Classroom Climate

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University classrooms are not self contained spaces. They are a site of unique and complex interactions that can greatly impact a student's ability to learn. Within university classrooms there is an opportunity for students to have valuable exchanges of ideas, learn how to behave and react to conflict in appropriate ways, and develop social skills that will enhance their ability to work effectively with others in the future. An instructor's capacity to navigate this space will also determine students' levels of engagement with course material, their peers, instructors, and classroom discussions. Combined, all of these factors play into the classroom climate and an environment that directs and influences the way students learn.

This page compiles session materials and related resources for each module of the Classroom Climate Series by the Aboriginal Initiatives at the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology at UBC. The Classroom Climate Series is a year-long series where all members of the UBC community have the opportunity to challenge their own assumptions about what they have learned about Aboriginal people, become more critically aware of their teaching and research practices, and learn more about how they engage with topics that challenge their own social location within the institution. Over the course of this series participants will learn different ways to create a classroom community. They will also have an opportunity to learn different skills from our presenters on how to facilitate discussions that are more functional and supportive in order to increase the level of understanding around Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal histories and relationships and how these conversations play out across the university.

Classroom Climate Modules

1. Here: Valuing, Recognizing and Acknowledging Place
2. Bridging the Knowledge Gap: Indigenous Foundations
3. More Than Content: Working Critically with Fear, Guilt, Privilege, and other "Hidden" Issues
4. Engaging with the Values, Vision, History and Culture of the Musqueam Nation
5. Critical Thinking and Representation in Student Writing
6. Supporting Aboriginal Students
7. Preparing Students to Learn Outside of the Classroom
8. Exploring Complexities in Using Student Voice in Pedagogy for Decolonizing
9. How Do we Articulate Cyberspace (a landless territory) within the discourse of Indigenous Studies?
10. Uncovering Indigenous Stories at this “Place of Mind”: Bridging the Digital World and Place at UBC

See Also

• Indigenous Studies
• Berger Inquiry
• Pedagogy of Discomfort
• Residential Schools (Canada)
• Racism in Canadian Schools (Teaching and Learning)

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