Candid Conversations
Join UBC’s Dean of Education, Dr. Jan Hare, for an online speaker series focusing on important questions and significant priorities that are engaging educators today, including reconciliation and decolonization in classrooms, taking up climate change matters in education, supporting youth mental health, and addressing race and inequality in school systems.
This dynamic series brings together researchers, practitioners, educators, youth, and you – the participants – to discuss how educators and students are making a difference every day, and explore how we, as a community, can support and empower young people to face the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
Format
Each session will feature three speakers sharing their perspectives on the topic, including a keynote, a K–12 educator, and a student. Participants will have the opportunity to ask the panel questions and also engage in informal small group conversations with peers.
Dates
Reconciliation & Decolonization in Classrooms
Date: January 18, 2022
Time: 5:00-6:30pm PST
Thank you to everyone who attended!
Download Denise Augustine's Resources
About the Keynote
Denise Augustine is on a secondment with the Ministry of Education where she serves as the Superintendent of Indigenous Education. Denise is a passionate champion for systemic changes that support Equity for Indigenous learners. She works with the First Nation Education Steering Committee, Ministry of Education staff and school district leaders to support the implementation of the British Columbia Tripartite Education Agreement and the Truth and Reconciliation Calls to Action. With over 25 years as an educator and a recipient of the Indspire Indigenous Educator Award for leadership, Denise is an active participant in the local, national and global conversations seeking educational equity for Indigenous children and youth.
About the Educator
Laura Tait is Tsimshian from Prince Rupert and her mother is from the village of Lax Kw’Alaams. She was born into the Eagle Clan. She is currently an Assistant Superintendent in the Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools. Laura holds a Master’s Degree in Educational Leadership from Vancouver Island University, a B.Ed. from Malaspina University-College and a B.A. from the University of Victoria. She is involved in a number of district and provincial educational initiatives in Instruction, Assessment and Aboriginal Education and she is passionate about educational reform, especially as it pertains to building inclusion for all.
About the Educator
Emily Magyar is from the Amos family, from the Hesquiaht First Nation. Her children have family from the Nam’gis and Qualicum First Nations. She has been an Indigenous Education Teacher in School District 68 for the past 8 years, and has worked at Nanaimo District Secondary School for the last 6. Emily is passionate about relationship-based education. She first met Kelly Dobos when she came to NDSS in Grade 8, and has worked with her on various flexible plans for academic achievement, as well as for her wellness.
About the Student
Kelly Dobos-Sewid comes from the Mamalilikulla First Nation on Northern Vancouver Island. She has roots in the Sewid and Hunt families. Kelly is a Grade 12 student enrolled at Nanaimo District Secondary School in Nanaimo, B.C. She is passionate about reconciliation in leadership and creating ongoing safe environments in schools for Indigenous students. Kelly will be going on to complete her Bachelor of Science in Nursing, at Vancouver Island University this coming September, and she would like to specialize in pediatrics.
Climate Change in Education & Supporting Youth Mental Health
Date: February 15, 2022
Time: 5:00-6:30pm PST
Location: Online via Zoom
Thank you to everyone who attended!
About the Keynote
Ellen Field is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University. Her research interests are in policy and practice of climate change education in the Canadian K-12 system. Dr. Field has a strong background in survey development and implementation, educational tool development and stakeholder engagement. She is engaged with Ministries, school boards, teachers and community members, and co-leads an online community on Climate Change Education in Canada.
Ellen teaches Environmental Education (B.Ed) and Climate Change Education (M.Ed) in the Faculty of Education, and has engaged 800 teachers in professional development workshops in the last several years. Ellen is an Associate Editor of the Canadian Journal of Environmental Education and co-chair of the Canadian Regional Hub of Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Education (MECCE). She is also a mom of a vibrant 5 year old.
About the Educator
Mark Frank is the department head of science at Fraser Academy and a current masters of education student at Lake Head University focusing on climate change education. Mark’s thesis focuses on environmentally conscious youth in BC and their views of what change should look like in regards to climate change education in the province.
Mark has worked internationally in multiple systems from private to public in England, South Korea and Australia. He has held multiple head of department posts and excels in curriculum design that meshes real world experiential learning with forward thinking project based education.
Since moving to BC in 2018 Mark has been heavily involved with climate change organizations working within the province and has established himself as an intermediary between multiple initiatives seeking to bring climate change to BC k-12 education.
About the Student
Hannah Wicki is an 18-year-old climate activist residing on the land of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples, colonially known as Vancouver. She organizes and coordinates with multiple community based projects around food and social justice, and with the youth led organization Climate Education Reform BC (CERBC). CERBC is determined to see an educational system that adequately prepares students for the biggest and most defining crisis of our time: the Climate Emergency. Similarly, BC needs an educational reform that centers intersectional and justice-driven learning and that fully addresses how colonial violence is at its root tied to the Climate Crisis. Climate Education Reform BC recognizes how climate change and its disproportionate damages on marginalized and racialized communities must be addressed through widespread education which is why they launched the Reform to Transform campaign to advocate for the creation of this educational system to pave the way for creating our next generation of climate leaders.
About the Student
Chloe Nguyen is a 10th grade student at Windermere Secondary and has a passion for making a positive difference in their community. She has been a climate activist for a couple of years and has volunteered for other social issues as well. She likes to live her life by the motto "Leave it better than when you found it" and that includes the earth we walk on.
Race & Inequality in School Systems
Date: May 3, 2022
Time: 5:00-6:30pm PST
Location: Online via Zoom
Thank you to everyone who attended!
About the Keynote
Dr. Bathseba Opini is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Education, UBC Vancouver. Her areas of research and teaching interests are in critical race and antiracism education pedagogies and practices, anticolonial education and thought, critical disability studies, teacher education, teaching practices and cultural knowledges. Dr. Opini is the recipient of the Murray Elliot Service Award for Outstanding Service to the Teacher Education Program as well as the Faculty of Education Lecturer and Sessional Faculty Teaching Prize. She has taught in the K-12 system locally and globally. Dr. Opini is the author of numerous journal articles and book chapters. She most recently authoured the local open online course Historical, Systemic and Intersectional Anti-Racism: From Awareness to Action which launched in September, 2021.
About the Educator
Ravinder Johal was born in London, England and grew up in the Greater Toronto Area. He worked as a classroom teacher, department head, and school-based administrator in Brampton and Mississauga before moving to British Columbia in 2016. Since then, Rav has been a secondary school Principal, District Principal, and is now a Director of Instruction with Learning Services in the Richmond School District.
Rav has a wide range of research interests, and earned his PhD in education at York University focusing on the lived realities of second generation youth in suburban Toronto. His dissertation examined the intersecting notions of racial identity, gender, social class, and religion while analyzing the role of school, family as well as community in the lives of youth. Rav would like to engage in further research in the area of race and sport, particularly the experiences and participation of Sikh Canadian youth in hockey.
About the Student
Diya Gandhi is a Grade 12 student at RC Palmer Secondary School who is involved in various school and community projects. Climate, Health, and Social equity are main themes of the clubs and initiatives she manages like Eco Team and First Responders. She is thankful to be part of an important and relevant discussion of Race and Inequity how the school system can create a more inclusive and diverse space for all.
