Issue link: https://takingitglobal.uberflip.com/i/1542824
R. Adeboye, C. Flewelling,V. Ogbole, E. O'Sullivan 52 that… I'm a scientist or I'm an astronaut, or I'm all of these other things that we're able to connect with, which is fabulous." When interviewed about whether Connected North provided role models, teachers' views were again generally positive. Although providing role models was conceptualized in this evaluation as part of overall session quality, it is not surprising given the context that Indigenous role models were the predominant theme, with many teachers highlighting Indigenous role models inspiring their Indigenous students to pursue their aspirations. For example, one teacher remarked that "…for them to be able to see these really amazing and strong [Indigenous] women be just really awesome role models and then see what they're doing with their art kind of gives students like, really like a sense of pride." A few teachers noted that beyond simply providing role models, Connected North's interactive model facilitated the building of relationships between students and Content Providers, noting particularly how the shared experiences of hand-on activities, as well as having multiple sessions with the same provider, could facilitate these bonds. The teacher survey had a very high volume of comments (99% positive) regarding session quality. Although the bulk of these focused on sessions being fun or otherwise engaging, numerous other themes emerged that were common with the teacher interviews. For example, one respondent remarked that "It has added such life to our learning in our classroom environment. The students have immensely enjoyed the sessions ranging from math, science, social studies, and First Nation content. The supplies that are provided are amazing and make each session amazing…" It is important to acknowledge that quality was not uniform across sessions. Most obviously, survey responses were not 100% positive. Concerns that were raised by four teachers were closely linked to the discussion surrounding interactivity, and the idea that some presenters were better than others at capturing student attention and keeping them engaged, and some presenters being less prepared than they might have been. For example, one teacher mentioned that "90% of the sessions" were high quality…The really awesome sessions are the ones where they have a story to tell, and they're really good presenters. I find that sometimes some of the presenters are very shy or very quiet." Another teacher mentioned that sometimes sessions would start to go too long and the children would begin to lose interest, with some presenters being more prepared, and more adept than others at "Having experts talk to the students was excellent. We did a flight session with an actual pilot and having them see first hand the knowledge that he had was great." -Teacher Survey Respondent "They've made really strong connections actually, to their presenters…it's like that person's a friend to them like that. We've done one session with them. And then that's it. They're connected..." -Teacher Interviewee "I've had a lot of different providers, a lot of different subjects and themes and every single one of them is phenomenal" -Teacher Interviewee