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The Pedagogy of Generosity & Skepticism

Critical generosity and critical skepticism is a pedagogical practice that supports students to read text, reflect on what they are reading, and engage in discussion about what they are reading (or watching, or listening to) in ways that shift comfortably between two conceptual agendas. On the one hand, stepping back (as we might to look at a painting) to ask what the context is, what is going on ‘around’ this text, and on the other to step close and peer in to read the text in a very focussed way. In response to the pressures of the academy, which often school students to equate critical thinking with negative critique, where thoughtful engagement can be confused with finding faults or limitations with texts, critical generosity encourages us to begin by meeting texts (authors) where they are, in good faith. It encourages us to try to understand, to imagine that someone is authentically doing their best to convey an idea. Critical skepticism, a necessary corollary to critical generosity, encourages us to not assume the authority of the text (author), to be open to challenging assumptions and reflect on the ways in which what is imparted could be insufficient, wrong, misleading. Critical generosity and critical skepticism as method, offers students a model of critical engagement where the goal is to get beyond the argumentative and to collectively work toward better understanding rather than to defeat different perspectives. This method articulates and builds upon ideas of students as active and committed learners, who have both much to learn and much to contribute to meaning making and knowledge production. It supports both kind and critical classroom environments where we can draw on this intentional practice as a consistent component of our thinking, engagement and dialogue. It simultaneously supports critical self-reflection, we can turn a critical generosity and critical skepticism lens inward, attending to where our generosity may fail (due to the nature of the topic, our own strong investments and commitments) and to where our skepticism may fail (due to alliances and allegiances we have already given ourselves over to).

Presenters

Towards teaching and learning grief justice: Making meaning ‘when grief comes to class’

We are living in grief-saturated times (Perreault et al, 2010), intensified and disrupted by pandemics, conflict, disaster and the weaponization of white, capitalist and human supremacies. Those who do not serve these supremacies are disenfranchised, as is their grief. In this so-called country of Canada, we are not supposed to grieve that which does not perpetuate colonialism and its related projects of domination, but we do, and we carry that grief with us wherever we go. This kind of disenfranchised grief (Doka, 1999), produced in part by what we have previously named as grief supremacy (Poole & Galvan, 2021), predominates in so-called higher education, where grief has often been ignored, refused or disciplined. In 2022, with a teaching fellowship from CELT, we began an inquiry into these practices called, ‘When grief comes to class’, inviting students/learners, staff and educators at TMU to story the grief they carried and the grief that had been silenced or refused. Grounded in a decolonizing approach to re-Search (Absolon, 2022), we created spaces for grief story sharing and then, instead of coding, invited story tellers to highlight messages they wanted us to share more widely. Echoing a Disability Justice approach (Mingus, 2017), storytellers made clear that they want more grief justice or an approach to grief that locates it deep in the heart of social justice work. They also made clear they want more accessible grief resources and more critical grief pedagogy/support. In this session, we share these messages, what we learned from the project and some strategies for growing grief justice in and out of the classroom.

Presenters

Empowering Student Voice and Agency through ZON100 and DG8116

This presentation is about how two Zone Learning for-credit courses, ZON100 and DG8116, are empowering the voice and agency of learners across TMU. Both courses are hands-on learning opportunities to launch and/or grow a passion project in the real world and be part of a community of supportive and like-minded learners. While ZON100 is accessible to all undergraduate learners at TMU, DG8116 is made available to every graduate learner. The courses draw heavily on Experiential Learning theory, particularly the core defining aspects established in TMU’s Senate Policy 169, as well as on the building blocks of Zone Learning, as an evidence-based learning and teaching practice. ZON100 and DG8116 have significantly empowered the voice and agency to learners in elective and for-credit course experiences at TMU. The presentation will not only reveal the perspective of instructors and GAs, but also share written testimonials from learners, as well as the results of an annual learner survey. Below are two examples of testimonials from an undergraduate and a graduate learner.

"ZON100 is a great class for any student. The course has so much value to it. I learnt how to stay accountable for my passion project and was given weekly opportunities to develop that. The entire experience was nothing short of beneficial to my degree and it has empowered me to take on a higher level of understanding when embarking on a project. Genuinely a great experience to have while in school."

"I believed that I was a procrastinator by nature and was always driven by deadlines. With this course I was driven by my passion. I understood the true meaning of the phrase “Rome was not built in a day” but I also understood that it was not built by one person. Importance of validating ideas through feedback was something I cherished in all the sessions. The course not only provided theoretical knowledge but also fostered a mindset of adaptability and continuous learning by engaging with a diverse group of like-minded learners. In summary the entire experience was transformative and empowering."

Presenters