AI Thinking Framework
February 20, 2026
Purpose
To guide all WSD staff - teachers, leaders, and partners - in designing learning experiences and operational decisions that are human-centered, equity-driven, and Al-assisted, never Al-led.
Murray Sinclair's Four Questions
The pathway to the good life, or Mino-Pimatisiwin, is supported by the four questions posed by the late Murray Sinclair. Al has difficulty answering these questions for us, because they are deeply personal or at their core, very human questions.
Woven throughout each strategic pillar, staff are invited to ask:
- Where do I come from?
- Where am I going?
- Why am I here?
- Who am I?
These questions ground every Al use in identity, purpose, and community, ensuring technology serves reconciliation and human flourishing.
Seek Truth and Reconciliation
Deep Questions
- Honouring Story & Place: How can Al help us listen to and amplify Indigenous voices, while ensuring that knowledge remains community-owned and culturally protected? (Equity & Safety Tests)
- Learning from the Past for the Future: In what ways can Al-assisted archives, translations, or storytelling tools help staff and students connect past injustices to present responsibilities, and chart a more just path forward? (Learning & Agency Tests)
- Relational Accountability: How will we ensure that any Al use - whether in curriculum or operations - builds authentic relationships with Indigenous communities and does not replace the human work of reconciliation? (Time Test)
Critical Reflection:
Does this Al use help learners locate themselves in history and community?
Does it guide where we are going together in reconciliation?
Build Community Schools that are Barrier-Free
Deep Questions
- Identifying and Removing Barriers: How can Al help us surface and dismantle systemic barriers (race, ability, language, income while reducing, not adding, staff workload? (Equity Test)
- Expanding Access and Opportunity: In what ways can Al extend rich learning experiences and essential resources to students who have historically faced exclusion? (Learning & Equity Tests)
- Ensuring Ethical and Inclusive Practices: How do we ensure Al tools are culturally responsive, inclusive, and transparent, empowering students and educators to thrive? (Safety & Agency Tests)
Critical Reflection:
Does this use of Al help every learner know where they come from and who they are, while opening pathways to where they are going?
Develop a Culture of Thinking and Shared Responsibility for Every Child
Deep Questions
- Joyful, Rigorous Learning: How does any Al use help every learner - especially those most underserved - experience joy, community, and future confidence through rich, relational, and rigorous learning? (Learning Test)
- Shared Professional Agency: How can Al support teachers to make their thinking visible, collaborate, and take shared responsibility for every child's success? (Agency & Time Tests)
- Critical and Ethical Al Literacy: How can we cultivate a culture of inquiry where students and staff learn to question, critique, and improve Al tools, not simply consume them? (Learning & Safety Tests)
Critical Reflection:
Does this Al practice help us answer 'Why are we here?' - to nurture the full humanity and gifts of every child.
Equitable Distribution of Resources
Deep Questions
- Equitable Access to Tools: How can we guarantee that students facing systemic barriers have first access to Al tools and digital literacy training? (Equity Test)
- Data-Informed Decisions for Impact: In what ways can Al-driven insights guide fair allocation of human, financial, and technological resources to maximize impact for learners most in need? (Learning & Equity Tests)
- Empowering Educators: How do we equip educators with professional learning and autonomy to use Al in ways that close rather than widen achievement gaps? (Agency & Time Tests)
Critical Reflection:
How will these Al-informed decisions shape where we are going as a community committed to equity?
Tests for Every Al Decision
Before adopting any Al tool or practice, staff should apply these five "tests":
- Equity Test: Does this reduce barriers and expand opportunity first for those historically underserved?
- Learning Test: Will students think, create, and explain - not just submit?
- Agency Test: Do learners and teachers retain meaningful choice and authorship?
- Safety Test: Is privacy protected and cultural safety upheld? Is there a strong non-Al alternative?
- Time Test: What important human work does this free up for teachers and leaders?
Evidence of Impact
Short, observable signals of success:
- More students talking, drafting, revising, and exhibiting work to real audiences.
- Teacher time shifting toward conferring and small-group instruction.
- Students confidently naming their next steps and why.
- Improved access and reduced participation gaps across subgroups.
- Visible community presence in learning - elders, artists, local partners.
Closing Commitment
This framework invites every WSD educator and leader to ensure that Al serves human flourishing, never replaces it.
Human First. Human Led. Al Assist. Always.