Building a Community of Instructors and Learners

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Presented in my professional dossier, August 2024.

Improvement in post-secondary education will require converting teaching from a solo sport to a community-based research activity. (Herbert Simon, Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, 1986).

 

 

As part of my Educational Leadership (EL), I am helping to build communities of teachers and learners at the SSW, on campus and beyond. Successful communities of teachers and learners acknowledge the diversity of their members’ needs, disrupt traditional educational roles and create opportunities to explore our experiences of being teachers and learners. My EL goals reflect the SSW’s vision to be “a community of learners actively engaged in the development of critical, transformative knowledge for social work practice” and contribute to collaborative actions to address discrimination, injustices and inequities in our roles as SW.

Instructors

As an instructor, my role involves developing advanced knowledge across various topics and utilizing cutting-edge strategies to teach and assess learning progress. Fortunately, we can work together as a community of instructors to support and enhance our roles as educators. In my work at UBC, I focus on fostering a sense of community and collaboration among instructors. Through mentorship, collaborative projects and innovative teaching techniques, I have significantly contributed to curriculum enhancement and pedagogical innovation in social work education. These efforts have improved the teaching capabilities of instructors, created a supportive learning environment, and encouraged ongoing improvement in educational practices. This happened both informally, through dialogue and sharing with colleagues, as well as through formal efforts such as:

  • Offering one-on-one support and mentorship to new and experienced instructors (ongoing).
  • Co-organizing and co-facilitating the Adjuncts’ Orientation (2019, 2020, 2023, 2024).
  • Co-organizing and co-facilitating the Social Work Education and Learning Lounge (SWELL, ongoing).
  • Co-organizing surveys (e.g. Lessons Learned from Online Teaching, 2020; Queering the School of Social Work, 2022).
  • Facilitating workshops and sessions on teaching (e.g. Teaching SW and Pedagogy: An Introduction Workshop for Ph.D. Students, 2021).
  • Collaborating with UBC faculty members at the Institute for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to organize Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) events on campus (since 2022):
    • Baniassad, E., Coulombe, A., J., Jarus, Rawn, C. (2023). Celebrate SoTL: World Café, Celebrate SoTL Week, I covered the topic of justice, equity, decolonization, Indigenization and inclusion (JEDII) in SoTL.
    • Bartolic, S., Coulombe, A., Graves, J., Jarus, T. and Rideout C. (2022). Creating a SoTL Project Celebrate SoTL Week. Workshop. UBC.

Learners

The work of education is divided between the teacher and the environment.

—Maria Montessori

The environments in which students find themselves can significantly affect their ability to engage in learning. As teachers and as a school, we need to be more aware of these environments and reflect on the aspects that we can improve. I have introduced various projects and initiatives to enhance the conditions for student learning beyond the classroom. These efforts have led to substantial improvements and pedagogical innovations, fostering a more supportive and effective educational experience for SW students. They include:

  • BSW Orientation (2019, 2020, 2023, 2024).
  • RSW Licensure Exam Preparation Workshop (2019, 2020, 2021, 2023) —Together with my colleagues Kelly Allison and Christiana Bratiotis, I presented an educational session regarding the RSW Licensure exam, including tips and suggestions for writing the exam and facilitating practice tests.
  • BSW Mentorship Program (2019–2021).
  • Fall speaker series (2020).
  • Building Community at the School of Social Work: An accessible BSW fourth-year placement (2021).
  • Developed a pilot project with UBC Counselling Services and the SSW to provide social work students with appropriate counselling options (2021).