Summer 2024
Upcoming Workshops
RITL Workshop: Reparative Humanism in Higher Education: Examining & Recasting Agreements that Govern Teaching and Learning
The Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning is pleased to partner with the Rhode Island Teaching & Learning (RITL) network to offer a unique opportunity for faculty from across the different Rhode Island Higher Education Institutions to meet and learn about a common topic that impacts institutions across the State.
This workshop will:
- delve into the intricate relationship between trauma, burnout, healing, and our collective human experience, with a special emphasis on the wellbeing of faculty within the academic sphere
- explore how trauma can impact our connection to our intrinsic humanity and discuss the critical pathways to healing that are necessary to reclaim our complete sense of self and community wholeness
- discuss the concept of reparative humanism, a philosophical approach dedicated to mending the human condition through the adoption of humanistic principles
These principles advocate for recognizing the “whole” person and emphasize personal autonomy, self-determination, interconnectedness, social responsibility, and the innate worth and dignity of every individual. Our conversation will expand this concept to highlight the imperative of supporting faculty well-being in higher education, asserting that the well-being of the entire academic community, including faculty, is essential for achieving a truly inclusive and nurturing educational environment.
Each institution is limited to a certain number of participants. Contact fctl@ric.edu for application information; applications close Wednesday, May 1.
Date, Time, Location
- Monday, May 20 from 10 am–2:30 pm
- Bryant College (details forthcoming)
- Facilitated by Dr. Mays Imad, Associate Professor of Physiology and Equity Pedagogy at Connecticut College
Difficult Conversations Workshop
The American Democracy Project (ADP), the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL), and the Office of the President are sponsoring a second Difficult Conversations Workshop. The two-day workshop will be held May 15–16, (two full days, breakfast and lunch will be served each day). Additionally, we are planning follow-up opportunities for those who participated in the first cohort of the workshop last year, and we'll be in touch soon about those!
This year, we are expanding the cohort to include faculty, staff, and students from all five schools. Also, we have broadened the scope to allow participants to choose from two tracks: A classroom-focused, and a campus community/event focused.
Track A: Dialogic Classroom Workshop (2 days)
This training is designed for faculty and staff who teach in a classroom context. The workshop supports instructors in creating a more open, connected, conversational culture within the classroom. Evidence shows that the dialogic classroom supports: students’ connection to course content, readings, and lectures; a greater willingness to speak and engage new ideas; a willingness to ask genuinely curious questions of others; a greater sense of belonging in class and on campus. The workshop will address the following learning objectives:
- learn how to establish the conditions for the dialogic classroom through the use of agreements, preparation, design, and the use of space - both virtually and in-person
- build connections and trust between students to support difficult classroom conversations
- structure difficult dialogues in the classroom and design dialogue questions to invite narrative, value-based discussion, and complexity.
- use dialogue as a pedagogical tool for reflection, connection to the topic, and the development of conviction and intellectual humility
- use curricular activities as a pathway to more engagement and dialogue throughout campus and local community
Track B: Facilitator Training for Staff, Faculty, and Students (2 days)
This training is designed for anyone who is interested in designing and facilitating dialogues on campus, outside of the classroom. This workshop will support facilitators as they lead campus dialogues in response to campus, local, or world events, and conversations that are integrated into on-campus programming, such as film screenings, guest speakers, and theatre/arts productions. This workshop will address the following learning objectives:
- gain a basic understanding of what makes dialogue across deep differences difficult as well as skills to support more constructive conversations across differences
- learn a basic framework for designing conversations that include many voices, cultures, and perspectives
- build competence and confidence to begin a dialogue, facilitate, and intervene in groups to support authentic and respectful communication or mutual understanding
- build skills to design dialogue questions that foster connection to each other, to a common stimulus (art, film, theatre, lecture series, etc.), and in response to a difficult topic or current event
Contact fctl@ric.edu for application information.