2026 DEHR Conference

This listening circle offers a 2SLGBTQIA+ affirming space for adults and allies to gather. We share our experiences while building community through both triumphs and challenges. Participation is open and voluntary, no explanations are required. Confidentiality is respected, no attendance is taken, and stories stay in the room while the learning moves forward, even outside of the space we build together.

2SLGBTQIA+ teachers often shoulder invisible labour in schools—navigating in/visibility, managing microaggressions, and sustaining inclusion work—labour that is intensified in hostile policy landscapes. This workshop explores the idea of heteroprofessionalism and how expectations of gender coherence and heterosexuality have become sedimented within norms of teacher professionalism, creating invisible labour for 2SLGBTQIA+ teachers. Participants will consider how to move beyond powerlessness in the face of political hostility toward collective care and institutional forms of support for 2SLGBTQIA+ teachers.

In this session, participants will discuss the ways in which recent changes in the political and social landscape of Alberta have impacted and changed the mental health of Two-spirit, trans, and gender-diverse youth, specifically examining how these realities may be showing up within the classroom. Together we will explore ways to support youth who may be navigating these challenges, as well as the ways in which Skipping Stone Foundation is stepping through exploration of the services we provide to help community members not just survive but thrive.

An exploration of the many approaches to allyship from difficult to navigate environments to schools filled with rainbows. It isn't always about the symbols on the walls; it's about the professional in the room.

This workshop aims to develop an appreciation of the diverse histories of gender and sexuality on Turtle Island (what is now known as North America) pre-colonization, helps to recognize the effects of colonization on Indigenous gender and sexual diversity historically and currently, and provides hopeful paths towards the acceptance, support, and celebration of queer Indigenous folks. In this workshop, we will explore strategies that foster decolonial allyship practices in the spaces we occupy, including the workplace and interpersonally.