News & Events

Funding Announcement – 2025-26 The Foundation is pleased to announce the following projects that received funding for the 2025-26 school year. More details about each project can be found by clicking the links below. Congratulations to the recipients of these grants and we look forward to sharing your results in the future!  Project #554: SENSE-ational Schools: Physical literacy enriched movement opportunities for students with neurodiversity by Greg Bennett, Blair Ross, Natalie Houser, and Louise Humbert. Project #555: Intentionality: Co-constructing Classroom-Based Literacy Practices at Oskāyak High School by Whitney Greves, Cornelia Laliberte, Jennifer Altenberg, and Katrina Sawchuk. Project #556: Mentor Teaching In Saskatchewan: A Community of Practice Approach by Dr. Cristyne Hébert and Camille Hounjet. Project #557: Living Curricula: Developing a participatory action research process for curricular evaluation and evergreening via a learning management system by Jenna O’Connor. Project #558: Using a Solutionary approach to education in a grade seven classroom Read more

Enhancing High School Student Wellness Through Participation in an Equine Assisted Learning Program: A Pilot Project Researchers: Roberta Ross (Greater Saskatoon Catholic), Patricia King (University of Saskatchewan), Darlene Chalmers (University of Regina), Kaylah Ukrainetz (University of Saskatchewan), and Amanda Gourlay (Greater Saskatoon Catholic). Project Summary: You can visit any high school in Saskatoon and meet youth that are facing the predictable developmental tasks of adolescence. But increasingly in high schools across this country it is becoming evident that, the youth are not okay. The time to innovate is now. Our understanding of mental health and the experiences of heightened mental health vulnerabilities that adolescents experience is one of many important educational and health insights we have gained in a post pandemic world. Supporting youth mental health in our schools is both an urgent need and a worthy opportunity. In recent years, alternative pedagogical approaches for supporting youth mental health, such Read more

Using a Solutionary approach to education in a grade seven classroom encourage more curious, more confident, more compassionate change-makers Researcher: Todd Knihnitski (Saskatoon Public) Project Summary: As educators we are helping develop the leaders of the now and ancestors of the future. We need curious, knowledgeable and compassionate students to lead us into the future. As educators we can help young people become solutionaries who can solve problems in ways that do the most good and least harm for people, animals, and ecosystems. To be a solutionary is to affect a more equitable world for the planet and all of its creation, through compassionate change in the biggest way. Change is a challenge which requires a motivated, curious individual who understands the systems that drive our current world. We will approach each topic scientifically and spiritually, tempered with compassion and a consideration for different worldviews. Students will be reminded of Read more

Living Curricula: Developing a participatory action research process for curricular evaluation and evergreening via a learning management system Researcher: Jenna O’Connor (Distance Learning Centre) Project Summary:  The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Perspective on Curriculum Renewal (2016) calls on teachers to advocate for curricula that must reflect and be responsive to the unique and ever-changing realities of Saskatchewan’s classrooms. Curricula that are developed, understood, and implemented by the profession are positioned to center the foundational goals of being rich, high quality, and context sensitive to support student learning and achievement. My objective is to design, implement, and assess a participatory action research (PAR) process that reimagines curricula as living documents – responsive to emerging knowledge, societal growth, regional issues, and cultural diversity. Working against assumptions of neutrality and objectivity in qualitative inquiry, PAR establishes systematic, collaborative, critical, and self-reflective problem solving with insiders in their own settings to understand problems and co-construct knowledge Read more

Mentor Teaching In Saskatchewan: A Community of Practice Approach Researchers: Dr. Cristyne Hébert, Camille Hounjet, Trina Crawford (Regina Public), Stephanie Rincker (Regina Public), Mick Rissling (Regina Public), Scott Mills (Saskatoon Catholic), Jennifer Busby (Saskatoon Public, and Kelli White (Prairie Spirit). Project Summary: Cooperating or collaborating teachers play a vital role in helping pre-service teachers develop the competencies, attitudes, and beliefs required to be an effective teacher (Clarke et al., 2012). Mentors can assume a variety of roles during the field experience, inclusive of instructional coach, emotional support provider, and socializing agent (Butler & Cuenca, 2012), trainer, assessor and advisor (Jones, 2001). That said, these roles are rarely explicitly defined by teacher preparation programs (Davis & Fantozzi, 2016). As mentor teachers are typically given little training with respect to mentorship, many rely on their own experiences with student teaching or preconceived ideas about how student teachers learn to guide their practice Read more

Intentionality: Co-constructing Classroom-Based Literacy Practices at Oskāyak High School Researchers: Whitney Greves (Greater Saskatoon Catholic), Cornelia Laliberte (Greater Saskatoon Catholic), Jennifer Altenberg (Greater Saskatoon Catholic), and Katrina Sawchuk (Greater Saskatoon Catholic). Project Summary:  Literacy is a powerful tool for empowerment and decolonization. However, urban First Nations and Metis high school students often experience systemic barriers and limited culturally responsive and culturally sustaining teaching. Generally, by high school, the focus on literacy instruction is greatly reduced. As a team of Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators and researchers, we aim to explore the connection between literacy instruction and Cree pedagogical concepts, such as kēhtāwisowin (sharing of wisdom), kiskinōhtamowin (role of relationships), and nēhiyawītwāwin (role of cultural identity), alongside students, families, teachers, support staff, and culture team members. While exploring these connections, we seek to develop a locally relevant equity-focused literacy model for high schools. We propose a co-created, embedded literacy instructional approach to Read more

SENSE-ational Schools: Physical literacy enriched movement opportunities for students with neurodiversity Researchers: Greg Bennett (Saskatoon Public Schools), Blair Ross (Saskatoon Public Schools), Natalie Houser (University of Saskatchewan) and Louise Humbert (University of Saskatchewan). Project Summary: Physical education (PE) is a required area of study in the K-9 curriculum and provides valuable opportunities for students to learn the skills, gain knowledge to be physically active and develop positive relationships with peers. Additionally, PE can provide students with a sense of belonging in movement spaces within and beyond the PE context. Instructional spaces in PE classes can often be overstimulating which may present barriers to participation among students with neurodiversity, yet PE presents opportunities to develop physical, social, psychological, and creative skills when barriers are removed. Physical literacy can be defined as “the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life” and Read more