Free Inquiry Proposal

Inquiry Topic:

Decolonizing Education: Representation and Integration in Education

• How can future educators ensure that all people, both students, staff, and community, feel represented within the education system, going beyond just inclusion, but ensuring integration?

Purpose of Inquiry:

• Exploring what representation and integration mean for the future of education, specifically how learning environments that are relational and reflect student identities/experiences encourage more engagement, belonging, and participation in education, for both the student and the community.
• This topic connects to the Social Presence of open and distributed learning by exploring the value of personal experience and community impact within education.

Learning Plan

Blog Post 1: What Aren’t We Doing?

The first blog post will involve a discussion with a member(s) of the community in the education field, and how they currently view representation, integration, and overall diversity and decolonization within classroom communities, as well as personal communities. 

We will explore:

• How/if they feel represented within the classroom/community
• If online learning/media sources have increased/decreased diversity within the learning environment
  • How?
• If they have been impacted positively/negatively according to the diversity in their learning environment
  • Have their students been affected? If so, how does it affect their learning?
• If students’ access to online sources has impacted their experiences within classroom communities negatively/positivey
  • Cyberbullying, inappropriate content, etc.

Blog Post 2: What Should We Do?

The second blog post will explore scholarly resources involving the impact of diversifying the classroom and how relational learning can impact student and community engagement within the classroom. 

• What are the common themes within the resources?
• What from these resources can we easily implement into classrooms today?
• What do we already see examples of in classrooms today?
• How do you engage community members?
  • Social media
  • Newsletters
  • Curation of content highlighting certain events

Blog Post 3: What Can We Do?

For the third blog post, I will explore professional standards, such as the current BC curriculum and the Professional Standards for BC Educators, to explore what the expectations are within classrooms and compare them to case studies, as well as firsthand accounts of what is being seen within classrooms.

• What isn’t being done?
• What can be done better?
• What should be included?
• How can other educators and I implement this?  

Blog Post 4: Reflection

The final blog post will be a final reflection summarizing where we (the education system) began, where it is, and where we hope it will go, as well as how we can get it there. The final reflection will also discuss how online learning fits into place within students’ access to the media and the negative impact online environments can have on student empathy/reality.

• How does a screen provide a “mask” for students
• Is the content students absorb online more harmful than helpful, even if educational?

Documentation of Knowledge:

• Weekly blog posts featuring various types of multimedia:
  • Hyperlinks
  • Infographics
  • Video/audio
  • Scholarly articles

Intended Outcome:

The intended outcome of this project is to further educate myself and others on the importance of diversity in the education system and the role that the online world plays in perpetuating stereotypes and harmful stigmas, as well as its role in the integration of communities, and how integration can benefit all parties in the education system.