Human Rights

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Frontier Fiddlers (8:20 a.m. to 8:45 a.m)

Plenary (8:45 a.m. to 10:00 a.m.):

Welcome from the Honourable Nancy Allan, Minister of Education

Stephen Lewis, Stephen Lewis Foundation

The Power of Community: Creating Positive Environments
Stephen Lewis will speak on the importance of community in the lives of children, focusing on human rights, leadership, accountability, health, and education in both a national and international context.


Keynote Sessions (10:30 a.m. to noon):
  1. Wilton Littlechild, The Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Presentation sponsored by the Canadian Museum for Human Rights
  2. Aboriginal People of Canada: Human Rights and Education
    As the emphasis on human rights education increases in Canada, there is an opportunity to develop an Aboriginal perspective in the curriculum, benefiting both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students alike.

  1. Michael Bach, Canadian Association for Community Living
  2. Building Inclusive Education Systems and Outcomes: Do we have an adequate theory of change?
    The recently adopted UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities makes inclusive education a human right for the first time in international law and establishes an obligation on governments to “ensure an inclusive education system at all levels.” Most of the efforts in inclusive education to date have focused on skills of teachers, teaching methods, classroom practices, and some policy and program development. This session will explore how we might think about systems-change strategies that are up to the task of building inclusive education systems—strategies that do justice to the realities of exclusion that learners with intellectual and other disabilities have faced for decades.

  1. Kathleen Gould Lundy, York University
  2. Teaching Fairly in an Unfair World
    Understanding and celebrating diversity are necessary processes in contemporary Canadian classrooms at all levels—elementary, secondary, and post-secondary. The goal of the session will be to help participants envision a learning environment that reflects, affirms, and validates the diversity and complexity of the human experience. Participants will learn how to build a community of learners in classrooms so that students’ interests, racial and cultural backgrounds, family relationships, special needs, and unique abilities are honoured. Find out how to co-create classrooms as places where there is respect, not just tolerance; where there is community, not just group process; where there are relationships, not just connections; and where there are empathy and compassion based on mutual understanding, not just on superficial encounters.

  1. Cynthia Nambo, Greater Lawndale Social Justice High School, Chicago
  2. Social Justice Alive: The Story of a Chicago City High School
    The Little Village Lawndale High School Campus was born out of a hunger strike that moms, dads, students, and other community members organized in 2001. Today one of the high schools, Social Justice (SOJO), takes on the legacy by integrating community and social justice in an academically challenging environment. The first graduating class had an 85 percent rate of college acceptance. SOJO constantly works to keep students on track, and the curriculum integrates college preparation with social justice issues.
    3. Humanity for All: Social justice ALIVE! (Presentation 336 KB)
  3. Alysha Sloane, Manitoba School Improvement Program
  4. Peaceful Resistance in Public Education: Courageous Democracy in Action
    In this session, participants will explore how peaceful resistance is integral to the development of a courageous, democratic citizenry. Stories from the Hugh John Macdonald and Gordon Bell school communities will be shared in order to discuss how schools can be powerful sites for democratic renewal when peaceful resistance is embraced as an aim of public education.

  1. Special Session on Homophobia
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  3. Catherine Taylor, University of Winnipeg
  4. Every Class in Every School: Six Lessons from Canada’s Sexual and Gender Minority Youth
    In many ways, Canada’s sexual and gender minority youth have been left out of the inclusive education movement. This session will report on key learnings from the First National Climate Survey on Homophobia in Canadian Schools, which heard from over 3700 high school students.
    5. PowerPoint Presentation Every Class in Every School: Six Lessons from Canada’s Sexual and Gender Minority Youth ( 808 KB)
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  6. Olga Wyshnowsky, Winnipeg School Division
  7. Human Rights/Anti-Homophobia: The Winnipeg School Division Experience
    This session will be of interest to those charged with the responsibility of providing leadership, policy direction, and professional guidance in creating inclusive school environments. The workshop is designed to provide an overview of the Winnipeg School Division initiative with a focus on providing concrete examples, strategies, and resources.
    8. Human Rights, Anti-Homophofia Initiative (Presentation 296 KB)
    Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (Website)
    To order the following free booklets
      Questions & Answers: Sexual Orientation in Schools
      Questions & Answers: Gender Identity in Schools
    contact Public Health Agency of Canada or visit the Public Health Agency of Canada: Reports and Publications
  8. Gimli High School Students — In the Locker (DVD)

  1. Shauna Sylvester, Canada’s World
  2. Why is it important to teach global issues? What are the links between our domestic and international policies on human rights and democratic development?
    Shauna Sylvester will lead an interactive session on Canada’s role in the world in promoting human rights and democratic development. This workshop will enable participants to reflect on why it is important to teach global issues and provide educators (particularly those who address controversial issues) with a series of deliberative tools that they can use in the classroom. Participants will have an opportunity to explore the history of Canadian policy and actions and to identify the interests, values, and assets that should motivate our efforts locally and globally.
    3. Agenda (114 KB)
    PowerPoint Presentation Canada's World: An experiment in democratic development ( 2.2 MB)
    Canada’s World (YouTube video)
    Canada’s World (website)

  1. Enid Lee, Enidlee Consultants
  2. Reality Check: Educational Opportunity and Achievement for Aboriginal and African-Canadian Students
    If we are to close the achievement gap, we must pay attention to the opportunity-to-learn gap. This interactive session will explore lessons learned from an anti-racist professional learning initiative at Dufferin School in Winnipeg and findings from a recently conducted study on opportunity and achievement for African–Nova Scotian learners. Participants will identify approaches and practise strategies from both contexts that can assist educational leaders in closing the opportunity-to-learn and the achievement gaps.

  1. Ted Longbottom and Greg Pruden, Musicians and storytellers
  2. “Ki natounawitin. Ki natounawin.” (I am searching for you. You are searching for me.): Building Relationships through Education
    The session will examine the historical relationship between Indigenous and other Canadians, with a focus on Manitoba history. Themes include human rights and the road to reconciliation through education. The session incorporates lecture, multimedia, storytelling, and song.
    3. Ted Longbottom MySpace (website)

  1. Student Session with Stephen Lewis
  2. Following the morning plenary session, students will have the opportunity to engage in a question-and-answer period with Stephen Lewis. Mr. Lewis’s stories will inspire and motivate students to embrace new opportunities and projects within their local and global communities.

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