Measuring and Fostering Psychological Safety in Classrooms Through the Lens of Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning

Session Description: 

This Indigenous Initiatives classroom climate series offering is in collaboration with the Anti-Racist Teaching and Learning (A-RTL) team at CTLT! This session is designed to assist in competency and capacity building around cultures of belongingness, affect in the classroom, and engaging diverse communities through principles of inclusivity and psychological safety in the classroom. This session will be grounded in the foundational principles of anti-racism, to facilitate learning and discussion about the framework of psychological safety. As we move through the session, participants will develop tips, tricks, and tools to identify, assess/measure, and plan for psychological safety proactively and iteratively in your classroom climate. By the end of this session, it is hoped participants will be able to differentiate a psychologically safe learning environment focused on fostering belongingness from learning environments that may unintentionally foster racial harm.  

Learning Outcomes:

1. Become familiar with how racism and racialization occur in classroom settings and the realities of “safety” for student of color, driving baseline knowledge on the influence bias, microaggression, stereotypes and lack of meaningful planning around inclusive climates impacts diverse individuals’ psychological safety; 
2. Understand the definition and core tenets of inclusion, inclusive leadership, and psychological safety in the classroom; 
3. Develop a thorough understanding of psychological safety, why it matters in equity work, and develop awareness on the interconnectedness between cultures of belonging and psychological safety through developing knowledge on the four quadrants of psychological safety, understanding metrics to assessing when an environment is psychological unsafe and assessing conduct versus compliance issues through feedback channels; 
4. Reflect on current classroom safety surveying and evaluative measures and identify tangible movements towards fostering inclusion and psychological safety throughout course delivery

Audience: 

This session is open but not limited to the teaching and learning community at UBC- Vancouver Campus. This may include Faculty, Staff, TA’s and students.