Instructor: Karen Meyer (karen.meyer@ubc.ca) with UBC Team
Course Title: Principles of Teaching
Course Overview
During this course, we share a purpose––to envision a set of ideas, practices, and values we believe define and guide good teaching. Such a task means building on what we know as teachers. It means discovering new ideas from reading, studying other education contexts, and participating together in dialogues. Our experiences as leaders in education will continue in the future, perhaps within unknown places and possibilities. The intent of this course is to imagine and prepare for that future. Here at UBC, 13 others helped me plan this course and will also participate with you during the course (professors and WUSC students from Dadaab; see photo). The Team welcomes you to this UBC course!
Course Themes
- Day 1: Pedagogy of Resistance (Conflict)
- Day 2: Pedagogy of Intervention (Poverty)
- Day 3: Pedagogy of Freedom (Displacement)
- Day 4: Pedagogy of Peace (Hope)
- Day 5: Pedagogy of Leadership (Dialogue)
Readings (mornings)
Paulo Freire, a well-known, multi-cultural educator, will guide us through the course themes. I have prepared summary essays for each theme based on 8 books he wrote across 30 years of his life. Writings from three other education researchers will serve us also as guides.
Case Studies (middays)
Challenging contexts, presented as Cases Studies, will connect us to a broader view of education: Syria, Cyprus, Palestine. These case examples, and a 4th from Kenya, open and push critical thinking toward local and global perspectives and their connections.
Dialogue Circles (afternoons)
Daily Dialogues in assigned groups allow us to experience posing our own critique, questions and themes related to the Readings, Case Studies, and our own stories as teachers. We interact with the perspectives and realities of others in the group. Two members of the UBC Team will assist and participate in each assigned group.
Study Guide
Groups
Take a look at the group you have been assigned to.