Ensouling Our Schools: A Universally Designed Framework for Mental Health, Well-Being, and Reconciliation (Teaching to Diversity)

by Jennifer Katz, Kevin Lamoureux (Contributor)

In an educational milieu in which standards and accountability hold sway, schools can become places of stress, marginalization, and isolation instead of learning communities that nurture a sense of meaning and purpose. In Ensouling Our Schools , author Jennifer Katz weaves together methods of creating schools that engender mental, spiritual, and emotional health while developing intellectual thought and critical analysis.

Kevin Lamoureux contributes his expertise regarding Indigenous approaches to mental and spiritual health that benefit all students and address the TRC Calls to Action.

Genres: Education, Professional Development, Teaching, Indigenous, Nonfiction

258 pages, Paperback

Published April 13, 2018

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very helpful introduction to engaging youth on the subject of Reconciliation and Indigeneity with a pedagogical framework. Katz starts with a groundwork of what past teaching practices have laid the groundwork, introduces lesson plans for inclusive discussion, and expands into the specific of Reconciliation. All the visuals, from diagrams to examples from children's own work are very illustrative.
Katz speaks from her own considerable experience, but more importantly, elevates the work and research of Indigenous educators, who actively consulting on this book.
I feel this is a great guide to how to broach topics in a way that all students will engage with, rooted in Indigenous practices, rather than shoe-horning Indigenous content into a White framework.
It's not the be-all-end-all of work on this. In fact, Katz quotes her own research so often that I started to get suspicous. But it's a good starting point.

[Sam Sawazki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the addition of practical lesson plans!

[Meg Gavilanez-Erickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for all those working in the education system. I borrowed this from the library, but now I am going to purchase it because it will be a practical reference that I know that I will return to again and again!

[Angela Thomson · Rating 4 out of 5]

SEL with First Nations theme