Presented in reappointment professional dossier, August 2022.

My professional growth, experience and achievements have been significant and impactful both for myself and the SSW. My roles as Chair of the BSW program and Educational Leadership faculty have been enriching and transformative experiences for me as a SW, educator, community organizer, and researcher. At the same time, I have helped the School grow and refine its programs, processes and courses, as well as adapt to the consequences of a global pandemic. This has helped me understand my diverse roles and responsibilities and outline a clear path on what I wish to accomplish in the coming years of my academic career.

A.  Solidify my SoTL and Work Toward Social Justice

I will continue to focus my SoTL work on social justice, queering schools of social work, and developing more  LGBTQ2S+, Indigenous, race-related and disability content in SW education to better prepare our students for professional work. I will prioritize projects focused on Queering Schools of SW. As presented in a previous section, I am currently leading a research project on Queering the UBC SSW and launching the first steps of a pan-Canadian collaborative research initiative. My personal motivations to advance these topics and my ability to learn in action will contribute to moving the SSW forward on these important issues. I am fortunate to be able to collaborate with strong colleagues and mentors at UBC and the SSW, SoTL and other SSW across the country on this important and meaningful work.

Current projects to be continued and expanded:

• Queering the School of Social Work, SoTL Seed UBC;
• Queering the Schools/Faculties of Social Work in Canada, CASWE-ACFTS, Queer Caucus;
• Climate Justice in SW Education, Climate Education Grant;
• Critical Pedagogy in SW Education: Lessons Learned for Continuous Learning, ISUSW.

B.  Community Needs to be Continually Renewed

In the last years, we have experienced several challenges at the SSW that have impacted our ability to be a community of teachers and learners. In the coming years, I will continue exploring how our community at the SSW can be strengthened. The last several years of living in the context of a pandemic have reminded us of how essential a community is in providing the right conditions to work, teach, and strive to build a happy, successful learning environment. This is as true for students as it is for staff and faculty. To stay healthy, a community needs to be continually renewed and re-created. In the coming years, I would like to contribute to renovating a sense of community at the SSW and at UBC by:

• representing the School at the Jack Bell Renewal working group and advocating for a building that is more conducive to a community of learners;
• organizing more events that promote a sense of community among staff, faculty and students;
• supporting student leaders in organizing various groups and initiatives that foster collegiality, peer support, equity and social justice.

C.  Québécois and SW

Several events over the last years have allowed me to revisit my personal history as a Québécois and francophone SW. We often do not fully realize the nuances and richness of our own culture and history until we find ourselves away from it. Being at UBC and working with anglophones and international colleagues has created a unique context where I am pushed to revisit my own experiences, history and knowledge. I am proud of my Québec culture and experience, which provide me with a unique vision of SW. Through my work, I would like to contribute to building bridges and a deeper understanding of our experiences, differences and similitudes.

My unique position as a Francophone faculty in an anglophone university offers me a distinctive perspective on both SW and research, and an opportunity to foster this cultural, academic bridge.

Over the last year, I have reconnected with Queer francophone colleagues and have invited them to collaborate in designing a Canadian educational initiative that is more comprehensively inclusive of both cultural experiences. I would like to reflect more deeply on the history and practice of SW in Québec, and share its strengths, challenges, and opportunities for learning and practicing SW with students and colleagues. I would like to include content to help students better understand the realities of francophones in Canada, and better equip them to work with francophones in a minority context. Thus, through my role as a university educator, I would leverage my professional background and history, as well as the unique aspects of the Quebec experience of SW to our collective learning and practice.

D. Finding Balance, Thriving and Uniqueness

Over the last several years, I have continually worked on finding balance in my work and personal passions. I have learned that, in order to thrive, I must align my work with my professional values and philosophy. I’ve learned to prioritize opportunities that align both with the School’s Vision with my professional priorities and my passions.  As faculty, we are given an incredible opportunity to advance the SW profession and make contributions to society. My career has been dedicated to helping others, building community, compassion, freedom, dialogue, shared power and social justice. These values are deeply grounded in my experience of life. And it is when I feel grounded in these that I experience health, happiness, creativity, deeper power and fabulousness (Reynolds, 2019). My last years have taught me how essential it is to remain truthful to my experience of being an educator and a learner. It is with great enthusiasm, renewed self-knowledge and confidence that I continue my journey.

Reynolds, Vikki (2019). The Zone of Fabulousness: Resisting vicarious trauma with connection, collective care and justice-doing in ways that centre the people we work alongside. Context, pp. 36-39.

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 4^th 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.

Presented in reappointment professional dossier, August 2022.

Half a century ago, higher education institutions were primarily reserved for elites (Bracken & al. 2019). In Canada, full-time enrollment in post-secondary institutions increased significantly from 91,000 in 1951-1952 and to 1.7 million in 2015-16 (Andres 2016, HESA 2019). This is mainly explained by better access to post-secondary education for equity-deserving groups and, more recently, international students. In this way, students in our classrooms are more diverse than ever before, and diversity and inclusion have become a central question in higher education. As an Educational Leader, I have reflected on ways to promote accessibility and social justice in the classroom, School, Campus, and higher education. I draw on my diverse experiences working with equity-deserving groups and take active roles in building knowledge, sharing and taking action.

Queering Schools of Social Work and Higher Education

In Canada, there has been a failure to address queer individuals and communities, queer-based theories, and queer issues in social work education and the social work profession

(Hillock and Mulé 2016)

Advancing social justice is a core value of the UBC SSW and the SW profession in Canada (CASW, Code of Ethics, 2005). However, there are essential gaps in sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (SOGIE) education in schools of Social Work. Much remains to be explored in the literature on SOGIE instruction in SW (Mulé et al., 2017; Gezinsky, 2009). SOGIE education has been limited and often led by students or individual instructors, while some schools of SW only offer elective courses on LGBTQ2S+ content. Unfortunately, LGBTQ2S+ populations continue facing diverse forms of discrimination, which have negative health and well-being outcomes (Mulé, 2015). SW students will work with LGBTQ2S+ people during their careers but are not provided with sufficient training to address these populations’ needs and intersecting identities (Mulé et al., 2017). Furthermore, SW students who identify as LGBTQ2S+ experience homophobia, transphobia, and heterosexism within SW schools (Dentato et al., 2016).

A key pillar of my EL leadership is to improve SOGIE education in schools of SW to prepare students better to work with LGBTQ2S+ populations, while also exploring how higher education can be made a safer learning environment for LGBTQ2S+ students. To do this, I am involved in several initiatives:

• Presentations on SW with LGBTQ2S+ populations to professionals and SW students:
  • Coulombe, A., Groat, J., Kia, H., & Wrene, A. (2021). Sexual and Gender Diversity in Social Work: A Critical Conversation, School of Social Work, UBC.
  • Coulombe, A., & Kia, H. (2019). Sexual and Gender Diversity in Social Work: A Workshop for Social Workers, Continuous Professional Development offered by the School of Social Work, UBC, Vancouver.
  • Coulombe, A., Groat, J. & Kia, H. (2021). Queering Schools of Social Work: A Conversation. Canadian Association for Social Work Education Conference, Online.
• Advocating for Queer inclusion within the SSW and Campus, for example by co-creating the SSW’s statement on transphobia in 2019;
• Principal Investigator on the research project, Queering the School of SW, funded by the UBC CTLT Seed Grant;
• Recipient of the Dean’s Award for EL and Innovation Project, Queering the School of Social Work and Higher Education; and
• Co-Lead of Queering Schools/Faculties of SW in Canada Initiative, CASWE-ACFTS, Queer Caucus.

Teaching Climate Justice in Social Work and Community Organizing

Social Workers and community organizers (CO) play a crucial role in helping people confront various forms of inequity, injustice, and discrimination by assisting them to heal, reflect and improve their lives, communities, and society. This work is foundational to addressing oppression and supporting social justice and inclusionary solutions, particularly in response to transformational issues such as climate change. Climate change disproportionately affects marginalized populations facing other forms of inequity and injustice (Dominelli, 2013). In this area of my EL, I reflect on our responsibility as instructors to prepare SW and CO students to work on climate justice. Consequently, I have integrated more and more of these topics into my teaching:

• Collaborated with three passionate MSW students to reflect on and design teaching strategies and modules to train SW students on Climate Justice:
  • Mik Turje in SOWK550 (2020);
  • Jamin Short in SOWK335 (2021);
  • Shannon Murphy in SOWK440C/529A (2022).
• Awarded a Climate Education Grant from UBC Sustainability to improve the inclusion of Climate Justice inSOWK440C/529A: Community Organizing for Climate Justice (2022).

Universal Design for Learning

From 2013 to 2015 I was part of the working group in Montreal on the research project, “Projet interordres sur les applications pédagogiques de la conception universelle de l’apprentissage” (Research Project on the Pedagogical Applications of Universal Design for Learning, CRISPESH, Montreal).  The project’s main goal was to adapt the UDL model to francophone higher education teaching practices and implement practical and transferable applications. I led one of the UDL teaching pilot projects at a Montreal CEGEP, one of five CEGEPs and universities invited to participate in the pilots.

The applied research experience provided me with direct insight and experience with UDL principles. I now consistently apply UDL principles in my pedagogy and course design to make them universal and accessible to the broadest diversity of students possible. Incorporating UDL principles into course content and delivery makes them more accessible to a diversity of student learning abilities and styles and contributes to lowering anxiety and greater student engagement.

• Offered workshops on UDL at the UBC CTLT (2019, 2022) to introduce instructors to this model:
  • Coulombe, A. (2022). Introduction to Universal Design for Learning: What? Why? And How? 13th Annual Celebrate Learning Week, UBC.
  • Coulombe, A. (2019). Universal Design for Learning: A Teacher’s Perspective. UBC CTLT Summer Institute.
• Maintained relationships with experts in UDL by attending the Pan-Canadian UDL conference at Royal Roads University in 2019 and connecting with UBC colleagues who work on UDL (ISoTL).

• Bracken S., Novak K. (2019). Transforming higher education through universal design for learning: An international perspective. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
• Dentato, M. P., Craig, S. L., Lloyd, M. R., Kelly, B. L., Wright, C., & Austin, A. (2016). Homophobia within schools of social work: The critical need for affirming classroom settings and effective preparation for service with the LGBTQ community. Social Work Education, 35(6), 672-692.
• Dominelli, L. (2013). Environmental justice at the heart of social work practice: Greening the profession. International Journal of Social Welfare, 22(4), 431-439.
• Gezinski, L. (2009). Addressing sexual minority issues in social work education: A curriculum framework. Advances in Social Work, 10 (1), 103-113.
• Hillock, S., & Mulé, N. J. (2016). Queering social work education. Vancouver; Toronto: UBC Press.
• Mulé, N. J., McKenzie, C., & Khan, M. (2017). Sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (LGBTQ) and the CASWE-ACFTS accreditation standards and procedures. Queer Caucus, CASWE-ACFTS.
• Mulé, N. J. (2015). Much to be desired: LGBT health inequalities and inequities in Canada. In Julie Fish, & Kate Karban (Eds.), (1st ed., pp. 27) Policy Press.

Presented in reappointment professional dossier, August 2022.

Pedagogy of Freedom and Critical Pedagogy

Enhancing education and learning of social work (SW), advancing SW values of human dignity, respect, social justice and solidarity. Challenging undergraduate and graduate students to develop critical thinking abilities, initiative and autonomy to advance these Social Work values.

Paolo Freire is well-known for his pedagogical approaches linked to social work practice. In his work, Freire lays out the theoretical foundations of a pedagogical model that aims to develop critical thinking and learners’ autonomy, a model that he has studied and developed throughout his career. This model requires learners to gradually acquire a power of reflection and expression to deepen their understanding of real, often-experienced problems and to identify appropriate solutions.

Since the summer of 2020, I have been designing a pedagogical framework inspired by Freire, and other critical educators like hooks, Palmer and Giroux to provide SW learners with an engaging and critical learning experience while reducing possible obstacles and barriers. I have integrated key elements of this framework into different aspects of my pedagogy and, more significantly, into the course designs for SOWK335, SOWK440C/529A and SOWK550. I have presented this pedagogical framework when discussing teaching SW and pedagogy generally at the SSW, and gave a talk and workshop this summer:

• Coulombe, A. (2022). Lessons learned from critical pedagogy for continuous learning in social work. International Summer University of Social Work, Conference and Workshop, University of California, Los Angeles.

Community of Practice (CoP) Pedagogy:

Community of Practice (CoP) Pedagogy can enable students to engage as a community of learners in a more active learning experience and build knowledge collectively. With the support of the SoTL Seed Program in winter of 2020, I investigated the applicability of CoP Pedagogy in learning social work by integrating a CoP pedagogical framework in SOWK335. In this course, teams of six to seven students met throughout the semester to discuss class topics, reflect on their applicability to SW practice, and analyze case studies. Using qualitative research techniques (focus groups of students and observations), I investigated how CoP Pedagogy created a discussion space for challenging subjects, evaluated its principal applications, and determined its limits. In evaluative feedback on the project, a student summarized the benefits of this pedagogy:

We’re not only able to engage but we’re also growing and forming our group culture, and developing our skills as social workers in a group context together, we’re learning and making mistakes together, but that creates an environment where you don’t feel being judged or criticized on the points or stand your making, and letting us learn skills necessary in that environment, a safe space environment.(Participant in a focus group, COP pedagogy, 2020)

CoPs are groups of people who have a strong appreciation for interacting with one another on a specific area of knowledge. Over time, the group can “develop a unique perspective on their topic as well as a body of common knowledge, practices and approaches” (Wenger, McDermott, & Snyder, 2002). Proponents of the CoP framework argue that learning is inherently social and locally situated, and push back on traditional education methods that focus on individuals learning abstract concepts. Barab, Barnett & Squire (2002) wrote that the CoP approach de-centres what is in the individual’s mind, and instead centres learning in the middle of social interaction. There has been a growing interest in CoP pedagogy in higher education. Situated learning and CoP can be especially meaningful in the context of social work education, where tacit knowledge is especially important, and not everything is written down in manuals, but instead, gleaned from social experiences and accumulated understandings (Moore, 2008). To date, most applications of CoP in Social Work education have employed Virtual Communities of Practice, rather than in-class CoP pedagogy.

• Coulombe, A. (2021). Les Communautés de pratique: l’analyse sociale et l’apprentissage du travail social, International Association for Social Work with Groups Symposium, Online.
• Coulombe, A. & Tembrevilla, G. (2021). Community of Practice Pedagogy and Teaching Analysis in a Practice-based Profession. Teaching and Learning in Practice-Based Professions conference, Mount-Royal University, Calgary.
• Coulombe, A. (2020). Les Communautés de Pratique, l’analyse sociale et l’apprentissage du travail social. CASWE-ACFTS Conference – Cancelled due to COVID Pandemic.
• Coulombe, A. (2020). Communauté de pratique: une pédagogie pour promouvoir l’engagement professionnel dans un cours d’analyse. 31ème Congrès de l’Association internationale de la pédagogie universitaire (AIPU), Quebec City – Cancelled due to COVID Pandemic.
• Coulombe, A. & Tembrevilla, G. (2020). Teaching Social Work Analysis through Community of Practice Pedagogy. E-Poster, Celebrate SoTL, UBC.

Process-Based Learning (PBL):

Inspired by the discipline of Urban Planning, the use of PBL, also known as Studio Pedagogy, I redesigned SOWK440C/529A to integrate PBL Pedagogy. To support this work, I initiated an ongoing collaboration with the UBC Centre for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL) to build and strengthen community relationships that are integral to PBL. I also adapted the projects to help students support organizations working in the context of the pandemic. The integration of PBL pedagogy had positive educational outcomes, as students showed significant engagement in the course and built meaningful projects that helped community organizations. Impactful projects both in and beyond the classroom include:

• Student engagement in democracy during the 2019 federal election, in collaboration with UBC Seeds Sustainability Program, Grace Nosek, in Fall 2019.
• Trans Rights on Campus, in collaboration with Shelby Dakota, trans rights activist with Queer Vancouver groups, Fall 2019.
• Decolonizing activism on campus, in collaboration with UBC Indigenous student groups, Fall 2020.
• Digital equity among immigrant communities during a pandemic, in collaboration with Learning Exchange UBC, Fall 2020.
• Community conversation on gender-based violence with front-line workers, in collaboration with Battered Women’s Society, Fall 2020.
• Citizens’ involvement in monitoring green rainwater infrastructure, in collaboration with the City of Vancouver, Fall 2020.
• Safe spaces for women in Downtown Eastside during a pandemic, in collaboration with Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre, Fall 2020.
• Resisting Cisnormativity and Heteronormativity in Sexual Health Education in High Schools, in collaboration with Qmunity, Summer 2022.
• GHG Emission Tracking for not-for-profit organizations, in collaboration with Food Stash, Summer 2022.
• Anti-racism at the SSW, in collaboration with Lama Mugabo from Hogan’s Alley, Summer 2022.
• Community Accountability and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the UBC Community, in collaboration with Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office at UBC, summer 2022.

The PBL model includes three key elements of learning: “the process of discovery; interdisciplinary collaboration; and metacognition (reflection)” (Hostetler, 2014). In this model, learning occurs through the problem-solving process, where students will choose and apply solutions in real-life-like situations. Students engage in planning-related tasks, creative thinking and critical analysis to build practical actions and solutions to problems (Higgins, Aitken-Rose, Dixon, 2009).