Date: Thursday, January 24, 2019
Place: Black Box EVS3.845
Time: 5:30 PM
Facilitator(s): Jessica Bleuer, Creative Arts Therapies
Teaching and Learning Winter Festival 2019
Special Event - Thursday, January 24
Take Two: Exploring Difficult Moments in the Classroom
A Theatre Experience to Help Faculty Uncover and Mend Bias in the Classroom
Join your fellow faculty members in interactive theatricalized experiences of Concordia students. This unique faculty event will highlight moments when students have felt marginalized in classrooms.
In this dynamic and spontaneous performance, actors will present classroom scenarios derived from the real experiences of Concordia students. Audience members (faculty and administration only) are allowed to suggest changes to the situations as they unfold in order explore the situations more deeply.
Let’s harness our collective wisdom to learn how to repair classroom dynamics if they go astray.
Inclusive Teaching
Workshop Day 1 - Friday, January 25
Power at the Podium: Privilege in the Academy
Power dynamics are constantly present in any encounter, including those in the classroom. Faculty bring with them a myriad of experiences of power-based inclusion and exclusion which impact how they are perceived as scholars and educators. This workshop will offer faculty an introduction to privilege and how to navigate it in order to provide more powerful learning experiences for students.
The workshop main objectives are to develop and explore strategies to:
- Define privilege
- Identify dynamics of privilege present in the classroom
- Increase capacity for inclusive classroom engagement
- Engage rather than avoid discussions where dynamics of privilege are present
Date: Friday, January 25, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 9:30 am - 11:00 am
Facilitator(s): Mark Andrew Galang Villacorta, PhD, Senior Lead, Equity and Diversity & Alicia Cundell, Teaching Consultant, Centre for Teaching and Learning
(Anti)-Racism in the Classroom: Tools for Teachers
Join Shanice Nicole for an interactive and discussion-based workshop exploring (anti)-racism in the classroom. Racism - like all forms of oppression - is present in our educational systems and spaces. Acknowledging and understanding the way it shows up is an important step in making change within our institutions. Teachers will be invited to share their strategies, challenges, and ideas for building capacity to address racism in the classroom and develop an anti-racist practice in their teaching. This will not be an introductory workshop but all levels of knowledge are encouraged!
Date: Friday, January 25, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Facilitator(s): Shanice Nicole
Workshop Day 2 - Friday, February 1
What Does Meaningful Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Academy Look Like and What are its Implications for Teaching and Learning?
The aim of this workshop is to increase participants' knowledge, critical analysis and understanding about the complexities of what ‘decolonizing and Indigenizing’ the academy means within Indigenous theoretical frameworks in relation to: role of faculty, curriculum, pedagogy, institutional policies and practices, governance, students and Indigenous communities. What critical lessons can you draw from learning about the importance of ‘decolonizing and Indigenizing’ the academy? What implications does decolonizing and Indigenizing have on your role as faculty in relationship to Indigenous students, faculty, Indigenous communities and the wider community? These are just some of the critical questions participants will engage and examine in this workshop.
Date: Friday, February 1, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 9:30 am - 11:30 pm
Facilitator(s): Donna Kahérakwas Goodleaf, Indigenous Curriculum and Pedagogical Advisor, Centre for Teaching and Learning
Cultural Appropriation or Cultural Exchange in the Classroom?
Inclusive pedagogy creates room for multiple knowledges from diverse cultures. How can educators differentiate between Cultural Appropriation & Cultural Exchange? This panel discussion, moderated by Concordia’s Department of Creative Arts Therapies alumna, will feature faculty from universities across Montreal. Participants will engage in a dialogue about teaching approaches, inclusive pedagogy, experiential elements in the classroom and power dynamics in higher education classrooms.
Date: Friday, Febraury 1, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 pm
Facilitator(s): Christina Opolko; Wanda Gabriel, School of Social Work, McGill University; Catherine Richardson, Professor of Social Work, Université de Montréal
Workshop Day 3 - Friday, February 8
The Inclusive Course Syllabus
The foundations of inclusive teaching begin long before instructors set foot into the classroom. An inclusive classroom is first rooted in a syllabus that has been designed to meet the needs of all learners. Instructors make deliberate choices about content, assessment strategies and course policies. As part of the workshop, participants will engage in discussions around these topics in order to apply inclusive design principles to their own courses.
Date: Friday, February 8, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 9:30 - 11:00 am
Facilitator(s): Alicia Cundell, Teaching Consultant, Centre for Teaching & Learning
The Inclusive Classroom
Faculty efforts to create a welcoming and inclusive classroom greatly enhance student learning. These are learning environments where diversity is engaged by instructors, in both the course curriculum and classroom demographics, and in which all students feel safe to express their opinions and share their experiences. This workshop will offer faculty a foundational orientation to principles of inclusive teaching based on research and best practices in higher education pedagogy.
The main objectives of the workshop are to develop and explore strategies to:
- Create a sense of belonging for all students
- Actively help all students see themselves in the materials you are teaching
- Collectively set expectations to accelerate learning and student success
- Create space for respectful dialogue and disagreements
- Increase capacity to navigate difficult conversations
Date: Friday, February 8, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 11:15 am - 12:45 pm
Facilitator(s): Mark Andrew Galang Villacorta, PhD, Senior Lead, Equity and Diversity
Breaking Down the Myth of the “Average Learner:” Understanding Learner Variability
This presentation will review some of the common issues students face in our classrooms. While we tend to think there is an "average learner" or “typical student” who learns in a predictable way, the reality is actually much more complex. We will explore the barriers faced by students with mental health issues, learning disabilities, or on the Autism Spectrum. We will learn more about the challenges of executive functioning for these students and the academic accommodations that may support them.
Date: Friday, February 8, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 1:15 - 2:45 pm
Facilitator(s): Anna Barrafato, MA, Psychologist, Interim Manager, Access Centre for Students with Disabilities
Workshop Day 4 - Friday, February 15
Handling Difficult Moments in the Classroom
Let’s critically explore subtle and not so subtle ways that our curriculum and everyday language has the potential to negatively impact minority students' sense of belonging, sense of safety and success in the classroom.
By exploring case vignettes, role-play and discussion, we can access our collective wisdom and build classroom structures that are conscientious with regards to our diverse student body, creating spaces that address the multiple ways that systemic injustices from the outside world permeate our classrooms and find ways to resist these influences.
Date: Friday, February 15, 2017
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 9:30 am - 12:00 pm
Facilitator(s): Jessica Bleuer, Creative Arts Therapies
Strategies for Having Challenging Conversations in the Classroom
Teaching for tomorrow includes supporting students' development of skills to engage in difficult conversations to try to reach across differences in ways that minimize judgement, defensiveness and harm and maximize respect, empathy, and connection. This workshop will explore the strengths and limitations of Rosenberg’s model of non-violent communication from a feminist perspective for use in the classroom.
Date: Friday, February 15, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 12:30 - 2:00 pm
Facilitator(s): Rosemary Reilly
You Can’t Check Your Faith at the Classroom Door: Exploring the Realities of Students who are Religious
Did you know that almost ¾ of Canadians consider themselves religious? That means that Concordia’s classrooms are filled with students to whom religion matters to various degrees. How do we offer a positive classroom experience to all our of students, whether they follow religious or spiritual paths, are agnostic or atheist? This workshop will explore some practical topics of inclusion and religious diversity, as well as ample opportunity for discussion.
Date: Friday, February 15, 2019
Place: SGW FB 620
Time: 2:15 pm - 3:45 pm
Facilitator(s): Ashely Crouch, Interfaith Facilitator and Rev. Ellie Hummel, Chaplain and Coordinator; Concordia Multi-faith and Spirituality Centre