Marc Spooner and James McNinch of the Faculty of Education at the University of Regina were the co-chairs of a recent symposium held in the heartland of Western Canada.  The symposium brought together some of the best known critical participatory research, Indigenous, decolonising, knowledge democracy and higher education scholars in North America with the notable international addition of Dr. Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Maori scholar and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Waikato, Aotearoa.

Delegates for the 12th PASCAL Conference are invited to propose Big Ideas linked to the themes of the conference in advance of the event: five of these ideas will chosen to be pitched in plenary session on Day 2 with a strict 5 minute presentation. There will then be a debate and vote for the best idea. That idea will then be developed into a longer presentation by the presenter and advocates from the conference, and debated further on Day 3.