”The Great Horned Owl, a nocturnal sentinel and chosen as our provincial bird by Alberta’s children, brings forward the symbolism of perceptiveness, patience, and embodied wisdom. Its wide-set gaze and capacity to see through darkness mirror Lee’s ability to stay with complexity and ambiguity - those dimly lit pedagogical spaces that defy immediate clarity but teem with generative potential. The owl does not hurry; it hovers in stillness, waiting for he right moment to move. This echoes Lee’s approach to pedagogical leadership: slow, intentional, and exquisitely attuned to the textures of practice.”

Nancy Thomas (Associate Professor)

”Blue Jays are fiercely loyal to their communities and attentive to their kin, not from a place of control but of mutual care and interdependence. Tricia’s compassion for families and her re-conceptualization of their image in ELCC discourse foregrounded them not as recipients of services but as active, diverse, and capable participants in the lives of children and educators. Her approach asked us to see families not through institutional lenses, but as partners in co-creating meaning.”

Nancy Thomas (Associate Professor)

”The Tanager, often glimpsed in flashes, is a creature of both exuberance and transience. Its presence is a reminder of what resists capture, what sparkles in the in-between. Margaret’s understanding of play resonated deeply with this” play not as preparation, but as presence; not as rehearsal, but as a way of living ethically and creatively with others. She refused to reduce play to outcomes and instead positioned it as a generative space where children, educators, and materials engage in mutual invention.”

Nancy Thomas (Associate Professor)