Conference Agenda

As part of a major social and economic regeneration initiative in Dublin’s North-East Inner City (NEIC), the P-TECH pilot initiative was launched in 2018 to provide post primary students in the area with an enriching educational experience to develop new skills and to help them to connect to new learning and career pathways.

P-TECH is an innovative model of education-industry collaboration that was developed in the USA by IBM and local educators to build technology skills. In Ireland, the model has been adapted within a partnership collaboration across HE, schools, government and industry. The National College of Ireland (NCI), as academic partner, has had the responsibility of designing, developing and supporting the delivery of a new Certificate in P-TECH programme. On completion of the programme - which spans the senior cycle in post primary schools - students gain a 10 ECTs higher education award.

On the Certificate in P-TECH programme, students learn about the worlds of work and higher education and have experiences in both environments to build their familiarity, sense of belonging and cultural capital (Bourdieu, 1997). Students have opportunities to develop skills in areas such as technology, business, communications, design thinking and project management. They also have a highly structured work experience which is completed with one of the industry partners as part of their school's Transition Year programme.

For the P-TECH students, the programme offers unique opportunities and pathways for learning to enhance their potential. In addition to their development of specialised skills and knowledge, students participating in the programme also have important personal development opportunities which build their confidence, resilience, self-awareness and learning skills. This aspect of the programme represents an underlying belief that students’ learning will be enhanced with a continued emphasis on their wellbeing and ongoing personal development (Sen, 1999; Nussbaum, 2011).

The key to success of the development and delivery of the Certificate in P-TECH programme is an ambitious and innovative curriculum which is supported by a committed partnership approach across participating industry partners and schools. The industry partners provide a range of supports including mentoring, digital badges and work experience opportunities as part of their commitment to supporting students. The participating schools have also made significant commitments including the timetabling of classroom hours for the programme and the support of teachers to complete a bespoke P-TECH teaching award.

The focus of the presentation is to share the innovations of the P-TECH curriculum and to explore the experiences, impact and learning of the school and industry partners. Recent stakeholder research will inform the discussion but speakers will also share examples of learning and practices. The format will comprise a presentation on the Certificate in P-TECH curriculum innovations (NCI), industry partner experiences and school experiences of P-TECH.

As the pilot comes to a close, this exploration and discussion is timely and useful. It is hoped that by sharing the experiences and learning, it will offer ideas and opportunities for further innovative developments and partnerships in the education landscape.

Objectives

Extend and expand upon our ICSEI 2023 session by:

- Discussing key elements of an innovative approach to online professional learning that engages teachers in inquiry learning about anti-racism and using critical inquiry to decenter white narratives in primary literacy

- Sharing completed learning modules created through collaborative development

- Share findings from participating teachers

Educational importance

Critical Race Theory (CRT) investigates the systemic nature of racism by questioning how it creates racist structures and status quos that further the interests of white supremacy (Stefanic & Delgado, 2012). CRT also contains an activist element that calls us to both understand systemic racism and change it. In her work on CRT in education, Ladson-Billings (1998) urges scholars and teachers to bring CRT out of academia by translating theory into classroom practice.

The Limestone District School Board (LDSB) in Ontario, Canada has answered CRT’s call to action by developing anti-racism professional learning focused on building primary teachers’ capacities to decenter white narratives and develop student racial literacy. LDSB collaborated with Usha James (The Critical Thinking Consortium) and Clarissa de Leon, an anti-racist teacher educator, to develop a critical inquiry approach to learning about anti-racism. Critical inquiry is a powerful approach that, when properly implemented, deepens student understanding, increases engagement and develops competency in critical, creative and collaborative thinking (Gini-Newman and Case, 2015).

As part of this project, a series of online modules were created. These modules involve identifying and disrupting how white supremacy manifests systemically in education and beyond, including biases present in primary literacy and normative racial narratives reinforced in children’s books.

In these modules, teachers are prompted to:

- Interrogate their own identities and positionalities;

- Work through challenges encountered during their journeys towards anti-racism;

- Explore mentor texts that decenter white narratives and question how to critically use “imperfect” texts;

- Engage with critical inquiry questions related to anti-racism and primary literacy

- Use a Thoughtbook (Gini-Newman et al., 2016) to develop and observe their own growth.

Format and Approach

In this session, participants will engage with the critical inquiry question: What are the most powerful decisions I can make to decenter white narratives in the primary years in order to increase student racial literacy? At the end of the presentation, participants will share their thinking.

Connection to the conference theme

We connect to the subtheme of “Leading schools and education systems that promote equity, inclusion, belonging, diversity, social justice, global citizenship and/ or environmental sustainability”. Critical learning experiences about systemic oppression and racism often require space for vulnerability and meaningful connection. Current educational circumstances have made it increasingly challenging to create these spaces for teachers due to factors such as limited release time for synchronous professional development. This presentation explores how online learning may be reimagined to capture the deep reflection and community needed for anti-oppressive and anti-racist teaching and learning while remaining accessible to teachers.

Objectives

Expand upon our ICSEI 2023 session by:

• Describing a transformative framework and an innovative approach to collaboration that supports improved outcomes for First Nations students.

• Sharing 120+ collaboratively developed resources for 6 high school courses that embody culturally relevant, responsive and respectful pedagogy and content and explore their key features

• Sharing a powerful decolonized approach that is designing a Traditional Knowledges course directly with Matawa First Nations community members, Knowledge Keepers, and Elders.

• Sharing early findings on the impacts of the teaching and learning materials.

Educational Importance

“... it is precisely because education was the primary tool of oppression of Aboriginal people, and miseducation of all Canadians, that we have concluded that education holds the key to reconciliation.” (Sinclair, 2014)

The 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action clearly highlights the significant role that education must play in the process of reconciliation. While it is true that “on average” students in Canada consistently perform well on provincial, national, and international standardized assessments, these measures do not accurately reflect the quality of education for Indigenous students in Canada with Indigenous students graduating at approximately half the rate of non-Indigenous populations (Assembly of First Nations, 2011; Styres, 2017).

First Nations students who relocate to urban centres experience an educational environment and curriculum that is not reflective of their cultural identity. Students face significant obstacles including discrimination and racism; difficulty in securing shelter; shortage of healthy food; and the inability to access mental health and addiction support services. These barriers often result in students abandoning personal and academic goals. The Matawa Education and Care Centre (MECC) is striving to mitigate these areas of concern by implementing a culturally responsive and holistic approach that promotes mental health support and a safe space to succeed academically.

The Critical Thinking Consortium (TC2) and the MECC are continuing their successful partnership to encourage meaningful collaboration with Matawa communities, Elders and Knowledge Keepers to develop engaging, culturally relevant and respectful resources across many subject areas. These resources guide and support teacher practice helping them nurture high quality thinking, centre students’ identities, histories and experiences to intentionally ensure the proper reflection and respect of Indigenous perspectives and worldviews.

Our successes to date include:

- Significant increase in achieved/completed credits

- 75% in-person regular attendance each week

- Overall improved student wellness

- Engagement with 16 school boards and other educational organizations across Ontario

- Development of a website to freely share resources freely

Format and Approach

In this interactive Innovate session, we will engage participants in critically examining our collaboratively developed resources to surface key components and provide thoughtful feedback on our approach.

Connection to the Conference Theme

We connect to the subthemes of this conference: “Engaged and purposeful dialogue between politicians, policymakers, academic researchers, educators, and the wider school community”. We have discovered principles and approaches that support the development and implementation of effective teaching and learning resources and professional learning that promote equity, inclusion, diversity, social justice, global citizenship, and environmental sustainability.