Documentation:CTLT programs/CTLT Institute/2025 Winter
Surviving to Sustaining: Learning Together with Trust, Compassion, and Courage
During the pandemic, many of us offered each other remarkable care and flexibility. We were learning to teach and connect remotely while also coping with grief, uncertainty, and isolation. Kindness guided our work during that time, allowing us to meet each other with compassion, empathy, creativity, and respect in challenging circumstances. Since then, the collective gentleness we shared has become harder to sustain, as both instructors and students face growing demands on their time and energy. As the urgency of the pandemic recedes, new challenges and old assumptions and habits quietly resurface.
This year’s Winter Institute explores kindness as a relational, ethical, and pedagogical framework that supports inclusive design, fosters meaningful connection, and attends to both student and instructor wellbeing within the realities of contemporary higher education.
This year we welcome Dr. Kari Grain as our keynote speaker. Dr. Kari Grain is the author of Critical Hope and teaches in the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Education, where she leads the Adult Learning and Global Change (ALGC) Master’s of Education Program. In her ongoing community engaged scholarship, Kari is a research consultant with Simon Fraser University’s Community Engaged Research Initiative (CERi). Her scholarship on social justice, experiential learning, adult education, and climate action has been featured in peer reviewed journals, books, and podcasts. Dr. Grain works with school districts, universities, and non-profit organizations to engage practices of critical hope toward systemic and personal transformation. Kari was the 2024 recipient of the Killam Lecturer Teaching Prize in UBC’s Faculty of Education.
| Title | Facilitators | Resources |
|---|---|---|
| Care by Design: Building Relational Pedagogy into Teaching Practice | Nicole Ronan Learning Design Consultant, CTLT;
Roselynn Verwood, Curriculum Consultant, Students as Partners Strategist |
Slides
Link to UBC Wellbeing Toolkit: https://wellbeing.ubc.ca/awt |
| Being Kind to Ourselves: The EL-Well Initiative | Laura Bulk, Assistant Professor of Teaching, Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy | For more information on the EL-Well Initiative for educational leadership faculty wellbeing, please contact: Laura Bulk (laura.bulk@ubc.ca)
EL-Well slides part 3 |
| Transformative Pedagogies as a Praxis of Critical Hope | Kari Grain, ALGC Program Coordinator/ALGC Lecturer, UBC | Handbook of Experiential Pedagogies: blogs.ubc.ca/experiential
Select resources by Kari Grain:
|
| Building Capacity for the IBPOC Teaching and Learning Community: Confluence and Constellations--Reflecting on an Intersectional Approach to Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning | Renata Hall; Educational Consultant, Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning
Lauren Casey; Educational Consultant, Anti-Racist and Indigenous Initiatives Daniel Gallardo; Graduate Student Facilitator, Classroom Climate Equity and Inclusion |
Slides |
| Engaging the Global Past through Relational Course Revision: Reflections on the Impact of Student-Faculty Partnerships | Sara Ann Knutson, Assistant Professor of Teaching & Chair of Medieval Studies, Department of History, UBC;
Abbie Collett, UBC undergraduate student; Madi Garbuz, UBC undergraduate student; Joel Hung, UBC undergraduate student; |
Slides |
| The First Five Minutes: Starter Activities that Sustain Care, Trust, and Connection in Learning Spaces | Nesrine El Banna, UBC | Slides |
| Addressing Student Emotions: Overcoming Hurdles to Classroom Conversations About GenAI Use | Jonathan Otto, School of Journalism, Writing and Media, UBC | outline of presentation |
| Write Together, Learn Together | Laura Baumvol, Lecturer, UBC School of Journalism, Writing, and Media;
Neve Eilam, Undergraduate Research Assistant. |
Slides
a recording for this session will be added as soon as it becomes available. Thank you for your patience. |
| Belonging as Practice: Panel Discussion on the Impacts of Inclusivity in the Classroom and Beyond | Elizabeth Novak, Lecturer - Food, Nutrition & Health, Faculty of Land & Food Systems UBCV;
Stefan Sunandan Honisch, Sessional Lecturer from The Department of Theatre and Film UBCV; Isabel Machado, Lecturer from The Institute For Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice UBCV; Selena Mah, Senior Inclusion Facilitator at The University of British Columbia Point Grey through UBC’s Initiative for Inclusive Post-Secondary Education; Elly Callele, Inclusion Facilitator at The University of British Columbia Point Grey through UBC’s Initiative for Inclusive Post-Secondary Education; Ben Ross, Steps Forward, UBC |
Slides |
| Compassionate Choice in Action: Flexible Assessment for Student Empowerment | Eden Fussner-Dupas, Assistant Professor of Teaching,
Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology; Gabriel Smith, Educational Strategist, LFS Learning Centre, UBC; Judy Chan, Faculty Associate, Faculty Liaison (Land and Food Systems), CTLT, UBC |
Slide Deck
Students’ choices and achievement in large undergraduate classes using a novel flexible assessment approach: Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education: Vol 43, No 1 |