Spring 2020 TA/TM Day

In this session, we will focus on helping you understand the nature of power within the relations that TA/TMs navigate with supervisors and students. This presentation will include early data from a forthcoming student-suvivor research project examining the abuse of power within supervisory relationships with a Canadian post-secondary context. Outcomes of this session will include not only recognizing power, but also practical tools for understanding what your SFU/TSSU resources and supports are when you feel such an abuse of power has occurred. 

The session will include:

• examining your roles within the institution to understand power, the many forms it can take, and who holds it in institutions;
• building boundaries - how to be respectful of someone’s limits and how you can feel empowered to set the same;
• Processes for responding to aggressive or threatening behaviours resulting in an abuse of power.

This session will provide participants with an overview of definitions, unpacking societal norms that promote sexual violence and understanding the impact of trauma. This session will provide TA’s and TM’s with the tools to provide an empathetic response to someone experiencing sexual violence and learn about processes and resources at SFU and their role in referring someone to campus services

Case study analysis and discussions are used to actively engage learners in real-life problems and to develop and practice analytical and problem-solving skills. Case studies present a ‘slice of life’ context to real life problems and multiple perspectives which encourage an engaging, problem-based, student-centered, and active learning approach (Sudizina, 2005). TAs/TMs are often expected to support and facilitate case study discussions. Therefore, learning how to conduct meaningful case discussions is an important skill for TAs/TMs, as case studies are increasingly common in teaching and learning to achieve significant learning. However, several challenges involved in case study discussions make it intimidating for even experienced facilitators.

By participating in this workshop, learners will be able to construct appropriate strategies and apply them effectively for case-based teaching. Participants will be able to practice and showcase their skills in communication and guided discussion. They will work as a group to collaboratively solve teaching challenges. Through interdisciplinary interactions, participants will learn various applications and perspectives in case-based teaching and learning.

This workshop focuses on participatory learning to tackle how we as TAs and TMs can structure our
tutorials, labs, online messages and build up our classroom cultures in ways that produce not just equal
opportunities to succeed, but equal outcomes of success (justice) for marginalized students, such as EAL
learners, students with disabilities, racialized students, and folks with limited financial resources?
In this workshop, we will...
• Review what oppression/anti-oppression and cultural responsiveness mean, and how they are
maintained through institutions (not merely at the level of individuals).
• Identify what groups face marginalization, in our own regional context and also on a broader scale.
• Cultivate an awareness of how the university is structured to benefit students with privilege at the
expense of marginalized students.
• Critically assess sample course outlines and lesson plans to identify how they reproduce privilege and
oppression in the university.
• Develop and implement anti-oppressive course-design and lesson-plan strategies.
This workshop is intended for either beginning TA’s and TM’s or experienced educators from any
discipline to begin the work of re-orienting their own teaching practices beyond the traditional
understanding of higher education.