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Pulling Apart, Weaving Together: Pedagogical Considerations for Facilitating White Poor and Working Class Student Engagement in Anti-Oppressive Learning Opportunities
No full textScholars have shown that elite whites and progressive political movements commonly vilify members of white poor and working class communities. Deficit thinking about white poor and working class students can have implications for how they are situated in relation to intercultural, inclusive, and decolonizing learning opportunities. In this presentation, I weave together anti-oppressive social and educational scholarship, autoethnographic reflections, and empirical data to argue for a more complex understanding of such students’ negotiations of educational power dynamics. I contend that the complexity and ambiguity of these students’ positionalities may create important, often overlooked alignments with anti-oppressive pedagogies – even as such students are fully imbricated within broader oppressive power dynamics. I consider strategies for tapping into white poor and working class students’ lived experiences in ways that enhance their capacities for engaging in inclusive, equitable and decolonizing learning opportunities. I emphasize the value of cultural safety approaches and of considering all students’ intercultural capacities when implementing anti-oppressive pedagogies
POSTER: A Teaching Toolbox for Understanding Urban Wetlands
No full textThere are many good reasons to use locally available urban wetlands to teach our students about important ecological processes as well as to expose them to real world issues. Wetlands are an extremely valuable ecosystem, housing extensive biodiversity, and also particularly in urban areas, important nutrient sinks. This poster shows the \u27three-step teaching toolbox\u27 which takes our non-majors environmental biology students through a series of labs to better understand the importance of wetlands, especially in regard to nutrient removal, as well as being involved in collecting data for an on-going project with the City of Kamloops
3 - Learning how to Learn as a Contributor to First-year Student Retention
No full textOne piece of the puzzle of student retention is student success. Having a growth mindset and effective learning strategies may contribute to student achievement of desired outcomes. Our research investigates the impact of a “learning how to learn” intervention on student success. With an invitation to provide input, we share with the TRU community the approach and lessons learned from our pilot-phase. The specific aim of the intervention is to enhance growth mindset, meta-cognition and self-regulated learning. This work is being conducted as a Faculty Learning Community within TRU\u27s CELT Focus on First Year Project
Exploring HIPS, Caps, and Big Ideas as part of the GE Model
No full textThis panel discussion will highlight some of the components of the Senate approved General Education (GE) Model, such as \u27high impact practices\u27, \u27capstone courses\u27, as well as some proposed ideas such as \u27big ideas\u27 courses. We will begin with an overview of the GE model and where these components fit in the model, followed by an interactive activity to gather ideas and feedback on the HIP and capstone criteria that the GET committee has been developing, as well as proposed \u27big ideas\u27 courses
Theoretical Study of the Secondary Antioxidant Activity of Aminoguanidine
No full textGlycation (or nonenzymatic glycosylation) is a natural process in which sugars in the bloodstream attach to nucleophilic groups present in proteins, lipids or DNA, forming harmful new molecules. In turn, these can further react to form advanced glycation end-products (AGE), which may lead to a wide arrange of diseases. The main mechanisms to inhibit glycation are believed to be the scavenging of carbonyl and radical species and the chelation of metal ions such as Cu(II) and Fe(III), which increase the formation of AGEs. Aminoguanidine is known to be a glycation inhibitor. Its free radical activity has been recently studied.
A systematic study of the thermodynamic stability of various Cu(II) and Fe(III) complexes with aminoguanidine (protonated and neutral) is carried out at physiological pH in a polar environment. Calculations are performed at the M05/6-31++G(d,p) level of theory combined with the SMD continuum solvation model. We aim to identify the most thermodynamically stable complexes and to explore the secondary antioxidant capacity of aminoguanidine.
Aminoguanidine is said to have secondary antioxidant capacity if, by forming a complex with Cu(II) or Fe(III), it can slow down the initial step of the copper- or iron-catalyzed Haber-Weiss reaction and reduce the potential damage caused by •OH radical formation in the second step (the Fenton reaction)
Decolonizing Mental Health Practices
No full textIn this presentation I will explore the ways that my studies of psychology and Indigenous Studies come together and contemplate how I, as a settler and mental health worker, can best attend to the specific needs of my clients. Canada is a settler colonial structure that reinforces the dominant settler culture, and requires the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous peoples from land. Emerging from these structures of power are various lasting lived implications for Indigenous peoples. As a mental health care provider I have a responsibility to understand the legacies of intergenerational trauma and mental health issues from residential schools, forced relocations, the creation of the reserve system, and the effects of racism that is built into Canadian laws through the Indian Act. Health, illness, psychology, and wellness are socially constructed and defined in the westernized sense. In this presentation I will explore how I can hold space in my Western/settler-informed training in psychology for Indigenous peoples\u27 views on health and wellness, as well as how Indigenous values can be incorporated into current health care practice. This research seeks to study the differences between the westernized biomedical model of mental health, and Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and what that looks like in mental health practice. Further, the goal of this research is to consider my role in decolonizing current practices in counselling, behaviour intervention, and mental health care, to legitimize Indigenous knowledge and integrate it into a holistic approach
Skating in the Sun: Examining Identity Formation of National Hockey League Fans in Sunbelt States
Get PDFAs the National Hockey League (NHL) has made concerted efforts in recent years to expand into the Sunbelt region of North America, its teams still face tremendous challenges to building up their fan bases. Adopting a qualitative research protocol, this study explored the phenomenon of NHL fandom formation in the Sunbelt region. Research findings revealed key patterns and trends that influenced individuals to become fans of NHL teams in this strategic region of growth. A discussion of socialization into fandom was developed based on the themes and assertions derived in the study, which suggested that the fan community would play a significant role in fan identity formation and be a major driving force in the league’s market penetration into new marketplaces. The findings offer practical implications for teams to build and expand their fan bases and also provide a foundation for future quantitative investigations
Becoming critically reflective teachers
No full textIn this presentation, we share about our work in progress of a teaching triangle initiative supported by CELT. Teaching Triangles seen as a strategy to improve teaching and learning is currently gaining traction. Three faculty members from social work, nursing and respiratory therapy came together and formed a teaching triangle during the fall semester of 2019. They visited each other’s classes and observed the teaching styles, classroom management and other teaching dynamics not with evaluative lens but a safe, respectful and supportive lens. It is not teaching the teachers but learning form the peer teachers and apply if applicable some of these tools and insights in their own learning and teaching. Four themes were used to implement this exercise: 1. Reciprocity and Shared Responsibility (reflected on what can the participating teachers learn from each other teaching styles) 2. Appreciation. 3. Self-Referential Reflection (would I be able to manage that big class?) 4. Mutual Respect (we are all teacher by passion). At the end of the semester, we are planning to meet for a reflection session over lunch in a safe place to share our observations in a supportive environment for personal and professional growth in teaching. We continue to reflect on the possible application of experiential learning theory in our peer learning observation, class room visitation, reflection action plan on our teaching triangle. Two clear outcomes might emerge of our initiative: Increased understanding of and appreciation for the work of colleagues from other disciplines, formulating individual plans for enhancing one’s own teaching based on the observations and the shared reflections
Introductory Course in International Business: Increasing Students Global Awareness and Knowledge Map Assignment = 95% Success Rate
No full textIntroductory Course in International Business: Increasing Students Global Awareness and Knowledge Map Assignment = 95% Success Rat
3 - From an elective course to a lifelong discourse: insights from teaching SOCW4800 International social work at Thomson Rivers University
No full textSocial Work scholars have noted that reflexivity in social work requires to acknowledge that our observations and interpretations are filtered through our socially, economically, politically and historically positioned selves. Reflection and Praxis are the critical contributions that international social work (ISW) as a distinct practice of social work brought to the teaching and practice of macro structural social work. Social work class rooms and field practicum placements offer unique opportunities to learners to describe, analyse, evaluate and so inform learning. This presentation builds on self-narrative and reflection of a faculty member about teaching an international social work (SOCW4800) course during fall semester 2019. I present learning tools and assessment strategies that we have agreed in the beginning of the course and applied though out the course and what were the outcomes. Kaufman’s (2007) notion of how we study determines ‘what we know’ and reflection is a process of reviewing a (learning) experience in and out of the classroom. Using these notions, this presentation aims to contribute to the discussion on what are the best practices to nurture opportunities for students and for faculty to practice critical reflection as integral part of teaching and learning as scholarship