911勛圖

Originally published on the AVP Learning & Teaching Stories website.

Over the past year, 12 instructors took part in The Centre for Educational Excellence&紳莉莽梯;(唬楚楚)���s&紳莉莽梯;Healing from Racism Journey (HRJ), a four-part program devoted to developing anti-racist teaching practices through self-reflection, changing individual actions and interpersonal interactions, and, as a community, through policy change.���

The program was designed by educational developers Bee Brigidi and Sarah Turner, and co-facilitated alongside Ashley Edwards, Indigenous Initiatives and Instruction Librarian��畝t the 911勛圖 Library. ��胼��

HRJ works to dismantle the 15 characteristics of White Supremacy Culture (WSC), articulated in the , by Kenneth Jones and Tema Okun, ChangeWork, 2001. Of particular interest is characteristic 14: Objectivity. It states ���emotions should never play a role in the decision-making.��� HRJ was primarily designed in response to this WSC characteristic as it speaks directly to the dismissal of lived-experiences, particularly��皋f IBPOC/BIPOC students as knowledge holders, which, in consequence, removes their sense of belonging at the university.���

���We saw the need to support faculty with practical tools to decentering whiteness from their teaching and learning practices in design, instruction, curriculum and beyond,��� noted Turner. ���

Interests and motivations���

The 2021 cohort was composed of��皰articipants from diverse backgrounds and departments���from Criminology to Health Sciences. Their interest in the program was equally as varied, and they were eager to share their experiences.���

For Lyana Patrick, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, whose areas of interest include Indigenous community health and well-being, taking this course was an opportunity to view her own story through a different lens. ���For me, the most powerful thing was this opportunity to learn for myself the different ways in which racism has shaped my own experiences.�����胼��

The longitudinal approach was a draw for Nicole Berry, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Health Sciences, which, as a result, created for her a community of practice.���

���What's been exceedingly valuable about this program for me has been the fact that I have been able to establish a community of practice, and that that those relationships have been continually built so that I have a resource for when I need [one].������

The format���

Throughout the year, participants were assigned a number of readings and audio and visual material to absorb, and were then required to complete activities and participate in discussions.��胼��

���It���s a progression from individual learning to in-class discussion to application,��� described Berry.���

Participants were asked to share and reflect on their own experiences, and the safe, non-judgmental environment that Brigidi, Turner and Edwards created was essential for this.���

���It was really��疳lluminating. I actually came to some realizations that I did not have before.��涉nd there was a lot of prompting and reflecting. It was just a really safe space to do that work,��� remarked Patrick. ���I think that they did a really great job of setting of the stage of leading us through different activities and exercises.������

Support and flexibility were key.���

���Our facilitators are incredibly flexible, so they meet our needs instead of telling us like, 'we���re going to teach you��畝bout this today' or, 'we���re going to have this conversation today,' because they���re very attuned to trying to support us in our journeys,��� noted Berry.���

���If we couldn't get [assignments] done in [the specified] time frame, [there was] no judgment whatsoever about that,��� noted Patrick.���

The takeaways���

For Patrick, HRJ confirmed that she was on the right track in the way that she teaches her courses. ���It's helped to reinforce a lot of the things I've tried to do or say. For example, I give opportunities because I know that [hard deadlines] can cause a lot of anxiety.������

She also noted that it brought to her attention the diversity of the Canadian experience. ���

���There's not one experience of being a settler or being an immigrant [��因 It���s not this binary [��因 this sort of settler���indigenous divide. It's much more complex than that, and so it's helped me to��疾ngage with the complexity.������

Mark Lechner,��狹niversity Lecturer in the Faculty of Health Sciences, observed that discussions about racism often get ignored in the sciences, and that HRJ helped encourage him to continue including them��疳n his courses.��胼��

���It has reaffirmed my desire to more consistently bring up issues of racism��疳nto the courses that I teach.��� ���

Berry stated that HRJ broke down and shone a light on the pervasiveness of colonialism, which allowed her to recognize it in her everyday life. ���It's really given us an opportunity to [��因 look from up to down, [on] how these institutions are constructed and how we participate in them.������

A new iteration

To learn more about the program, please visit the HRJ website.���