Saskatchewan

There and back again: Dialect levelling and maintenance (by Melissa Enns)

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“It’s a dangerous business… going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep to your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”  Bilbo Baggins (The Fellowship of the Ring) 

I’ve often thought of this line as I’ve gone through life’s adventures. Like Bilbo in The Hobbit, I find that I miss the comfort of the life I left, yet when I finally return home, I find myself changed, more worldly, and somehow unable to slip back into life as I used to know it. It is a disconcerting feeling, as though somehow I’ve been separated from a piece of my identity. Recently, I’ve realized that the same could be said about my idiolect, or personal dialect. 

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A Roller Coaster of Questions: The Bi[Multi]lingualism Identity in French Second Language Education (by Jessica Irvine)

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Jessica Irvine resides on Treaty 4 land – Home of the Nakota, Dakota, Lakota, Saulteaux, Nêhiyawak (Cree), and Métis. She completed her Bachelor of Education in French Education at the University of Regina. Currently she teaches grade 1 through 8 Core French with Regina Public Schools. She has also returned to the University of Regina and is completing her Masters of Education in Curriculum and Instruction. Her research interests include curriculum development, language policy, identity theory, cultural, Indigenous language revitalization, creating curriculums based on one’s “place”, lifewriting, qualitative inquiry, Indigenous methodologies, bilingualism, and multilingualism. Jessica’s thesis will focus on the cultural outcomes of the Saskatchewan Core French curriculum from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives. When Jessica isn’t writing, reading, or researching, she is either out running or hiking with her 4-legged running partner, Ginny, or training for Spartan obstacle course races.

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“We are all treaty people”: Reaffirming the importance of treaty education in Saskatchewan (by Stephen Davis)

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My name is Stephen Davis and I am a French immersion elementary school teacher, currently in my third year as an educator in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This year I have the distinct pleasure of teaching a Grade 3/4 class, which is my favourite grade range to teach. My students are kind-hearted, inquisitive, and optimistic, equally enthusiastic about multiplication and Captain Underpants. Additionally, they are passionate about planets, fervent about fractions, and delirious about dodgeball. Moreover, my students are dedicated to discovering Indigenous knowledge at school and consider this learning an essential element of their education and citizenship.

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