By avril hwang
Join the Learning Design & Digital Innovation (LDDI) team for an afternoon of lunch and games at the monthly games club’s launch party. The event is open to all UBC Education faculty and staff.
Test your aim, draw four, or topple a giant Jenga tower. Bring your own games, or join one of ours, and connect with some fabulous folks over some friendly competition.
Date
Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Time
11:30 am to 1:30 pm PDT
Location
The grass meridian outside the Scarfe building
For more information, please reach out to the LDDI team at lddi.educ@ubc.ca.
By avril hwang
July 5, 2023
Photo description: UBC Education Dean Jan Hare with Parliamentary Secretary Ya’ara Saks and Member of Parliament for Cloverdale-Langley City John Aldag at Collingwood Neighbourhood House on July 4, 2023.
The Government of Canada’s Early Learning and Child Care (ELCC) Innovation Program grants funding to projects that support the exploration, testing and development of innovative approaches to support children and families’ access to high-quality, affordable, flexible and inclusive early learning and child care programs and services across the country.
On July 4, 2023, Parliamentary Secretary, Ya’ara Saks announced that UBC Faculty of Education is one of two recipients for project funding through the program. UBC Education is receiving funding for development of a Professional Development for Early Learning and ELCC Workers Through an Indigenous-Early Childhood Education Massive Open Online Course.
The project focuses on providing early childhood educators with professional development opportunities to receive training on incorporating Indigenous perspectives, worldviews and pedagogies into early learning and child care environments through the development of an online course. The course will provide free online training across Canada to enable more early childhood educators access to these critical skills—including increasing access for Indigenous families and children to affordable, culturally appropriate early learning and child care.
Photo description: UBC Education Dean Jan Hare delivers remarks on behalf of University of British Columbia.
“With generous funding from Employment and Social Development Canada, our project will be able to provide early childhood educators across Canada with professional development training in how to incorporate Indigenous perspectives, worldviews and pedagogies into early learning and child care environments. Through this training, not only are we able to further implement Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action to develop culturally appropriate early childhood education programs for Aboriginal families, we are able to create safe and supportive learning environments, programs and services for all children.”
— Dr. Jan Hare, Dean pro tem, UBC Faculty of Education
To learn more, read the official Employment and Social Development Canada
news release.
By Michael Wilkinson
Tuesday, August 1, 2023 | 12:00 – 4:30 PM | Vancouver Campus
Faculty of Education staff are invited to the 6th annual Staff Wellness Afternoon, which will be in-person on the UBC Vancouver campus. On the Okanagan campus, staff will have an in-person wellness afternoon. This event continues to be planned in recognition of Faculty of Education staff, and is a chance for you to relax and enjoy some wellness activities with your colleagues. See the full list of activities, below.
We hope you’ll take this opportunity to relax, kick back, and enjoy some fun activities with your colleagues – you’ve earned it!
Schedule
12:00 – 1:00 PM | BBQ Lunch on the Grass Meridian in front of the Neville Scarfe Building (2125 Main Mall), including a welcome from the Dean
1:00 – 1:15 PM| Break & Travel
1:15 – 2:15 PM | Session 1, with options including:
- Chill with Games and Arts & Crafts
- Flower & Leaf Pressing Workshop
- Tower Beach Walk & Talk
- Create a Mini Zen Garden
- Trivia
- Biodiversity Connections in Pacific Spirit Park (note that this is a 2-hour session starting at 1:30 PM and registrants cannot register for Session 2)
- Group Golf Lesson at University Golf Club (note that this is a 2-hour session starting at 1:30 PM and registrants cannot register for Session 2)
2:15 – 2:45 | Break & Travel
2:45 – 3:45 PM | Session 2, with options including:
- Chill with Games and Arts & Crafts
- Scavenger Hunt around UBC Campus
- Herb Planting Workshop
- Nitobe Garden Self-Guided Walking Tour
- Stress Management Workshop
3:45 – 4:00 | Break & Travel
4:00 – 4:30 PM | Ice Cream Social on the Grass Meridian in front of the Neville Scarfe Building (2125 Main Mall)
Questions? Please contact the Staff Wellness Afternoon Planning Committee Chair, Michael Wilkinson, at michael.wilkinson@ubc.ca.
By helen mclaughlin
June 29, 2023
Congratulations to Dr. Surita Jhangiani being appointed David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education for a three-year term.
We are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Surita Jhangiani from the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS) as the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education for a three-year term (July 1, 2023 through June 30, 2026). The advisory committee was impressed with Dr. Jhangiani’s exciting vision for the Chair and her concrete plans to fulfill the mandate.
Redressing epistemic and social injustices
Dr. Jhangiani’s vision for the Chair is to equip educators to redress epistemic and social injustices by identifying how our educational systems privilege dominant epistemologies and pedagogies while disadvantaging and challenging the testimonial credibility of others. She intends to leverage three fundamental open pedagogical principles to progress the goals of the Chair as a means to advance critical multicultural education:
- Building community: facilitating connections across the boundaries and contexts of learning experiences, racialized and cultural histories, viewpoints, classrooms, campuses, communities, and countries.
- Mediating agency: challenging traditional power structures between students and instructors and moving towards a more collaborative and richer learning experience with students from diverse backgrounds. Too often a top-down approach is used in our education system, which undermines students’ lived experiences and agency.
- Open Access: focusing on “reducing barriers that prevent equitable access to education, including economic, technical, social, cultural, and political factors” (Sinkinson & McAndrew, 2020).
Disrupting embedded power structures in service of equity
These principles align with critical multicultural education by disrupting embedded power structures in service of equity and by embracing inclusive practices that centre the voices and perspectives of racialized and cultural minorities.
The David Lam Chair in Multicultural Education was established in 1991 to support increased interest, programming, and engagement in multicultural and anti-racist education, and to assist schools to foster multiculturalism. The Chair has a mandate to:
- Carry out research and engage in educational leadership activities in multicultural studies in education
- Advise on the design of programs or courses that would build capacity for educators (pre-service, in-service, graduate, community-engaged) in intercultural and cross-cultural understanding concerning social justice and intersectional, anti-racist, decolonizing politics of difference and in/equity;
- Work with an advisory group representing the university, community and schools to foster a climate of intercultural communication, anti-racism and anti-oppression politics and practices, and activism;
- Facilitate community engagement and the dissemination of scholarship in multicultural and social justice studies in education;
- Offer annually an interdisciplinary course in multicultural studies in education that will attract broad participation across the Faculty (and potentially beyond);
- Conduct and arrange public lectures, events or media networks in multicultural studies in education;
- Encourage and promote the growth of such scholarship and praxis across the University and beyond.
Visit Dr. Jhangiani’s profile to learn more about her work.
By avril hwang
About the Collective
The C.A.R.E (Community, Advocacy, Restoration and Equity) Collective is a community building initiative led by, and meant for, IBPOC (Indigenous, Black, People of Colour) women, and gender-diverse staff, in the Faculty of Education.
Our aim is to create a forum to build meaningful connections, cultivate peer support and mentorship, provide professional development opportunities, and uplift IBPOC staff who are in non-managerial positions or at the early stages of their careers.
Event description
As the first step of this initiative, we would like to invite all staff who identify as IBPOC women and gender diverse to come together for a social event and to learn more about the CARE Collective. We believe that creating a dedicated support network within our organization is crucial, and this event will serve as a starting point for nurturing that sense of community.
Food and drinks will be served.
Date
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Time
10:00 to 11:00 am PT
Location
Room 1007, Neville Scarfe Building (Basement level)
RSVP
For questions, please email shruti.asokan@ubc.ca.
By helen mclaughlin
July 3, 2023
Dr. Nancy Perry assumes the role of Associate Dean, Research, for a two-year term commencing on July 3, 2023
The Associate Dean, Research provides strategic leadership and advice to the Dean on research matters; supports faculty research award nominations, Canada Research Chair nominations and renewals, and named professorships and other endowed chairs; and is the Faculty liaison with UBC’s Behavioural Research Ethics Board.
Dr. Nancy Perry is a Professor in the Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education where she teaches courses on motivation and self-regulation, language and literacy development, and learning disabilities. She received a Killam Teaching Prize in 2010.
As Dorothy Lam Chair in Special Education, she supports research and scholarly leadership in the area of special education. Her research focuses on metacognition, motivation, and self-regulated learning in elementary school children; social perspectives on teaching and learning, including social cognitive and sociocultural theories; teacher development; individual differences; and learning disabilities.
Dr. Perry received a Ph.D. in Educational Studies from the University of Michigan before joining UBC Faculty of Education as Assistant Professor in 1996. She was promoted to Associate Professor in 2002 and to Professor in 2012.
Thank you to Dr. Patsy Duff, who has served as Associate Dean, Research since July 2019. Dr. Duff has been instrumental in leading the Faculty in elevating our research portfolios, expertise, and reputation these last four years.
By avril hwang
June 13, 2023
The Educational Technology Support (ETS) unit has been assisting faculty and staff in the Faculty of Education for a decade. After 10 years, the original name no longer reflects the work of the unit. On July 1, 2023, ETS will become Learning Design and Digital Innovation (LDDI) to better describe the current operations and goals. Changes will take place over the coming weeks and made final on July 1.
If you reference the ETS website pages or email, today, please update the website to https://lddi.educ.ubc.ca and the email to lddi.educ@ubc.ca.
