Latest News & Stories

PhD candidate Miggy Esteban is awarded the 2025 Kathleen O’Connell Teaching Excellence Award from New College.

Today, we invite you to be part of something lasting: the creation of the Ubuntu Plaque. This plaque will honour the generosity of those who choose to walk with us as co-conspirators in the path to empower Black educators, students, and researchers to thrive despite systemic inequities.

SJE Disability Salons Student Spotlight Series: Fall 2025 has hosted two PhD student-led sessions, with one more on December 3rd.

SJE Chair Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández leads the community-based research project, Pedagogies of Community-Engaged Practice, and hosts an event on December 4th.

Excerpt: "Through these extended agreements, the Government of Canada will provide more than $1.6 billion to Saskatchewan over five years to support access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services across the province. This includes an annual 3% funding increase, to help ensure the agreements are sustainable over their duration. As part of the extension, parents of children who turn six while still in child care will continue to be eligible for the $10-a-day rate for the remainder of the same school year."

Excerpt: "Families in East Preston will soon have more options and improved access to child care. The Province is providing about $2.1 million to help create up to 48 new child-care spaces at the East Preston Day Care Centre. This project is part of provincial and federal efforts to expand access to child care, supported through the Canada–Nova Scotia Canada-Wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement."

Excerpt: "Construction of a new child care centre was made possible through nearly $8 million from the ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund. This fund is jointly supported by provincial investments and federal funding under the Canada-British Columbia Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement. British Columbia and the federal government signed an extension to the agreement for 2026-27 until 2030-31. “Child care spaces like those coming to Fernie Elementary school help families thrive,” said Anna Gainey, federal Secretary of State for Children and Youth. “These centres strengthen communities, give kids the best start and ease pressure on parents.” The child care centre will include 12 spaces for infant-toddlers and 25 spaces for children three to five years."

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Excerpt: "The new Higher Wages, Good Jobs, More Child Care strategy lays out a roadmap to recruit and support the child-care workforce in Manitoba. Organized around three pillars – recruitment, retention and recognition – the strategy will implement a number of initiatives to achieve its workforce goals, the minister noted. “Having access to affordable, high-quality child care has been life-changing for our family,” said Quinn Suderman, a Winnipeg parent of two. “It’s not just about having a spot, it’s knowing our children are in a safe, nurturing environment with educators who truly care. It gives us peace of mind and the flexibility to work and support our family.” A key part of the strategy, the early childhood educators (ECE) recruit-back incentive has just been launched with the goal of recruiting child-care professionals who have left the field. The initiative provides a $5,000 incentive for ECE II and IIIs who have not worked in a Manitoba licensed child-care centre or licensed home-based child-care setting for at least two consecutive years to return to full-time employment in a Manitoba licensed and non-profit child-care facility. This strategy complements a wage increase for child-care professionals introduced in May 2025, which saw front-line ECE wages increase by up to $5 an hour."

In this virtual session with Dr. David Philpott, part of our Beyond the Podcast series, we explore the vital role of inclusion in early childhood programs. Dr. Philpott discusses the importance of the environment as the “third teacher” and how children learn with, from, and about one another—where diversity itself becomes the curriculum.

This session also highlights what makes strong public policy to ensure that all children have the opportunity to reach their full potential.