Building Pathways for Change: The EDI and Indigenization Fellowship Journey

Through regular conversations, shared reflection, and mutual support, the EDI and Indigenization Fellows formed a close-knit community of practice committed to creating more inclusive, culturally responsive, and accessible learning environments for students and colleagues alike. Their work has been both deeply personal and profoundly collaborative, inviting critical reflection on positionality, belonging, and the responsibilities of educators within a diverse university community. The resources, course innovations, and reflections they shared demonstrate the many ways faculty can advance these commitments in their own contexts while supporting others to do the same. 

Over the past two years, six dedicated faculty members – Dr. Brad Congdon (Department of English, Arts and Science), Dr. Carly Priebe (Kinesiology), Dana Carriere, MBA (Edwards School of Business), Dr. Joel Frey (Engineering), Dr. Kevin (Mu-Sen) Chuang (Medicine), and Dr. Simonne Horwitz (Department of History, Arts and Science) - have led transformative pedagogical work across their disciplines. Working with the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL), the Fellows centered their work on building psychological safety, intercultural understanding, and student belonging across USask classrooms, supported by intentional course design and assessment practices. 

In the first year of their fellowship, members reconfigured their courses to better integrate EDI competencies, Indigenization priorities, and Open Educational Resources (OER). In their second year, they expanded this work outward, mentoring peers and hosting workshops and townhalls to catalyze sustainable, unit-wide change. Their work included rethinking high-stakes assessments in Anatomy and Engineering capstone projects to centering queer, neurodiverse, and Indigenous perspectives both the Humanities and in Business, as well as considering accessibility in within a Kinesiology lens.

Now that this Fellowship has officially concluded, the resources and insights generated by this cohort are accessible to all educators.

Watch for the three-part article series highlighting the Fellows' journeys, course redesigns, and practical teaching artifacts and reflections. We invite you to explore these feature stories, engage with the open collection of course materials on HARVEST, and draw inspiration for your own teaching practices.

This resource is shared by the Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning (GMCTL), University of Saskatchewan, under a CC BY-NC-SA license.