TMU Learning and Teaching Conference: May 17 - 18, 2023
Call for proposals is open! Submit a presentation proposal is Friday, March 31, 2023 at 5:00 pm
Reimagining Teaching
Join us for the 2023 TMU Learning and Teaching Conference: Reimagining Teaching.
The annual event will bring together the teaching community at TMU to build on what we’ve learned over the past few years about creating accessible, inclusive, and engaging learning environments, and we’ll ask big questions about how we might reimagine our teaching practices moving forward: experimenting with bold new approaches to pedagogy; leveraging the wealth of digital learning tools at our disposal; and making the most of our campus learning spaces to provide high-quality experiences for every student.
The two-day event will take place virtually on Wednesday, May 17th and in-person on Thursday, May 18th, 2023.
The call for proposals is open. The deadline to submit a presentation proposal is Friday, March 31, 2023 at 5:00 pm.
To stay-up-to-date on the conference, revisit our website regularly, follow along on twitter,, external link or subscribe to our listserv Teachnet
We look forward to seeing you at this event. Join us in further exploring how the classroom of the future will take shape.
Maria Crabtree
Director of Strategic Foresight Projects, KnowledgeWorks
In her role as director of strategic foresight projects, Maria Crabtree (formerly Romero) makes substantive contributions to KnowledgeWorks’ national thought leadership around the future of learning and conducts key strategic foresight activities. She manages projects, directs and carries out some strategic foresight research and collaborates with colleagues to author publications and other assets exploring the future of learning and its implications for education stakeholders.
Maria’s recent experiences as lead researcher and co-facilitator include NASA’s Langley Research Center future of work in 2050+, Kimberly Clark’s future of the circular economy and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research’s future of cancer research. Maria is a coauthor and coeditor of the books Beyond Genuine Stupidity and The Future Reinvented, and she is a contributor to the upcoming Unleashing Human Potential–The Future of AI in Business. She is a recipient of the 2020 Emerald Literati Award.
Maria has developed graphic tools for the Framework Foresight method and scanning process used today in the University of Houston Master in Foresight program, her alma mater.
Dr. George Sefa Dei
Professor of Social Justice Education & Director of the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT)
Ghanaian-born George Sefa Dei is a renowned educator, researcher and writer who is considered by many as one of Canada’s foremost scholars on race, anti-racism studies, Black and minority education, African Indigeneity and anti-colonial thought. He is a widely sought after academic, researcher and community worker whose professional and academic work has led to many Canadian and international speaking invitations in US, Europe and Africa. Currently, he is Professor of Social Justice Education & Director of the Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT).
Professor Dei is the 2015, 2016, 2018-19 Carnegie African Diasporan Fellow. In August of 2012, Professor Dei also received the honorary title of ‘Professor Extraordinarius’ from the Department of Inclusive Education, University of South Africa, [UNISA]. In 2017, he was elected as Fellow of Royal Society of Canada, the most prestigious award for an academic scholar. He also received the 2016 Whitworth Award for Educational Research from the Canadian Education Association (CEA) awarded to the Canadian scholar whose research and scholarship have helped shaped Canadian national educational policy and practice. He is the 2019 Paulo Freire Democratic Project, Chapman University, US - ‘Social Justice Award’ winner. In April of 2021, Professor Dei received the 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Ontario Alliance of Black School Educators [ONABSE] for how long-standing work promoting Black and minority youth education. Also, Professor Dei in October 2022, was named by Silvertrust Media as one of the 100 most influential Black Canadians nationwide.
In March of 2023, Professor Dei received the highly prestigious ‘2023 President’s Impact Award, given to a University of Toronto scholar whose work has reached beyond walls of academia to significantly impact local communities, nationally and internationally.
Professor Dei has forty-four (44) books and over eighty (80) refereed journal articles to his credit. Finally, in June of 2007, Professor Dei was installed as a traditional chief in Ghana, specifically, as the Gyaasehene of the town of Asokore, Koforidua in the New Juaben Traditional Area of Ghana. His stool name is Nana Adusei Sefa Tweneboah.
Our theme this year is Reimagining Teaching. We will bring together the teaching community at TMU to build on what we’ve learned over the past few years about creating accessible, inclusive, and engaging learning environments, and we’ll ask big questions about how we might reimagine our teaching practices moving forward: experimenting with bold new approaches to pedagogy; leveraging the wealth of digital learning tools at our disposal; and making the most of our campus learning spaces to provide high-quality experiences for every student.

Faculty, contract lecturers, graduate students, and staff are invited to submit a proposal to present at the conference.
Formats
The two-day event will take place virtually on Wednesday, May 17th and in-person on Thursday, May 18th, 2023. First presenters have the option to present on one of the two days, in one of the following formats:
- Concurrent Session (15 minute presentation including Q&A, presented virtually or in-person)
- Poster Session “Gallery of Greatness” (Printed Poster or 2-3 Digital Slides)
Areas of focus
- Academic Integrity
- Accessibility
- Artificial Intelligence
- Black Studies and Addressing Anti-Black Racism in the Classroom
- Decolonization and Indigenous Pedagogies
- Disciplinary Teaching Innovations
- Experiential Learning
- Learning and Teaching Spaces
- Mental Health and Well Being
- Technology-enhanced learning
- Transforming the Student Experience
- Other (please specify)
Deadline to submit
The call for proposals is open. The deadline to submit a presentation proposal is Friday, March 31, 2023 at 5:00 pm.
Coming Soon
Past Conferences
On behalf of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching, we'd like to thank you for attending and contributing to the Toronto Metropolitan University Learning & Teaching Conference on May 19, 2022. We are grateful for the time and effort our presenters took to share their knowledge with the TMU community, and we know attendees enjoyed the benefits of our HyFlex experience.
Our one day, fully HyFlex conference hosted over 500 participants including almost 100 presenters from across Toronto Metropolitan University as well as special guests from other academic institutions.

Our conference Keynote, Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, opened the day with an overview of her work Gesturing Towards Decolonial Futures Art/Research Collective (GTDF, decolonialfutures.net, external link, opens in new window) of which she is a founding member, based at UBC. She showcased educational tools that build our collective capacity and stamina to hold space for difficult conversations about wicked social and global challenges without feeling immobilized or demanding immediate quick fixes. Wicked challenges are characterized by hyper-complexity, uncertainty and interlocked problems with no possibility for easy solutions.
A recording of Dr. Andreotti’s Keynote lecture, external link, opens in new window, entitled Education in times of hyper-complexity is now available, along with a copy of her slides for download, external link, opens in new window.
“The Keynote was outstanding. I really would love to be able to work with some of her ideas with students. It really is what they need right now. — Conference Participant
- Concurrent Session PDF fileA, opens in new window
- Concurrent Session PDF fileB, opens in new window
- Concurrent Session PDF fileC, opens in new window
- Concurrent Session PDF fileD, opens in new window
- Concurrent Session PDF fileE, opens in new window

This diversity in participation demonstrated that accessibility efforts put forth by the Centre were well-used by presenters and attendees alike.
“Was pessimistic about the hybrid format and was planning to attend in person. However, I came down with a cold that morning and decided it best to stay home. Very thankful for the hybrid option and its execution was better than expected. Still some bugs with the concurrent sessions, but overall, well done!” — Conference Participant
“This was the first HyFlex conference I've attended and also the first in-person event I've attended in over 2 years. I really thought the day-of organization was fantastic. You had a great number of volunteers/moderators and it seemed you thought of everything. Truly impressive - well done!!” — Conference Participant
“Thank you - the virtual option to attend was fantastic, and I hope can be retained at future meetings. The two formats really made it accessible for everyone to participate….Congratulations to the team!” — Conference Participant
“I know the effort put in to make this happen must have been great indeed, and it really made for a seamless experience of community in all our modes (whether virtual or in-person).” — Conference Participant
A big thank you to our team at the Centre, including our Career Boost students, our online and in-person moderators, coordinators, technicians and volunteers. To everyone who lent their time and expertise to bring this year’s programme to life — we will see you next year!
— TMU Learning & Teaching Conference Programme Committee