Dialogue Across the Prairies

Acknowledging the value of collaboration across Educator Networks and the shared context of their prairie homes, our SOGI 123 Leads for Alberta and Saskatchewan came together to host the first ever Prairie SOGI Educator Summit. This half-day summit took place in February 2024, bringing together over fifty participants from across the two provinces to engage in discussion, learning, and strategic reflection about SOGI-inclusive education.

The past year has been a difficult time for SOGI-inclusive education across the Prairies, with unique new challenges emerging. This informed the Summit theme of ‘Sustaining Ourselves and Each Other.’ Keynote speaker Marjorie Beaucage challenged attendees to look critically at the stories that shape our perspectives and guide our lives. Breakout panels allowed attendees to choose between an interfaith dialogue on 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion, or a history of queer existence and resistance on the Prairies and across Turtle Island. Finally, our SOGI 123 Leads for Alberta and Saskatchewan teamed up to lead educators through an interactive workshop on navigating challenging conversations and responding to resistance.

While much is shared across the context of the Prairies, Alberta and Saskatchewan also have their own unique challenges and experiences. Taking advantage of a time zone split, attendees were invited to a province-specific bookend session – right before the Summit began for Saskatchewan, and immediately after it closed for Alberta. This time zone magic allowed us to offer a Summit that ran for the same period of time in both provinces, while making time to address the unique contexts of each demographic.