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Teaching and Learning Through Social Justice Credential

Untitled design - social-justice-credential

The Teaching and Learning Through Social Justice Credential is an upcoming CELT offering designed to support educators in developing and expanding their understanding and skills related to teaching about and through social justice and equity in the classroom. Participants will spend their fellowship reading, designing, evaluating, and sharing a teaching strategy related to social justice. 

Registration for the credential program has now closed. 

The credential is centered around a collective reading experience of one book: Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom (external link)  by Kelly A Hogan and Viji Sathy, and includes supplementary readings from Teaching community: a pedagogy of hope (external link)  by bell hooks. It is styled as a book club. Book clubs serve as a valuable yet often overlooked site of learning within academia and organizations, despite not always receiving full recognition from leadership in such organizations (Grenier et al., 2022). They are well-established forms of social engagement with notable benefits for participants and those influenced by them (Grenier et al., 2022). These clubs contribute to the enhancement of social learning processes and are particularly instrumental in fostering critical and emancipatory pedagogies among employees. Additionally, book clubs offer educators an avenue to deepen, broaden, and explore their visions of self as literacy teachers, providing a shared space where a shared text becomes a focal point for reflection and discussion over an extended period (Hall, 2009). In an academic context, when grounded in a social constructivist approach, book clubs encourage a fluid and ongoing learning process, where ideas are subject to continual questioning and examination, allowing knowledge and teachers' evolving visions to be regularly scrutinized and influenced by collaborative activities (See: Cochran-Smith, 2003; Lee & Smagorinsky, 2000; Vygotsky, 1978; Hall, 2009).

Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Promoting Equity in the College Classroom by Kelly A Hogan, Viji Sathy

The fellowship emphasizes the following key objectives:

  1. To facilitate peer collaboration for teaching and learning through justice.
  2. To promote reflective practice as teaching and learning development.
  3. To strengthen justice-oriented teaching evaluation and learning within the TMU community.
  4. To advance justice and equity teaching strategies through sharing and accountability.

This eight-month experience consists of four parts:

1. Collective reading and discussion of assigned texts.
2. Developing a teaching intervention based on the readings.
3. Incorporating your teaching intervention into your class during the Fall 2024 semester.
4. Learning how to evaluate the effectiveness and impact of  your teaching intervention.

Upon completion, you will receive a CELT certificate to confirm their successful completion of the program. This credential offers a valuable opportunity for you  to deepen and share your pedagogical practices that foster inclusive learning environments.

This voluntary learning experience is open to 15 faculty and contract lecturers and runs from May 2024 to December 2024. It will be offered to the first 15 who register provided that the participants confirm that they:

1. Are actively teaching and planning to teach in September 2024.
2. Are willing to attend monthly meetings on Thursdays between May and August, with four of these meetings being in person on campus. 
3. Feel comfortable sharing projects with the collective and offering and receiving feedback with their peers in the group.

In achieving this credential, participants will be able to...

1.

Foster a collaborative learning environment among colleagues through meaningful and regular interactions and idea exchanges.

4.

Demonstrate competence in justice-oriented teaching through the development and implementation of a teaching intervention.

2. 

Engage in peer collaboration and feedback to enhance knowledge, skills, and connections for teaching about social justice and equity.

5. 

Receive guidance on assessment tools and frameworks for evaluating teaching intervention.

3. 

Conduct a critical examination of teaching approaches and beliefs for continuous improvement, guided by collective reading.

6.

Advocate and advance justice and equity teaching strategies through sharing, accountability, and contributions to the teaching community at TMU.

For more information or questions about the credential, contact teachingcentre@torontomu.ca