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This study examines the relational dynamics of knowledge brokerage among educational leaders in implementing multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) for mental health promotion in schools. Recognizing the critical link between student mental health and academic achievement, schools are increasingly expected to provide comprehensive mental health supports. Utilizing social network analysis (SNA), this research explores the information-seeking behaviors of educational leaders within a public school system in British Columbia, Canada. By mapping the relational connections among school and district leaders, the study identifies how these leaders, as knowledge brokers, navigate and influence educational policies and practices related to MTSS. The findings reveal latent interaction patterns that can either facilitate or impede the flow of essential information, highlighting potential areas for strategic intervention. The analysis demonstrates the importance of leadership in fostering collaboration and ensuring the effective integration of mental health initiatives into school communities. Additionally, the study underscores the complex interactions through which knowledge is exchanged and mobilized, emphasizing the need for systems to enhance relational ties and promote collaborative leadership. This research contributes to the scholarship and practice of educational leadership by advancing the understanding of how social networks and knowledge brokerage can support the successful implementation of MTSS.

Educational networks and knowledge brokering play a critical function in supporting educators to keep abreast of scholarly literature and contemporary research that inform practice and policy in schools and districts. In this article, we leverage a quality use of research-evidence framework within a design-based study to elucidate the pivotal role of knowledge brokering in how teacher leaders utilized research during their participation in a professional learning series. In a survey administered to K-9 teacher leaders in Western Canada at the end of a year-long professional learning series, participants (n = 374/500) provided their reflections about how the series supported their learning. The analysis revealed developments across individual, organizational, and system-level components. A significant contribution of this study is that meaningfully integrated research evidence in professional learning can support teacher leaders’ individual confidence in practice, confidence in collaboration at the school level, confidence in leading professional conversations at the organizational level, and confidence in staying updated with educational research at the system level fostering a culture of support and continuous improvement. Knowledge brokering is a pivotal function of relational professional learning networks and when embedded in design-based professional learning for teacher leaders, this powerful combination can contribute to quality research use and can serve to strengthen the theory-to-practice connections in educational contexts.

Community-engaged research calls on us to rethink ourselves as researchers and to address lopsided researcher-researched relationships. As a group of university researchers, we participated in a research-practice partnership that included a research-intensive university, an internationally recognized professional learning network, a ministry of education funder, and a school district in Alberta, Canada. Despite the long-standing, collaborative relationships between these organizations, a spin-off research partnership slid into traditional research practices that limited the project’s potential. To critically reflect on these events, we engaged in eight cogenerative dialogues and three semistructured interviews to examine key moments in the partnership more closely. Our findings highlight how limitations in our fields of view as well as significant changes at crucial points in the partnership affected our ability to engage in sustained community-engaged research. We discuss critical learnings about this partnership in particular and offer recommendations that will help future research-practice partnerships assess and sustain their collaborations in meaningful ways.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the work of one tripartite partnership with stakeholders to improve and strengthen novice teachers’ pedagogical designs using design based professional learning guided by the principles of knowledge building/knowledge creation. The tripartite partnership involved 450 novice teachers from an urban school division, a practitioner-research university team, and the provincial government. Drawing upon one case, this paper analyzes the ways in which the design-based professional learning mirrored the knowledge building/knowledge creation processes highlighting the ways in which teachers worked in collaborative, collective, and connected ways to progressively improve pedagogical designs for collective knowledge building. Computer supported, networked digital technologies provided a community to develop an audit trail to keep track of progressive improvements and refinements to their pedagogical designs and to support, enable, and enhance knowledge building discourse. Design-based professional learning informed by the 12 principles of knowledge building/knowledge creation provided novice teachers with a process to work collectively as a community, progressively improving and refining their pedagogical designs, identifying the role of their pedagogical designs in their students’ work, and engaging with other teachers in their respective schools.

A challenge with universal school-based mental health supports is the limited understanding of potential unintended or unanticipated outcomes. In this review, we examined 47 academic and gray literature sources to address the question, "What are the side effects of universal school-based mental health supports?" We discuss how universal supports can positively impact student mental health, enhance school staff's knowledge and attitudes in addressing mental health topics, and contribute to an improved school climate. However, universal supports can also lead to school staff feeling the strain of resource and time pressures from integrating mental health programming into demanding schedules, voicing frustrations about or exhibiting resistance to mental health supports, and encountering varied, unpredictable outcomes for different student populations across system contexts.

The aim of this study was to examine a professional learning intervention designed to support new teachers with implementing professional practice competencies. Partners from a school authority joined researcher-practitioners from a university to engage in designing a professional learning series for new teachers. A design-based research approach using quantitative (pre- and post-surveys) and qualitative data (artifacts of learning, field notes, classroom observations) were analyzed over one year. There were over 450 participants involved in the professional learning series. The findings indicated the professional learning intervention positioned new teachers as designers of learning engaging in continuous cycles of design–enactment–reflection and strengthened their pedagogical capacity to interconnect professional practice competencies with support from a community of learners. The findings from this study have implications for supporting new teachers during a period of induction and demonstrate one way to provide new teachers with the foundation for continual growth throughout their career.

The purpose of the Technology and High School Success (THSS) initiative was to encourage innovative strategies focused on improving provincial high school completion rates, using technology and student-centered learning to engage student interest. The primary purpose of this paper is to report on barriers that impede systemic, effective and sustainable technology integration within schools. Even with teacher and administrative support and commitment for THSS, evaluative research indicated minimal change in system capacity as a result of the initiative. Three primary barriers to program sustainability were: 1) schools and school districts did not leverage the opportunity to revisit their existing vision(s), 2) schools and school districts did not use data to make changes, and 3) limited access to technology. Le but de l’initiative « Technology and High School Success (THSS) » était d'encourager des stratégies novatrices visant à améliorer le taux d’achèvement des études secondaires dans la province de l’Alberta en utilisant la technologie et un apprentissage centré sur l'élève afin de susciter l'intérêt des élèves. L'objectif principal de cet article est de rendre compte des obstacles entravant l'intégration systémique, efficace et durable de la technologie dans les écoles. La recherche évaluative a révélé des changements minimes dans la capacité systémique à la suite de l'initiative, et ce, malgré l’appui et l’engagement des enseignants et des administrateurs envers le THSS. Les trois obstacles principaux à la viabilité du programme sont les suivants: 1) les écoles et les districts scolaires n'ont pas profité de l’occasion pour revoir leur(s) vision(s), 2) les écoles et les districts scolaires n'ont pas utilisé les données pour effectuer des changements, et 3) l'accès limité à la technologie.