawahi experience the opposite. A full-immersion program based out of a lab school of the University of Hawaii at Hilo, their program involves the entire family in a culturally rich language immersion setting. The outcomes are awe inspiring, as their students go on to graduate and attend post-secondary at double or more the rate of their English-medium education peers. Equally as important, they have not had any deaths by suicide, and student self-rating of wellness is consistently high. This program, for me, solidifies the belief that in order to support Indigenous students to achieve genuine wellbeing, we must support access to language fluency programs.

Indigenous and Decolonial Perspectives and Frameworks

Nunavut Department of Education (2007). Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit Education Framework. Nunavut Department of Education, Curriculum and School Services Division.

This report comes from the education department in Nunavut, and explores an Inuit epistemological approach to the education system. It is an excellent example of educational sovereignty and the ways in which cultural frameworks can be used to understand and promote wellbeing of students and the broader school community. I was especially struck by the idea of values as being at the core of behaviours. When behaviours are not as we hope in our students, we must find ways to support them in building a value in that area. This was a new concept to me, and one I will consider going forward in my work.

Davidson, S. F., & Davidson, R. (2019). Potlatch as pedagogy: Learning through ceremony. Langara College.

In Potlatch as Pedagogy, Sara and Robert Davidson are in conversation on the ways in which the education system can be informed by traditional Haida governance. She explores a variety of concepts – those that have most impacted me are the principles of “Learning emerges through strong relationships,” “Learning occurs through contribution” and “Learning honours history and story.” In each of these sections she explores the ways these are true in the Haida feast system, discussing examples with her father (an acclaimed Haida artist and cultural revivalist), as well as examples from her experiences as an educator in the school system. Just as instructional practices can be informed by these principles, so too can social emotional support.

Mowatt, G (2024). Gwalxyee’enst: Love and Refusal as Felt Research with Gitxsan Youth [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Victoria.

In this doctoral thesis, Gitxsan scholar Gina Mowatt explores the concepts of healing, love, and refusal, in the contexts of arts based methodologies in an elementary school on Gitxsan territory. I felt challenged by some of the concepts around refusing trauma narratives and problematising healing as a requisite discrete and mandatory outcome for sovereignty amidst ongoing colonial violence. I come back to these seeming contradictions often, and it informs my thinking on education broadly, as well as wellness and healing oriented programming within the education system.

Williams, L. (2008). Lil’wat Principles of Learning (did you know) – strong nations. Lil’wat Principles of Learning (Did You Know) – Strong Nations. Retrieved October 8, 2021, from https://www.strongnations.com/gs/show.php?gs=4&gsd=3910.

The Lil’wat Principles of Learning were articulated by Dr. Wanosts’a7 Lorna Williams in a 2008 course at the University of Victoria regarding Indigenous pedagogies. Articulated within these principles is a series of concepts that educators benefit from considering with regards to creating affirming classrooms that promote both learning and overall wellbeing. Kat’il’a is a principle that particularly impacts my perspective on this – it is defined as seeking spaces of stillness and quiet amidst our busy lives. This is difficult in the education setting where we often feel pressured to fill space with what is seen as learning, however I believe it is an essential part of building a supportive environment for social emotional wellbeing. It is natural for humans to rest, just as it is natural for pretty much all plants and animals in nature to have periods of rest, and it is essential that we respect and honour that, as articulated in these principles.

Language Acquisition in Practice

April 22, 2025 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

Linked when you click on the below slide is a pre-recorded presentation on my application of language acquisition theory in my rural/remote secondary French Immersion classroom this year. This project was completed as part of my graduate studies.

Healthy Living Unit

April 22, 2025 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

Clicking on the first of these three images will take you to the full mini-unit I created to support our broader learning on healthy living when teaching grade 4/5. I have since adapted many of these lessons to work for high school careers as well.

Quelles Sont Vos Valeurs

April 22, 2025 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

When I began teaching, I wasn’t convinced I’d enjoy the careers curriculum. It has become one of my favourite courses to teach! What a joy to help kids understand their own values, aspirations, and opinions, and use that self-knowledge to guide their own futures. Here is a worksheet set I created for a unit I lead my grade 8-12 French Immersion careers class in, on identifying one’s values.

Alaska Native Language Literacy Program Review

April 22, 2025 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

The following image is a slide from my section of a presentation I created with my group members for a course on Social Emotional Learning. We focused on the Alaska Native Language Literacy Program, and my portion of the presentation focuses on establishing this type of program as being part of the body of research on SEL from a systemic perspective. If you click on this slide it will take you to my portion of the pre-recorded presentation.

Harm Reduction Health Unit

March 22, 2023 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

The cover page below will link you to a unit I created to teach the basics of harm reduction based substance use education in intermediate through high school classrooms. This unit is an alternative to the classic “just say no to drugs” units still offered in many schools, and is in keeping with both my ethics and the evidence on preventing deaths from toxic drug supply. The unit is just a starting place, and this is heavy content so teachers will need to be prepared to talk through the learning with students in a compassionate and patient way. Some of the questions my students had with this unit required that I slow down and work through their thinking with them. Additionally, this might be initially difficult for students to wrap their head around if they have spent many years surrounded by abstinence based substance use education, this was certainly my experience with the class this unit was created for. I am hopeful that this unit will be helpful to someone and am happy to answer any questions folks may have.

In clicking the photo, you will be linked to the unit in full.

Standard 8 – Professional Contribution

March 22, 2023 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

Standard 8: Educators Contribute to the Profession

Much like standard 7, I believe that standard 8 speaks to something most teachers would like to do given sufficient time for planning and reflection. As an early career educator, I feel that my ability to offer many of the things described in standard 8 (such as professional development or college instruction) is limited. However, having worked as a child and youth counselor for five years prior to this career change, I feel there is prior experience I bring to education that is worth sharing. I am lucky to work in a school that values this type of prior experience and am grateful to have colleagues who are seasoned teachers who are willing to ask my thoughts on challenges that my experience might help with.

As my professional experience and learning as a teacher expands, it is absolutely a professional goal of mine to share that learning in more formal capacities. This could look many different ways, but in the long term I would love to contribute by educating at the college level with not just future teachers, but future EAs and school based child and youth counselors as well. I feel that when we consider how educators might contribute to the profession, collaboration and co-education with other professionals who work in schools has the potential to be invaluable, and I would love to be a part of that process.

Standard 7 – Professional Learning

March 22, 2023 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

For this reflection, I wanted to take some time to make a list of the types of professional learning I would like to engage in over the coming years. There is a broad range of areas that I would either like to begin to learn about or further my learning in. I think that many teachers probably similarly are curious about a wide variety of things, however it is hard to find the time to sit and reflect and I believe that in using this opportunity to do just that, I will be more likely to seek opportunities for these areas of professional learning in the future. So without further ado, my professional learning wishlist at the moment is:

Functional ASL for teaching deaf and non-speaking students
AAC (augmented and alternative communication) devices
Evidence based and culturally informed health education
Respectful incorporation of local Indigenous languages in the class setting
Multilingual childhood and adolescent language acquisition
Play based and outdoor learning in the older grades (gr. 5 and up)
Gradeless classrooms
Student self-evaluation
Whole class literacy instruction in the older grades
Student led literacy instruction that follows the science of reading
Creating access to elective programs in rural communities (music, arts, metalwork, etc.)
Trauma informed praxis in the classroom
Lifeskills and sustainability instruction in the classroom
Community x Classroom integration
AI use in education

I am hopeful that in the coming years I will have the opportunity to engage in learning in some or all of these areas, either in a Pro D, workshop, or graduate capacity. There are so many directions my curiosity takes me when it comes to education, and as corny as it sounds, I truly hope to never stop seeking to learn.

Reflection on Standard 2

March 22, 2023 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

BC Standard for Educators 2 reads, “Educators act ethically and maintain the integrity, credibility, and reputation of the profession.” This is something we’ve reflected on many times throughout our preparation for teaching, and I find it to be one of the most complex standards to grapple with. Ethics are, by any measure, subjective. We know that the legalities of this issue are also applied unevenly, depending on location and the ethics of a community. This means that in one context or community teaching about queer and trans history could be considered highly ethical and valuable, while in another context it may be seen very differently. The same is true of critical race theory, social emotional learning, and issues of Indigenous sovereignty – all elements of my own personal ethics as an educator that are important to me.

While it is tempting to argue that teachers who believe in these ethics should simply live in places where the community believes similarly, it is also unfair. Some of the most radical activism comes from places with the most vocal oppressors. More than that though, queer and trans kids are everywhere, white supremacy is everywhere, the mental health crisis is everywhere. And regardless of histories of genocide and displacement, wherever we go, there we are on stolen Indigenous land. It is not so simple as to leave a place, because the students being left behind deserve depth and diversity of instruction regardless of the community’s beliefs.

Truthfully, I do not have an answer for this issue. There are ways that I have stood up for my beliefs in the past that likely would not meet the ethical barometer of many communities. Despite that, I have the privilege of presenting, at least on the surface, like many teachers – I am white and a woman – my queerness, my disabilities, my political beliefs – these are mostly invisibilised by the structures that surround them. In this context that benefits me, because on first glance most parents, school administrators, and communities at large would not think twice about my suitability as a teacher. And for what it’s worth, I believe I am suitable to be a teacher. I believe that all sorts of people are suitable to be teachers and that children deserve to encounter a variety of world views presented in an honest way. And yet, I do continue to struggle with standard two, not because I believe educators shouldn’t be held to ethics and integrity, but because I question who decides how those words are defined.

Standard 6 and 9, and the BC curriculum

January 18, 2023 / mizzblue / 0 Comments

This year I am teaching a grade four and five class at a small band school on the northwest coast. In this context I had the opportunity for the first time to use the BC curriculum to create a full year of units and lessons. In doing this planning, I became well acquainted with the curricular “Big Ideas” for both grade levels. In particular I struggled with the ideas expressed in the social studies curricula for both grade levels, and found it difficult to reconcile these ideas with the teaching standards to which I am held – especially standards six and nine.

BC Standard for Educators six reads, “Educators demonstrate a broad knowledge base and an understanding of areas they teach.” It goes on to describe a requirement to teach Canadian, Indigenous, and Global perspectives on the curriculum. Then, it requires that we teach about Canada’s democratic and inclusive society. The curriculum at the grade four level requires that as a big idea we teach that, “British Columbia followed a unique path in becoming a part of Canada.” At the grade five level we are required to teach that, “Canada’s policies and treatment of minority peoples have negative and positive legacies.” While these two Big Ideas exemplify the fiction of Canada’s “democratic and inclusive society,” as described in the educator’s standards, I find them to be at odds with the assertion that educators must “demonstrate a broad knowledge base and an understanding of areas they teach.”

That is to say, I believe that anyone who has a broad knowledge base and understanding of the history of colonialism, ethnocentrism, and discrimination in BC and Canada, could not meet the requirement of demonstrating that knowledge and understanding while upholding the concept that BC followed any legitimate path in “joining” Canada as a settler nation-state. Similarly, I believe that teaching imagined “positive outcomes” of Canada’s treatment of minority peoples reveals a shallow or incomplete knowledge of the areas we are tasked with teaching.

Further irreconcilable with these curricular ideas, is standard nine which reads, “Educators respect and value the history of First Nations, Inuit and Métis in Canada and the impact of the past on the present and the future. Educators contribute towards truth, reconciliation and healing. Educators foster a deeper understanding of ways of knowing and being, histories, and cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis.” If we are to respect Indigenous knowledge, culture, and by extension legal orders and sovereignty, it seems impossible to simultaneously perpetuate settler-colonial fictions of British Columbia belonging in any meaningful way to Canada, and by extension the British Crown (typically via the Royal Proclamation of 1763). In contrast to the mythology of Terra Nullius and the Doctrine of Discovery as perpetuated by the aforementioned structures and institutions, the maintained and continuous sovereignty of Indigenous nations on the land claimed by BC has been proven under legal test in court decisions including the Calder case (1967), Delgamuukw (1997), and Tsilqhot’in (2014).

This is something I grappled with when creating my year plans, and that I suspect to grapple with for the remainder of my career. How do we meet standards that are at odds with the fictions perpetuated by curricula written within the contexts and frameworks of colonialism and ethnocentrism? Truthfully, I don’t have a great answer yet, but I hope to continue exploring it in the years to come.