Session Information
23 SES 13 B, Change Four Ways
Symposium
Contribution
This paper explores how complex reform strategies can succeed in supporting special populations. Under the Ontario reform Essential for Some, Good for All (ESGA), four districts worked to support their vulnerable students by tailoring their initiatives to these individuals. This initiative provided each district with clear guiding principles, but also the space to “personalize” the reform so that their cultural and social realities were the foundation for change. The four minority populations - Aboriginal students, non-native English speakers, French speakers, and old-order Mennonites – arrive with different experiences, skills, backgrounds, and linguistic needs. ESGA’s reform yielded space for non-standardized reforms driven by local needs to empower schools and support unique populations. Skerrett & Hargreaves’s (2008) culturally responsive reform strategies and Goodson’s (2001) internal strategies for educational change provide insights into increasing responsiveness to diversity within a school through locally responsive reform. Each district’s plan is examined under the premise that “culture does not determine social action, nor is it predictive; but it defines the possible, the logical” (McQuillan, 1998, p. 3). These districts illustrate the futility of standardized reform strategies for special populations. The study’s significance extends to any large jurisdiction experiencing increasing diversity.
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