What if education truly honored each learner’s needs, stories, and potential? Join four educators, facilitators, and changemakers for an afternoon of insight and dialogue on transforming education for youth who are experiencing barriers to reaching their potential. Together, we’ll explore how to move beyond harmful systems and toward learning grounded in care, justice, and inclusion.
Topics include unschooling, student-centered alternatives, restorative justice in education, and how to create transcripts that support access to college, university, or other future paths without relying on conventional schooling. Each speaker will share reflections from their lived experience and practice, and the symposium will begin and end with a sharing circle facilitated by Gen Cloutier and Abby Karos.
We know many students and families are facing harm and barriers in these difficult times. This gathering is rooted in the belief that sharing our stories and building community are powerful steps toward healing and change.
Symposium Schedule
1:00–1:40pm: (Un)schooling Through Inclusion and Community (Introductory Circle Included), Gen Cloutier
1:40–2:20pm: What If School Actually Worked for Your Teen? Reimagining Education for Neurodivergent and Misunderstood Learners, Jennifer Graham
2:20-2:40pm: Wellness Break with snacks made by teens at Dandelion Cafe
2:40-3:20pm: What If You Don’t “Finish” High School? Reframing Success and Creating Transcripts That Reflect Real Learning, Stephanie Sewell
3:20-4:00pm: The Role of Restorative Justice in Decolonizing Learning (Closing circle included), Abby Karos
(Un)schooling Through Inclusion and Community, Gen Cloutier
How does inclusion, or its absence, shape the everyday experiences of youth in school? In this session, educator, re-searcher, and neuroqueer homeschool parent Gen Cloutier shares personal and professional reflections on the systemic barriers that impact many learners, particularly those who are neurodivergent, racialized, queer, disabled, and/or navigating school refusal. Drawing from lived experience, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Decolonization (EDI-D) research, and years of work in public, private and alternative education, Gen offers a short talk that invites critical reflection on how exclusion shows up — and how we might begin to collectively rethink and (un)school. Participants will then be invited into a circle to share stories, name challenges, and explore what freedom and inclusive learning could look like in practice.
Gen Cloutier (she/they) is a neuroqueer artist/re-searcher, educator, and consultant living on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabe territory. A former high school dropout turned highschool teacher, pedagogical counsellor and PhD, they now teach in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, where they specialize in EDI-D, relational pedagogy, and creative, student-centered learning. Gen has led pop-up free schools, worked in post-secondary and community settings, and is currently unschooling their teen.They believe in co-creating learning spaces grounded in honouring differences, safe(r) spaces, justice, and collective care.
What If School Actually Worked for Your Teen? Reimagining Education for Neurodivergent and Misunderstood Learners, Jennifer Graham
Is your teen bright, creative, and full of potential but struggling to thrive in traditional school? Whether you're homeschooling or simply exploring alternative education options, this talk will open your eyes to what’s possible when we stop forcing square pegs into round holes. Educator and alternative school founder Jennifer Graham shares how her program helps teens with ADHD, autism, anxiety, or school refusal rediscover their confidence, motivation, and love of learning. This isn’t just a better fit — it’s a glimpse into what the future of education should be.
Jennifer Graham has been teaching high schoolers both in-person and through various online platforms, since 2015. Recognized by her colleagues for her exceptional results reaching students with learning exceptionalities, she has been selected to lead special pedagogical seminars for teachers on a recurring basis through the Ottawa Catholic School Board. Inspired in part by personal experiences homeschooling her own children at both the high school and elementary levels, she has dedicated a significant portion of her career to creating curricula and practical systems to help parents and teachers spark a genuine passion for learning in their students and children.
Passionate about student-driven and experiential learning, new pedagogical research, and alternative education, Jennifer believes that education should be tailored to the individual needs of every student, and that this is possible both in the homeschooling format, and in the traditional classroom.
Certified with the Ontario College of Teachers, Jennifer holds Bachelors degrees in English Literature and Education from the University of Ottawa, Canada.
What If You Don’t “Finish” High School? Reframing Success and Creating Transcripts That Reflect Real Learning, Stephanie Sewell
What does it mean to “finish high school”—and is it always necessary? This session explores why choosing not to follow a conventional path can be a powerful and legitimate option for teens in homeschool or self-directed learning contexts. We’ll also dive into the practical side: how to create transcripts that authentically reflect a young person’s learning journey. Whether you're preparing for possible entry into high school, college, university, or an internship, you'll see examples and get tips for turning what may feel like a stressful process into an affirming one.
Stephanie Sewell is an Alternative Education Consultant and Mentor who works with families seeking wellbeing-focused guidance and support with their child or teen’s education journey. Many of her clients are experiencing School Refusal, and the family is in a state of crisis. Stephanie works with the whole family to create education paths that enable teens and children to reclaim their healthy sense of self, and step into owning their learning, be it in a school or homeschool context. Stephanie also shares her unique perspective and expertise by speaking at conferences and on podcasts, facilitating workshops, and consulting with government education departments.
The Role of Restorative Justice in Decolonizing Learning, Abby Karos
Restorative practices begin with the relationship we have with ourselves and extend outward. They hold the potential to not only heal harm but to reweave the fabric of how we relate, learn, and transform together. More than a tool, restorative justice is a form of ritual: a return to community, slowness, and deep listening.
Without changing our way of being in our efforts for change, we risk reproducing the very systems we’re trying to transform. Decolonizing education isn't only about shifting structures; it begins with asking: What have we internalized? What are we ready to unlearn?
In this closing circle, we’ll participate in a restorative circle together and explore:
What restorative justice teaches us about harm, repair, and the conditions needed for healing
The hidden curriculum of school—and how it contrasts with restorative teachings
How reconnecting to the web of relationships gives us the strength to resist harmful systems together
Abby Karos is an educational changemaker and entrepreneur. She is the founder of two education-impact ventures: Compass Centre for Self-Directed Learning—a learning centre for teens and member of the Liberated Learners network—and Education Liberation, a consultancy grounded in global Indigenous restorative justice beliefs and practices. Abby brings decades of experience working within, outside, and in collaboration with school systems. Her training includes Nonviolent Communication (NVC), Healing-Centered Education, embodied racial healing, restorative and transformative justice, Ember Circle and Council coaching, and the Roadmap to Liberation framework. She holds a Master’s degree in Educational Philosophy. www.abbykaros.com
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