News

The guidelines released today for the Provincial Committee on Class Size and Composition fall short of addressing the issues as presented by the Federation during provincial collective bargaining. The Federation believes the Committee lacks authority and public accountability.

Their respective presentations as keynote presenters at the Saskatoon Teachers’ Association Annual Convention were unmistakably distinct from one another, but there was no questioning the similar messages presented by Max FineDay and Kevin Lamoureux in discussing truth and reconciliation.

Both share an Indigenous background, although in both cases it was one parent, and so they have had the shared experience of seeing life through a different lens. While FineDay’s message was filled with self-deprecating humour as the younger, more hip of the two, Lamoureux brought his wealth of knowledge from the world of academia, highlighted by his assessment that “you didn’t create this problem but you can be part of the solution.”

Île-à-la-Crosse–The Right Honorable Paul Martin, former prime minister of Canada, visited the northern community of Île-à-la-Crosse on June 22 to launch the Greenhouse Project, a Martin Family Initiative.

MFI is a foundation committed to supporting education, health and overall well-being outcomes for First Nations, Métis Nations and Inuit children and youth in Canada. The Greenhouse Project hopes to address many issues related to food, food security and horticulture that disproportionately affects Indigenous peoples and their communities.

Western mathematics can marginalize and undermine graduation success rates for Indigenous students, but a new research project is demonstrating how educators can change outcomes by blending Western and Indigenous approaches to math instruction.  

“Referring to the difference in test scores between Indigenous and non-Indigenous students as an achievement gap is part of the problem,” says Dr. Glen Aikenhead, a member of the research team and professor emeritus, Curriculum Studies at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Education. “It implies Indigenous students are to blame when what we’re seeing is a failure within the education system itself, not the students.”

The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation are alarmed that graduation rates for First Nations students remains significantly lower than the graduation rates of non-First Nations students.