Discussions started by Donna DesBiens

Hi Sylvia and Terri, 

Draft of a possible experiential learning activity for Week 2 of a facilitated 4-week online faculty dev course focused on intercultural teaching and learning competencies. 

Group Learning Scenario: RRU faculty - who may know each other well, have slight acquaintance, or be brand new associate faculty from various locations in Canada (and occasionally the US). 

Preamble: In Week 1, participants are invited to engage in a scaffolded set of intro activities focused on developing awareness of one's own cultural and disciplinary identities, as they affect positionality in the classroom. Trust and relationship building activities include sharing culturally responsive intros, memorable intercultural experiences, and pedagogical values, as well as familiarizing with foundational intercultural research. In Week 2, the focus shifts to modelling and encouraging non-judgemental attitudes/openness towards 'other' values, perspectives, and positions in classroom dialogues and teamwork.  Again, participants are offered curated resources on the why, what, how, and when of various intercultural teaching and learning competencies... before being invited to engage in this activity.  

Heard, Seen, Respected (HSR) - Why and What? 

Issue: Instructor Preparation to Negotiate Common Intercultural Teaching Challenges:

  • Domestic students often resist teamwork with ESL international students
  • Dominant culture emotional reactivity to Indigenization/reconciliation topics & activities

Graphic of various emotional reactionsConfusion

Proposing HSR activity as a bridge to guiding critical conversations and intercultural teamwork in classrooms and as a possible model for a student classroom learning activity. 

Draft Invitation: The learning aim of this activity is to develop empathy about 'walking in the shoes of other,' by connecting with both your own and your colleagues' intercultural learning challenges before you have to 'go live' with your students. 

Steps: 

1. View the video Why Does Privilege Make People So Angry? (4:10). Listen to some thoughts on how misunderstanding and emotional reactions arise, and how to transcend that. Then post a short story about a time you felt you were not heard, seen, or respected that you feel AT EASE about sharing in this learning context. You can choose to share your story in video (up to 3 min) or written text (up to 250 words). You can also add lyrics, music, art, or other graphic elements to your story if you like 

2. Next, briefly respond in the same way to at least one other persons's story - preferably one that does not yet have another response. To practice listening online, without trying to fix anything or make any judgements, please only comment on what it felt like to listen to another person's story and any pattern connections you notice revealed in other stories. Tip: When you are 'listening,' notice when you form a right/wrong judgement, and let it go! 

3. At the end of the week, we plan to harvest all feedback and suggestions to improve future iterations of this activity.  

Looking forward to feedback on what we might stop, start, and/or continue in this activity to make it both effective and supportive. 

Warm regards, Donna

Hi everyone, 

One big question - What are some liberating structures I can adapt for synchronous online / self-paced faculty dev courses on culturally responsive teaching & learning?    

I hope to share a draft learning activity for an upcoming course & would greatly appreciate feedback and suggestions from the group.  I'm looking forward to learning from others' activities and hopefully being able to offer useful feedback too.  

Kind regards, Donna 




Hello everyone,

In case you haven't logged in since Friday, we'd like to mention that we have added some more responses to your land acknowledgement statements. We'd also like to remind you that you will have ongoing access to the course indefinitely, although the posting ability will be turned off in a week or so as Sylvia noted in the Open Forum.  

It has truly been a pleasure working and learning with you over this past week!  

Till our paths cross again, 

Your facilitators, Donna and Dianne      


Welcome to Wednesday, Day 3!  The end of today is the suggested timeframe to post your draft acknowledgement to the Sharing and Feedback Forum

It's great to see all the activity happening in the course: more people checking in, reflecting on the learning resources, asking questions, sharing their acknowledgements, and giving collegial feedback. 

If you have already posted your draft acknowledgement, please go ahead and review others' shares, and start thinking about feedback you'd like to offer others and/or receive yourself.  We have provided some questions that you may use to frame your feedback; however, you are welcome to other appreciative or generative responses that come up for you. 

Feedback Meme - 'Morpheus' w/phrase What if I told you your feedback could determine our future?

    Image: Meme Generator - imgflip

Appreciative feedback may include observations about things you especially like or that inspire you in some way. Generative feedback may include reflective responses to questions that people have asked about how thy might evolve their acknowledgements, or points of clarification. 

Remember the Open Forum is there for you to ask questions, make comments, share resources etc. anytime you like. 

Your facilitators, Dianne & Donna 

Wow, it's already Day 4 of our microcourse and we're in the home stretch.  I guess it's true that time flies when you're having fun! 

If you're following the suggested timeline, you will have spent time reading and thinking about the what, how, and why of meaningful acknowledgements.  Many people have already also posted their own drafts.  We'd like to note that it's great to see the diversity in the acknowledgements posted so far, both in geographical location and application contexts in classrooms, meetings and workshops, as well as personal style.  (No worries, if you just joined in yesterday or today, the activities should very doable in the remaining 2 days).  

Today it's time to post your acknowledgement and start actively engaging in the feedback process in the Sharing and Feedback Forum if you haven't already done so. Once you have posted your acknowledgement, we suggest you select a few of your colleagues' posts that resonate with you in some way for your feedback.  This feedback can brief; the only expectation is that it be authentic and respectful.  

Image of Captain Picard  with text "make it so everyone"
      Meme Generator - imgflip

We are both impressed on how heartfelt people's acknowledgements are, and how much learning is being shared in the recognition of diverse Indigenous peoples across Canada and in two of our American neighbour states.  It's heartening to experience the respectful tone in all course conversations and sense of accountability for historical oppression and relationship repair that's coming through.   We also love the greater humanity that has emerged so quickly in this community as people share a bit about their personhood in the cultural introductions compared to the typical impersonal business intro that's restricted to work role and employer.   

Once again, please feel free to use the Open Forum to post any questions, comments,, or resource shares. 

Warm regards from your facilitators,
Dianne and Donna