Previous Issues

We are very excited to share Unleashing the Power of Transformative Educational Leadership, an independent evaluation of TELP prepared by Dr. Louise Stoll (UCL Institute of Education, London). UBC’s Transformative Educational Leadership Program (TELP) is making a difference for educational leaders across the province.

 

Author(s): Transformative Educational Leadership Program

Woven with images, research excerpts, quotes, and the voices of the educators and young learners in her school, Barb Hamlet shares a beautiful portrait of the Spiral of Inquiry at work in her school. Flip through this case study about well-being and transformation and you'll see the bold heart and head work in action.

 

Author(s): Barb Hamblett

In this exploration about Indigenous education in Canada, Jo Chrona uses a stance of curiosity to help a colleague come to terms with his big question around why the BC Curriculum specifically includes Indigenous knowledges and perspectives. This question is so common as to be a cliché - and Jo's response opens those who ask it to a new paradigm.

 

Author(s): Jo Chrona

In this article, Nancy and Brad share how they have helped school leaders lead through the pandemic. Despite the temptation during the crises to withdraw and pause, the authors discuss how continual professional learning is needed now more than ever in order to help leaders connect with their purpose and lean into their capacity.

 

Author(s): Nancy Gordon Brad Bauman

In this paper, leadership from the Yukon Department of Education share how they responded to the pandemic with a socio-emotional stance on leadership development, incorporating human behaviour with change management and organizational effectiveness.

 

Author(s): Nicole Morgan Paula Thompson

To sustain a learning system over time, careful consideration for and equitable promotion of the conditions that allow learning leadership to flourish is a challenge worth tackling - even in a global pandemic. District leader Lisa Carson shows how schools are emerging from this isolating pandemic as connected and networked learning organizations.

 

Author(s): Lisa Carson

During the pandemic, the authors of this paper developed and launched a university course at Sweden's Uppsala University built on the Spiral of Inquiry. Built from the ground up, this paper offers a behind the scenes look at the design work that goes into supporting leadership development at the graduate level.

 

Author(s): Ingela Netz Lillemor Rehnberg

In their article, Lynn and Christel share how the pandemic invited them to explore the silver linings their District leadership team discovered in the pandemic. Read on to find out how the pandemic and District supports provided a catalyst for widespread innovation and deepened relationships.

 

Author(s): Lynn Archer Christel Brautigam

This is a narrative account of a first year Principal leading during a global pandemic. The lessons learned during this time include be steady, be clear and be generous - inspired by Dr. Bonnie Henry.

 

Author(s): Brooke Douglas

Principal Christine Franes walks us through the act of engaging with Indigenous wisdom, nature, and wonder as an act of self care. You are invited to walk alongside Franes in this photographic exploration of leadership.

 

Author(s): Christine Franes

This article provides an in depth look at how District Leadership engaged with stakeholders through collaborative inquiry in the quest to better serve students who may need alternative educational settings in order to achieve success.

 

Author(s): Shauna Ross

In this article, the author shares the journey of a district transition spiral of inquiry, revealing that it is the collective voice that leads to collective agency toward more inclusive and equitable learning environments.

 

Author(s): Claire Clancy

When a Principal or leader is assigned to a new school, where do they focus attention when trying to understand a school culture and climate? How is trust and integrity built? This article suggests that leaders need to listen to the words and narratives used in the school community, then respond with curiosity and adaptive expertise.

 

Author(s): Jody Billingsley

Introducing a co-mingling of voices - that of a Vice Principal and her secondary students as they share authorship of this article in much the way they shared space in a multi-layered collaborative inquiry.

 

Author(s): Joanna Macintosh & Students from Sands Secondary

In this article, the authors share how they began using the Spirals of Inquiry in their leadership practice as Schools Principals to improve outcomes for learners. The impacts have rippled far beyond their schools in some surprising and far reaching ways to connect hundreds of school leaders in this transformative work.

 

Author(s): Natalie Mansour, David Sim

See how a Swedish Network grew from a two day learning session about the Spirals of Inquiry which the authors of this paper see as a systematic mental model for disciplined collaboration and encourages the professional mindset and language necessary to bring about positive change throughout our school system at all levels.

 

Author(s): Ingela Netz, Lillemor Rehnberg,

The importance of symmetry and emergence is increasingly evident in the Richmond School District as school leaders work with teachers to develop their plan for enhancing student learning using the Spiral of Inquiry as a theory of action. In this article, Lynn Archer takes us through what this complex work looks like and what it requires to thrive.

 

Author(s): Lynn Archer

In a system marred by political instability, a small number of leaders created a network of schools in Catalonia and transform how teachers engage with their own learning. The impact? System-wide transformation has begun. Read how Begonya and her colleagues have used metaphor and relationships to begin to shift a system towards a focus on students.

 

Author(s): Begonya Folch Martínez

In this article, Rebbecca Sweeney shares the professional learning approach and related tools and resources she uses to support schools to re-design Teaching as Inquiry using the Spiral of Inquiry, an approach that avoids the numerous pitfalls collaborative inquiry can present.

 

Author(s): Rebbecca Sweeney

It is not always easy. But it is work that matters. And, as the stories in this paper highlight, the reasons why Spirals is so effective in changing outcomes for learners in England is that the process goes far beyond surface level inquiry and interventions.

 

Author(s): Rosie Leonard-Kane

In this narrated slide deck, Keri Hanlon and Sandra Tee reinforce the importance of building connections amongst all the shareholders in a school community. As administrators, they also illustrate how they are using the Spiral of Inquiry at their respective schools.

 

Author(s): Sandra Tee Keri Hanlon

The simple act of taking a walk—a walk with a curricular focus or purpose—can have multiple positive consequences—many of which are much more profound than we ever imagine. This article takes you inside the #imagined hashtag and explores the transformative pedagogy underpinning the #walkingcurriculum challenge.

 

Author(s): Gillian Judson

In this article, Rob Laing describes how beginning his principalship while teachers were on strike helped him build relationships through three core practices. Over his four and a half years at this school, these practices significantly impacted the staff's ability to move from the picket line toward collaboration and change.

 

Author(s): Rob Laing

Educational leaders must strive for continual growth within their communities with wellness as the foundation. Without wellness there can be no learning as learning is central to a robust education system that can endure.

 

Author(s): Angela Stott

This how an administrative team worked within their district's Framework for Enhancing Student Learning and used the Spirals of Inquiry process to support their staff and students to delve into the redesigned BC curriculum.

 

Author(s): Christel Brautigam

Spirals of an in-class teacher outlines the process developed to implement Spirals of Inquiry in a high-school semester setting. This article is meant to read as a narrative about how the author executed an efficient Spiral of inquiry inquiry in his classroom.

 

Author(s): Thomas Lowe

Academies disrupt the way we assess, the way we grade, the way we teach, who teaches, who’s in the class, where we have class, and even the school schedule itself is susceptible to disruption. Academies are systems changing programs.

 

Author(s): Paige Hansen

Reflections of a teaching high school principal on learning strategies, student engagement and leadership within the context of knowledge, deep learning and how best to navigate the redesigned curriculum.

 

Author(s): Paul Hembling

We embarked on a transformation journey approximately ten years ago. But the question remains: how do we embed transformational learning into our learning communities.

 

Author(s): Lynn Archer

The streamlining and the filtering that currently exists within French immersion schools is not promoting a culture of difference and it is robbing our students from the varied experiences they get from interacting with difference.

 

Author(s): Desiree Dallaire

A narrative account of how a community changed its educators and their professional practice.

 

Author(s): Gretchen Vogelsang

Strong practice acknowledges that all of our educational choices build community and engagement or, conversely, tear it down. See how Story Studios is building community as a strong literacy approach.

 

Author(s): Claire D'Aoust

Teaching students how to make good decisions by using a decision skill framework grounded in the decision sciences means giving them the opportunity to engage in nuanced civil discourse. This approach to engagement around difficult, divisive, and complex conversations as we strive, globally, to address complex problems is necessary.

 

Author(s): Kristen Vogel

How do education leaders best support building capacity while validating the work of both formal and informal leaders in their systems? In this article, Todd Manuel will describe a leadership series run in School District 67 that emphasizes leadership as a shared responsibility, not as a rank. Meeting over eight Saturday mornings over the past year and a half, thirty educators have committed to being part of this project.

 

Author(s): Todd Manuel

Research confirms quality leadership and quality learning are directly correlated. Supporting a school community to truly thrive, today’s transformational leader requires an abundance of courage. In this capacity, courage can be considered at three levels, each cultivated by five distinct voices.

 

Author(s): Wendy Macken

Attached is a combined academic/narrative style of submission. The author has attempted to provide provide a personal account of her TELP experiences, current research within this area and how this relates to her inquiry interest area on the topic of social emotional learning and leadership development.

 

Author(s): Heather Rose

The powerful impacts of Assessment for Learning (AfL) have a deep evidence base. Despite this research being available for decades, Dr. Lorna Earl worries that we have barely started the AfL journey, that we have become complacent and are skimming the belief systems and practices that will fulfil the promise of AfL. Could a national network make th

 

Author(s): Lorna Earl

There is no doubt there are different levels of leadership and that within any given school there will be individuals who have characteristics of a traditional leader; but it is the emerging leader, the influencer, who takes center stage in this story.

 

Author(s): Rachelle Buch Goncalves

Leadership can take many forms. This paper outlines early lessons learned in a case study featuring a committed group of formal leaders embarking on a collaborative inquiry journey, organized and facilitated by a teacher-leader.

 

Author(s): Brian Davidson

What does it take to be a teacher who scans their learners, learning environment, and their own practice with curiosity and a eagerness to learn? Using the characteristics of an Inquiry Teacher, as defined in her upcoming book with Trevor Mackenzie, Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt frames the transformations that she and her students experienced.

 

Author(s): Rebecca Bathurst-Hunt

The work of story, in our lives and in our learning, shapes our way of being. In this paper, Jana Fox shares how she most recently experienced the power of story during an exploration about how Indigenous ways of knowing and being inform her role as an Indigenous person and educator. Read to find out how she came to know Trickster as her teacher.

 

Author(s): Jana Fox

Students who find themselves two or more grade levels below their peers require additional, intentional programming to be successful. This paper explores programs implemented at Argyle Secondary in North Vancouver, programs that attempt to build scaffolds and supports to allow students to catch up on and fill in the gaps of their learning.

 

Author(s): Brigitte Gerandol

This paper explores the impact of a collaborative inquiry framework on student and educators' learning in a small, rural secondary school. Powerful transformations can take place when teachers embrace research-informed practices, developing their capacity as a community of learners to embrace meaningful learning.

 

Author(s): Deborah Koehn

If we believe changing outcomes for students depends on teacher learning, then we must cultivate a culture of learning in our schools. In doing so, a leader’s focus shifts from managing the building to designing learning environments in which the adults move from being employees to being learners. Here is how one school made this shift.

 

Author(s): Barb Hamblett

Looking under the rug, so to speak, can be a humbling experience. Doing so as a staff can be powerful and instructive. We looked under the rug and found some pretty enlightening truths. This article explores how Academic Service Learning can increase students' intellectual engagement in learning.

 

Author(s): Aaron Akune