Educational Development Philosophy

Educational development is relationship-building work and my philosophy is grounded in the belief that relationships cannot be built without a holistic framework of inclusion. This framework includes acknowledging ability, age, class, race, gender identification, sexual orientation, family status, and all intersections of lived experience contextually in my work. By focusing on a holistic framework of inclusion, educational developers can navigate the different silos and complicated reporting structures found in institutions. This framework allows educational developers to meet instructors where they are at in the context of their career, their course, and their pedagogical path. 

In my educational development practice, the support I provide emphasizes and prioritizes a social constructivist and phenomenological approach that acknowledges the instructor and students’ lived experience. Instructors and learners bring foundational embodied knowledge to learning spaces which needs to be acknowledged in course design and by educational institutions. Sara Ahmed’s queer feminist phenomenological lens on institutional life and inclusion (2012), especially her insight on how bodies become spaces and spaces become embodied for learners and instructors, guides my passion for inclusive and accessible educational development.

My educational development philosophy, like my teaching philosophy, is informed by my research and interest in more comprehensive accessibility, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), sensory studies, and pedagogical ethics.  My facilitation style centres on acknowledging positionality, and opens space to make manifest potential barriers to inclusion. This style works in both in-person or remote facilitation scenarios. Academic spaces are necessarily hierarchical spaces with embedded power dynamics, thus inequity is necessarily present as part of the discourse and content of workshops, events, and consultations, and I work to bring awareness to those inequities from micro to macro levels, and support the strategies needed to remove inequities.

My educational development practice is also of one of multidimensional advocacy. My accessibility advocacy and interdisciplinary background that includes trauma-aware praxis and an ethics of care (Noddings, 2013)  are my key strengths as an educational developer. I advocate for AODA compliant, and UDL guideline informed resources, course design, pedagogy, and assessment design. This work and continued advocacy of how disability studies research can improve educational environments by addressing systemic ableism pedagogically and through design is informed by Jay Dolmage’s (2017) work on academic ableism. I model UDL guidelines in my facilitation and consultation work by providing multiple means of representing content in resources, multiple ways for the instructor to engage with me as an educational developer, and I welcome multiple modes for the instructor to express their needs or concerns. As outlined in Mays Imad’s (2021) work on trauma-aware educational development, supporting faculty in identifying what they can change, communicating the why, and building strong long-lasting relationships, is a way to embed ethics and care in institutions.

I have been in conversation with the larger teaching and learning community and network since 2009 when I started my blog All Things Pedagogical and joined the Twitter HigherEd community in 2011. These spaces, along with my teaching practice, are part of how I continually learn as an Educational Developer, by being in conversation with others, addressing gaps in my knowledge and research, sharing resources with others, and helping facilitate connections between educators with shared interests. I am always learning and always listening. This is key to inclusive educational development.  I actively reflect on aspects of workshop and resource creation, facilitation, and delivery, as well as consultations to continually improve my practice. I am inspired by bell hooks (2003) as well as Kevin Gannon’s work on radical hope, where he states, “[t]he very acts of trying to teach well, of adopting a critically reflective practice to improve our teaching and our students’ learning, are radical” (Gannon, 2020, p.5). Gannon's reference of radical as foundational guides the ways I support accessibility awareness in every point of contact be it a consult, a workshop, a chance meeting, a Twitter thread. I value those interactive moments and the feedback I receive as I continue to reflect on what meaningful feedback in my educational developer work both formally and informally looks like in order to assess the impact and influence of my work.

My Educational Development Philosophy in Practice (Foundational Beliefs)

Every Consult is a Learning Opportunity

Building strong trusting relationships in a supporting role is done through the belief and emphasis that every consult with an instructor is an opportunity for mutual learning. As an educational developer the questions I ask to gain more information and insight of the particular context are just as important as the formative feedback that I can provide during a consult, on a document, or during a teaching observation. Informed by bell hook’s work on pedagogy and feminism, and the belief that “the mutual pursuit of knowledge creates the conditions for optimal learning” (hooks, 2003, p.131), I believe a relationship of mutual respect is key to ethical and inclusive educational development support

Every Interaction Strives to be Inclusive and Ethical

Because I strongly believe that all learning spaces must be ethical spaces, there is a need to reflect on biases or gaps in the communication, resource creation, and context of educational development work. This aspect of my practice is informed by Nel Noddings’ (2013) work and how awareness of the dynamics of relationality and an ethics of care can lead to a comprehensively inclusive engagement in educational spaces. This includes reflection on sexism, ageism, gender bias, racism, ableism or discrimination based on sexuality. Consultations and interactions should bring forward any hidden curricula found in the educational space in order to function from a point of view of transparency.

Further to this, I strive to model the same ethical interactions in the academic associations and professional development that I participate in. It is a belief that I would like to share within the whole educational development community as an "Educational Developer Ethical Resistance Clause." This clause states: "In order to model and uphold the ethical relationality that is foundational to educational development work, educational developers should resist participating in or actively being part of academic groups or associations that do not have a clear commitment to inclusion work which includes accessibility and clear support for Educational Developers with equity-deserving positionalities that is modeled in their professional development offerings and conferences." 

 

Accessibility is Foundational Always

 All discussions and approaches come from an accessible pedagogy framework that sees accessibility as a foundational aspect of educational space and not an add on or after thought. This includes discussions or decisions around use of instructional technologies or assessment strategies to be inclusive of learners. Choices must be accessible in a holistic manner and supported by applicable studies that represent various contextual learner demographics.

 

Programming and Resources that are Meaningful

Creating and supporting faculty development programming that is meaningful to an inclusive audience of learners is a foundational belief that was reinforced in the early days of the COVID pivot to emergency remote learning. It is also informed by the importance of contextual supports for particular disciplines, demographics, and institutional situations. Programming facilitated and resources that are distributed must be applicable to instructors, sessionals, and graduate students. Holding space for the creation of inclusive community in programming is crucial to my educational development work. I strive to put forward programming with clear deliverables, and work to create resources that can be sustainable in a way that supports instructors, departments, and institutions.

Reflective

Educational development work is reflective work. Not only is it important to have space and time to reflect on practices, consults, workshops, and facilitation opportunities, it is important to note that one's educational development praxis is reflective of one's positionality and live experience. This means that there will be biases in approach that require reflection to attain an inclusive and holistic practice.

References

Ahmed, A. (2012). On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Duke University Press.

Dolmage, J. T. (2017). Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education. University of Michigan Press.

Gannon, K. (2020). Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto. West Virginia University Press.

hooks, b. (2003). Teaching Community: A Pedagogy of Hope. Routledge. 

Imad, M. (2021). Transcending Adversity: Trauma-Informed Educational Development.

Noddings, N. (2013). Caring. A relational approach to ethics and moral education. U California Press.