The Centre for Innovation and Excellence and Learning would like to invite everyone to a new speaker series to explore innovations in community-engaged pedagogy at VIU. Intent on sharing some of the stories from faculty, staff and students already engaged in campus-community partnerships, VIU instructors, staff and students will present their stories of community-engaged teaching and learning.
These sessions will help contextualize community-based teaching and learning in a variety of settings and will introduce some of the innovative programming VIU is creating. Speakers will outline their experiences, reflect on how they came to engage with community partners, and discuss the challenges and benefits of taking teaching and learning off campus. They will also discuss the potential longer term benefits to both students and community partners. Each session will provide time for in-depth discussion. Participants will leave these sessions with a clearer idea of how VIU is providing community-engaged pedagogy in a variety of disciplines.
Light refreshments will be served. Please bring your own lunch to the lunch time sessions. To register please email Kathleen.Bortolin@viu.ca to save a seat.
It’s all coming together: Applied interdisciplinary, undergraduate, community-engaged research
Wednesday, November 19th 12-1 pm, Building 305, Room 440 (Faculty Lounge)
Presenters: Sylvie Lafrenière (Sociology), Beth McLin (Criminology), Robert Willis (Management), Dominique Klees-Themens, Tamara Kurz and Lindsey Snaychuk (students)
In this session, Sylvie Lafrenière, Beth McLin and Robert Willis, along with their students, share the experiences of creating and participating in an interdisciplinary, undergraduate, applied research course. In this course, students partner with different community organizations to work on research projects relevant to each community partner. Speakers will discuss how they came to create and take this course, and the benefits and challenges to teaching and learning off-campus.
Community-based projects: What’s it in for us?
Wednesday, November 26th 12-1 pm, Building 305, Room 440 (Faculty Lounge)
Marilyn Funk, Resource Management and Protection Department (Natural Resource Protection degree) and students
In this session, Marilyn and her third year field school students discuss their experiences of taking their learning off campus and onto Newcastle Island. Working in partnership with the Snuneymuxw First Nation and BC Parks, Marilyn and her students undertook an ecological monitoring project on Newcastle Island. Marilyn and her students will discuss the impetus for going off campus; how they came to partner with the Snuneymuxw First Nation and BC Parks; how the project was reciprocal in nature; and the benefits and challenges of taking the teaching and learning off-campus.
Tribal journeys: Sharing our experiences of teaching and learning off-campus
Thursday, December 4th, 3:30-4:30 pm, Building 305, Room 440 (Faculty Lounge)
Sheila Cooper (Office of Aboriginal Education) and Rob Ferguson (Recreation and Tourism Management)
In this session, Sheila Cooper and Rob Ferguson share their story of building a campus-community relationship with the Heiltsuk community of Bella Bella. This relationship began first through the creation and implementation of an event management certificate program designed for members of the Heiltsuk First Nation, but grew to include VIU’s participation in Tribal Journeys 2014. Sheila and Rob will outline how the relationship began and was fostered, the challenges and benefits to creating a custom-designed off-campus certificate course, and the power of the transformative experiences of Tribal Journeys.
To register please email Kathleen.Bortolin@viu.ca to save a seat.