Research

Advancing wellbeing, mental health, and resilience of students, educators, and school leaders through high-impact scholarship.

Prevention and Wellness Promotion

  • Mental Health Literacy
  • Trauma-informed practices 
  • Embracing Neurodiversity 

Addressing Critical Needs

  • Child & Youth Mental Health
  • Equity and Indigenous Wellbeing
  • Under-resourced Communities 

Leading for Wellbeing

  • Preparing Teachers for Tomorrow
  • Educator Wellbeing
  • Organizational Wellbeing
  • Inclusive Practice
  • Effective Implementation

Catalyst Grants

Our Catalyst Grants support research to advance child and youth wellbeing and mental health in P-12 educational contexts related to one or more of CWE’s Research Pillars.

  • Value: Up to $25,000
  • Duration: up to 2 years
  • Next round of applications: TBD

2026 Catalyst Grant Recipients

Co-designing Leadership Wellbeing Interventions for Psychologically Safe and Sustainable Educational Systems

Principal Investigator: Nadia Delanoy

Co-applicants: Stephen MacGregor, Kelly Hicks

This project extends a district-university partnership examining leadership wellbeing, psychological safety, and organizational conditions that support flourishing educational leadership environments. Building on a cross-provincial environmental scan and appreciative inquiry interviews with school and system leaders, this project advances the work into a design-based research phase focused on intervention design, implementation, and evaluation. Topics will include co-regulation, psychologically safe leadership practices, collaborative decision making, organizational trust, mentorship structures, resilience, reflective leadership, and sustainable leadership practices.

Teacher Perspectives on Addressing Student Behaviour

Principal Investigator: Patricia Danyluk

Co-applicants: Meadow Schroeder

Partners: Kathleen Lane, EdCan

This qualitative research project will determine how teachers across Canada view complex classroom behaviour, what approaches and resources they use, and what supports they need to better address student behaviour. Findings from this study will inform school- and system-level decisions and supports for pre-service and in-service teachers in managing complex behaviour.

Talk About Manhood: Exploring Diverse Masculinities and Body Image with Newcomer Boys, Families, and Schools

Principal Investigator: Xu Zhao

This project has two aims: (1) to understand how new immigrant and refugee teenage boys in Calgary schools perceive and navigate competing cultural messages about masculinity in family and school contexts, and what psychological consequences they associate with this navigation; and (2) to co-design an arts-based intervention program by engaging boys, parents, and teachers in structured dialogue about diverse and healthy masculinity. The 2-year project will engage three interconnected participant groups in Calgary-area high schools: immigrant and refugee teenage boys; parents of participating boys; and teachers and school counsellors engaging newcomer youth. This research will generate evidence and tools for one of Alberta's most under-served and under-studied populations and build teachers' and parents' capacity to respond to masculine identity development as a key issue in newcomer boys' psychosocial wellbeing.