C2
Concurrent Session C2
Cultivating Inclusive Learning Environments
Session Details
Time: 2:35 - 3:35 p.m.
Location: DCC 352
Active Bystanders in Nursing Education: Gatekeepers of Social Justice
Nursing education serves as a critical site for shaping healthcare professionals who must navigate and address systemic inequities. However, anti-Black racism remains deeply embedded within pedagogical spaces, often manifesting in ways that are imperceptible to those untrained in its recognition. This presentation advances the role of the active bystander educator, conceptualizing them as both gatekeepers and disruptors of racial injustice within nursing education. Drawing upon critical and engaged pedagogy, this work interrogates the performativity of equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) efforts, highlighting the necessity of pedagogical interventions that move beyond superficial engagement.
Utilizing arts-based learning, this lens introduces an innovative visualization technique wherein the classroom is reimagined as an ocean, and students exhibit three distinct engagement typologies: the static (passive) body, the struggling body, and the sturdy body. The static (passive) body denotes students who disengage from discussions on anti-Black racism, reproducing the status quo through inaction. The struggling body resists these discourses, often manifesting defensive, combative, or obstructive behaviors rooted in dominant narratives. The sturdy body, in contrast, embodies a critically engaged learner who actively interrogates systemic oppression and advocates for anti-racist praxis. This conceptual model provides a diagnostic lens for educators to detect and respond to student behaviors that reinforce or disrupt systems of power.
By synthesizing Freirean critical pedagogy (1970), hooks' engaged pedagogy (1994), and evidence-based arts informed pedagogy, this approach operationalizes active bystander intervention in a manner that mitigates pedagogical fatigue and fosters sustainable engagement with anti-racist discourse. The implications of the visualization strategy extend beyond the classroom, equipping future nurses with the epistemic dexterity necessary to interrogate, dismantle, and reconstitute healthcare structures through an anti-oppressive and antiracist lens.
Ultimately, this work positions the active bystander educator as a promoter of justice-oriented nursing education; one that does not merely acknowledge systemic inequities but actively intervenes in their perpetuation, ensuring that the next generation of nurses emerges as agents of transformative change in the pursuit of health equity.
Presenters
Dr. Nadia Prendergast is a registered nurse and scholar who completed her nursing degree in England before moving to Canada to earn her master’s and PhD in Education and Women’s Studies, focusing on the experiences of international nurses of colour. Amidst the backdrop of COVID-19 and heightened awareness of anti-Black racism, she has dedicated her work to dismantling systemic inequities within nursing and the broader healthcare system. A Triple Crown recipient of Toastmasters, she leads initiatives like the B.R.A.V.E. project to build intergenerational relationships, foster critical dialogues, and promote cultural forms of critical pedagogy.
Dr. Priscilla Boakye is an educator and researcher who critically examines how historical, systemic, and structural conditions shape teaching, learning, and healthcare practices. She empowers students to challenge dominant worldviews in nursing education and mentors emerging scholars across undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral programs. Her research, rooted in health equity, intersectionality, and anti-Black racism, focuses on maternal mental health and wellbeing in Black communities, and she currently leads three CIHR- and SSHRC-supported programs in this area.
Vivian Fu is a registered nurse and research nurse coordinator at The Hospital for Sick Children, where she collaborates on clinical research with key partners like the Congenital Heart Surgeons Society and Labatt Family Heart Centre. She has also completed her Master of Nursing in Health Policy and Education, further enhancing her expertise in both clinical and research domains.
Rezwana Rahman is a registered nurse working in health policy and a PhD student at Toronto Metropolitan University. Her research focuses on the experiences of caregiving among Muslim communities. Through her work, she aims to inform policy and practice to support culturally responsive and equitable healthcare. She also supports academic assistants in their teaching roles as graduate students as a Graduate Educational Developer.
Inclusive Teaching Strategies for Academic Integrity Based on Insights from TMU International Students
The Academic Integrity Office (AIO) at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) has a mandate to ensure fair and transparent implementation of academic integrity policies and to provide educational resources to the university community (Toronto Metropolitan University, 2024, section 5.1). As part of a program evaluation initiative, the AIO analyzed student case records from 2019 to 2024 to identify trends and patterns in academic misconduct, assess student needs, and inform effective programming and resources. Findings indicate that undergraduate international students at TMU have been overrepresented in academic misconduct cases, with a general increase in their involvement since 2019. Further analysis revealed that plagiarism was the most common form of academic misconduct among this group. Research suggests that international students face unique challenges, including cultural differences, language barriers, and the pressures of adjusting to a new academic environment, which can contribute to higher rates of academic misconduct (Parnther, 2022). To better understand the specific needs of TMU students, I conducted a needs assessment addressing the following questions:
1. What challenges or barriers discussed in facilitated discussions may contribute to plagiarism among undergraduate international students?
2. Given the growing influence of AI technologies in higher education, how do international undergraduate students describe the role of generative AI in plagiarism?
To explore these questions, I adopted a pragmatic approach and conducted a thematic-content analysis of facilitated discussion notes. Specifically, I examined over 150 recorded meeting notes for undergraduate international students who had engaged in academic misconduct between Winter 2023 and Fall 2024, identifying recurring themes. Three key themes emerged: Challenges and barriers related to 1. Paraphrasing – Students struggle with paraphrasing course materials, external sources, and technical content. Toronto Metropolitan University. (2024). Senate policy 60: Academic integrity. https://www.torontomu.ca/senate/policies/academic-integrity-policy-60/ 2. Time Management – Poor time management, heavy workloads, and work commitments lead to rushed assignments, inadequate preparation, and increased academic integrity risks. 3. Collaboration – Issues with boundary-setting among peers lead to unauthorized collaboration and document sharing.
In my presentation, I will share these findings, providing specific examples, and propose targeted educational interventions to promote academic integrity. The recommendations will be informed by educational theories and evidence-based practices, including sociocultural theory of cognitive development, universal design for learning, and holistic education.
References:
Parnther, C. (2022). International Students and Academic Misconduct: Considering Culture, Community, and Context. Journal of College and Character, 23(1), 60–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/2194587X.2021.2017978
Shannon Nguyen, MT, OCT (she/her) is an Academic Integrity Specialist at Toronto Metropolitan University, where she leads student education and strategic initiatives that promote fairness, meaningful learning, and an understanding of academic policies. With over eight years of experience in academic advising, international student support, and inclusive program design, she develops institutional resources that foster ethical scholarship, including responsible AI use, while supporting student wellbeing and academic success. Her current work focuses on inclusive teaching strategies that promote academic integrity by reducing systemic barriers for international students, drawing on sociocultural learning theories and principles of universal design.
Worlding Difference: Open Education for All
This presentation will introduce Worlding Difference, a new, fully accessible open access resource. This website presents many of the outputs of the Bodies in Translation grant—including art, films, academic and policy papers and more alongside learning modules—and animates these outputs for traditional and community-based learning spaces. This presentation will showcase this website and its learning modules that weave together scholarly and community knowledge with vibrant artworks in an effort to model new ways of sharing, archiving, teaching, and engaging Deaf and disability art. I will also discuss how this platform presents an expansive critique of normative culture’s limited understanding and appreciation of difference and centres access as a creative, cultural, political, and functional necessity—providing image descriptions, alt text, and glossaries that offer a space through which to explore the possibilities and limitations of access. Throughout this presentation, I attempt to demonstrate how open education platforms can be a productive vehicle to disseminate and collaborate on justice-based pedagogy.
