{"id":47480,"date":"2017-10-26T10:42:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T14:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=47480"},"modified":"2017-10-26T16:50:44","modified_gmt":"2017-10-26T20:50:44","slug":"brock-youth-summit-aims-to-break-systemic-barriers-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2017\/10\/brock-youth-summit-aims-to-break-systemic-barriers-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock youth summit aims to break systemic barriers in schools"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Racialization, mental health issues, violence, poverty \u2014 today\u2019s youth are being bombarded with a dizzying array of societal challenges that are playing out in classrooms across the province.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Educator Darlene Ciuffetelli Parker researches how unconscious biases and assumptions arising from these and other challenges create systemic barriers in secondary school teaching, learning and social environments.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To help the Department of Teacher Education professor conduct this research, a youth summit, Changing Mindset in a Changing World, was hosted at Brock Oct. 10.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Included were more than 200 educators, youth, parents and community members from the Niagara Catholic District School Board (NCDSB), Durham District School Board (DDSB) and Niagara Poverty Reduction Network (NPRN) \u2014 all partners in the research collaborative that Ciuffetelli Parker formed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Presentations and discussions noted specific ways in which biases and assumptions affect students\u2019 learning and experience in school systems and communities. This includes access to opportunities stemming from racialization, gender issues, socio-economic marginalization, culture and other factors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Participants also brainstormed possible solutions to changing mindset, including:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">developing a school climate where positive relationship with educators, staff and adults in schools creates a safe culture for wellness and belonging<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">having teachers integrate social justice issues into their lesson plans<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">implementing supports for students in various situations. For example, in rural school settings versus urban neighbourhoods, modifying homework policies and supports for travel<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">creating collaborations between educators, community partners and families to support the development of youths\u2019 literacy and other skills needed in today\u2019s world<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cRelationships are what matter to youth,\u201d Ciuffetelli Parker said. \u201cAll schools reported on the importance of building a community of belonging inside as well as outside schools. Caring teachers and adults make a tremendous difference, sometimes even for survival.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Receiving input from the wide array of participants informs the research, she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cYou can call it \u2018research in action,\u2019 a demonstration of a large partnership network that I call \u2018the research collaborative.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Through the summit and other activities, this collaborative is catapulting the research to the next level, creating an Ontario-wide human rights framework.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOur research collaborative strives to better understand the lived experiences of youth based on, but not limited to, family income, race, gender, identity, religion, disability, mental health and inclusive educational needs,\u201d Ciuffetelli Parker told participants in her opening address.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe collaborative network\u2019s mission is to develop an interactive research-informed and practice-based Human Rights Youth Strategy<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that is guided by three principles: changing mindset, shifting practices for learning and leading, and fostering youth voice and parent engagement,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ciuffetelli Parker\u2019s research partnership with the two school boards began about three years ago, arising out of\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/search.library.utoronto.ca\/details?8178105&amp;uuid=5ce01cbc-34ee-4eed-bf31-dad0f032de4e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">earlier research on poverty and education across Ontario<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She had written a number of\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.edu.gov.on.ca\/eng\/literacynumeracy\/inspire\/research\/WW_MindsetPractice.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">reports<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2012\/09\/educators-public-need-to-change-attitudes-towards-children-living-in-poverty\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">briefs<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, articles and a book exploring the impact of poverty on education and advising teachers and communities on ways to overcome negative stereotypes that prevent children from having equal access to educational opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But Ciuffetelli Parker realized that poverty challenges were part of the larger issue of ensuring equity and fairness for everyone in school systems.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAbout three years ago, I thought, \u2018Something\u2019s telling me that the youth have a voice in this. Something\u2019s telling me it\u2019s not just about poverty here, it is really around a human rights framework. It really is around creating an Ontario youth strategy,\u2019\u201d she recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since then, Ciuffetelli Parker has worked alongside secondary students and teachers in classrooms and she is using school-based narrative research to illuminate storied experiences and successful strategies, while also identifying areas for improvements in school systems having to do with equity, socio-economic marginalization, well-being and academic success.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She has also conducted extensive focus groups with students, teachers, administrators, parents and community members in four secondary schools within the two school districts.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Following the summit, Ciuffetelli Parker hosted an advisory panel on Oct. 11. The research collaborative network of Brock University, NCDSB, DDSB and NPRN have been invited to participate within a larger Provincial Equity Knowledge Network led by the University of Ottawa and funded by the Ministry of Education\u2019s Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Racialization, mental health issues, violence, poverty \u2014 today\u2019s youth are being bombarded with a dizzying array of societal challenges that are playing out in classrooms across the province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":47481,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,7,1,5],"tags":[5909,712,5910,98,2774,5234,3325],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47480"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47480"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47503,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47480\/revisions\/47503"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}