Building a Community of Instructors and Learners

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Presented in reappointment professional dossier, August 2022.

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).

 

My educational leadership (EL) is an opportunity to build communities of teachers and learners at the SSW, on campus and beyond. Successful communities of teachers and learners acknowledge the diversity of its members needs, disrupts the 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

Being an instructor is complex. We are expected to develop and build advanced knowledge or expertise across a broad range of topics, and implement cutting-edge strategies to teach them and evaluate learning progress. Fortunately, we can come together as a community of teachers to support and enhance our roles as educators. I worked on building a sense of community and collaboration among instructors in my first years at UBC. This happened both informally, through dialogue and sharing with colleagues, as well as through formal ways such as:

  • offering one-on-one support and mentorship to new and experienced instructor (Ongoing);
  • co-organizing and co-facilitating Adjuncts’ Orientation (2019, 2020);
  • 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);
  • facilitating workshops/sessions on teaching (e.g. Teaching SW and Pedagogy – An introduction workshop for Ph.D. Students, 2021).

Learners

The work of education is divided between the teacher and the environment. (Maria Montessori)

The last several years of the COVID pandemic have shown that the conditions in which students find themselves can have a great impact on their ability to engage in learning. As teachers and as a School, we need to be better aware of these conditions and reflect on the aspects which we can improve. I have implemented different projects and initiatives to improve students’ conditions outside the classroom for learning, both prior to and during the COVID pandemic:

  • BSW Orientation, September 2019 and 2020;
  • BSW Mentorship Program, 2019 to 2021;
  • Speaker Series, Fall 2020;
  • Building Community at the School of Social Work: An accessible BSW 4th year placement, Winter 2021;
  • Developed a Pilot Project with UBC Counselling Services and the SSW to provide Social Work Students with appropriate counselling options, Winter 2021;
  • RSW Licensure Exam Preparation Workshop (2019, 2020, 2021) – Together with my colleagues Kelly Allison, and Christiana Bratiotis, I presented an educational session regarding the RSW Licensure exam, including offering tips and suggestions for writing the exam and facilitating practice tests.