September 2, 2025 • 23 mins
What happens when educational vision meets community resilience? Meet Christine Truesdale, the newly appointed CEO of LEARN (Leading English Education Resource Network), who brings decades of experience and a profound connection to Quebec's English education landscape.
Christine takes us on a journey through LEARN's fascinating evolution, beginning with its formation in 2005 through the merger of three vital organizations: the Learning Materials Centre, which developed educational resources when major publishers deemed English materials unprofitable; the Quebec English Schools Network-RECIT, supporting technology integration across the province; and the Distance Education Community Network (DECN), formed by three school boards to provide essential courses to students in remote areas. This strategic consolidation created a unified approach to serving Quebec's English educational community that continues to evolve.
At its core, LEARN operates as a community-centered organization governed by representatives from across Quebec's English educational ecosystem. As Christine eloquently states, "LEARN is us, LEARN is all of us" – a community organization that truly belongs to the community itself. This deep connection extends beyond formal education structures to include partnerships with organizations across cultural, health and social services, and employability sectors, recognizing education doesn't exist in isolation.
Looking forward, Christine shares her vision for LEARN's future amid significant challenges including changing language laws and funding uncertainties. She envisions an organization that helps Quebec's English-speaking youth develop a genuine sense of belonging and opportunity, connecting them with vital services across multiple sectors. Her ultimate goal transcends academic achievement: "We help students succeed academically but also help them feel rooted in their identity, confident in their bilingualism, and connected to their future in Quebec."
Subscribe to ShiftED to stay connected with more inspiring conversations about the future of education in Quebec and beyond. Together, we're building educational communities that don't just survive – they thrive.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chris Colley (00:13):
Here we are back at another episode.
Another school year begins 25-26.
ShiftED is back with someamazing guests and podcasts for
the school year.
Please subscribe to us so thatyou can always be in the know.
Now we're starting off thisseason or this episode this
(00:35):
school year, I should say with avery fine guest from LEARN.
We have the new CEO with us,Christine Truesdale, who has
just recently stepped into theposition of the CEO, and we felt
that it'd be a great time forus to talk a little bit about
LEARN's history and present andfuture, and Christine has been
(01:01):
here for a long time and she'lltell us a little bit about that,
but we'll get some ideas as towhere LEARN will be in 10 years
from now.
So, Christine, thanks so muchfor joining us here on ShiftED
podcast.
It's great that you joined ustoday.
Chrstine Truesdale (01:17):
Thanks, it's great to be here
Chris Colley (01:20):
Christine I mean, I know you very well, but I
would like our listeners to getan idea of where all this began
for you.
What were your beginningfootsteps in the beginnings of
LEARN and then the evolutioninto LEARN?
Can you lay that out for us abit?
Chrstine Truesdale (02:07):
So just for people who might not know the
history of how LEARN started, wewere created as a merging of
three different organizations.
That a gap where the largerpublishers didn't see that it
was profitable to creatematerials in English around the
time of the reform, so that'sback in around 1999.
And the Quebec English SchoolsNetwork, RECIT, had been around
to support the integration oftechnology across the province.
So there were a team of peopleworking on that way back at the
(02:33):
creation of the RECIT around theyear 2000 as well, created so
that boards that needed toprovide mostly classes in math
and science to students whoneeded the courses to graduate
and to move on to highereducation but didn't have
(02:55):
necessarily a teacher that couldoffer those classes within a
school.
Three boards got togetherWestern Quebec, Eastern Shores
and Central Quebec to supportdistance education and to go
beyond a pilot project that hadbeen created actually through
the ministry would sort ofprovide one shop for these kinds
(03:28):
of services for the Englishcommunity and it would be more
effective to provide servicesthat way.
So I was involved myself in theLearning Materials Centre and
the Quebec English SchoolsNetwork-RÉCIT.
So I've been around since thebeginning of LEARN.
I was an instructional designerand a pedagogical consultant at
the time, and so my role hasevolved in the organization.
(03:53):
I was involved inorganizational learning as the
director of IT for a while andthen for 10 years the director
of pedagogical services, I hadkind of a deep understanding of
how the organization works andwhat we could do and continue
(04:14):
some of the good work that we'vebeen doing, but also, you know,
have taking the opportunity tolook at the future.
Since we have been around for20 years and we're very proud of
what we've done, but we alsohave to look at where we need to
go, given the context thatwe're in right now.
Chris Colley (04:31):
Can you recap just that one more time, because
it's hard for, I think, some ofour community members to
understand that we are a mergerof three different kind of
organizations that existed prior.
Chrstine Truesdale (04:43):
So the Learning Materials Center had
been created to work on projectsand develop print materials for
the English-speaking communityin education and the school
boards, because a lot of thebigger publishers weren't
willing to develop materials inEnglish during the educational
(05:04):
reform because it wasn'tnecessarily profitable, and so
they would publish the majortextbooks, but other kinds of
materials that werecommunity-based were not
necessarily going to be producedthrough the larger publishers.
So it was created to developeducational materials and print,
(05:24):
publish, print materials aswell, and the Quebec English
schools network was a networkthat had been created initially
through the Ministry inAnglophone services and had been
the small schools network thatthen evolved into the Quebec
English schools network and thenthe and then.
(05:54):
So there was a provincial teamsince the year 2000, 99, to help
support the integration oftechnology across the province
for teachers and students.
And the Distance EducationCommunity Network was built out
of a pilot project that also hadbeen started at Anglophone
(06:17):
Services at the ministry providedistance education for
primarily math and sciencecourses for students at a
distance, initially through CCmail and over the phone and fax.
Chris Colley (06:31):
And talking about the 90s here right.
Chrstine Truesdale (06:33):
Eventually it evolved and started happening
over the internet in a varietyof different platforms, and
three school boards WesternQuebec, eastern Shores and
Central Quebec together formedthe Distance Education Community
Network to support distanceeducation for the English school
boards across Quebec to provideonline courses where it was
(06:59):
difficult to find teachers toserve the small, very small
schools or students in specificcircumstances.
So those three organizationswere merged into what is now
LEARN, that was created in 2005.
Chris Colley (07:16):
Right, and can you tell us what the acronym LEARN
stands for?
Like what is that?
Chrstine Truesdale (07:22):
Leading English Education Resource
Network.
So we are a network.
I think the N is reallyimportant we are a non-profit
organization that was created bythe school boards to support.
This was the original mission ofLEARN is to that was the
original mission to serve theenglish-speaking educational
(07:44):
community across Quebec byproviding services, different
types of services, so onlinelearning, eventually a tutoring
program online, supporting theintegration of technology and
also developing and providinginitially print materials.
But we quickly moved intocreating digital materials and
(08:08):
hosting them on our website,just because the print business
is really difficult to sustain.
Chris Colley (08:15):
Right and expensive and dying really.
I mean, most stuff ends up noton print.
That's created Very interesting, and what were some of those
early projects that Learnengaged in that some of our
listeners might be familiar within?
Chrstine Truesdale (08:32):
that some of our listeners might be familiar
with.
We had begun developing withthe Learning Materials Centre
the Focus Series, which were aseries of tools to support
graphic organisers, to supportthe integration of the
cross-curricular competencies,and we had lesson plans to go
along with that and ways to helpteachers understand what the
(08:56):
cross-curricular competencieswere and also how to integrate
them.
Chris Colley (08:59):
And to some degree we're still using some of those
graphic organizers or adaptedversions of them now, almost 25
years Still very usefulmaterials, almost 25 very useful
materials.
I mean, yeah, it's a lot ofprocess and brainstorming
materials for students and, um,just great materials.
And it shows the time, you know, it shows the life of something
(09:20):
when it is still being used nowor adapting to now.
Can we talk a little bit aboutthe administrative like who, who
?
Who are the who's the board atLearn?
That kind of helps us figureout what directions we need to
go in and what might be comingdown the pipe or the needs out
there.
Who helps assess what those areLike?
(09:43):
Who oversees kind of Learn'soperations?
Chrstine Truesdale (09:47):
Well, LEARN's a nonprofit that was
originally set up in 2005 by thenine English school boards, and
so currently we have theDirectors General of the English
school boards and Littoral,which is a service center
status , as well as theexecutive directors of the
(10:12):
Quebec Association ofIndependent Schools, QAIS, AJDS,
the Association of Jewish DaySchools, and QESBA, the Quebec
English School BoardsAssociation.
And right now our chairpersonpresident of LEARN is Stéphane
Lagacé, who's the directorgeneral of the Central Quebec
(10:36):
School Board and he started asDG last fall, 2024.
And our vice president rightnow is Mike Helm, who's the DG
of the New Frontiers SchoolBoard.
Chris Colley (10:49):
Both great educators, administrators,
people.
We're lucky to have them.
Yeah, when teachers ask mewhat's LEARN, I always say LEARN
is us, learn is all of us right.
Chrstine Truesdale (11:01):
We're a community organization that
belongs to the community.
Chris Colley (11:05):
Right.
So a teacher that teaches incentral Quebec is a part of our
network, is a part of ourcommunity.
We can work with those people.
Chrstine Truesdale (11:15):
Absolutely, and I did mention before that
there were three organizationsthat were merged together to
create LEARN and then later theProvincial Resource Team that
supports the Community LearningCenter network also joined LEARN
.
So, that was a very happyaddition, I think, well suited
to the organization as well,because it brings in the whole
(11:39):
school community approach,looking at our English schools
and community as linked.
In some communities the Englishschool is the hub for the
English community because youknow, you know the services that
can be offered.
If you look at the locallibrary, it doesn't necessarily
have a lot of English books,it's difficult to find services
(12:01):
in English, and so the schoolcan become the hub for
connecting community and theschool.
And so I think it was a greatfit when the provincial resource
team joined our team.
Chris Colley (12:16):
Community has always been central to LEARN's
approach.
People probably know out therethat I work at LEARN.
This is a LEARN podcast, buthow does the organization ensure
that its programs and servicesreally reflect the needs of the
English-speaking communities?
Chrstine Truesdale (12:34):
Well, we don't operate in a vacuum, right
, we have to listen to thecommunity, we have to look at
what the needs are.
We look at research that's donearound the community,
organizations like QUESCREN,other community organizations
that do reports.
We survey our community.
We're embedded in the network.
We're part of the people thatwe serve and, whether it's
through the CLC network orpartnerships that we have with
(13:00):
school boards, or regularconversations with educators and
parents, or surveys that wesend out and consultations that
we're a part of, everything webuild is shaped by the input of
the community.
Chris Colley (13:12):
Right.
And when you say communityyou're talking about all those
nine boards, right?
All those nine English schoolboards.
That's the community.
Chrstine Truesdale (13:19):
School boards, the independent schools,
but also, you know, our broadercommunity, the other community
organizations that we partnerwith, whether that's in culture
or health and social services oremployability.
That's an important part of theecosystem.
I think that you know that'swhere the future lies is looking
at at how we're all connected,because we can't operate just in
(13:41):
an education vacuum either.
We have to see what the largerpicture is.
The other thing is it'simportant to not just look at
data and reports but make timefor dialogue.
So we do spend a lot of time inschools.
We're on, we're, you know, atthe ground level and we meet
people across the province, andit's about building also
(14:03):
long-term relationships, notjust within the schools but with
other organizations, to worktogether to promote the vitality
of the community.
Because it's not just the kidsthat are in our schools today
that are important.
Right, we have to have the longview.
We want to make sure that thecommunity is thriving, to make
sure that we have kids in ourschools in 20 years from now too
(14:24):
.
Chris Colley (14:25):
Right, right.
Who are the employees thatbring, LEARN together and
mobilize?
Chrstine Truesdale (14:30):
We do have a team of educators and people
who've worked in the milieu fordecades.
We also have people, forinstance, on the provincial
resource team, that have workedin community development but
also worked in the educationmilieu and, you know, in
employability in differentspheres of the community.
We also have people who work inadministration and information
(14:56):
technology, because we haveplatforms and infrastructure
that supports the projects thatwe do.
But we also sometimes work withother organizations in order to
provide just supportadministratively in some cases.
So sometimes we've manageddifferent grants for other
(15:18):
organizations that we're workingin partnership with, like the
English Language Artists Networkfor the Arts, Inspire grants.
Great community we're part ofthat larger sphere.
That's cool, that we provide,and the materials that we
produce are primarily educationand classroom-based or
(15:42):
community-based.
We have to look more broadly athow we support the community as
a whole.
Chris Colley (15:47):
Well, that kind of feeds into my next question.
So, stepping in you've been innow for about six months-ish or
so.
What have you found the biggestchallenges have been stepping
into this role.
I mean, you only have a smallsample of time that you've been
there, but what are thechallenges of moving forward,
(16:10):
learn into the future?
I imagine anytime a new CEOcomes in, there are new, fresh
ideas that come out anddifferent ways of seeing how our
community will function and howwe'll interact with that
community.
Can you paint a little bit of apicture for us about where we
might be heading over the next10 years or so?
Chrstine Truesdale (16:29):
So some of the challenges that we're
experiencing, as you can imagine, have to do with what is
happening in education withrespect to different laws that
are being implemented languagelaws and this certainly poses a
challenge with respect tofunding as well.
(16:50):
So if we look at differentchallenges that we've been faced
with, funding when you'refunded by grants are primarily
(17:10):
the funding that Learn has hadover the last 20 years comes
from the Entente Canada-Québecfor Minority Language Education,
and this money goes from thefederal government to the
provincial government and wedeal with the Ministry of
Education for a large part ofour funding.
So this is challenging becauseoften the Ententes take many
years to sign, there are delays,there are delays in getting
(17:33):
paid.
It's not always easy to planahead because we don't know when
the money is coming from whatkind of budgets will be
allocated to us.
It it has been reoccurring overthe years.
So I think part of what we needto do is be proactive and and
(17:55):
although realistically, thiswill be part of the funding that
we have in order to moveforward, we also have to look at
what other opportunities areout there for us.
So whether that's partneringwith other organizations to see
if we can apply for fundingtogether, looking at potentially
different foundations thatmight help to support us,
(18:16):
looking at federal funding thatcould help with the
community-based initiatives.
I think we have to make theeffort to look beyond the
sources of funding thattraditionally we had, because it
is getting more and moredifficult to plan ahead and to
be able to offer the servicesthat we've been able to provide
over the years.
Right, so that, I would say,say is a main challenge.
(18:40):
It's also difficult for peopleto understand who we are and
what we do, and so we have tomake an effort to be visible and
to explain what we do and toshow the impact that we have in
the community.
So that's also interesting.
Chris Colley (18:57):
We've often talked about and I've had
conversations with teachers andconsultants and administrators
alike about the consequence ofnot having an organization like
LEARN around, where we'repushing for those English rights
and English education acrossthe board.
I mean as a conglomerate, andbecause we bring those nine
(19:20):
boards together, there's acommon voice that we can
actually express to thegovernments, to community
members of the importance ofAnglo educational services
within the province.
Chrstine Truesdale (19:34):
I mean, we're not a political
organization but at the sametime we live in a highly
politicized environment rightnow, and so I think that the
fact that we are acommunity-based English-speaking
organization, you know, placesus kind of at the center of that
.
Our primary mandate is notadvocacy, but the fact that we
(19:56):
do develop resources in Englishand provide services in English
in some cases has beenchallenging for us.
Chris Colley (20:03):
Right, I hear you on that.
Well, Christine, just to wrapthings up a bit, thanks again
for shedding some light on whoLEARN is and the direction and
that kind of is my last question.
If you're going to look forward10 years from now, what are
your hopes for LEARN and theimpact it might have on
(20:25):
education in Quebec?
Chrstine Truesdale (20:26):
I think, looking ahead, we have to look
not just in terms of scale butin terms of how we operate.
I think it's great that ourEnglish school boards and our
English schools have a reallyhigh success rate.
The graduation rates are reallyhigh.
But we need to ask ourselveshow can we ensure that our
English speaking youth in Quebecfeel that they belong, that
(20:49):
they see it as an opportunity?
It means helping students,families and communities access
services that they need withinthe education sphere, but also
looking at employability, healthand social services and culture
and identity, and I think LEARNcan be a connector across those
(21:13):
spheres, those fears.
I hope that you know, in 10years from now, LEARN is viewed
as playing a critical role forthe English-speaking community,
not just surviving but thriving,and that we help students
succeed academically but alsothat we help them feel rooted in
their identity, confident intheir bilingualism and feeling
(21:37):
connected to their future inQuebec.
Chris Colley (21:40):
Beautiful.
Chrstine Truesdale (21:41):
And I think we should be working together to
ensure that students can seethemselves staying here and
building careers and familiesand contributing to the
community and living fulfilledlives here.
So it means that we need tocollaborate across the spheres
(22:02):
and that LEARN can be a bridge,that we work in partnership to
build those systems of supportso that our community can thrive
.
Chris Colley (22:12):
Right.
I mean that's an amazing goaland I see it being very
achievable.
We're a strong community, theAnglophones here in Quebec,
particularly in our educationalfield, there is a camaraderie
and a willingness to be a partof this larger community and I
think we're in really good handswith you at the helm of LEARN
for, hopefully, the next longtime.
(22:34):
So thanks, Christine, forjoining us.
It's been a real pleasuretalking with you and learning a
little bit more about LEARN andwhat it can do and where it came
from Very enlightening, and Ihope that our listeners have a
little bit better idea of whatLearn can do for them now and
into the future.
So thank you.
Chrstine Truesdale (22:54):
It was a pleasure.
Here we are back at another episode.
Another school year begins 25-26.
ShiftED is back with someamazing guests and podcasts for
the school year.
Please subscribe to us so thatyou can always be in the know.
Now we're starting off thisseason or this episode this
(00:35):
school year, I should say with avery fine guest from LEARN.
We have the new CEO with us,Christine Truesdale, who has
just recently stepped into theposition of the CEO, and we felt
that it'd be a great time forus to talk a little bit about
LEARN's history and present andfuture, and Christine has been
(01:01):
here for a long time and she'lltell us a little bit about that,
but we'll get some ideas as towhere LEARN will be in 10 years
from now.
So, Christine, thanks so muchfor joining us here on ShiftED
podcast.
It's great that you joined ustoday.
Chrstine Truesdale (01:17):
Thanks, it's great to be here
Chris Colley (01:20):
Christine I mean, I know you very well, but I
would like our listeners to getan idea of where all this began
for you.
What were your beginningfootsteps in the beginnings of
LEARN and then the evolutioninto LEARN?
Can you lay that out for us abit?
Chrstine Truesdale (02:07):
So just for people who might not know the
history of how LEARN started, wewere created as a merging of
three different organizations.
That a gap where the largerpublishers didn't see that it
was profitable to creatematerials in English around the
time of the reform, so that'sback in around 1999.
And the Quebec English SchoolsNetwork, RECIT, had been around
to support the integration oftechnology across the province.
So there were a team of peopleworking on that way back at the
(02:33):
creation of the RECIT around theyear 2000 as well, created so
that boards that needed toprovide mostly classes in math
and science to students whoneeded the courses to graduate
and to move on to highereducation but didn't have
(02:55):
necessarily a teacher that couldoffer those classes within a
school.
Three boards got togetherWestern Quebec, Eastern Shores
and Central Quebec to supportdistance education and to go
beyond a pilot project that hadbeen created actually through
the ministry would sort ofprovide one shop for these kinds
(03:28):
of services for the Englishcommunity and it would be more
effective to provide servicesthat way.
So I was involved myself in theLearning Materials Centre and
the Quebec English SchoolsNetwork-RÉCIT.
So I've been around since thebeginning of LEARN.
I was an instructional designerand a pedagogical consultant at
the time, and so my role hasevolved in the organization.
(03:53):
I was involved inorganizational learning as the
director of IT for a while andthen for 10 years the director
of pedagogical services, I hadkind of a deep understanding of
how the organization works andwhat we could do and continue
(04:14):
some of the good work that we'vebeen doing, but also, you know,
have taking the opportunity tolook at the future.
Since we have been around for20 years and we're very proud of
what we've done, but we alsohave to look at where we need to
go, given the context thatwe're in right now.
Chris Colley (04:31):
Can you recap just that one more time, because
it's hard for, I think, some ofour community members to
understand that we are a mergerof three different kind of
organizations that existed prior.
Chrstine Truesdale (04:43):
So the Learning Materials Center had
been created to work on projectsand develop print materials for
the English-speaking communityin education and the school
boards, because a lot of thebigger publishers weren't
willing to develop materials inEnglish during the educational
(05:04):
reform because it wasn'tnecessarily profitable, and so
they would publish the majortextbooks, but other kinds of
materials that werecommunity-based were not
necessarily going to be producedthrough the larger publishers.
So it was created to developeducational materials and print,
(05:24):
publish, print materials aswell, and the Quebec English
schools network was a networkthat had been created initially
through the Ministry inAnglophone services and had been
the small schools network thatthen evolved into the Quebec
English schools network and thenthe and then.
(05:54):
So there was a provincial teamsince the year 2000, 99, to help
support the integration oftechnology across the province
for teachers and students.
And the Distance EducationCommunity Network was built out
of a pilot project that also hadbeen started at Anglophone
(06:17):
Services at the ministry providedistance education for
primarily math and sciencecourses for students at a
distance, initially through CCmail and over the phone and fax.
Chris Colley (06:31):
And talking about the 90s here right.
Chrstine Truesdale (06:33):
Eventually it evolved and started happening
over the internet in a varietyof different platforms, and
three school boards WesternQuebec, eastern Shores and
Central Quebec together formedthe Distance Education Community
Network to support distanceeducation for the English school
boards across Quebec to provideonline courses where it was
(06:59):
difficult to find teachers toserve the small, very small
schools or students in specificcircumstances.
So those three organizationswere merged into what is now
LEARN, that was created in 2005.
Chris Colley (07:16):
Right, and can you tell us what the acronym LEARN
stands for?
Like what is that?
Chrstine Truesdale (07:22):
Leading English Education Resource
Network.
So we are a network.
I think the N is reallyimportant we are a non-profit
organization that was created bythe school boards to support.
This was the original mission ofLEARN is to that was the
original mission to serve theenglish-speaking educational
(07:44):
community across Quebec byproviding services, different
types of services, so onlinelearning, eventually a tutoring
program online, supporting theintegration of technology and
also developing and providinginitially print materials.
But we quickly moved intocreating digital materials and
(08:08):
hosting them on our website,just because the print business
is really difficult to sustain.
Chris Colley (08:15):
Right and expensive and dying really.
I mean, most stuff ends up noton print.
That's created Very interesting, and what were some of those
early projects that Learnengaged in that some of our
listeners might be familiar within?
Chrstine Truesdale (08:32):
that some of our listeners might be familiar
with.
We had begun developing withthe Learning Materials Centre
the Focus Series, which were aseries of tools to support
graphic organisers, to supportthe integration of the
cross-curricular competencies,and we had lesson plans to go
along with that and ways to helpteachers understand what the
(08:56):
cross-curricular competencieswere and also how to integrate
them.
Chris Colley (08:59):
And to some degree we're still using some of those
graphic organizers or adaptedversions of them now, almost 25
years Still very usefulmaterials, almost 25 very useful
materials.
I mean, yeah, it's a lot ofprocess and brainstorming
materials for students and, um,just great materials.
And it shows the time, you know, it shows the life of something
(09:20):
when it is still being used nowor adapting to now.
Can we talk a little bit aboutthe administrative like who, who
?
Who are the who's the board atLearn?
That kind of helps us figureout what directions we need to
go in and what might be comingdown the pipe or the needs out
there.
Who helps assess what those areLike?
(09:43):
Who oversees kind of Learn'soperations?
Chrstine Truesdale (09:47):
Well, LEARN's a nonprofit that was
originally set up in 2005 by thenine English school boards, and
so currently we have theDirectors General of the English
school boards and Littoral,which is a service center
status , as well as theexecutive directors of the
(10:12):
Quebec Association ofIndependent Schools, QAIS, AJDS,
the Association of Jewish DaySchools, and QESBA, the Quebec
English School BoardsAssociation.
And right now our chairpersonpresident of LEARN is Stéphane
Lagacé, who's the directorgeneral of the Central Quebec
(10:36):
School Board and he started asDG last fall, 2024.
And our vice president rightnow is Mike Helm, who's the DG
of the New Frontiers SchoolBoard.
Chris Colley (10:49):
Both great educators, administrators,
people.
We're lucky to have them.
Yeah, when teachers ask mewhat's LEARN, I always say LEARN
is us, learn is all of us right.
Chrstine Truesdale (11:01):
We're a community organization that
belongs to the community.
Chris Colley (11:05):
Right.
So a teacher that teaches incentral Quebec is a part of our
network, is a part of ourcommunity.
We can work with those people.
Chrstine Truesdale (11:15):
Absolutely, and I did mention before that
there were three organizationsthat were merged together to
create LEARN and then later theProvincial Resource Team that
supports the Community LearningCenter network also joined LEARN
.
So, that was a very happyaddition, I think, well suited
to the organization as well,because it brings in the whole
(11:39):
school community approach,looking at our English schools
and community as linked.
In some communities the Englishschool is the hub for the
English community because youknow, you know the services that
can be offered.
If you look at the locallibrary, it doesn't necessarily
have a lot of English books,it's difficult to find services
(12:01):
in English, and so the schoolcan become the hub for
connecting community and theschool.
And so I think it was a greatfit when the provincial resource
team joined our team.
Chris Colley (12:16):
Community has always been central to LEARN's
approach.
People probably know out therethat I work at LEARN.
This is a LEARN podcast, buthow does the organization ensure
that its programs and servicesreally reflect the needs of the
English-speaking communities?
Chrstine Truesdale (12:34):
Well, we don't operate in a vacuum, right
, we have to listen to thecommunity, we have to look at
what the needs are.
We look at research that's donearound the community,
organizations like QUESCREN,other community organizations
that do reports.
We survey our community.
We're embedded in the network.
We're part of the people thatwe serve and, whether it's
through the CLC network orpartnerships that we have with
(13:00):
school boards, or regularconversations with educators and
parents, or surveys that wesend out and consultations that
we're a part of, everything webuild is shaped by the input of
the community.
Chris Colley (13:12):
Right.
And when you say communityyou're talking about all those
nine boards, right?
All those nine English schoolboards.
That's the community.
Chrstine Truesdale (13:19):
School boards, the independent schools,
but also, you know, our broadercommunity, the other community
organizations that we partnerwith, whether that's in culture
or health and social services oremployability.
That's an important part of theecosystem.
I think that you know that'swhere the future lies is looking
at at how we're all connected,because we can't operate just in
(13:41):
an education vacuum either.
We have to see what the largerpicture is.
The other thing is it'simportant to not just look at
data and reports but make timefor dialogue.
So we do spend a lot of time inschools.
We're on, we're, you know, atthe ground level and we meet
people across the province, andit's about building also
(14:03):
long-term relationships, notjust within the schools but with
other organizations, to worktogether to promote the vitality
of the community.
Because it's not just the kidsthat are in our schools today
that are important.
Right, we have to have the longview.
We want to make sure that thecommunity is thriving, to make
sure that we have kids in ourschools in 20 years from now too
(14:24):
.
Chris Colley (14:25):
Right, right.
Who are the employees thatbring, LEARN together and
mobilize?
Chrstine Truesdale (14:30):
We do have a team of educators and people
who've worked in the milieu fordecades.
We also have people, forinstance, on the provincial
resource team, that have workedin community development but
also worked in the educationmilieu and, you know, in
employability in differentspheres of the community.
We also have people who work inadministration and information
(14:56):
technology, because we haveplatforms and infrastructure
that supports the projects thatwe do.
But we also sometimes work withother organizations in order to
provide just supportadministratively in some cases.
So sometimes we've manageddifferent grants for other
(15:18):
organizations that we're workingin partnership with, like the
English Language Artists Networkfor the Arts, Inspire grants.
Great community we're part ofthat larger sphere.
That's cool, that we provide,and the materials that we
produce are primarily educationand classroom-based or
(15:42):
community-based.
We have to look more broadly athow we support the community as
a whole.
Chris Colley (15:47):
Well, that kind of feeds into my next question.
So, stepping in you've been innow for about six months-ish or
so.
What have you found the biggestchallenges have been stepping
into this role.
I mean, you only have a smallsample of time that you've been
there, but what are thechallenges of moving forward,
(16:10):
learn into the future?
I imagine anytime a new CEOcomes in, there are new, fresh
ideas that come out anddifferent ways of seeing how our
community will function and howwe'll interact with that
community.
Can you paint a little bit of apicture for us about where we
might be heading over the next10 years or so?
Chrstine Truesdale (16:29):
So some of the challenges that we're
experiencing, as you can imagine, have to do with what is
happening in education withrespect to different laws that
are being implemented languagelaws and this certainly poses a
challenge with respect tofunding as well.
(16:50):
So if we look at differentchallenges that we've been faced
with, funding when you'refunded by grants are primarily
(17:10):
the funding that Learn has hadover the last 20 years comes
from the Entente Canada-Québecfor Minority Language Education,
and this money goes from thefederal government to the
provincial government and wedeal with the Ministry of
Education for a large part ofour funding.
So this is challenging becauseoften the Ententes take many
years to sign, there are delays,there are delays in getting
(17:33):
paid.
It's not always easy to planahead because we don't know when
the money is coming from whatkind of budgets will be
allocated to us.
It it has been reoccurring overthe years.
So I think part of what we needto do is be proactive and and
(17:55):
although realistically, thiswill be part of the funding that
we have in order to moveforward, we also have to look at
what other opportunities areout there for us.
So whether that's partneringwith other organizations to see
if we can apply for fundingtogether, looking at potentially
different foundations thatmight help to support us,
(18:16):
looking at federal funding thatcould help with the
community-based initiatives.
I think we have to make theeffort to look beyond the
sources of funding thattraditionally we had, because it
is getting more and moredifficult to plan ahead and to
be able to offer the servicesthat we've been able to provide
over the years.
Right, so that, I would say,say is a main challenge.
(18:40):
It's also difficult for peopleto understand who we are and
what we do, and so we have tomake an effort to be visible and
to explain what we do and toshow the impact that we have in
the community.
So that's also interesting.
Chris Colley (18:57):
We've often talked about and I've had
conversations with teachers andconsultants and administrators
alike about the consequence ofnot having an organization like
LEARN around, where we'repushing for those English rights
and English education acrossthe board.
I mean as a conglomerate, andbecause we bring those nine
(19:20):
boards together, there's acommon voice that we can
actually express to thegovernments, to community
members of the importance ofAnglo educational services
within the province.
Chrstine Truesdale (19:34):
I mean, we're not a political
organization but at the sametime we live in a highly
politicized environment rightnow, and so I think that the
fact that we are acommunity-based English-speaking
organization, you know, placesus kind of at the center of that
.
Our primary mandate is notadvocacy, but the fact that we
(19:56):
do develop resources in Englishand provide services in English
in some cases has beenchallenging for us.
Chris Colley (20:03):
Right, I hear you on that.
Well, Christine, just to wrapthings up a bit, thanks again
for shedding some light on whoLEARN is and the direction and
that kind of is my last question.
If you're going to look forward10 years from now, what are
your hopes for LEARN and theimpact it might have on
(20:25):
education in Quebec?
Chrstine Truesdale (20:26):
I think, looking ahead, we have to look
not just in terms of scale butin terms of how we operate.
I think it's great that ourEnglish school boards and our
English schools have a reallyhigh success rate.
The graduation rates are reallyhigh.
But we need to ask ourselveshow can we ensure that our
English speaking youth in Quebecfeel that they belong, that
(20:49):
they see it as an opportunity?
It means helping students,families and communities access
services that they need withinthe education sphere, but also
looking at employability, healthand social services and culture
and identity, and I think LEARNcan be a connector across those
(21:13):
spheres, those fears.
I hope that you know, in 10years from now, LEARN is viewed
as playing a critical role forthe English-speaking community,
not just surviving but thriving,and that we help students
succeed academically but alsothat we help them feel rooted in
their identity, confident intheir bilingualism and feeling
(21:37):
connected to their future inQuebec.
Chris Colley (21:40):
Beautiful.
Chrstine Truesdale (21:41):
And I think we should be working together to
ensure that students can seethemselves staying here and
building careers and familiesand contributing to the
community and living fulfilledlives here.
So it means that we need tocollaborate across the spheres
(22:02):
and that LEARN can be a bridge,that we work in partnership to
build those systems of supportso that our community can thrive
.
Chris Colley (22:12):
Right.
I mean that's an amazing goaland I see it being very
achievable.
We're a strong community, theAnglophones here in Quebec,
particularly in our educationalfield, there is a camaraderie
and a willingness to be a partof this larger community and I
think we're in really good handswith you at the helm of LEARN
for, hopefully, the next longtime.
(22:34):
So thanks, Christine, forjoining us.
It's been a real pleasuretalking with you and learning a
little bit more about LEARN andwhat it can do and where it came
from Very enlightening, and Ihope that our listeners have a
little bit better idea of whatLearn can do for them now and
into the future.
So thank you.
Chrstine Truesdale (22:54):
It was a pleasure.
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