Categories
Pedagogy Regular Sessional

Reconciliation: Challenges and Opportunities

The City of Vancouver, located on unceded Coast Salish territory–the traditional homelands of the Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil Waututh and Sto:lo people, has declared 2013 – 2014 to be a Year of Reconciliation. As educators, we are part of a larger, historic moment of reckoning, an opportunity to face Canada’s painful history of colonization with honesty and courage. It has been said that South Africa’s apartheid system was based on Canada’s Indian reserve system. Canada’s residential schools, which attempted to destroy Indigenous cultures, are part of a colonial system that continues, as we see more Indigenous children being apprehended from their families today than even at the height of the residential schools.

At the same time that systemic colonial violence continues, many efforts at healing and resilience are growing and deepening. An excellent example of this is the CBC show, Eighth Fire.  As Eighth Fire shows, the arts have a key role to play in healing and reconciliation. The project, From the Heart: Enter into the Journey of Reconciliation, is another great example. In her book, Unsettling the Settler Within, Paulette Regan writes:

Unless we who are non-Indigenous undertake to turn over the rocks in our colonial garden, we will never achieve what we claim to want so badly— to transform and reconcile our relationship with Indigenous people. Rather we will remain benevolent peacemakers, colonizer-perpetrators bearing the false gift of a cheap and meaningless reconciliation that costs us so little and Indigenous people so much. But what if we were to offer the gift of humility as we come to the work of truth telling and reconciliation? Bearing this gift would entail working through our own discomfort and vulnerability, opening ourselves to the kind of experiential learning that engages our whole being— our heads, our hearts, our spirits.

In the spirit of this deep, experiential learning, UBC and Emily Carr are both suspending classes for a day so that students and faculty can participate in the activities organized in conjunction with the arrival of the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Vancouver from Sept 18 to 21. Members of the Emily Carr community will be drumming to welcome the All Nations Canoe Gathering in Senak’w Staulk (False Creek) on Sept 17, and classes will be suspended on Sept 20 so that everyone can participate in reconciliation and resilience activities at Emily Carr. On Sunday, Sept 22, there will be a 4 km walk for reconciliation, starting at 10 am at Queen Elizabeth Plaza (near the central library) downtown. We invite you to come walk with us, or start your own team of walkers.

Rita Wong

Categories
News

Representing You in Nanaimo

Nanaimo

Earth, Water, & Fire (ie. Peg Campbell, Rita Wong and Danuta Zwierciadlowski) representing the Emily Carr Faculty Association at the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators’ AGM, Vancouver Island University campus, May 2013. The artwork they are standing by was made by a VIU student to remember and respect murdered women.

Categories
Bargaining Regular Sessional

Contexts: Collective Agreements and Universities

Notwithstanding the gorgeous sunny weather this long weekend, it’s also one of the most intense times of the year for studio and academic faculty. After the crunch eventually subsides, it may be healthy to take a step back to reflect on how post-secondary education is evolving, as well as our responsibilities to protect the quality of education in this province. While we each have our individual strengths and challenges, we’re also in this arts, media & design education community together, and it’s through mindful coordination that we’ll achieve more.

If you’d like to compare the collective agreements of post-secondary institutions that are members of FPSE (Federation of Post-Secondary Educators), they can be found online at http://www.fpse.ca/agreements/collective.

Also, for more context and discussion, the latest issue of Canadian cultural studies journal Topia, entitled Out of the Ruins, the University to Come, can be found in our library: http://pi.library.yorku.ca/ojs/index.php/topia/issue/current.

Categories
Sessional

Sessionals, Up Close

Sessional instructors are now a crucial part of the teaching equation at most Canadian universities. Some say it’s time to include them more fully in the life of the institution:

http://www.universityaffairs.ca/sessionals-up-close.aspx

Categories
Pedagogy Regular Sessional

Reflecting on Teaching

As 2012 comes to a close, this may be a good time to reflect on your teaching style. The Teaching Perspectives Inventory offers some ways of describing and identifying different approaches to teaching. It’s free, quick to do, and helpful to consider: http://teachingperspectives.com/drupal/

Categories
Bargaining Regular

Academic Freedom

While we’ve had a number of discussions about academic freedom over the years, some faculty members are new to the discussion. As an introduction, here is a brief overview and definition by Cary Nelson:
http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/12/21/nelson_on_academic_freedom

For a more detailed discussion, see his book No University Is An Island. While Nelson is writing in an American context, many of the trends and issues he identifies are relevant to the Canadian post-secondary community.