Browsing by Author "Alonso-Yañez, Gabriela"

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    Designing for a School System that Learns
    (2020-09-04) Hill, Joshua T.; Friesen, Sharon; Davis, Brent; Alonso-Yañez, Gabriela; Clark, Douglas B.; Laferrière, Thérèse
    In a complex and dynamic world young people need to devise ways of adapting flexibly, they need to be prepared to undertake something unforeseen, to renew our common world. Yet education emphasizes conformity and compliance underpinned by the deeply seated metanarratives of scarcity, standardization, fragmentation, and control. These metanarratives are embedded in the learning, teaching, and leadership in our schools and in the very reform initiatives that seek to change them. In this study I endeavoured to disrupt and replace these ideas. I draw on system thinking, design, and designing learning to reframe school system leadership as designing for a system that learns. From a design-based approach I partnered with school district leaders to redesign a school district’s strategic plan and implementation process. I share the practical design solutions that were developed in response to the needs of the context and chronicle the iterative design process that was driven by the analysis of empirical data. With the aim of opening up possibilities for how system leaders might practice design for a system that learns, I present a theoretical model featuring four interconnected design principles: divergence and convergence to balance autonomy and coordination; feedback cycles to drive iteration; network connectivity to encourage brokerage between and within systems; and design culture to create the conditions for learning to become a collective responsibility. Finally, I reflect on design-based research, complexity, and Indigenous ways of knowing to expand the space of the possible for future research.
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    Exploring the Self-Reported Experiences of Autistic High School Students
    (2021-01-18) Lebenhagen, Chandra; Alonso-Yañez, Gabriela; Friesen, Sharon; Kassan, Anusha
    A critical review of the literature indicates that the inclusion of autistic student voice in research and education discourse is minimal, which is problematic because this gap contributes to unethical and often ineffective educational practices and ultimately, poorer education and wellbeing outcomes for autistic students. This study investigated the self-reported school experiences of autistic high school students in Canada using a critical disability theory framework and a phenomenological informed research lens. Student perception data were collected using a mixed-method convergent parallel research design where quantitative data (n=72) was collected via an online survey, and qualitative data (n=19 open-ended responses and n=10 email interviews) was collected using an open-ended survey question and a short semi-structured email interview. Participants were recruited via snowball and convenience sampling through provincial and territory autism agencies, self-advocacy groups, parent councils, superintendents of schools, and Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and qualitative interview data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. Based on self-reports, this study found that generally, autistic students’ school experiences were unexceptional. However, students reported most favourably on their school experiences when they were made to feel welcome; when they had access to personalized school spaces; when they received support from their peers; and when teachers used flexible and non-stigmatizing pedagogical practices. A unique finding of this study is that over half of autistic participants shared that they preferred to use non-speaking modes of communication to interact with their teachers and peers because typing and drawing helped improve the clarity of their messages and to minimize feelings of stress and anxiety. The implications of this study are that it provides researchers, educators, and autism allies with new information based on “actually autistic” (Craine, 2020, p. 263) experiences, and it offers researchers a methodological framework to improve the authentic participation of autistic people in research.
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    Fostering Collaborative Learning in an Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Education Course
    (2019-04) Brown, Barbara; Thomas, Christy; Hill, Joshua; Alonso-Yañez, Gabriela
    An interdisciplinary approach to designing lessons requires collaboration among teachers. In undergraduate programs in education, faculty often assign group tasks and students struggle with negotiating ideas and effectively engaging in collaborative learning with peers. In this study, researchers used repeated surveys and social network analysis to examine pre-service teachers’ peer-group interactions while co-designing an interdisciplinary unit plan. Findings suggest effective relationships are needed to support collaborative learning, peer leaders can support collaborative learning and instructors can make leadership roles and strategies visible to help manage collaboration including how to use technology to support collaborative learning. Findings from the first year of this design-based research study serve to develop recommendations for teaching and learning strategies that will tested over the next year.
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    Literacy Through The Arts: A Phenomenological Inquiry into What it is Like to Experience Literacy within a Theatrical Space
    (2019-07-05) Campbell, Harrison Michael; Towers, Jo; Alonso-Yañez, Gabriela; Burwell, Catherine; Lenters, Kimberly A.
    Literacy, according to Lindquist and Seitz (2009), “is one of those words, like love, that people use commonly and confidently, as if its meaning were transparent and stable” (p. 8). Literacy in classrooms, however, is inherently complex and the experiences that surround it, especially from the student’s perspective, are often lost. This thesis examines how literacy came to be defined within a specialized arts immersion junior high school in Western Canada and how the unique approach to curriculum was better able to encourage student agency, authorship, and identity within literacy's definition. This research is inspired by the work of the New London Group, which spoke to expanding the scope of literacy pedagogy through a proposed framework of multiliteracies embracing multimodality and contextual responsiveness to the learning environment. (New London Group, 1994). In response to this it was seen that students needed to have spaces in which they can play the role of code breakers, text users and text analysts. Artistic inquiry is a means to create such a space which in addition to teaching applied roles, also allow students to strengthen their social and cultural wellbeing (Wells & Sandretto, 2017). Over the course of a semester eight students created a theatrical space in which they communicated their experiences of literacy with data being collected through interviewing, journaling, monologue writing, and performance. Through the use of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis students, who were recruited using homogeneous sampling, had their data coded in a way that created a double hermeneutic around literacy as the researcher and students engaged in dialogue and performance as a means of making meaning. This phenomenological process allowed for the development of a flexible open-ended inquiry. The study's findings showed that students within this unique learning environment connected their literacy experiences directly into the fine and performing arts. Students experienced literacy both in a traditional sense and a performative sense, citing that their work within school productions was a way of building upon their literacy skills. For these students, literacy was not a single experience but an interconnected web of experiences that enriched their learning and increased their engagement.
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    Pioneering STEM Education for Pre-Service Teachers
    (International Journal of Engineering Pedagogy, 2016-11-01) Francis, Krista; Friesen, Sharon; Preciado-Babb, Armando Paulino; Takeuchi, Miwa; Alonso-Yañez, Gabriela; Gereluk, Dianne T.
    While there have been numerous initiatives to promote and recruit students into postsecondary studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) around the world, traditional programs of studies for both K to 12 school and teacher education still lack an integrative approach to these disciplines. Addressing this concern, the Werklund School of Education of the University of Calgary started to offer a course in STEM education for the undergraduate Bachelor of Education program. The purpose of this article is to document the first iterations of this course. We draw from narratives of four instructors, including the coordinator of the course, and administrators who were actively involved in creation and approval of the course. We describe the course and its connection to the philosophy of the program, examine the context in which this course was conceived—including both national and provincial policy—and address some challenges and possibilities experienced by administrators, instructors and students during the creation and implementation of the course.
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    Teachers as Eco-Intellectuals: Cultivating miyo pimatisiwin
    (2019-12-16) Latremouille, Jodi Marie; Seidel, Jackie; Steinberg, Shirley R.; Simmons, Marlon; Alonso-Yañez, Gabriela; Bai, Heesoon
    In this work, I consider teachers as eco-intellectuals, who engage in deep scholarly study, contemplation, and interdisciplinary thinking as they consider the deeper purposes of public education and their own role within it. This emerges from my own enduring commitment as an educator to practice a pedagogy of possibility—that is, to work with children and teachers to imagine the possible ways of shaping our lives together. Within a context of socially, economically, politically, and ecologically challenging times, this pedagogy is characterized by self-reflexive practice, careful attention to the lives of children and students, and composing measured and careful responses to the challenges that we face. I bring social and economic justice together with ecological and Indigenous sensibilities to inquire poetically and narratively into the possibilities for collaborative critical and creative thinking, rich teaching practices, and learning communities. Land-based knowledge, spiritual understandings, respectful relations, reciprocity, and rigorous academic inquiry are at the heart of this work. I question the largely Eurocentric, linear and rational understanding of the intellect, which is geared towards the steps, models, and methods one might use to develop intellectual practice, as if this were the outcome of a procedure. Efforts to improve teachers’ work as intellectuals are generally geared to new procedures and facts without questioning the deep presumptions that underlie such efforts. This way of understanding overlooks the importance of building and maintaining heartful, respectful relationships. Elder Bob Cardinal from the Enoch Cree Nation in Alberta encourages me to ask, “What is missing?” (Bob Cardinal, personal communication, July 13, 2016). This study expands upon Edward Said’s notion of an intellectual as one who inquires into existing social and political structures, and Henry Giroux’s treatment of the teacher as a transformative intellectual, to investigate the work of teachers as eco-intellectuals. Hans-Georg Gadamer asserts that “bureaucratic teaching and learning systems” continue to dominate the field of education; a teacher as eco-intellectual who seeks what Hans-Georg Gadamer calls the “free spaces” therein is called to understand the intertwined threads of the social, economic, and ecological storylines that play out in particular times and places. Ecological and Indigenous perspectives assert that becoming an eco-intellectual is not merely a methodological procedure: this work must take on a more holistic understanding and language in order to be sustainable and true. I ask: How does a deeper and more earthly understanding of teachers as eco-intellectuals inform and influence the work of teachers in public schools today? In keeping with the ecological nature of the topic, the writing is an attempt to think “like an ecosystem” (Robert Bringhurst, 2018, p. 31): in layered, recursive, complex, dialogical, “pedagogical rather than prescriptive” (Erika Hasebe-Ludt, Cynthia Chambers & Carl Leggo, 2009, p. 6) ways. Through this weaving of poetic inquiry, life writing and transcribed dialogues in the spirit of métissage, I consider how Indigenous and ecological interpretations of four dimensions of the eco-intellect—pluralistic intellect, relational intellect, loving intellect, and life-giving intellect—may influence a more sustainable and holistic understanding of teachers as eco-intellectuals as they cultivate miyo pimatisiwin: (Cree) the wisdom of living a good life.
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    Understanding the Development of a Physician Practice Reflection Tool – A Case Study
    (2024-04-30) Burnett, Hongyu; Alonso-Yañez, Gabriela; Armson, Heather; Simmons, Marlon; Bharwani, Aleem; Campbell-Scherer, Denise
    This study investigated the development of a physician practice reflection tool by Continuing Professional Development (CPD) educators at the University of Calgary, focusing on the operationalization of the Physician Practice Improvement (PPI) system. The problem addressed was the evolving expectations of physician CPD in Canada, emphasizing the need for tools that support reflective practice and meet specific learning needs. Using an instrumental case study methodology within an interpretive paradigm, this study explored the design process of the My Practice Improvement (MyPI) tool from November 2020 to November 2021. Data were collected through field observations, document reviews, and interviews, providing insights into tool conceptualization, educators' collaborative efforts in tool design, and the challenges faced in the project process. These findings revealed considerable advancements in the translation of the PPI system into CPD programming. The MyPI tool was designed to facilitate physicians' self-assessment and reflection, thus aligning their learning with individual practice improvements. The key strategies developed included structured guidance for reflective practice and linking learning with quality improvement metrics. This study illustrates how CPD tools can be designed to empower physicians to direct their learning and improve their patient care. This research contributes to the field by detailing a practical approach to developing CPD tools that support PPI systems. It offers insights into collaborative educational practices and the potential for broader application across CPD programs aimed at addressing physician practice improvement.