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Teaching and Learning | Research | Community Engagement
Message from Dr. Jan Hare, Dean pro tem
Welcome to the inaugural edition of Community Update, an opportunity to share with you the scholarly and other important work going on in our Faculty of Education. I invite you to connect with me to share your thoughts and feedback on education matters. Please also feel welcome to forward Community Update to colleagues who may be interested.
Like many of you, our Faculty of Education was troubled by the discoveries of thousands of unmarked graves on or near the sites of former residential schools. Education has a particular role and responsibility in ensuring that truth and reconciliation are embedded into all our programs and our outreach activities. As a form of public education and in recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Faculty of Education is hosting two exhibits on loan from the Legacy of Hope Foundation, Bi-Giwen: Truth Telling from the Sixties Scoop and Generations Lost: The Residential School System in Canada. The exhibits provide rich learning opportunities for our community, especially for teacher-candidates as the exhibits complement the foundational Indigenous education content in their coursework. If you are in the UBC vicinity, I invite you to stop by the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, where the exhibits are on display until October 30. More.
Our commitment to Indigenous education extends beyond September 30th as a day of commemoration. Recently, with support from the Ministry of Advanced Education, Skills, and Training, faculty members and instructors created a set of curriculum enhancement projects that enrich our teacher education and graduate curricula with Indigenous perspectives, knowledges, and pedagogies. These projects ensure that pre-service and in-service teachers are able to address the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s Calls to Action in their professional practice as emerging and established educators. Several of the projects include video components and resource packages; I invite you to share these with your professional communities as appropriate. More.
On November 15, the Faculty of Education is pleased to present Dr. Cindy Blackstock, who will deliver the Dean’s Distinguished Lecture, an ongoing series that highlights the work of those who seek to advance children’s rights in Canada. Dr. Blackstock, a member of the Gitksan First Nation with 25 years of social work experience in child protection and Indigenous children’s rights, will speak on the topic of “Reconciling History.” Please join us for this free, online event presented in partnership with the Janusz Korczak Association (JKA) of Canada. More.
Turning to happy news, I’m proud to share with you Maclean’s 2022 education program and research rankings in which the Faculty of Education is ranked 1st in Canada. I offer my thanks to faculty, instructors, students, staff, donors and more for the outstanding work and commitment that contributed to this well-earned achievement. More.
I conclude my message by sharing a blog authored by one of our emeritus faculty members, Dr. Charles Ungerleider. Dr. Ungerleider’s engagement with public education is both deep and broad: at various times he has been a student, teacher, parent, professor, associate dean for teacher education, and deputy minister of education for British Columbia, among other roles. One of Dr. Ungerleider’s recent posts, about the need for educational transformation to effect reconciliation, struck a chord with me, and it may for you, as well. More.
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Read the Faculty of Education’s announcement on Dr. Hare’s appointment as Dean pro tem.
Watch this video about the Faculty of Education’s commitment to Indigenous education.
The Faculty of Education recently received UBC Senate approval for a new program, a Master of Education in Indigenous Education, designed for educators, educational administrators and leaders, Indigenous community members, and other professionals in education settings. The program will also support educators implementing the revised provincial K-12 curriculum, which places new emphasis on Indigenous worldviews, histories, and pedagogies. The new MEd program is slated to begin in July, 2022. More.
Those who are interested in better understanding autism and inclusive employment may be interested in our free, online, self-paced program, Autism and Neurodiversity in the Workplace. The asynchronous program, which includes a series of six self-paced, interactive modules filled with useful activities and videos, is offered by our Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration in Autism and is approved by the Chartered Professionals in Human Resources (BC & Yukon) for continuing professional development hours. More.
Practising teachers, school leaders, counsellors and others who wish to develop an understanding of antiracism education may be interested in the Faculty of Education’s newly launched anti-racism open online program, Historical, Systemic and Intersectional Anti-racism: From awareness to action. The asynchronous, self-paced course enables learners to think critically about racism and to move from denial to awareness, action and dismantling institutional and systemic racism. More.
Dr. John-Tyler Binfet’s research addresses student stress through the calming power of therapy dogs. Dr. Binfet’s Building Academic Retention Through K-9s (BARK) program, which is located in the Okanagan School of Education, and related research on the benefits of therapy dog visitations has received international attention through a recent article in People. More.
Dr. Jason Ellis's new publication, “A Short History of K-12 Public School Spending in British Columbia, 1970-2020,” will interest trustees, administrators, teachers, parents and the public in public school districts across British Columbia. Dr. Ellis addresses the received wisdom that K-12 spending in the province is down and challenges researchers and district stakeholders to examine the facts, causes and consequences of school spending. More.
An educational campaign about the importance of, as well as threats to the Amazon rainforest and Indigenous rights in Brazil was launched last summer, as an extension of a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) supported research collaboration between the Huni Kui Indigenous People's Federation and Faculty of Education researchers, including Dr. Vanessa Andreotti, Dr. Cash Ahenakew, and Dr. Sharon Stein. One of the flagships of the educational campaign is the children's book, A forest called Amazon, which is available for free download. More.
Dr. Annette Henry’s UBC Black Futures is a two-pronged project that opens post-secondary horizons for Black youth in grades 10, 11, and 12, especially students who may not currently have access to higher education or who may not have ever envisioned higher education or UBC as a future possibility. The undergraduate component of the project will be synchronized with the four other Canadian universities, with data collected for a central research hub. More.
In September, Central Okanagan School District educators, Syilx Elders and Okanagan Nation Alliance members, university faculty, and community educators from across the Okanagan gathered to advance a shared commitment to a five-year research project, Co-Curricular-Making—Honoring Indigenous Connections to Land, Culture, and the Relational Self. The SSHRC funded partnership project is facilitated by Dr. Margaret Macintyre Latta, Director of the Okanagan School of Education. More.
The Faculty of Education's Psychological Services and Counselling Training Centre has two clinics offering services to the public. Clinicians-in-training conduct psychoeducational assessments under the supervision of a Registered Psychologist, for reasonable fees. The Centre also offers counsellors-in-training, operating under the supervision of clinic instructors, to provide free counselling. More.
The UBC School of Kinesiology is excited to announce that as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, it has begun production of a video series entitled, “Study What Moves You!” The field of kinesiology is diverse in its research areas, and the School is equally so. We celebrate this diversity and the strength that lies in the breadth and depth of our faculty members’ science and knowledge creation, as well as their teaching. The School will be showcased as a national leader in redefining “what kinesiology is” for science, policy, and community. More.
The School of Kinesiology invites you to attend a free virtual seminar with 2020 Olympic champion Damian Warner and his physiotherapist, UBC Gunn Intramuscular Stimulation (IMS) instructor Dave Zelibka. Learn how UBC Gunn IMS dry needling played an important role in Damian’s gold medal win at the Tokyo Olympic Games, and how they kept him healthy and ready to compete. Join us at 6:00 pm on October 21. More.
