The Inner Work of Building Inclusive Classrooms

This workshop is a part of the Towards Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive Classrooms – Communities and Conversations Series

Facilitators:
Jasjit Sangha, PhD Faculty Liaison Coordinator, Anti-Racist Pedagogies, CTSI
Mairi McKenna Edwards, Coordinator, Diversity, Equity, and Student Experience

As bell hooks outlines, “The classroom is the most radical space of possibility in the academy”. But how do we create these learning experiences for our students? What do we need to learn and unlearn? The journey towards dismantling racist and oppressive histories and behaviours is intensely personal while also being relational. It is challenging and intersectional. This workshop is a personal conversation about how we internalize systems of oppression, how they are reflected in our teaching practices, and how we can create a new vision for how we want to be as educators. In this session participants will engage in self-reflection, small group discussion, mindfulness practices and large group conversations.  

Learning Goals: 

• Reflect on how we have been acculturated into systems of oppression and how they take form in our body and everyday practices as educators 
• Understand the social conditioning that informed our identity, its purpose and how we can move forward in relationship with community 
• Reflect on the educator you wish to be, and how that aligns with your deeper values 
• Feel empowered to move forward as anti-racist, anti-oppressive, anti-colonial educator