News

There was widespread consensus among those attending the Local Association Symposium that there is a compelling need for teachers throughout the province to be more engaged collectively in the future in terms of trying to make the public aware of the myriad of challenges they face in the classrooms on a daily basis.

Education needs to evolve in order to meet demands of the future for students

If you haven’t been in a school classroom for a while, in all likelihood it would be quite an eye-opener to say the least.

From the much more diverse student population to the proliferation of technology, today’s classroom is all but unrecognizable from just a decade ago. That’s perhaps to be expected since education has to evolve in order to meet not only today’s needs, but those of the future–which few of us can accurately predict in terms of knowing what skills students will require.

My trusty dictionary tells me that imagination is, among other things, the power of forming in the mind pictures of things not present to the senses.

That being the case, it brings this whole notion of “Re-Imagine Education” into sharp focus. In other words, the very phrase implies quite purposely that the current state of public education might not be best suited to meeting the future needs of the province’s students.

Former Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation Executive Director Gwen Dueck was one of three Canadian Teachers’ Federation Special Recognition Award recipients at this year’s Canadian Teachers’ Federation Annual General Meeting held in Edmonton.

Dueck broke new ground as the first female to assume the role of General Secretary (now Executive Director) of the STF, a position which she held for nine years prior to her retirement in April 2017. This culminated a 23-year career with the STF, which began with her being Director of the Saskatchewan Professional Development Unit from 1994 to 1999.

Prior to joining the STF, Dueck had spent 13 years as a teacher at the elementary and secondary school levels.

The McDowell Foundation Board of Directors has approved the reallocation of funding to support two additional teacher-led research projects, set to begin in the Regina Public Schools and the South East Cornerstone school divisions this fall. These will replace another project that is no longer able to move forward.

The decision was made as a result of the unexpected death of Susan Greene, one of the teacher-researchers from the La Ronge community. Greene had been approved for research funding to lead a mental health research project called Gathering Strength: Indigenous Mental Health and High School. As the sole researcher, her project is not able to move forward.