UNews - Dawn Burleigh

New EDI Scholars represent broadening of important program

trevor.kenney — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 16:33:37 +0000

An unprecedented number of applications has created the broadest representation of disciplines for the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Scholars program yet, with six new scholars named by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge today.

Drs. Dawn Burleigh, Sean Fitzpatrick, Kara Granzow (BA ’99), Jason Laurendeau, Rhiannon Mesler and Tracy Oosterbroek (BN ’95, MSc(N) ’09) were named EDI Scholars for 2023-24, committing to engage in projects that advance the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ’s EDI priorities. When complete, they will then share the information with the campus community.

“We are excited to broaden the pool of EDI champions across the institution,” says Hernando (Nando) Ortega Arango, project manager, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. “Congratulations to our 2023-24 EDI Scholars and thank you to all who applied. This was a highly competitive process, and we look forward to working with this exceptional group of scholars to build EDI capacity together.”

The EDI Scholars program began in 2021, and for the 2023-24 intake, the application process was expanded with the intention to broaden the capacity for EDI work across campus. This resulted in applications from a variety of faculties, departments and backgrounds. Each project for 2023-24 is uniquely different with representation from the Faculties of Arts & Science, Education, Health Sciences and the Dhillon School of Business.

“It is a collective responsibility to champion EDI initiatives, and we all can play a role in facilitating inclusion and belonging,” says Ortega. “Through the efforts of the EDI Scholars, we hope to reach diverse audiences and broaden the capacity of EDI work across campus.”

Three EDI Scholars will undertake their projects beginning in the Fall 2023 Semester, and three in Spring 2024.

Fall 2023 EDI Scholars

Dr. Sean Fitzpatrick

Dr. Sean Fitzpatrick (Mathematics & Computer Science – Faculty of Arts & Science) plans to work with undergraduate student assistants to ensure that the open textbooks for many mathematics courses are fully accessible for all students, including those who require screen reader technology. Part of this work will include ensuring that all images have alt-text descriptions, and that all features of the textbook can be accessed using keyboard navigation.

“I am excited to receive this award because it will enable me to complete some long-overdue work on accessibility,” says Fitzpatrick. “I hope that the status of EDI Scholar will help me to promote the importance of selecting accessible course materials, and to remind people that our commitment to EDI must include accommodations for those with disabilities.”

Dr. Kara Granzow

After attending the Walls to Bridges instructor training this summer, Dr. Kara Granzow (Sociology – Faculty of Arts & Science) will work with colleagues and the community to bring the program to ULethbridge. Walls to Bridges is an internationally renowned initiaive, offered through post-secondary institutions, that provides for-credit courses to incarcerated and non-incarcerated students together to learn as peers.

“Without the support of the EDI Scholars Program, this project would not be possible,” says Granzow. “Programs like this give much needed time and support for the work necessary to further open doors to post-secondary education.”

Dr. Rhiannon Mesler (Management (Marketing) in the Dhillon School of Business) will undertake a series of studies with the goal to better understand when and why individuals choose to support, or not to support, organizations, causes and policies that create more equity, diversity and inclusion.

Dr. Rhiannon Mesler

“I am very grateful to undertake this research with the support of the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge EDI Scholar program,” says Mesler. “This project will help understand the ways that fundamental beliefs about social structures shape support for charitable causes, and in particular those that serve people in need.”

Spring 2024 EDI Scholars

Dr. Dawn Burleigh (Indigenous Education – Faculty of Education) will focus on establishing a sustainable pathway for indigenization in the Faculty of Education that will build faculty, staff and student capacity for years to come.

“Considering the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action in education, and a newly revised teaching quality standard in Alberta, all teachers are required to integrate Indigenous perspectives into their classrooms. This means faculties of education must do the same to ensure pre-service teachers are prepared,” says Burleigh.

Dr. Dawn Burleigh

“Being an EDI Scholar will afford me the opportunity to work with the amazing members of faculty and staff in education to create service opportunities that could connect with community, build relationships, support instructional capacity and meet the emerging needs of the field.”

Dr. Jason Laurendeau (Sociology – Faculty of Arts & Science) aims to contribute to the work of kinesiology departments and faculties as they work to indigenize course offerings, teaching practices and curricula.

Dr. Jason Laurendeau

“My goal is to shed light on the processes by which individual faculty members engage in this work – the barriers, challenges, and/or opportunities they experience,” says Laurendeau. “More broadly, I plan to contribute to vital conversations at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge about what it means to reckon with the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ as a colonial institution.”

Dr. Tracy Oosterbroek (Nursing – Faculty of Health Sciences) will examine the impact of a pilot implementation of CASPer, an online situational judgment test intended to expand the assessment and evaluation of applicant suitability and capacity for ethical caring that extends beyond standard admission metrics. Historically, nursing program admission processes have relied predominantly on GPA which restricts ethnic and cultural diversity among students.

Dr. Tracy Oosterbroek

“This resulting lack of diversity among health-care providers has been shown to have a negative impact on the quality of care received by patients of minority or underrepresented groups,” says Oosterbroek. “My project will examine and compare historical and post-implementation applicant and admission data to determine whether these strategies have a positive impact on the diversity of the student body, or further perpetuate barriers to application and admission for minority, underrepresented or marginalized applicants.

U of L education students participate in Orange Shirt Day

caroline.zentner — Fri, 27 Sep 2019 15:28:32 +0000

��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge education students will be participating in Orange Shirt Day on Monday, Sept. 30 as part of a three-day conference designed to build foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.

Orange Shirt Day was created to educate people about the residential school system and the impact it had on Indigenous communities.

“The purpose of Orange Shirt Day here in the Faculty of Education is to generate awareness and understanding on a day where we remember the residential school system and its students, both those who survived and those who did not,” says Dr. Dawn Burleigh, education professor and conference organizer. “For future teachers, the residential school system has been the history of our profession and it’s particularly important that we understand that system and its implications for students and their families today.”

In Alberta, teachers are responsible for providing foundational knowledge about First Nations, Métis and Inuit in all classrooms in all schools. Thanks to a grant from Alberta Education, the Faculty of Education at the U of L is completing a two-year pilot project about how best to do that.

“Having Orange Shirt Day as part of a three-day Indigenous education conference for first-semester education students is to build towards an understanding of how we can better attend to Indigenous perspectives, histories, peoples and students in classrooms today,” says Burleigh. “Education students will be participating in a number of sessions that help build some foundational understanding so they’re better prepared when they start teaching in their full-time careers.”

The conference gets underway at 9 a.m. in the Students’ Union ballroom with drumming and a prayer by a Blackfoot Elder. Rudy Black Plume, a student in the U of L’s Niitsitapi Teacher Education Program who designed the artwork that appears on the orange shirts, will provide an artist’s statement. After a break at 10:30, students will participate in various educational sessions with Blackfoot and Métis facilitators. The conference wraps up Wednesday with drumming by a men’s group and dancing by students from Saipoyi Community School.

Alberta teachers to benefit from linkage of U of L FNMI education database to provincial resource

caroline.zentner — Mon, 25 Jan 2016 17:09:58 +0000

A database of educational resources for First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) learners developed at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge will gain wider exposure and use when it is added to resources at the Alberta Regional Professional Development Consortia (ARPDC) today.

Dawn Burleigh, a professor in the Faculty of Education, oversees the FNMI Curriculum Collection, a database of more than 1,200 educational resources that bring an FNMI perspective to the Alberta curriculum.

U of L education professor Dawn Burleigh, at left, chats with Johnel Tailfeathers, centre, and Dr. Marlo Steed, during a break in the session to merge the U of L FNMI database resources to a provincial resource.

“As I see it, First Nations, Métis and Inuit education is the responsibility of all teachers in all classrooms with all students,” says Burleigh. “The new Truth and Reconciliation report has a number of action items related to education and, if teachers are agents in that system, they have to be informed about how to address First Nations, Métis and Inuit issues in the classroom. We also have to uphold our obligations under the treaties.”

The database was started several years ago by Dr. Cathy Campbell, a retired U of L education professor, and Johnel Tailfeathers (BEd ’89), a former U of L education instructor.

“The resources have come primarily from students and teachers in the field. Our students have utilized it over the years and contributed to it as well,” says Burleigh.

She wanted to expand the collection and connect with other existing resources so she and Solange Lalonde (BEd ’06), lead developer with ARPDC’s Provincial First Nations, Métis and Inuit Professional Learning Project developed a partnership. ARPDC provides professional development for teachers and is the umbrella organization for six regional consortia in the province.

Funded by Alberta Education, the ARPDC project serves as a resource to bring FNMI perspectives and content to educational programming. Lalonde has developed a Moodle course of FNMI resources linked to the Alberta curriculum. Moodle is free software that helps educators create online courses.

“We’re still in the implementation phase where we’re trying out different professional learning opportunities, introducing new resources, developing resources and working with leadership from the school divisions that are pilots on the project,” says Lalonde.

U of L students who are Native Education majors will be spending the day cross-linking and adding the U of L resources to the ARPDC Moodle directory. Once the resources are all in one place, teachers can consult with their local communities and Aboriginal liaison workers to ensure the resource is appropriate for their region or treaty area.

“It brings more usage to the collections and makes the material more available to teachers in the field, as well as our students,” says Burleigh.

Bringing an FNMI perspective to lessons is sometimes seen as something strictly for teachers of FNMI students.

“If we want teachers to include First Nations, Métis and Inuit perspectives, a way to empower them is to already have the learning outcome linked to the resource,” says Lalonde, who’s also a U of L master’s of education student. “It’s meant to be an integral part of their planning process.”

The FNMI Curriculum Collection page can be found here.

Curriculum Design Challenge Day Inspires Innovation Among Master of Education Students

caroline.zentner — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 20:17:36 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Master of Education in Curriculum and Assessment Program held its first annual Curriculum Design Challenge Day on Wednesday, July 15, 2015. The event, co-hosted by the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge AGILITY Program, challenged participants to propose a new vision for the curriculum of the first professional semester (PSI) in the Faculty of Education.

Dr. David Slomp and Dr. Amy von Heyking (Faculty of Education) organized the Challenge Day with the intention of providing participants the opportunity to propose new solutions to a specific and real-world curriculum challenge. Partnering with the U of L AGILITY Program, which focuses on providing innovative and entrepreneurial learning experiences for students, the Curriculum Design exercise allowed 45 ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge master's students to apply their knowledge and experience to offer creative and innovative solutions for post-secondary curriculum.

“The enthusiasm was infectious and the students shared creative and inspiring solutions for the problem presented,” says Dr. Lesley Brown, Vice-Provost & Associate VP Academic. “The event reinforced that opportunities for innovation span many disciplines, and that students are well-equipped to bring unique, varied ideas to the table in a real-world approach.”

Aaron Stout was one of 45 master's students to participate in the Curriculum Design Challenge.

The idea behind Challenge Day and the Inspiring Education initiative isn’t radical.

“In many ways, the event focused on answering perennial questions about how to make education relevant for kids, and how we are connecting with learners so they see that there are authentic ways to demonstrate what they have learned and why it matters,” says von Heyking.

The panel of judges for the event was selected based on their expertise and involvement in developing education:

· Dr. Lesley Brown, Vice-Provost & Associate Vice-President (Academic), ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge

· Amber Darroch, Associate Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Horizon School Division

· Dr. Dawn Burleigh, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge

· Melissa Gough, Education Undergraduate Student Association Executive Committee Member, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge

Challenge Day participants commented on how the biggest challenge of the day, besides the five-hour time limit, was throwing away preconceived ideas and structures that the Faculty of Education has for students entering their PSI.

“For me, it was interesting to think about what is education, what is its purpose and from that, what should a teacher look like. It was cool to just throw away everything that you know already and just create a whole new vision,” says Calvin de Haan, first year Master of Education in Curriculum and Assessment student.

Participants were encouraged to use their personal experiences to propose changes to the current PSI structure based on problems that they encountered as student teachers and as current education professionals mentoring student teachers.

“One of the things that stood out to me was that our opinions were being valued. I really felt that they were interested in what we had to say,” says Lisa Paton, first year Master of Education in Curriculum and Assessment student.

The winning team of Curriculum Design Challenge Day consisted of Sara Jans, Heidi Paterson, Bob Vanderbeek, Josie Hammond, Fleur Sweetman, Kaeli New and Morgan Schaufele. Their solution to innovating PSI was to develop competent education professionals by focusing on relational intelligence, self-awareness and regulation, and sensitivity to context and situation.

The ideas and visions generated from the event will be presented to faculty members to provide different perspectives on how U of L Faculty of Education Professional Semesters will be done in the future.

UNews - Dawn Burleigh

New EDI Scholars represent broadening of important program

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