SALTISE 2025 Keynote Plenary Panels
As SALTISE celebrates nearly 15 years of fostering pedagogical transformation, this two-part plenary brings together founding members, institutional leaders, policy makers, and cross-sector collaborators to reflect on the past, interrogate the present, and imagine the future of educational innovation.
Framed by the concepts of Communities of Practice and systems convening, the panels explore how sustained collaboration across silos—within and beyond the academy—has enabled SALTISE to act as a catalyst for scalable change.
Systems convening refers to the practice of bringing together people across institutional, disciplinary, and organizational boundaries to catalyze collaboration, align efforts, and build shared capacity for systemic change. More than networkers, systems conveners are quiet leaders who bridge cultures, translate across roles, and create conditions for long-term transformation that no single actor could achieve alone.
Together, these sessions examine the enabling conditions that supported SALTISE’s emergence and the broader alliances now needed to shape the next phase of learning ecosystems.
Panel 1 (June 4): Origins and Influence
Title: SALTISE as a Systemic Actor: Tracing the Roots of Educational Innovation
This opening session brings together early contributors and policy leaders to reflect on the local, institutional, and provincial forces that shaped the creation and evolution of SALTISE.
Grounded in the theory of Communities of Practice, panelists will explore how a shared commitment to student-centered pedagogy led to the development of collaborative infrastructures—such as Dawson’s Active Learning Community, inter-institutional partnerships, and research-practice initiatives. They will examine how specific policy environments, funding frameworks, and leadership decisions created space for this work to grow.
The session will also introduce the concept of systems convening—the often-invisible practice of connecting people across institutional, disciplinary, and organizational boundaries to enable collaboration and build shared capacity for systemic change. Systems conveners are not just networkers; they are boundary-spanners who bridge cultures, translate across roles, and create the conditions for lasting transformation that no single actor can accomplish alone.
Drawing on their lived experience, panelists will reflect on how these cross-institutional and interprofessional partnerships helped SALTISE take shape and become a model for scalable educational innovation.
Guiding Questions:
- What does it take to grow a community of practice like SALTISE?
- What enabling conditions and policy landscapes supported—or constrained—its development?
- How might these insights inform the creation of future coalitions for transformative change in education?
Panel
- Beth Acton, John Abbott College
- Emma Harden-Wolf, McGill University
- Thérèse Laferrière, Université Laval
- Jim Slotta, University of Toronto (OISE)
Panel 2 (June 5): Futures and Forward Motion
Title: Beyond the Campus: Convening for the Future of Learning Ecosystems
Building on Day 1’s reflections, this forward-looking panel explores how educational institutions can engage with broader networks—including community leaders, technologists, policymakers, and funders—to co-create sustainable and inclusive learning systems.
Using systems convening as a guiding thread, panelists will discuss how meaningful innovation requires partnerships that span sectors, disciplines, and power structures. They will consider what it takes to build the trust, shared purpose, and infrastructure needed to tackle the social, technological, and ethical challenges shaping the future of education.
Panelists such as Kate Arthur, who works at the intersection of AI literacy, community storytelling, and youth empowerment, and Frank Baylis, whose career spans healthcare, public policy, and entrepreneurship, exemplify how cross-sector actors can serve as valuable allies to post-secondary education. Their perspectives will challenge us to expand who we see as stakeholders in educational change—and what roles they can play.
Guiding Questions:
- How might we reimagine policy-making, partnership, and public engagement to sustain the future of education?
- What new alliances must we build, and what values must guide our collective efforts?
- How can SALTISE and similar communities support systems conveners working across sectors?
Panel
- Kate Arthur, Entrepreneur, Author & AI literacy Adviser
- Frank Baylis, Engineer and Executive Chairman of Baylis Medical Technologies
- Alice Cherestes, McGill University
- Armin Yazdani, McGill University
Meet our panellists
