2025 CTLT Winter InstituteSurviving to Sustaining: Learning Together with Trust, Compassion, and Courage

CTLT Winter Institute December 8 - 11.

The 2025 CTLT Winter Institute will be held December 8-11, both in person at UBC Vancouver and online. This series of workshops invites faculty to pause mid-year to reflect on their teaching practices and their impact on student learning. Participants will have opportunities to share insights, explore evidence-informed approaches, and connect with colleagues across disciplines to strengthen teaching and learning in diverse contexts.

Sessions are intended to be taken individually based on interest and availability; they are not designed to be completed in a specific sequence or as a cohort. Please register for sessions individually as desired.

Download a Schedule-of-Events (PDF)

LUNCHTIME PLENARY: Dr. Kari Grain

Transformative Pedagogies as a Praxis of Critical Hope

December 8, 2025 | 12:00pm – 1:30pm | In-Person

Dr. Kari Grain explores “critical hope” and how transformative, creative teaching can support educators and learners in uncertain times, illustrating how sustaining hope acts as resistance and renewal in higher education.

Register

December 8

  • Care by Design: Building Relational Pedagogy into Teaching Practice

    In-Person
    Series:
    This workshop invites faculty, instructors, and staff to explore how care can be intentionally designed into teaching and learning practices. Drawing on Nel Noddings’ ethics of care and relational pedagogy, reflect on how to create learning environments that support both students and instructors. Through dialogue and hands-on activities, participants will identify barriers, prototype equitable design interventions, and leave with practical tools to embed care as a foundation, not a response, in their pedagogy.

  • Being Kind to Ourselves: The EL-Well Initiative

    In-Person
    Series:
    The EL-Well initiative explores how to better support the wellbeing of Educational Leadership (EL) faculty, particularly those from equity-denied groups who often carry disproportionate emotional labour. This session will share insights from the initiative and invite participants to help shape future activities. Through conversation and small-group discussion, identify barriers and supports for wellbeing, and explore topics such as compassion fatigue, resilience, rest, and equity in teaching.

  • Transformative Pedagogies as a Praxis of Critical Hope

    In-Person
    Series:
    University educators are uniquely positioned to cultivate what Paulo Freire called “education in hope”, a critically aware, action-oriented understanding of our shared challenges. Yet, in times of uncertainty and crisis, sustaining hope can feel difficult. In this keynote, Dr. Kari Grain examines the concept of critical hope and how transformative pedagogies can inspire both educators and learners. Through creative teaching practices, explore how hope itself can be a form of resistance and renewal in higher education.

  • Building Capacity for the IBPOC Teaching and Learning Community: Confluence and Constellations–Reflecting on an Intersectional Approach to Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning

    In-Person
    Series:
    This session invites IBPOC faculty, staff, and graduate students to connect, reflect, and build capacity for intersectional anti-racist teaching and learning. Grounded in Leanne Simpson’s Constellations of Co-Resistance, explore community, compassion, and decolonial love as foundations for sustainable practice. Participants will engage in dialogue on positionality, privilege, and blended pedagogies, fostering trust, courage, and wellness within IBPOC teaching and learning communities.

December 9

December 10

  • Writing Together, Learning Together

    Online
    Series:
    How can collaborative writing transform the way students learn, think, and connect? This 30-minute presentation shares insights from a three-year project exploring “Reading Circles”—a student-led, role-based activity in a first-year research writing course. Using Etherpad, a collaborative online writing tool, students engaged in critical discussions and co-authored texts, fostering deeper understanding, teamwork, and classroom community. Drawing on survey and focus group data, we’ll highlight how structured collaboration supports academic skill development, promotes inclusion, and offers practical strategies for enhancing student agency and engagement in writing-intensive courses.

  • Addressing Student Emotions: Overcoming Hurdles to Classroom Conversations About GenAI Use

    Online
    Series:
    Drawing from the We’re Only Human TLEF project, this 30-minute online session examines how emotions shape students’ experiences with GenAI in writing-intensive courses. Participants will explore common barriers such as discomfort, ethical concerns, and fear of judgment, and consider how these emotions influence classroom dialogue and academic integrity. Through shared reflection, discuss compassionate, educative strategies for engaging students in conversations about GenAI use.

  • Co-Creating Authentic Learning Through Collaborative Relationships

    Online
    Series:
    This roundtable shares a collaborative teaching approach from UBC’s Master of Occupational Therapy program, where students and faculty co-designed a class on anti-oppressive practice. Participants will explore the benefits and challenges of integrating student voices and gain strategies for fostering relational and inclusive learning in health professions education.

December 11

  • Belonging as Practice: Panel Discussion on the Impacts of Inclusivity in the Classroom and Beyond

    Online
    Series:
    Join UBC faculty and STEPS Forward Inclusion Facilitators for a panel exploring inclusive teaching practices that foster belonging and accessibility in higher education. Panelists will share experiences co-creating learning opportunities for students with developmental and intellectual disabilities and reflect on inclusive assessment, disability justice frameworks, and connection as a pathway to learning. Discover how belonging can be practiced and sustained in diverse learning environments.

  • Compassionate Choice in Action: Flexible Assessment for Student Empowerment

    Online
    Series:
    Flexible Assessment empowers students with choice in how their learning is evaluated while supporting inclusion and academic integrity. In this session, presenters will demonstrate how this Canvas-integrated tool can be used to design adaptable assessment options in large classes. Participants will explore setup strategies, boundaries, and student feedback, then engage in a live design activity to create a flexible assessment scheme for their own teaching context.