Rhonda Chung
"Running the workshop series allowed me to rally a group of like-minded scholars and practitioners towards a common goal: increasing inclusivity in the classroom, a major component of my own doctoral research."
Conversations are how we build relationships with one another. It has been through supportive conversations with fellow DOEIGSA members, Amanda Dunbar and Laura Pareja Conto, that our interactive series, Conversations that Include, was developed. As student representatives in the Department of Education’s EDI committee, we conversed with and ran several surveys to gauge concerns from our undergraduate and graduate communities. Among the needs identified by students, many of whom are pre-service and in-service teachers, was learning from current practitioners in the field and curating a more inclusive curriculum.
To address these needs, I recruited 11 speakers from three Canadian universities who are active in their fields and employ tasks contributing to inclusivity in the classroom. Workshops were organized into (a) pedagogical innovations that provide attendees with an activity for immediate classroom use, and (b) teacher reflection activities that engage instructors to critically think about a sociopolitical topic using reflective activities that can be extended to classroom use. Workshop leaders were provided with a checklist to support them in the development of their workshops; however, each workshop leader clearly defined how their activities contributed to inclusivity in their own field. In the series, we touched upon issues not readily found in our current education curriculum, including: plurilingual teaching and learning activities, harm reduction in the classroom, self-care through video gaming, cultivating land-sensitive and decolonial activities, how to incorporate visual notes in our teaching practices, and creating accessible power points and academic posters.
In May and June of 2022, the Conversations That Include workshop series was launched, encouraging peer to peer interaction through hands-on experience with a teaching activity. The series was conducted online using Zoom, an accessible platform that engages multi-modalities, like live transcriptions. In addition to advertising our events through the Department of Education, we also posted them on DOEIGSA’s social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram). Even though our event was created for undergraduate and graduate students in Education, workshop attendees included researchers, instructors, pedagogical counsellors, and instructional designers, hailing from countries, like Spain, Ghana, and Pakistan; thereby demonstrating how a local event can have global reach, increasing its inclusivity.
One workshop leader noted that they developed a deeper sense of global awareness, because they needed to take into account that their workshop would reach people of different cultural backgrounds. Similarly, another identified that this experience augmented their sense of empathy since attendees were expected to share their feelings during an activity. While all workshop leaders engaged their communication and public speaking skill sets, many noted that self-awareness and reflection—either on the design of activities or on how attendees would interact with materials—were constants during their preparation process.
For myself, the positive experience I had organizing this event has encouraged me to organize and oversee the publication of proceedings for this event through our Department’s academic journal: Concordia University Papers in Applied Linguistics (COPAL). With the support of my supervisor, Walcir Cardoso, we will guide workshop leaders in publishing their materials and activities used in their workshops, thereby providing further access for future instructors to build a more inclusive curriculum.
Running the workshop series allowed me to rally a group of 11 like-minded scholars and practitioners towards a common goal: increasing inclusivity in the classroom, a major component of my own doctoral research. Some workshop leaders noted that inclusivity meant confronting biases either found within ourselves or the institutions we work in, while others focused on activities that centered on students from historically marginalized groups or that directly engaged with the classroom's culturally and linguistically diverse population. While equity may guarantee enough seats, and diversity ensures that communities are represented, it is inclusivity that is the gatekeeper of educational access, and our curriculum should always be aiming to eliminate any barriers that may inhibit participation in a learning event.
This article was written by Rhonda Chung and edited by Juan Espana.
