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Faculty of Education and You: Ruby Stovern
RUBY STOVERN, A GRADE TWO TEACHER LEADING WITH IMAGINATION AND EMPATHY.
Year Graduated: 2025
Program: MEd in Educational Leadership: Expanding Possibilities in K-12 Education
Ruby Stovern has been teaching for 28 years and has always wanted to pursue a master's degree in education. She was intrigued by the MEd in Educational Leadership: Expanding Possibilities in K-12 Education program, because of its focus on the role of imagination in leadership. She wanted to discover how to utilize imagination to expand her leadership skills and foster growth in her career. With Stovern's experience as a school associate, her student teachers further inspired her to enroll in the program and prioritize her academic ambitions.
"I'm currently a grade two teacher at Kirkbride Elementary. I love my job, and I love working with kids. Therefore, I did not initially think that the leadership component in the program would be as meaningful to me. However, this program helped me realize that leaders are not just principals in schools."
"It unlocked an exploration of leadership that was joined with imagination to introduce perspectives that encouraged looking at things through an anti-oppressive and anti-colonial lens."
As an assignment for one of her classes, Stovern wrote a paper about the connection between policy and education. She took the current dress code policy in place at her school and dissected the lens through which it was written.
"I questioned, Is the policy current? Is it inclusive? Whose voices are missing? As a person of colour, all the conversations surrounding those questions were really important to me."
"It was a gender biased and inadequate policy. As this critique was for a specific assignment, it encouraged me to carry on the conversation with my admin which influenced actual change at the school level. This was meaningful to me. It allowed me to then look at other things within our school community that didn't align with the way I was thinking."
"For instance, I walked into our school, and we had a beautiful bulletin board display for Truth and Reconciliation. On top of it was the framed picture of Queen Elizabeth. It's been there forever, and I've seen it forever, but this time I looked at it in a new way."
"I recognized that it doesn't align with what we're trying to do. And so, I asked admin to take it down because having her image there is the exact opposite of moving towards truth and reconciliation. This was a key moment for me in the program. I was able to affect that change and cause my colleagues to dig deeper. I encouraged them to go beyond accepting things for being the way they are just because it has always been that way."
"There鈥檚 a quote I remember from my readings that continues to apply to my work today. It was from an imaginative education researcher, Maxine Greene. She said 'Imagination is what makes empathy possible. It is what enables us to cross the empty spaces between ourselves and those who are not like us.'"
"Greene's quote serves as a reminder that school leadership and imagination go hand in hand. The best leaders are rooted in empathy and imagination. They imagine how others feel and anticipate consequences. They create an inclusive vision of the future and celebrate diversity."
For Stovern's Organizational Theory class, she was required to conduct an interview with a leader of a large organization. Conducting interviews was a common occurrence for Stovern throughout the program. This helped her to develop "intense listening skills and be able to use empathy in a way that was meaningful and direct".
"I've gotten better at not only listening to what's being said but also paying attention to what is not being said. This program has prompted me to critically reflect on what I hear and critically question the current norms in the educational environment."
"I've become encouraged to have uncomfortable but necessary conversations with colleagues respectfully. It is important to engage in meaningful dialog about our collective vision and to think of ways to advance our vision together."
"My biggest takeaway from this MEd program is the ability to see things in a different way. When I was working with student teachers while in this program, it really made me analyze my own teaching practice. That's exactly what this program is about: critically reflecting on your own teaching practice and applying what you are explicitly learning to see things in a new way. This new perspective has given me a renewed purpose for my current job and any future jobs that I choose to undertake."
"If you're curious about imagined education and you don't know what to expect, just take a leap of faith. You won't regret this program. Imagination and leadership are so critical to being able to envision a future that is more just, more equitable and more inclusive. I think it's really important to ground yourself in that theory."
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