We’re rolling…

Posted On October 7, 2026

With 16 pilot classrooms and 6 control classrooms recruited, the Self-Advocacy and Student Success research project is well underway. Most teachers are moving through the program modules with their students.

Here are some things that happened in August and September:

  • Data collection completed for our scoping review. This means, we’ve gathered every single article that we could find that relates to teaching self-advocacy and student success. Now, we will do a careful process of analysis to tease out where the agreement lies across these works, what we can learn for our project, and what others should know. More on what we found, below.
  • A final writing retreat with stakeholders to solve tricky problems. This included Katie Healy (original author), Julia Hale (researcher and Limestone District School Board senior educator), Kama Wilson and Jordan McDonald (senior educators at Algonquin Lakeshore Catholic District School Board), and Teresa Orbillo-Villaruz (senior PhD student, community Autism specialist). One question we wrestled with: How should we teach children about their rights at school in a way that is accurate, empowering, and helpful? We decided to focus on a few guiding principles, and help children practice advocating for their rights. Another question: What is the best way to culminate the whole program? We landed on a differentiated portfolio of the most important learning, lessons, and tools. Here is the in person team (Teresa on ZOOM) gathered on OISE’s (U Toronto) fabulous new 5th floor balcony.
  • Bi-weekly check ins with teachers and children. Once every two weeks, every single teacher who is running the SASS program meets online to discuss their progress, suggest improvements, and signal elements that are working well. Also once every two weeks, we meet with groups of 4-5 students from each implementing class. This has been an awesome feat of scheduling, as teachers enter their preferred times and our research team work to fulfill the meetings. See just one small part of our scheduling page, below. Green highlighting means the meeting went ahead, yellow means we needed to reschedule. October is much… GREENER. LOL. More on what we learned from these meetings below.
  • Focus groups with Community Advocates and Teacher Advocates. In August, we hosted focus groups with some VERY experienced community and teacher advocates. Most of our community advocates have between 20-50 years experience, across multiple settings (home, school, board, ministry, NGO) in education. More on what we learned from these groups, below.

Here is a very preliminary look* at what we’ve learned so far:

Children tell us:

  1. Children want to be known, understood, and valued as individuals.
  2. Friendship, belonging, and inclusion are central to children’s well-being.
  3. Children believe differences should be accepted and respected.
  4. Creative activities support meaningful self-expression and reflection.
  5. Social-emotional learning is viewed as an important part of school life.

Teachers tell us:

  1. Students need explicit teaching about their learning, needs, and self-advocacy.
  2. Belonging, safety, and trust are prerequisites for learning.
  3. Strong relationships make self-advocacy possible.
  4. Children need support to overcome perfectionism, shame, and fear of mistakes.
  5. Meaningful discussion and peer connection drive the deepest learning.

Community and Teaching Advocates tell us:

  1. Self-advocacy is essential, but rarely taught explicitly.
  2. Belonging and psychological safety are prerequisites for advocacy.
  3. Students need flexible and accessible ways to participate.
  4. Teachers require practical implementation supports.
  5. Inclusion, identity, and neurodiversity should remain at the heart of the program.

Our scoping review taught us:

  1. Build self-understanding before teaching self-advocacy.
  2. Teach advocacy skills explicitly and provide repeated practice.
  3. Create authentic opportunities for student voice and decision-making.
  4. Equip teachers with practical implementation supports.
  5. Embed self-advocacy within everyday school experiences.

Across all of this information, the problems with our current SASS program seem to be:

  1. Participation options may not yet be flexible enough for all learners.
  2. Psychological safety may need greater emphasis before self-advocacy activities.
  3. Teachers need additional implementation and adaptation supports.
  4. Cultural responsiveness could be strengthened throughout the program.
  5. Students need more support for situations where advocacy is unsuccessful.

Are you still with us? This was a lot, but we think it is important to share some of our preliminary findings in case they can be useful to you. One last thing we are starting to suspect from our consultations is that students don’t have a firm grasp yet of the overall POINT of the SASS program. When asked why they think they are doing these activities, they often say things like, “You want to learn about children,” or “You want to help us have fun at school,” or, best of all, “You’re trying to help us have a good childhood.” What they are not saying yet is, “You are trying to help us learn essential skills that will help us self-advocate for what we need and succeed.” For this reason, we’re sharing this poster (below) with them all in our meetings, and we’re planning to front load this (or something like it) in an introductory lesson and in a few words of reminder at the end of each lesson.

As always, if you like these posts, please share the website with a friend and encourage them to register. We hope to be helpful to as many people as possible as we take this journey!

* The summaries we shared were gathered by AI and double checked by a researcher.