Just steps away from one of Canada’s most famous intersections, there’s a new and exciting connection that combines a western Canada publishing powerhouse with a rising star and Queen’s Faculty of Education alumna.
Portage & Main Press, an educational publisher based out of Winnipeg, first approached Christine M’Lot, MEd’23, four years ago to ask if she would write a textbook and teacher guides for them. After many strong years of work together, the publisher recently asked Christine if she would become associate publisher in preparation for future succession planning.
“I am learning all aspects of the business, which is something that is very new to me,” Christine said. “To get insight into a million-dollar company is quite a next level for me. Still, I'm very passionate about it and it really fits with my interest because their mandate is to publish education material, whether that's textbooks for teachers or books that children can read, and I bring that educational insight into the business.”
Preparing for this exciting opportunity has been a life’s work for Christine, who has known from a young age that she wanted to teach. Straight out of high school, Christine’s dream became a reality as she completed a bachelor of education in Manitoba and got her first teaching job in Winnipeg.
But she wanted to do more than impact one classroom of students at a time. Christine, a member of Swan Lake First Nation in Manitoba, offers consulting as a means of helping non-Indigenous students and teachers learn more about the knowledge and culture of Indigenous peoples, while inspiring Indigenous students and educators to learn more about their culture and history. One major project was a curriculum development project on Treaty One territory called Red Rising Education, which brought together elders, knowledge keepers, Indigenous teachers, and community members to record their thoughts on Indigenous education.
“One goal of the Red Rising Education project was to support both non-Indigenous and Indigenous educators in bringing Indigenous content into their learning spaces,” she said. “Many were afraid of getting something wrong, so this resource was meant to guide them in a right and respectful way.”
That work led Christine to consider graduate studies as a way of providing structure for her future research as well as strengthening her writing.
“I was looking for Indigenous education programs and the World Indigenous Studies in Education (WISE) masters program at Queen’s really stood out to me,” she said. “I liked that it was focused on world Indigenous studies and education, as opposed to programs that were strictly focused on Indigenous cultures in Canada. I also have a curriculum development business which I launched in 2020, and the manageability of a blended program really stood out to me.”
The WISE program is a part-time online and on-campus masters program for students with experience in Indigenous communities or world Indigenous issues. It is intended to be completed in three to four years, and covers topics such as Indigenous Languages Revitalization, Educational Research in Indigenous Contexts, and Government Policies within an Indigenous Context.
Christine began her studies in 2018 with a what she called a program highlight: a one-month on-campus residency, where she had the opportunity to build relationships with her professors and her fellow WISE students, and experience campus life. Thanks to the program’s intentional inclusion of online learning, Christine and her peers were well prepared for the shifts to fully online learning that the program took during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Christine completed her masters in 2023 and publishing a thesis examining the use of virtual and augmented reality, along with other digital spaces, in Indigenous education.
“The goal of my research was to record the unique benefits and challenges that various types of educational technology have on youth engagement and to inform an analysis of the potential use of augmented and virtual reality technology in education settings, particularly settings that work with Indigenous youth and/or to advance Indigenous education,” Christine said.
She noted the WISE program helped her grow as an academic, and called it a good challenge which she has already recommended to her peers.
Outside of the publishing world, Christine has continued to teach – she currently teaches part-time at The University of Winnipeg Collegiate, a university-preparatory high school – and to consult, supporting the work of organizations like the Manitoba Institute of Trade and Technology and Manitoba Teachers’ Society. She has even leant her curriculum experience to an internationally award-winning project focused on hip hop, coding, and social justice called “Your Voice is Power”.
More about Christine’s work can be found at christinemlot.com.