October 2022 | published once each term

Message from Dr. Jan Hare, Dean pro tem

Watch the video recording here.

Aanii—Greetings! I hope that the unfolding of the new academic year has now settled into a productive rhythm for you and your communities.

Here in the UBC Faculty of Education, our collective efforts have been turned towards finding solutions to the challenges that we face as individuals and as a society—addressing racism and other forms of oppression, encouraging physical activity and health, and finding new ways for learners to connect with each other and with the programs they need.

There are so many ways in which the UBC Faculty of Education contributes to creating and sustaining thriving societies. I am filled with gratitude for the work we are able to do, while recognizing that our approach must be grounded in compassion, diversity, inclusion, and decolonization, as well as supported by creativity and excellence. I invite you to learn more about the scholars, students and community members who are helping to advance education’s role in the well-being of people and communities by following the links below.

I am delighted to share with you that three members of the School of Kinesiology were recently honoured. Dr. Erica Bennett received a 2022 President’s Award from the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity. Kinesiology undergraduate Lynda Li will receive the Thomas Clarkson Gray Gold Medal at the 2022 Undergraduate Awards Global Summit, the world’s leading pan-discipline, undergraduate research awards program. Learn more about Lynda’s work. Dr. Rosalin Miles, a Research Associate in the School of Kinesiology and a member of the Lytton First Nation, received Alumni UBC’s Volunteer Leadership Award for her work in promoting physical activity within Indigenous communities.

Earlier this year, I was privileged to receive a Spencer Foundation grant to support the creation of a symposium on Indigenous-led Teacher Education in Global and Local Contexts. This initiative was uplifted with support from Canada’s Rideau Hall Foundation. Our Faculty of Education hosted the symposium earlier this month, with scholars and educators from 14 Indigenous teacher education programs from Canada, Norway, Australia and the US. One of the outcomes of the symposium will be a research agenda that will establish research questions and key issues in Indigenous-led teacher education, based on priorities identified by scholars, teacher educators, students and community members taking part in the symposium. Learn more about the symposium and planned outcomes.

Following are a few more Faculty of Education initiatives that I am especially proud of.

Reconciliation and Decolonization Alumni Award
As part of the Faculty of Education’s recognition of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, we announced a new Reconciliation Alumni Award, which will honour alumni who have demonstrated leadership, integrity, respect, and commitment to furthering decolonization efforts or reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples or communities. If you know a UBC alum who has done extraordinary work in this area, please consider nominating them. More

Orange Shirt Installation
Next time you visit the UBC campus, I invite you to drop by the Neville Scarfe Building to view our new Orange Shirt installation, consisting of hundreds of tiny, lovingly crafted orange shirts and sweaters. Each little garment represents a child who did not return home from residential school or a Survivor who was forever changed by their experiences. The installation, led by Drs. Leddy, Renwick, and Miller, will help keep Indigenous concerns and histories at the forefront of teacher-candidates’ thinking as they learn what it means to become a a culturally responsive educator in British Columbia. More

Rural and Remote Teacher Education Program
This August, the Faculty of Education launched a new Rural and Remote Teacher Education Program with a cohort of 25 students from rural and remote communities across BC. The first of its kind in the province, the two-year program offers students the unique opportunity to complete a Bachelor of Education degree through a blended model, attending in-person sessions at the UBC Learning Centre in Nelson for one month each summer and online sessions in their home communities from September to June. The program fosters a decolonial and equity-oriented stance both in its structure and pedagogy. More

Celebrating 10 Years of B.A.R.K.
The Okanagan School of Education’s B.A.R.K. (or Building Academic Retention thru K9’s) program celebrated 10 years on the Okanagan campus this year. The program explores the role of therapy dogs in fostering wellbeing on campus and in the community. To celebrate this milestone achievement, B.A.R.K hosted a variety of events and activities throughout September, including a joint yoga session with UBCO Recreation. More

Master of Educational Technology (MET) Program 20th Anniversary
September 2022 marked the 20th anniversary of the launch of UBC’s Master of Educational Technology Program. MET is distinguished as the first fully online program at UBC, originally developed by the Faculty of Education in partnership with UBC’s Distance Education and Technology (DET) unit and Tec de Monterrey (Mexico). Since 2009 it has been entirely administered through UBC’s Faculty of Education, and has gained a reputation for excellence among graduate programs in Educational Technology worldwide. Learn more about MET and the events and activities happening over the next year to celebrate its 20 years.

Espaces francophones on the Okanagan campus
In September, the Okanagan School of Education and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies launched Espaces francophones, an initiative that will offer French-language cultural and social activities to UBCO students with the goal of highlighting and facilitating spaces for Francophone socialization and exchange. This project was made possible by funding from Patrimoine canadien/Canadian Heritage. More

Bringing Indigenous knowledges into mental health supports
Dr. Johanna Sam, a member of the Tŝilhqot’in Nation, and her research team are listening to the experiences of diverse youth to help them develop coping strategies for cyberbullying. Researchers know that cyberbullying impacts youth mental health and can lead to anxiety, depression and substance use. But they do not know if Indigenous youth are being targeted differently than other youth—through hate speech or online discrimination, for example. They also do not know how best to help them cope. Learn more about how Dr. Sam’s research is helping communities, schools and parents better target mental health supports and develop programs and policies to promote healthy device use.

Understanding and promoting physical activity in BC
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for renewed and strengthened systems to promote physical activity in BC. The School of Kinesiology’s Dr. Guy Faulkner and his research team were recently awarded Michael Smith Health Research funding for their project Group Sense Making and Model Building for Mapping Systems for the Promotion of Population Physical Activity in British Columbia. The team has already completed a scoping review to assess the systems supporting physical activity, and will soon convene multi-sectoral stakeholder meetings to make recommendations on policy, practice and research needs to strengthen existing systems. More

Professional learning opportunity: Culturally Responsive Mathematics Assessment
Educators are invited to explore the nature of culturally responsive mathematics education through connections to land, story, community and mathematics. Throughout this three-part, online series, we look to nature and Indigenous perspectives to conceptualize learning that includes cycles of feedback (with self, others, environment, and materials) and discuss approaches and principles for culturally responsive mathematics assessment.

Session 1: November 2, 2022 | 3:30–4:45 pm PT | More

Dean’s Community Engagement Series: Strength-Focused Approaches to Promoting Wellness Among IBPoC Youth in Schools
Join Dr. Jan Hare for the second annual Dean’s Community Engagement Series, highlighting key questions and significant priorities engaging educators today. This virtual session will feature Dr. Farzana Saleem of Stanford University and Marcel Cadogan of David Brankin Elementary School discussing strategies to support the wellbeing and success of racially diverse children and adolescents in the K-12 education system.

November 15, 2022 | 4:30–6:00 pm PT | Via Zoom | More

Anti-Racism Speaker Series
Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender: Systemic Racism in Policing from a Human Rights Lens
In 2021, BC’s Human Rights Commission released a comprehensive analysis of policing and arrest data, along with recommendations about reforms to address the racism and discrimination against Indigenous and Black people revealed in the report. On November 24, join the Faculty of Education’s Anti-Racism Speaker Series as we hear Human Rights Commissioner Kasari Govender examining the issue of racism in policing through a human rights lens.

November 24, 2022 | 5:00–6:00 pm PT | More