An Analysis of VSB Mission Statement
Over the years, Canada has become home to several ethnic groups, each of whom have contributed to Vancouver’s distinctly vibrant atmosphere. With its diversity, inclusion, integration and multi-ethnic cultures, Vancouver is also acclaimed as one of the most livable cities in the world. According to the Program for International Student Assessment report, Canada also has one of the best educational systems in the world.
The Vancouver School Board (VSB), one of the most diverse school systems in Canada, is a large, urban and multicultural school district. Here is their mission statement:
To enable students to reach their intellectual, social, aesthetic and physical potential in challenging and stimulating settings which reflect the worth of each individual and promote mutual respect, cooperation and social responsibility (VSB, 2017).
The core competencies stated in this mission statement focus on intellectual, social, and personal development. These correspond with Kieran Egan (1997)’s belief that our modern day educational systems are founded on three fundamental pillars: socialization, Plato’s academic ideal and Rousseau’s development theory. He further argues that while these three ideas have flaws and are incompatible with each other, he tries to dispense with some of the problems these ideas come with and to reconceive education in a way that preserves adequate socialization, academic cultivation, and individual development (Egan, 1997).
Vancouver is home to the third largest urban Aboriginal population in Canada with approximately 53,000 First Nations people (Urban aboriginal peoples study vancouver report.2011). Besides, there are intergenerational effects among them caused by the embedded legacy of residential schools (Feir, 2016). With these First Nation communities, as well as international immigrants and students with special needs, Canadian society’s tolerant and multifaceted nature brings its educational system both tremendous challenges and opportunities. In this essay, I would like to talk about the diversity and inclusiveness in Vancouver’s educational policies under such social background.
In these challenging and stimulating settings, British Columbia has implemented many different policies, such as the BC’s educational plan, redesigned curriculum and VSB2021 strategic plan. The education plan emphasizes personalized learning, which operates from the idea that students’ learning rates vary. Personalized learning also asserts that that effective learning is far more than just being “asses loaded with books” (Egan, 2001) and is really about encouraging students to apply knowledge in real-world settings throughout their lives.
I was given the opportunities to learn about not only the Aboriginal peoples’ histories and cultural heritages, but also about Canada’s educational policies for this community. I visited Vancouver’s Museum of Anthropology, read Aboriginal documents, attended Aboriginal handcraft workshops, and spoke with Aboriginal classmates. Through these experiences, I began to understand a bit more about the Aboriginal peoples in Canada, and I was impressed with Canada’s work in allowing Aboriginal voices to be heard in all aspects of the country’s educational system. For example, Canada schools offer unique Aboriginal admission policies and Aboriginal-focused programs and services to support students’ academic and personal success. I am even more impressed that each course I take includes Aboriginal content to ensure that all learners have opportunities to understand and respect Aboriginal perspective and knowledge.
At school, students learn to be good citizens and interact socially correct with their peers. Socialization today not only places us in a particular social group, it also identifies “us” to ourselves as distinct from other groups (Egan, 2001). In other words, socialization makes everybody unique and diversifies society. Valuing diversity is based on the principle that inclusion, equity and accessibility are for all students, and this value is reflected in school activities and certain learning programs. The school system in Vancouver values individual differences, and promotes mutual respect, cooperation and social responsibility. Immigrants bring knowledge and cultural traditions to enrich their community. Many Chinese-Canadian children grow up feeling like they do not belong to either world: facing incompatibility from both societies that they are neither truly Canadian nor truly Chinese. However, one of my Chinese friends benefits from Canadian’s caring school system. She immigrated to Canada with her family twelve years ago when she was an elementary school student. When she first started school in Vancouver, she hardly spoke any English, and this language barrier was her biggest problem. She took regular classes with local students while also enrolled in the English Language Learning service at school. It was through the English Language Learning service that she made great progress in English and gained a sense of belonging. Moreover, she suggested to me that it would help young immigrants coping with the transition period better if Vancouver schools could offer life counselors who had experienced similar immigration issues or who shared similar cultural background as their students.
In Canada’s inclusive school system, students with special needs can get personalized instruction, which may help them succeed throughout their lives. Diagnosed with dyslexia when he was eight years old, one of my friends is an example of the benefits of personalized instruction. When reading an article or taking an exam, he was given twice as much time as other students, though he also studied in a regular class and participated into all standard school events and class activities. The professional expertise and abilities of highly trained teachers enabled him to fully develop his potential. Now, due to the personalized instruction he received in his early years, he is a PhD candidate in Immunology at UBC. If he was born and grew up in China, he might not get the assistance to fully lived up to his potential. He would still be placed in a regular school but would not receive the same amount of attention from the teachers due to the large student numbers. Usually, there are forty to fifty-five students in each class in public schools in China.
The schools in Vancouver include young people of diverse backgrounds, interests and abilities. Valuing diversity and socialization will help educational systems to evolve and improve. The educational ideal of enabling students to reach their intellectual, social, aesthetic and physical potential is the common North Star that navigates and aligns the actions and choices of our journey towards an achievable North Field (Fenstermacher, 2000). The elements in curriculum and policies that are designed for it is like the Northfield. As educators, to reach the unreachable star, we should keep our North Star ideal in view, check and realign our progress from time to time, and ensure that we keep travelling in the direction toward our North Field.
References
Egan, K. (2001). Why education is so difficult and contentious. Teachers College Record, 103(6), 923-941.
Egan, K. (1997). Three old ideas and a new one. The educated mind: How cognitive tools shape our understanding (pp. 9-32). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Feir, D. L. (2016). The intergenerational effects of residential schools on children’s educational experiences in ontario and canada’s western provinces. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 7(3) doi:10.18584/iipj.2016.7.3.5
Fenstermacher, G. D. (2000). What is the difference between the north star and northfield? how educational goals and ideals become confused. Michigan: Invited presentation to the Summer Institute of School Superintendents.
Urban aboriginal peoples study vancouver report. (2011). Ontario: Environics Institute.
VSB. (2017). Our district. Retrieved from http://www.vsb.bc.ca/about-vsb. [Accessed in December 2017].
© Wenyi Gong 2017
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