eLeadership Guide – Establishing and Sustaining Respectful Relationships for Student Success: Education Service Agreements

Establishing and Sustaining Respectful Relationships for Student Success: Education Service Agreements

Evaluate

Accepting Accountability for Student Learning

In terms of reporting, it’s important to have a September and January count. Who pays for transportation? Provincial schools leave the cost of transportation to reserve schools. Is there an opportunity to rethink the whole relationship with funding? What if we worked together to get more funding? (Auger, at a meeting of the CASS First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Education Committee, March 20, 2023)

It is important to have two counts. How many kids are lost during the year? Some kids have to travel 85-90 km in one day, it’s alarming. What is the relationship to make sure they are successful and being kept in school and not falling through the cracks? (Desjarlis, at a meeting of the CASS First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Education Committee, March 20, 2023)

CASS eLeadership guide, eLeadership guide: Improving Success for Indigenous Students (n.d.-a), examines the research about system education leadership to improve learning success for Indigenous students within provincial school authorities. It also includes stories of practice about intentional strategies put in place to improve student success.

Tsuut’ina and Rocky View Story of Practice

Tsuut’ina and CCSD Story of Practice

Acknowledging Systemic Barriers/Racism

White Benevolence: Racism and Colonial Violence in the Helping Professions (Gebhard et al., 2022) is a collection of essays that examines how systemic racism plays out in Canadian institutions, including school authorities. The authors demonstrate how colonialism is enacted through white benevolence which they describe as “a form of paternalistic racism that reinforces, instead of challenges, racial hierarchies, and its presence is found across Canadian institutions” (Gebhard et al., 2022, p. 1).

It is important for system education leaders to acknowledge the existence of systemic racism and be willing to engage in the ongoing work of unpacking assumptions and bias. Dr. Verna St. Denis has emphasized, in her decades of work as an anti-racist scholar, how important it is to develop anti-racist teachers and system education leaders. In her keynote address at the 2023 CASS First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education Gathering (CASS, 2023b), she identified the need for sustained and ongoing professional learning with school authorities to “raise the bar in the standards and requirements” (27:28) for teachers and system education leaders. She talked about how racism is upheld by those who “retreat from or avoid the discomfort of anti-racist learning” (28:15).

It is vital also for provincial system education leaders to be willing to listen to experiences of First Nations communities. The stories they share may be hard to hear but critical to establishing respectful relationships and preventing further harm.

Superintendent Bill Shade, Stoney Education Authority

In Episode 12 (White, 2023), when asked what difference it makes for young people when both parties come to the table respectfully Superintendent Bill Shade said,

It shows them that they are valued in their school communities, that they are important and that first and foremost that there are people that care for them, there are people that want to make sure they are looked after and if they have a struggle, that there is someone there who will look into it at least and help them get through it. (0:08)

He talked about the challenges faced by many young people on reserve (e.g., getting up very early and having long bus rides on unpaved roads) that those in provincial schools may not be aware of … including getting up in the morning and getting to school. He said he had driven on those bumpy roads and was not sure he would be willing to go through what many of them go through each day simply to walk through the school doors. He underscored how important it is for them to feel wanted and welcome when they arrive.

Tsuut’ina and CBE Story of Practice

Tsuut’ina and CCSD Story of Practice

Empowering Young People to Speak Up

Superintendent Bill Shade, Stoney Education Authority

Acknowledging and facing systemic racism is a critical part of the work of ESAs. In Episode 13 (White, 2023), Superintendent Bill Shade highlighted that there is still a lot of mistrust and mistreatment of kids in school. He said it is not always obvious or visible, sometimes it’s subtle, but it is very much present in the day-to-day experiences of students from First Nations. He talked about how much students notice and how astute students are at seeing the little things that make them want to stay in school. One of his key messages is for provincial school leaders to understand that when students speak up about racism, it might be the first time the school is hearing about it but, that student may have faced that all their life and they finally got enough courage to stand up and say something about it. He underscored that, If schools can empower students to speak up, they are on the right path. There is a lot of work ahead of us, and we just need to work together. If we do that, he said, we will succeed.

Reflective Questions/Moving Forward

Moving forward with ESAs respectfully, in the spirit of reciprocity, with collective vision and, commitment to student learning and well-being is at the heart of this resource. Ultimately, the success of the relationships fostered and nurtured by system education leaders from First Nations and provincial school authorities will create conditions for young people to thrive. Their success will indicate whether collective efforts are making a difference and what is required next to establish and support the conditions under which the learning aspirations and potential of First Nations, Métis and Inuit students are realized (Alberta Education, 2023a, 2023b).

In our ESA work, how is our school authority creating conditions to ensure that we are:

Beginning with Treaty?
Keeping young people/community forefront?
Building understanding about the ESA Standards?
Building understanding and relationships before we enter into ESA discussions and negotiations?
Learning how to approach discussions/negotiations?
Unpacking assumptions and bias?
Building and Sustaining respectful relationships through discussions and negotiations?
Dealing respectfully with disagreements and disputes?
Accepting accountability for student learning?
Acknowledging and facing systemic racism and, working to educate ourselves?
Empowering young people to speak up?

How do we know our efforts are making a difference?

Evaluate

Accepting Accountability for Student Learning

Acknowledging Systemic Barriers/Racism

Empowering Young People to Speak Up

Reflective Questions/Moving Forward

References and Additional Resources