RESEARCH PROJECT: Leading as Co-Conspirators: Discovering the Prismatic Equity Work of Activist School Leaders
YES! Principals are ACTIVIST
School Leaders committed to Equity work
But what are your Stories?
This Research project aims to shine a prism, a paradigm shift, on Principals’ experiences and stories of their Equity work.
Some of the questions being investigated are:
Become a Research Participant
We are looking to have conversations with Principals and Vice-Principals.
Option
#1:
Online Focus Group
Spring 2024
Option #2:
1:1 Story-telling Conversation (Interview) with the Research Team
Spring / Summer 2024
Optional Next Step:
Equity Talk Video recording of your story hosted on OPC’s website
Fall 2024
Choose Option #1 or #2.
Video recording is an optional next step and can be decided upon later.
Get to Know Our Research Team
Ken MacKinnon, EdD
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education
University of Prince Edward Island
Erin Keith, EdD
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education
St. Francis Xavier University
Donna Kowalchuk, EdD
Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Education
Trent University
Dr. Ken MacKinnon (he/him) is currently a professor of educational leadership in the Faculty of Education at the University of Prince Edward Island. Ken was a teacher, vice principal and principal with the TDSB for 21 years prior to joining the faculty. He is interested in how school leaders practice leadership through an anti-racist, anti-oppressive, and equitable lens.
Dr. Erin Keith (she/her) is an Assistant Professor at St. Francis Xavier University (StFX). Her teaching and research focuses on inclusion, EDIIADB literacy related to inclusive education, equity-based praxis, and decolonizing pedagogies that center heartwork, ethics of care, and listening. Erin is an Ontario Certified Teacher with extensive work supporting students with diverse and complex needs through an empathetic, culturally-responsive, strength-based lens that honours and engages families as partners in learning, belonging, and flourishing. Erin’s reflexive research is rooted in decolonizing methodologies inspired and guided by many Indigenous, Black, and racialized scholars whose rich knowledge guides and grows her own cultural humility, (un)learning, and renewed understanding of educational transformation.
Dr. Donna Kowalchuk (she/her) is an Adjunct Professor in Graduate Studies and a Faculty Advisor with the School of Education at Trent University. She is also an educator and administrator with over thirty years of experience in leading rural and urban elementary and secondary schools in Ontario from a critical and anti-racist pedagogy. Her research interests include investigating how social and historical constructions of education policy and leadership intersect with critical theory and the practice of social justice.
We would love to listen to your stories. Contact us.
Ken Mackinnon, Primary Investigator
kenmackinnon@upei.ca
Erin Keith, Co-Investigator
ekeith@stfx.ca
Donna Kowalchuk, co-Investigator
donnakowalchuk@trentu.ca
The research ethics protocols being strictly followed for this project have been approved by both UPEI and StFX’s Research Ethics boards. This research investigation is in partnership with the Ontario Principals‘ Council (OPC).