Ophea’s Stop, Start, Consider! resource is a free downloadable poster series that has been developed to support educators in identifying and shifting away from practices that have the potential to cause harm to marginalized students by providing alternative strategies and encouraging meaningful discussion about how expanded equity-driven considerations might be implemented in a variety of settings.
In recognizing Health and Physical Education (“H&PE”) learning environments as a site of potential harm for students, we acknowledge the collective responsibility to re-imagine these spaces through an inclusive, identity-affirming lens. Doing so will help ensure that every student is supported in reaching their learning potential (Hernández & Darling-Hammond, 2022) and meeting curricular goals of developing an appreciation for lifelong healthy, active living (Ontario Ministry of Education, 2015/2019).
As part of Ophea’s commitment to executing our equity-centred strategy, So Every Student Can Thrive (PDF), Ophea hosted youth with lived experience, subject matter experts, and system-level decision makers in a series of advocacy sessions. These sessions focused on exploring the intersections between H&PE and some of the various marginalized identities students may hold. Learn more about these sessions and the resulting advocacy statements.
Youth in these sessions shared the following perspectives:
- Many current “standard” practices can contribute to learning and/or school environments that range from suboptimal to unsafe for students.
- Harms experienced by marginalized students within H&PE are not always intentional or the result of an active choice on the part of the educator; rather they stem from practices that have gone unquestioned.
Minimizing this unintentional harm is an important step in creating identity-affirming learning environments (Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey 2018) that support emotional safety (Farrington, et al., 2012). Stop, Start, Consider! posters:
- Identify potentially harmful practices (STOP);
- Provide alternative strategies to implement in the short-term to mitigate harm (START); and,
- Suggest solutions that might be implemented over time or with the support of other educators, school administration, and/or community partners (CONSIDER).
Identity-Affirming Learning Environments
Identity-affirming practices benefit every student and can help establish emotionally safe environments, which are essential to learning and associated with positive mental health and well-being outcomes (Hernández & Darling-Hammond, 2022; Darling-Hammond & Cook-Harvey 2018; Farrington, et al., 2012). Determining which practices may represent barriers to affirmation for marginalized students can be challenging, especially when educators do not share these specific identities.
Listening to, learning from and — most importantly — centering those who have experienced marginalization is a key pillar of So Every Student Can Thrive, Ophea’s equity-centred strategy. Stop, Start, Consider! seeks to amplify student voice and help educators and other school staff move towards practices that support every student.
References
Darling-Hammond, L., & Cook-Harvey, C. M. (2018). Educating the whole child: Improving school climate to support student success. Palo Alto, CA: Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/145.655.
Farrington, C.A., Roderick, M., Allensworth, E., Nagaoka, J., Keyes, T.S., Johnson, D.W., & Beechum, N.O. (2012). Teaching adolescents to become learners. The role of noncognitive factors in shaping school performance: A critical literature review. Chicago: University of Chicago Consortium on Chicago School Research.
Hernández, L. E., & Darling-Hammond, L., (2022). Creating identity-safe schools and classrooms. Learning Policy Institute. https://doi.org/10.54300/165.102.
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2019). The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 1 to 8: Health and Physical Education, 2019. Retrieved from https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/2019-health-physical-education-grades-1to8.pdf.
Ontario Ministry of Education. (2015). The Ontario Curriculum, Grades 9 to 12: Health and Physical Education, 2015. Retrieved from https://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/secondary/health9to12.pdf.