It’s a pleasure to shine our spotlight on alumna Claudia Castellanos (MEd’14). Claudia is the founder and CEO of Connected World Translation (CWT), an award winning company of translators and interpreters based in Saskatchewan.
“CWT is the only translation agency operated in Saskatchewan that actively offers 45 languages including Cree and lnuktitut,” says Claudia.
When Claudia looks back to her studies with the Faculty of Education, she says what was most memorable for her was “unlearning the concepts I had when I started my studies.”
During her M.Ed. studies, Claudia’s favourite professors were Dr. Carol Schick and Dr. Andrea Sterzuk. “Dr. Carol Schick was my favourite professor because she challenged our thoughts and beliefs in order for us to question and confront the status quo. She was always fearless to teach us the truth about systemic issues that are certainly part of our everyday life. Her robust knowledge about anti-oppressive education was inspiring!! Dr. Andrea Sterzuk was one my favourite professors because she pushed us to reach our maximum potential. Her knowledge regarding applied linguistics is incredible and I felt honoured to be her student.”
Claudia says that what was most important about earning her M.Ed. in curriculum and instruction from the Faculty of Education was “to have had the opportunity to learn from a faculty whose passion for social change is relentless. Teaching us to view the world in the eyes of the oppressed is something that makes one challenge the status quo. THANK YOU!!”
Christine Selinger is a dedicated advocate, athlete and volunteer. While a student, she served as president of several student societies and received the President’s Medal for her academic achievements and extracurricular involvement. Selinger is an educator and emerging leader in the field of sex and disability. She is a two-time world champion in Paracanoe and, in 2010, she became the first paraplegic to traverse the rugged Nootka Trail off the west coast of Vancouver Island.
“After my injury, I was willing to try every sport I could, mostly because I wanted more social time with other people who have disabilities,” Selinger says. “I learned so much from my peers and I was eager to learn more. When I discovered paddling, I really fell in love with it. I loved being on the water and that kept me coming back each day. It didn’t feel like a chore to go to practice and I was eager to get faster and to keep up with my peers.”
Selinger sustained her spinal cord injury in a climbing accident at the age of 19. Subsequently, she completed two concurrent bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and education in 2011.
“My time at the U of R was transformative,” she says. “I feel that university in general is a time for discovery and I definitely felt that in my time with the U of R through both my studies and extracurricular activities. It gave me a view into the wider world that I was craving and chased after graduation. It gave me a view into the wider world that I was craving and chased after graduation. My university experience gave me a clearer idea of who I am and what I want to and can contribute to help my community thrive.”
Selinger worked as a peer support coordinator and instructional designer for the Canadian Paraplegic Association and Spinal Cord Injury Ontario. Through her openness and candor, she has had a tremendous impact on the lives of individuals with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities.
Selinger was a Canadian national Paracanoe athlete from 2008 to 2013, a two-time world champion, and Saskatchewan Athlete of the Month in August 2010. She was also shortlisted as International Paralympic Committee Athlete of the Month in August 2011.
In her professional and personal life, Selinger bravely faces challenges to help improve the lives of people with disabilities. Her contributions to promoting women in sport and her advocacy for the community of persons with disabilities, particularly related to issues of sex and intimacy, make her an extraordinary member of the University of Regina alumni community.
“I’m thrilled to receive an Alumni Crowning Achievement Award,” Selinger states. “Being recognized by peers and other alumni for my work means that the work is noticed. As someone who works in advocacy and awareness, that means a lot. It means I’m reaching people.”
When she’s not working, Selinger enjoys reading, playing games and crafting. She and her husband, Jerrod Smith, whom she met in a U of R modern algebra class, recently moved to Calgary after spending six years in Toronto and a year in Bangor, Maine. The couple have one dog named River, a mixed-breed rescue pup.
Aysha Yaqoob (B.Ed. 2018) founded Pencils of Hope while a student. Photo credit: Shuana Niessen
In today’s email communication from the U of R President Dr. Thomas Chase, faculty and staff were made aware that,
“Alumna and current #UofR Education grad student Aysha Yaqoob (BEd’18) is talking to young people about climate change.
Laura Lynch of CBC’s ‘What on Earth’ January 10 broadcast, a segment on talking with children about climate change, features award-winning U of R alumna and current MEd graduate student Aysha Yaqoob, who teaches at Balfour Collegiate in Regina.”
This interview is summarized in the what follows.
Lynch asks, “Why teach climate change in an English class,” Yaqoob outlines how her teaching practices were formed by her own experiences as a student, and what stuck with her were the things she could relate to. So when she thinks about making learning relatable, she thinks about “bringing in real-life situations: what’s going on around them, [and] how they can contribute to it.” Yaqoob says, “I’ve learned that climate change is something young people really care about.”
Lynch then asks Yaqoob how teaching about climate change in a high-school English class “dovetail[s] with lessons about Shakespeare and grammar.” Yaqoob responds that the Saskatchewan English curriculum is thematic so quite open ended. The theme she builds around is Equity and Ethics, which ties into Shakespeare’s Macbeth and also climate change and climate crisis. Yaqoob begins by asking students where they are at and what they already know about this topic. Yaqoob says, “Over the years, I have found that that’s usually the best way that we can start our learning and move forward.”
Students often think they know a lot about a topic but after their conversations, they realize “they only understand the tip of the iceberg,” says Yaqoob. Students are generally familiar with concepts such as reduce, reuse, recycle, and plastic straws, but with “some of the more complex conversations such as greenhouse gases, when we bring those in, a lot of kids are shocked,” Yaqoob says. “We are constantly debunking information or misinformation that they find online. That’s actually part of the course that I teach earlier on, that critical thinking piece, so by the end of it, they get pretty good at cross referencing, fact checking…so it’s a pretty cool experience that we do together.”
In her first year of teaching, Yaqoob realized that she needed to approach the topic differently so the students can feel empowered and inspired rather than panicked. After conversations with students, she and her students started to look at people who are making change, such as youth activists. Students wrote to people who were making decisions, such as the Mayor of Regina, the Provincial Government and the Prime Minister Trudeau. Students did receive responses, and these contributed to a feeling of empowerment and advocacy.
The impact of student awards is matched only by the powerful stories behind them—stories about the donors who had a deeply personal motivation to create them, the loved ones in whose honour they were named, and the student recipients whose lives have been changed for the better because of it. The Florence & Grace Donison Bursary in Education is no exception.
Remembering who Florence and Grace were will give a richer understanding of why the University of Regina alumnus Dr. David Bloom, who holds a Bachelor of Science degree, had a strong desire to establish the bursary in support of Education students.
Growing up in what was a Romanian ethnic enclave in Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, Bloom’s grandmother Florence Precopciuc married a farmer, Constantin Donison, at age 15, with two daughters following. Having lived through the drought-stricken years of the Dust Bowl, and during a much different time in our history when running a farm was socially deemed as “men’s work,” Florence—who had no sons to help out on the farm—resolved to come to Regina where she worked and raised her two daughters, Elaine and Grace, on her own after her husband’s death.
The Romanian-born woman’s upbringing in poverty and lack of education did not deter her from teaching herself to read, write, and improve her English fluency. Listening to the radio and reading the newspaper were lifelong routines that were integral to her learning, as well as her ability to keep a pulse on local and global events.
In her adulthood, Elaine married a cinema manager, Marcus Bloom, and over the years, they welcomed three children, Joseph, David and Moira into the world. Tragically, they lost their mother due to illness when they were young, and their grieving father passed away not long afterward, caused by what Bloom believes was “a broken heart.”
L-R: Grace (aunt), Moira (sister) David, Joseph (brother), and Florence (grandmother)
The orphaned Bloom and his siblings were left to be raised by their grandmother and aunt Grace. The family’s apartment may have been small, but the love inside its walls was abundant. Bloom always held great admiration for his grandmother and aunt who co-parented him and his siblings. One memory that always comes back to him is how their primary caregivers consistently modelled a culture of reading, curiosity, and self-education in the household.
Another fond childhood memory Bloom cherishes is of the Regina Public Library’s bookmobile rolling into his neighborhood in Gladmer Park every Friday afternoon, and him signing out non-fiction books that fueled his passion for Canadiana, particularly French-Canadian history—a passion that was not outweighed by his ambition to become a doctor and devote his life to helping others.
Having watched his grandmother educate herself and independently become literate instilled the confidence in Bloom to chase that ambition, which led him to take his pre-med studies at the University of Regina where he double majored in Biology and Chemistry, with a minor in History. Financially disadvantaged, he was honoured to receive assistance by way of scholarships that covered his four years of tuition.
The generosity of the donors who had made those scholarships possible, breaking down economic barriers to ensure students like Bloom could succeed, was met with overwhelming gratitude that endured throughout the life of the then aspiring medical doctor. These gifts also planted a seed deep within Bloom’s heart to one day pay it forward and help others—just as other University of Regina donors, whom he will never forget, had helped him.
Bloom went on to complete his medical degree at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, and subsequently his studies in psychiatry at McGill University in Montreal. Although the self-declared “prairie boy” had planned to return to Saskatchewan and practise psychiatry, the pull to live in Quebec—the province he had spent years reading and dreaming about in his youth—would be too strong to resist.
Bloom and his wife Suzanne made their home in Montreal, where they raised their two sons. Whatever distance may separate Bloom from Regina physically is not nearly enough to separate him emotionally from his alma mater; to this day, he remains a vital part of our university community, as well as a committed member of our donor family.
“I view teachers as the backbone of our society and I view donors to the Faculty of Education (among others) as living supports for the precious work of teaching,” says Bloom, who is in his 37th year of teaching at McGill as an assistant professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and the Chief of the Psychosis Program at the Douglas Institute. “If we can give to others, then it’s the right thing to do as a University of Regina alumnus, and a Canadian citizen. I believe it’s our duty to take care of our brothers and sisters, improve the fairness and equity of opportunity in our society regardless of one’s financial circumstances, and offer a beacon of hope to the current generation for a better future.”
“The inspiration to create the Florence & Grace Donison Bursary in Education came from my desire to honour the memory of my beloved grandmother and aunt in a meaningful and lasting way.” Bloom goes on to say, “the purpose was to help out deserving people who may not necessarily have the grades to win a scholarship, but have the potential to become admirable teachers.”
Kayla Ward, recent recipient of the Florence & Grace Donison Bursary in Education, after her virtual graduation ceremony, wrapped in the starblanket she was honoured with for having received the Spirit of SUNTEP award. The award is given in recognition of members of the Métis community and Indigenous communities at large who demonstrate commitment to leadership and active volunteerism. She was also presented with a hand-woven Métis sash to celebrate her graduation and other personal achievements.
Among such deserving people is Kayla Ward, recent alumna of the University of Regina and Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP). SUNTEP was established to ensure that people of Métis and non-status First Nations ancestry are adequately represented in urban teaching positions.Interestingly enough, both the founder and recipient of the Florence & Grace Donison Bursary in Education share something special in common—both were raised by their grandmothers, and saw their share of struggle.
“My grandmother and I were never well off financially,” says Kayla, who is of Métis (from Lebret) and Cree (from Peepeekisis Cree Nation) descent. “I began working at the young age of 15, and have paid my own way ever since. Receiving bursaries like the one Dr. Bloom established has allowed me to focus my time and energy on my academics, rather than my finances and working a second part-time job.
“With the help of his and other bursaries, I managed to maintain a high grade-point average and finish my degree with great distinction,” adds the Coronation Park Community School teacher. “Now, I strive to make a difference in children’s lives, just like the teachers before me have in mine. SUNTEP taught me the importance of integrating culture and identity into our teachings, which ultimately fostered my passion to teach children about the true history of Canada, and the importance of identity.”
Named bursaries and other academic awards are a testament to how acts of kindness can not only change the lives of others, but also touch their hearts forever. The Florence & Grace Donison Bursary in Education will endure as a memorable expression of Bloom’s admiration and love for his grandmother and aunt, a heartfelt tribute to the memory of two remarkable women, and a symbol of philanthropy.
“This bursary will continue to help many others in the future, and provide them with extra help that will be instrumental in their academic and career success, as it was in mine,” says Kayla. “For that, I am eternally grateful.”
Christine Selinger (BEd’11/BSc’11) is recipient of the URegina 2020 Outstanding Young Alumni Award.
Christine Selinger is a dedicated advocate, athlete, and volunteer. As a student at the University of Regina, she was the first paraplegic woman to traverse the rugged Nootka Trail, became president of several student societies, and was a recipient of the President’s Medal. Today, Christine is a two-time world champion in para-canoe, an educator, and an emerging leader in sexuality and disability.
Christine sustained a spinal cord injury at the age of 19. Subsequently, she completed two concurrent Bachelor’s degrees in Mathematics and Education. She worked as a Peer Support Coordinator for the Canadian Paraplegic Association (CPA) and Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Ontario. Through her openness and candour about living life with a spinal cord injury, she has had a tremendous impact on the lives of individuals with recent spinal cord injuries.
Christine was a Canadian National ParaCanoe Athlete from 2008–2013, a two-time World Champion, and Saskatchewan Athlete of the Month in August 2010. She was also short-listed as International Paralympic Committee Athlete of the Month in August 2011.
In her professional and personal life, Christine bravely faces challenges to help improve the lives of people with disabilities. Her contributions to promoting women with disabilities in sport and her advocacy for the community of persons with disabilities, particularly related to issues of sexuality, make her an extraordinary member of the University of Regina alumni community. (From 2020 Alumni Crowning Achievement Award Recipients page)
Alumna Rosalie Tsannie-Burseth MEd’01 is the recipient of the 2020 U of R Professional Achievement Award
Rosalie Tsannie-Burseth has been a leader in education for 30 years as a teacher, a principal, and a Director of Education. She is an advocate for First Nations language and culture and a role model for many, including those in her northern home community of Wollaston Lake.
Rosalie has overcome many obstacles to become the respected trailblazer she is today. She is a Residential School Survivor who was taunted and forbidden to speak her language, yet persevered. She defied cultural expectations with her education and career path, paving the way for other women in her community and beyond.
Rosalie has served as the Director of Education at Hatchet Lake First Nation, as the Chief of her community, and most recently, as Associate Director with the Prince Albert Grand Council. She has received numerous awards, including the Governor General’s Citizenship Award, the Awasis Award, the Role Model Award, Women of the Dawn Award, and the Lieutenant Governor’s Award. She is currently a PhD student with us.
Kam Bahia, founder of the I Am Her Foundation. Photo provided by Kam Bahia from her Instagram account @her_unfiltered
Being a teacher is an opportunity to change lives as alumna Kam Bahia (BEd ’08/MEd Psych ’19) is demonstrating. While a student athlete at the University of Regina (U of R) for five years, Bahia herself had life-changing experiences: “I was given life lessons on perseverance and balance,” she says. Education faculty Dr. Twyla Salm, Dr. Marc Spooner, and Dr. Ron Martin particularly demonstrated for Bahia “what education and passion are all about.”
Bahia has had many opportunities since to pass these lessons forward. With 12 years of teaching experience behind her, the Regina high school teacher has noted a rising “epidemic of self-doubt” among the youth.
“Each generation that passes through my classroom walls seems to be in more distress than the ones before. There is a common theme taking place: our youth are in crisis (for a multitude of reasons that exist now that never did when you or I were growing up). Decision making is rooted in our self-worth, but unfortunately, young people are facing an epidemic of self-doubt,” says Bahia.
Not one to passively observe problems, Bahia has reached out beyond the classroom walls to encourage, empower and equip youth by founding several youth initiatives. During some time spent in Toronto in 2017, she began the Bootcamps for Change initiative, which provides fitness classes for youth in shelters. In Regina, Bahia founded the I Am H.E.R. (Hopeful, Equipped, Resilient) Foundation in 2019, through which she offers workshops in elementary schools and high schools. Through this program, Bahia has opportunities for “raw” conversations about the real issues youth are facing. The I Am Her Foundation framed and inspired the U of R’s INSPIRE Young Leaders forum and is also behind Bahia’s latest conception: the Reverse School Bus Program, which she began in response to the current COVID-19 crisis.
Through the Reverse School Bus Program, Bahia is delivering meals to youth who rely on the school lunch programs in Regina. Bahia says, “When COVID-19 hit and schools closed, my first thought went to the vulnerable youth in our city. Knowing what I know as a teacher, and having witnessed the emotional crisis our youth are in, I worried about the students who not only lost out on a sense of structure and comfort, but as simple as it sounds, who lost out on one guaranteed meal a day that was provided through their school’s lunch program. During a time like this, a meal is one thing children or their guardians should not have to worry about. … Nutrition is the building block to emotional and physical well-being.”
To bring this program to life, Bahia collaborated with her brother, who is a co-owner of The Lobby Kitchen and Bar in Regina. Bahia says, “They too had to close their doors and were inundated with their own issues, but we decided to team up and use the inventory that was no longer being used for the restaurant business and provide hot delicious curb side meals for our most vulnerable youth.”
The program grew rapidly: “What started off as a few families, quickly turned into working with schools and Dream Brokers and providing anywhere from 50-350 hot lunches a week. The Lobby doubled down on compassion and provided their resources, staff, and kitchen to help get us started,” says Bahia.
This work has many heartwarming moments for Bahia: “If I could video record these deliveries, I think I would have everyone in tears. The kids will be waiting at the window, we pull up, and they start jumping and screaming, ‘The food is here! The food is here!’ Like children waiting for Santa during Christmas season. Makes you really appreciate the most basic areas of life. I have had families call me in tears, thanking me for this program because when schools closed down, they were worried about how they would provide a meal for their children. One child loved the jersey a driver was wearing. In that moment, the driver took the jersey off, and handed it to this young boy.”
The program made national news when Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Tam tweeted about the good work they were doing. Once the public became aware, there was an overwhelming response. Bahia says, “Our community started donating to our program. People from all over the city of Regina donated money and their time to help deliver meals. Our community is so rare—it’s so beautiful.” This generous, selfless response is what has surprised Bahia the most. “It just goes to show that in the deepest part of our being, the thing that gives us purpose and life is truly to give back.”
Bahia is grateful to live in Regina where people will go out of their way to help a stranger in need: “We have a community where people will literally give the shirt off their back; that’s something special. How lucky are we to call this place home? How lucky are those students who will be coming from all corners of the world to enroll at U of R to be able to experience this kind of generosity?”
Raised in Indian Head, Garrick Schmidt (BEd ’20) spent his summers and spare time “out on the land” in the Qu’Appelle Valley at Katepwa and Lebret where his Métis family members originated. There Schmidt learned from family members how to hunt and trap and about some of the plants and medicines in the Valley.
In recent years he has added to that knowledge, as he says, “I have learnt from Elders, Knowledge Keepers and also from genetic memory. I know it might sound odd or strange. But for myself I find when I am on the land, I am making genetic connections to ancestors and they are passing down memory of how to do tasks and knowledge.”
Out of his desire “to help shape and guide younger Indigenous youth to give them the best possible chance to be successful,” Schmidt decided to attend the Saskatchewan Urban Native Teacher Education Program (SUNTEP) at the University of Regina.
As a family tradition, SUNTEP was an obvious choice: “My mother Patty-Lou Racette was a part of the first group of people to attend SUNTEP when it first became a program. … Being the third person in my immediate family and the second generation to graduate from the program makes it that much more special,” say Schmidt, who highly recommends SUNTEP for any Métis youth thinking about teaching because SUNTEP “gives Métis youth the opportunity to learn about family histories and continue to grow as individuals and professionals.”
Schmidt finished his BEd program in December 2019, and began teaching at Kakisiwew School on Ochapowace First Nation in January 2020. Even though a novice at teaching, Schmidt, with the support from his school administrator Riel Thomson and Director Nicole Bear, found opportunity to integrate land-based learning, taking his Grade 8 class out on the land.
“We are fortunate enough to have beautiful landscape right behind the school where we set up a trap line in the winter for rabbits,” Schmidt says.
Recently, due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and students learning from home, Schmidt has been posting land-based learning videos on social media.
Schmidt says, “I felt during these times of chaos and panic that my students, community members, and beyond would benefit from seeing my videos, and the videos would give a sense of routine for my students. I also wanted to create these videos because it is so vital that our youth are taken back to the land to learn traditional skills where family members may not have had the opportunity to pass these on to their children, or where students are in an urban setting and unable to do so as well.”
Land-based learning, besides getting students and educators out of the classroom setting, has many benefits: “With class size issues, multiple intelligence learning, and also behavioral concerns, by taking students onto the land, teachers can see almost immediate changes in students. I have had the chance to design my own time-table where I have created a land-based class for my students. Making cross-curricular connections to every subject gives me accountability for teaching Saskatchewan curriculum as well as traditional teachings.”
Though the videos were intended for his students and the other students of Kakisiwew School, they have been viewed by many more. Schmidt says, “I know my videos have reached out to British Columbia, Ontario and I’m sure beyond. I am very excited to see where things go in the next few months.”
“I have received amazing feedback from my videos. I am hoping that things continue to rise and I am able to reach as many people as I possibly can. Land-based learning and traditional content can be hard to find at times and I feel that with the advances in technology and recording it makes it easier for me to reach a much larger audience,” says Schmidt.
On a personal level Schmidt says land-based learning feels like home: “It takes me home to the land, the Valley where I grew up. … I can’t believe I have only been teaching since January. It feels like I have been doing this for years now. I love the support from the Ochapowace Nation community; everyone has supported me since day one and welcomed me with open arms making it home for me.”
An interview (April 14, 2020) with Education master’s student Whitney Blaisdell (BEd /BA Visual Art ’14), whose research, focused around accessibility to play, has been extended by new funding focused on play during Covid-19 restrictions.
Why did you become a teacher?
I originally wanted to pursue teaching as a stepping stone to getting a master’s in library science. I quickly fell in love with teaching, however, and I’m fascinated with education.
What did you do after graduating with your BEd/BA?
I took a position teaching with the Regina Public School Board. I was offered a continuing contract while still serving my first temp contract. I’ve now been teaching for six years. I’ve been inspired by some of the strong teachers I’ve worked alongside and was encouraged to begin grad studies, which I began in the summer of 2017. As previously mentioned, I’m quite fascinated by the field of education. How a society pursues education: Who is trusted to educate, how they do it, why they teach the things they teach, what is exactly considered an “education”—these are all questions that I’m curious to explore. I’ve of course narrowed my graduate focus but continue to try to keep these larger questions in mind as I study. Education is a field that should be carefully scrutinized and held to a high standard. It’s an honour to have the ability to pursue graduate studies in such an interesting and important subject.
Why did accessibility to play become an important issue for you?
The first graduate course I took was taught by Karen Wallace and Patrick Lewis and it had a heavy emphasis on play, art, and story. This course, and some of Patrick’s writing he shared with his students, has had quite an impact on me as both a teacher and mother. The “erosion of play” (Lewis, 2017) has weighed heavily on my mind since taking the course.
Why did you choose to develop the Project Play YQR as part of you research for your thesis?
A friend offered me an idea to create a map of playspaces around the city. I loved the idea of constructing a functional project out of my research, and have taken it a bit further. I learned quite quickly that you can have the perfect play space, but a physical space only has so much to do with one’s ability to play. There’s a lot of privilege to play and many barriers between people and playfulness, as well as many factors that can help people feel and be playful. Considering how important play is, I wanted to explore these factors.
What insights have you gained from your research thus far?
Answering this question is so tricky—if I could do it simply I’d be a lot further along in my thesis. There is a lot going on when you see someone play. It’s complicated and beautiful. People have offered an immediate connection between the birth of their children and play. One’s labour and birth, even their pregnancy, has a profound impact on parents’ ability to attach, bond with, and play with their infants. These feelings—anxiety, being out of control, fear, shame, but also potentially empowerment or magic—they last a long time. It’s amazing how many parents (fathers included) of children as old as nine will bring up a traumatic birth of a child as a barrier to play.
Money comes up as a barrier to play even for people who are affluent. The commercialization of play (Lewis also describes this as a barrier in 2017) is far-reaching. Parents describe how their children’s expensive activities inform their own social circles. At best, structured activities for children do certainly offer a fun outing for families, a chance to socialize and meet friends, physical activity, and skill development. They can be a great facilitator for play if balanced well and a lot of accidental play happens around these activities as siblings congregate and run around the hockey arenas, etc. At worst, however, structured activities for children can become intensely competitive, performance-centred, shame-inducing and othering environments for children and their families.
A strong mental well-being facilitates play. I’m currently trying to access and analyze what exactly helps people get into a mental space that is free and open to play. High expectations and sexist treatment of women and mothers doesn’t help. Trauma, which appears incredibly common, doesn’t help. Great maternal health care providers help a lot. A strong network and community supporting a new family helps a lot. Seeing other people be messy and unapologetically playful appears to be a catalyst for one’s own playfulness. One could almost say that play is contagious. Conversations around the importance of play are important—and that’s something the Play YQR platform helps to provide. I try to advertise for play. It’s easy to forget just how magical unstructured play, particularly in nature, is.
What do you anticipate and hope for regarding your research impacts for your thesis work?
I hope that my thesis work has an opportunity to have an impact. That’s most likely an embarrassingly typical naïve, grad-student thing to say. There’s just a lot that’s coming up—play is an important topic to explore and there’s a lot of passion surrounding it. Some who tell me their stories express that they’re just happy someone is listening to them. They talk about trauma, birth, relationships, mental health, play spaces, programming…and together we daydream and re-imagine a community based around play-accessibility. A lot of what we discuss is possible. I suppose I hope that the community will listen to them alongside me. Part of why I incorporated a non-profit (Project Play YQR) is to continue co-constructing accessibility to play in and around Regina.
Project Play YQR recently received $5000 funding from the U of R’s Community Research Unit in partnership with the Regina Early Learning Centre (ELC) for a COVID-19 community-focused research project. How did this project/partnership come about?
The ELC is a fantastic organization. Since I incorporated Project Play YQR last summer, I’ve been working hard to highlight ELC’s services for the community. The Family Centre Coordinator Monica Totton is supportive and curious about the research findings and how they could potentially help improve the ELC programs and spaces for the community and I am happy to share findings with her. Monica truly cares about early childhood services in the community and seems to take every opportunity to do even better work. It’s refreshing and inspiring. Pre COVID-19 she had gently approached me about potentially doing some community research with them in the future surrounding a different topic. When this pandemic started, we connected again as we were both concerned with the effects the lack of playspaces and programming could have on people and their ability to play. The ELC also typically reaches a vulnerable demographic so we are anticipating that this research will help them to still have a positive effect on some of these families going forward.
As the Principal Investigator, what will the research involve?
The research will mostly use grounded theory, which is the method I use for my thesis research. It will be a bit autoethnographic naturally, which means that I will use how this pandemic has affected my own ability to play as an entry point to then explore openly and develop questions for exploring with other people. I am applying grounded theory in a way that resembles how Kathy Charmaz applies it. I will ask questions, listen to stories, analyze responses, and continue exploring depending on what new questions and patterns are emerging. Once I feel I’ve circled back enough times and the patterns are starting to repeat, I’ll narrow my intake of responses and focus on analysing and writing about what is being constructed. Through this process I may find a lot more interesting information than I originally thought I had, and may need to open the study back up for more responses if there’s an interesting pattern. Grounded theory is like those coin donation bins where you put the coin in and it circles around and around and its spiral grows narrower and narrower until it drops and every once in a while the coin starts moving upwards again. It’s not linear but it’s so much fun. I am hoping to put together a report to share that includes different ways that people are finding time and space to play during this time. Participants will be co-constructing this report together in community.
With play spaces no longer accessible during Covid-19 restrictions, and home becoming the play space, how does the current context affect the research and your perspective on the topic?
This is exactly our concern. The playspaces and programming around the city are important. When I ask people about play, they talk about going out. They talk about gathering with people. They talk about maintaining their own playfulness and passions which depends on other people stepping in to help with their children. What’s happening in our communities, although entirely necessary, will most certainly have an impact on play. We are eager to explore these impacts, and also eager to create greater accessibility to play in the home, whatever that may look like.
As for the technical side of the research: to keep everyone safe, all of the co-constructing of the research will be contactless, whereas I’ve done face-to-face conversations for my own thesis in the past. I’ve also used social media for my thesis and will be continuing to use that for this new project. We are hoping that, because the ELC is connected with some families that they do home visits with, we can incorporate these families in this research too. We are still working out how everything will look and of course will be held to a high ethics standard regarding every decision we make.
What do you anticipate and hope for regarding your research impacts?
People have shared that even just the presence of the Play YQR organization and research, since I share on social media (Play YQR on Instagram), helps to create a greater awareness and elevate the importance of play in their minds. I hope that this research can therefore facilitate a community consciousness of play. I am also excited for the collaboration with the ELC. This research will be a great means for them to reach more people, find out if and how they can improve their services, help clients in a new way, and potentially have an even stronger lasting impact on families that can’t typically access their physical spaces and services. Although this study is responsive to our current situation, the results will be relevant after the ELC spaces are open again, and for as long as our organizations continue operating. Part of our contract is that I will also be working with ELC staff to share information and do some education surrounding what ends up being co-constructed.
I anticipate that we will also develop a clear picture of what is actually helping people to be more playful at this time, and be able to share this information with the community. The community constructs and benefits from the project. I’ve seen some organizations adapt to the pandemic response by going virtual with all their programming and I’m curious to find out what else organizations can do to support families at home during this time (and after) without being in direct contact. I’ve found out through my thesis that part of the allure of physical playspaces is that when people visit them, they are at least temporarily relieved of their domestic tasks they face around their home. It is challenging for some folks to be playful at home where they struggle to relieve their mind of the mess, laundry, and uncooked meals they’re surrounded by. They depend on an actual physical compartmentalization for play via visiting playspaces. Some people of course are also able to work from home right now, which means most people are managing work, home tasks, and play all in the same environment. It’s necessary to understand what effect this will have on families and how they can be supported at home. I’m also curious to find out if working from home is a facilitating factor to play for any families.
What has been your experience of researching as a student at the U of R?
I’m thrilled with my experience in grad school at the U of R. The committee who supports my work consists of Dr. Marc Spooner, who is my supervisor; Dr. Valerie Triggs; and Dr. Patrick Lewis, who is mentioned above. It’s an honour to also have Patrick on the board of directors of Project Play YQR.
My committee has been inspiring and supportive. I’m grateful for their high standard for quality of work. It’s not lost on me how fortunate I am to have the committee members that I do. I’m also of course grateful to Lynn Gidluck from the Community Research Unit and to Monica Totton from the Regina Early Learning Centre for this opportunity and collaboration. This is an opportunity to do good work.
In May 2019, alumna Heather Faris (formerly Haynes) got the news that she was a recipient of the Prime Minister’s Award for teaching excellence in STEM. Regina-raised Faris’s first thoughts were, “It’s just what I do! Talent is from God. I have a wonderful opportunity in this school to get to be the off-beat, artsy-thinking teacher. I’m like, get an award for it?! I did not expect it and it was such an honour!” Faris adds, “When my principal told me that she was working with a group of people to nominate me, it brings a person to tears, it’s so humbling…but at the same time affirms that this is what I am built and born to do.”
Surprisingly, Faris wasn’t always headed for the teaching profession. She had an interest in biology, which began with dissecting earthworms in Grade 7 and with a love for the outdoors: “Just being outside on the farm with my Grandpa, walking in the fields, gardening, and knowing that I loved being outside in a way that not everybody did.” Thus, her first year at the University of Regina, after graduating from Sister McGuigan High School in 1989, was spent studying biology with the goal of becoming a vet. “My art teacher, Rand Teed, had set me up in high school with the Regina Animal Clinic,” she explains. Then, because she would “pass out every time they started to operate,” Faris decided some hands on experience at the Humane Society would help her and it did.
However, two years of working with animals at the Humane Society had given Faris a clearer view of what she wanted to do: she decided to become a teacher. “I was that kid who had the classroom set up in my basement and corrected work. I found it really fun then,” she laughs. In 1995, Faris graduated with her B.Ed. After travelling a bit, she then came back to teach as a substitute in Regina Catholic schools. After only two days of subbing, she was interviewed and given a short term contract at St. Augustine Community School to teach Grades 5 to 8 science. Then she was hired full-time at Archbishop M. C. O’Neill High School. Thus began her, at this point, 22-year teaching career, including teaching science at Dr. Martin LeBoldus and currently senior science teacher at Miller Comprehensive High School.
When asked what qualities she thinks make for excellence in teaching, Faris responded, “There are a lot of qualities that make a good teacher that I possess but others don’t necessarily possess. And others possess qualities that make them good teachers that I don’t necessarily possess. So we are not all the same, we are very different. But a quality that makes me a good teacher is that I’m creative. I love creating, I wake up in the night because I realize how I can re-imagine that lesson and make it better. That’s one of my strengths.” Faris believes that all scientists are creative beings, pointing to Leeuwenhoek, DaVinci, and Bacon.
A second quality that makes for excellence is being observant. Faris’s science teaching has been inspired by what an art teacher once told her: “Draw what you see, not what you think you see.” For Faris that means, “Observe what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste, what you touch. Not what you think you see, hear, smell, taste, and touch.” One can achieve this, she says, “by really being in the moment. I tell my students to walk through life with their eyes open. That means don’t put in the headphones, or put up the hoodie. Look around and ask, ‘Why does grass not grow under a pine tree but it grows under the deciduous trees? Why do these trees have seeds and those trees do not? Trust in yourself to hypothesize as to why.’ It’s the synthesis of life when you walk with your eyes open.”
Passion for learning is a third quality that Faris thinks is important to demonstrate. She is a model of active learning for her students as she continues to learn. As an example, she says, “All my students know I have guitar lessons on Tuesdays at 3:30.”
Faris’s passion for learning extends to her craft in teaching biology. In 2010, Faris returned to the U of R to do a Master’s in Education. Through her research, she tested her own hypotheses about teaching and learning biology. She knew the follow-the-recipe approach to labs had to change for science to become richer and more engaging for her students. Following a set of instructions and modelling the steps was not giving students an understanding of why the experiment worked or didn’t work. She developed a new lab procedure, which she now calls an investigation or inquiry rather than lab: “I called it turning labs inside out. Push the bottom to the top. Leave the middle out, get there how you want to.” In their investigations, students are given an endpoint, for instance to create osmosis diffusion, and they are given all the materials they need to achieve the endpoint. No instructions are given. Students then spend one day in the library to discover how the materials work and what they do. Then they are given five days to play. They work in teams and can consult with other teams, but not her. At the end, students do photo write ups. “The story takes us on paths of things that didn’t work and things that did, to the end point. So much of science is what didn’t work. Like cancer research is not a direct path to success. The students told me it taught them to stick with it and not to give up. And about how big small successes were when they had a hypothesis about something such as how Benedict solution works.” The research validated what Faris was doing and hearing from her students about how they were engaged.
Excellence for Faris has also developed through participating in curriculum development with the Ministry of Education, through research opportunities such as an NSERC CRYSTAL project, and through seeing connections within the science curriculums, such as biochemistry and its connection to the health sciences and body systems.
Faris sees her role as being effective because of her care of students, more than a love for science: “I don’t just teach my students science. Science is my vehicle. At the end of the day, it is not about these facts of science. At the end of the day [it’s about] if I can teach them about the love of learning, about being their awesome selves, and about being where they are. They come here to learn about who they want to be in the world.” Faris considers her students the wind beneath her wings: “When they come in and say this is my favourite class, I say, really? We haven’t even done anything cool yet.”
As Faris considers her future steps, she says, “I’m just walking and things unfold. We will have to see how it unfolds. I’ve never experienced a change I didn’t like better.”
Bahia is grateful to live in Regina where people will go out of their way to help a stranger in need: “We have a community where people will literally give the shirt off their back; that’s something special. How lucky are we to call this place home? How lucky are those students who will be coming from all corners of the world to enroll at U of R to be able to experience this kind of generosity?”
