Concurrent Sessions

Concurrent 1

Creating organizational readiness for change though workplace learning 
Christie Schultz, Executive Director, Learning Engagement Office (LEO) Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta

This session presents research findings from a study that explored the ways in which learning is a form of organizational change and, as such, supports organizational readiness for change.

The study explored the experience of a unit within a major Canadian university that managed to transform its decentralized and independent student records and administration system by merging into the university’s central student management system. The presentation aims to show that creating an environment for sustainable organizational change in higher education, and perhaps more generally, is supported by recognizing that ongoing workplace learning may help to create organizational readiness for change.


Putting “Patient Reflection” into a Competency Portfolio for Alberta Physiotherapists
Audrey Lowe, Coordinator – Continuing Competence Program Physiotherapy Alberta

This presentation will describe the rationale for and development of a Patient Care Reflection
Tool (PCRT) by Physiotherapy Alberta, College + Association, the regulatory college for
physiotherapists in Alberta, as part of mandatory competency portfolio. The results of qualitative study examining physiotherapists’ experiences and quantitative feedback on the PCRT during development, and plans for future use of using the PCRT as part of a regulatory process will be discussed. Recommendations how the PCRT can be integrated into workplaces for the purposes of enhancing self directed assessment and social learning will also be provided.


Framing engagement: Implications for lifelong learning
Tania Kajner, PhD Student, Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta

Engaged scholarship is becoming increasingly important to Canadian universities.  However, understanding what constitutes engaged scholarship is a challenge. Without clarity, a broad range of people and practices can be understood as engaged, resulting in a movement that stands for everything and nothing at the same time. In this presentation I draw off North American literature on engaged scholarship as an overall field to explore three primary conceptualizations, or frames, for understanding engagement. I then explore the implications of these different conceptualizations for educators, learners, and communities concerned with creating a culture of lifelong learning.


Humanities 101: A community based outreach program providing accessible University-level education for barriered adult learners.
Lisa Prins, Community Service-Learning Program, Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta

Humanities 101 is a University of Alberta Community Service-Learning program that offers free non-credit university-level education for adults who face multiple barriers to education. The aims of humanities 101 are to encourage critical thinking in the everyday and to inspire a passion for lifelong learning. This session will explore the roots of Humanities 101 as a social movement. The University of Alberta Community Service-Learning Humanities 101 program takes a unique experiential learning approach focusing on the experiences of the learners within a theoretical context. Necessary for the success of Humanities 101 is the continued support from both community organizations and educational institutions. These partnerships will be highlighted in the session.


Concurrent 2

Facilitating local lifelong learning with new compassion: A phenomenological self study of a global-citizenship experience
Sherry Ann Chapman, Community-University Partnership for the Study of Children, Youth, and
Families (CUP) Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta

In this presentation, I describe my work with a scholarly engagement lens, a descriptor for an integrated cycle of teaching, service, and research (Fear, Rosaen, Bawden, & Foster-Fishman, 2006, p. 59). In 2010-2011, I had a global-citizenship experience, living with Palestinians and Israelis who are working toward a just peace. In my phenomenological self-study of social-justice accompaniment, I am learning how I and my activity, as a facilitator of community-based research and evaluation capacity, have been shaped.  Integrating my global-local, lifelong-learning experiences, I realize that I am facilitating, with new compassion, learners’ integration of knowledge into their real life contexts.


How to Integrate Theory and Practice: Using What I Learned
Denise Nelson, SIAST Wascana Campus, Regina, SK

This presentation showcases the online course NRSG 203 Issues and Trends in Professional Nursing, designed to help students make connections between acquiring and using knowledge. Students learn how to use knowledge and develop critical reasoning by working through clinical situations and thinking in action. They act on behalf of the student re-entry nurse who is beginning her clinical experience (course organized as a 12-hour shift) on an acute surgical ward, interacting with six patients and their families as well as the health care team. You will explore the course design elements to see how learning integrates with work practices.


Celebrating Lifelong learning in a Multicultural Society: Exploring Contributions of Ethno-cultural Communities in Canada
Shibao Guo, PhD, Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

Despite Canada’s rich immigration history and the strategic role it plays in Canada’s future, the issue of immigrant settlement, adaptation and education is still prominent. This study explores the role of ethno-cultural organizations in building inclusive learning communities for adult immigrants in Canada.  It examines the founding and historical development of three ethno-cultural organizations, the lifelong learning programs they provided, and their social contributions. It reveals that community initiated voluntary associations can play a valuable role in helping immigrants integrate into multicultural Canada. They provide professional services and lifelong education programs, advocate on behalf of immigrants, and facilitate community development. They have contributed by playing a significant bridging role between the immigrant community and Canadian society at large.



Concurrent 3

Culture as Classroom: TV Portrayals of and Lessons about Workplace Teaching and Learning
Kaela Jubas, Assistant Professor and Patricia Knutson, Research Assistant Adult Learning/Faculty of Education, University of Calgary

This presentation discusses a study exploring how popular culture operates as informal pedagogy, and meshes with work-related education. The show Grey’s Anatomy , set in a teaching hospital, framed conversations with medical and nursing students. This presentation focuses on one theme – messages about
and experiences of work-related pedagogy, or teaching, and learning. Watching the internship process in Grey’s Anatomy and discussing it with participants, we identified six teaching/learning approaches: question-and-answer, hands-on experience, mentorship, team work, debate and deliberation, and teaching-as learning.  We close with a caution about assuming that internship, or any workplace pedagogy, involves an automatic progression from novice/learner to expert/teacher.


The Pleasure of Learning: Literature as an Efficient Tool in Foreign Language Acquisition
Andre Glaser, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta

This paper will focus on my experience as a teacher of Introduction to Literature in the Bridge Program offered by the Faculty of Extension to international students so that they acquire the necessary skills to succeed in their undergraduate programs. A course of literature is defended as being extremely rich as a place of interaction between: the teaching of literature as a specific artistic form; an English text to be decodified by the reader; a cultural production; and a privileged source of pleasure. Then, some generalizations will be made concerning the teaching of literature to immigrant learners of English.


Participation in Lifelong Learning among Members of Racialized Social Groups in Canada
Jennifer R. Kelly, PhD, Professor & Chair, EDPS, University of Alberta, Milosh M. Raykov, PhD,
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, EDPS, University of Alberta

Changing social, economic, and working conditions in Canada require that citizens constantly engage in lifelong learning to maintain an active social life and access to decent employment. Participation in lifelong learning seems particularly important for traditionally underserved segments of the population, including individuals with lower educational attainment and racialized social groups. This study examines participation
in lifelong learning among racialized Canadians as a response to social inequality and unfavorable labor-market outcomes these groups experience.

"Forward through the rear-view mirror":  Honoring lifelong and prior learning
Dianne Conrad, PhD, Director, Centre for Learning Accreditation, Athabasca University

Lifelong learning and its primary vehicle, adult education, have often been responsible for providing alternate routes to learning for adults. Its history is rich with examples of brilliant learning initiatives. Prior learning assessment and recognition (PLAR), whereby adults' experiential and informal learning is recognized and assessed for formal credit in post secondary institutions, is such an initiative. This session will highlight PLAR's contributions to Canadians' lifelong learning.


Concurrent 4

Literacy and Essential Skills: Celebrating Lifelong Learning in Communities
Alberta Advanced Education and Technology: Jennifer Wells, Alberta Human Services: Tracey Campbell

Panelists will be providing information on the Living Literacy: A Literacy Framework for Alberta’s Next Generation Economy and the work that is being done in Alberta to increase awareness of the importance of literacy and essential skills. The Government of Alberta through leadership from Alberta Advanced Education and Technology, Alberta Education and Alberta Human Services and support from other government ministries is committed to coordinate and collaborate with our many partners to improve literacy skills of Albertans through a series of priority actions that will be presented to you.


Community Capacity Building Frameworks: Enhancing Community Driven Action and Reciprocal Learning
Judy Smith Director, Community Education Program, Shanthi Besso, Noni Maté, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia

The Simon Fraser University panel will illustrate the reciprocal learning and democratized knowledge
production emerging from two community engaged and co---created programs. The Panel will showcase
two programs that utilize SFU’s innovative Certificate in Community Capacity Building: Stepping Stones
is an online and face---to---face program developed with four remote Aboriginal communities in British Columbia, and Literacy Lives is a program developed in collaboration with the HIV community in Vancouver. Three presentations will demonstrate how collaborative program development, flexible models, mixed---mode delivery, and holistic curricula can strengthen cultures of lifelong learning in our communities.


The Transformation of Academic Upgrading to Experiential Work Skills Programming at Yukon College
Stephen Biggin-Pound; Instructor/Coordinator, Simone Rudge; Instructor, School of Access, Yukon College

Join Yukon College instructors in a review of the exploration and development of new experiential, workplace-oriented programming designed to engage our most barriered learners. Yukon College
recently underwent a transformation to the design of our lowest level Adult Basic Education programming. Traditional academic upgrading has been transformed into workplace-oriented, project-based learning. Learners participate in workplaces, develop essential skills, and improve academic skills. Each semester a new set of projects are offered, such as Culinary Arts, Radio Broadcasting, Green Greenhouse  construction, and Plumber’s Helper. Program development is on-going…The change has been dramatic, challenging, successful, and a whole lot of fun!


Connecting through learning: Co-developing an online certificate program in Population Health Data Analysis
Heather McRae, Program Director, Arts and Science Programs, Emily Schudel, Online Course Developer/Consultant, Maxine Reitsma, Program Coordinator, Division of Continuing Studies, University of Victoria

This session will focus on the experiences and knowledge gained in designing an online professional
development certificate program in partnership with a non-profit agency. The Professional Specialization Certificate in Population Health Data Analysis combines instruction in epidemiology and geographic information systems using an online learning environment provided through a Moodle platform. Students in the program access “real data sets”, survey data and software located within a secure research site managed by Population Data BC. In this session, presenters will outline the nature of the partnership, discuss the design features of the program and provide a brief overview of the successes and challenges to date.


Concurrent 5

The Elusive Quest for Learning… Where is it and how do we get it?
Toby Rabinovitz, Project Manager
Knowledge Connector – Volunteer Alberta

Too often rural leaders have to travel to urban centres to attend conferences, workshops and other learning opportunities. Growth of our organizations depends on skilled and competent leadership. In order to face and conquer the organizational challenges of the 21st century we need to be developing and supporting leaders in the non-profit/voluntary sector; this is often easier said than done. Faced with complex community issues, what are the skills, knowledge and experience leaders need to succeed? Session participants will be presented with accumulated learning’s from knowledge connector.ca including the benefits of competency based leadership, how the sector is gaining a closer connection to learning and growth opportunities and what challenges are still ahead in our quest for on-going learning.


Promising Practices in Workplace Learning: The Community Geographic Team Initiative
Jean Anderson, MSW, RSW, Director of Education and Program Development, Laurie O’Shaughnessy, M.Ed, Education Specialist, CASA, Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health

The Community Geographic Team (CGT) initiative is building the capacity of children’s mental health therapists in rural and remote Alberta communities by providing workplace learning opportunities. The initiative relies on distance delivery methods (video conference workshops, webinars, and self paced online modules/communities of practice) to provide practitioners with knowledge, skills and training in content areas specific to their work needs. Using a variety of innovative methods (experiential, case based and discovery techniques) the initiative promotes long-term learning in the distance classroom. This presentation will examine the design and delivery of the program, as well as its successes and challenges.


Learning in Community: One Conversation at a Time
Eryn Fitzgerald, Program Coordinator, University of the Streets Café , Concordia University, Montreal

Since 2003, the Montreal-based University of the Streets Café has used the ‘public conversation’ to promote lifelong learning and community engagement. With the support of Concordia University's School of Extended Learning and Institute for Community Development, these collective discussions allow individuals of diverse backgrounds and socio-economic realities to meet and think together on important social issues, current affairs and topics of general interest. Organizing an engaging public conversation requires careful attention to content, process and logistics. In this workshop, we will explore the methodology and practical steps behind public conversations to better understand learning in community.


Understanding the barriers, challenges and experiences of a Widening access framework within mental health
Mark Richardson, Kelly McCarthy Centre For Community and Lifelong Learning, University of Wales, Newport

In this workshop we will share our experiences of widening access to HE within a specific target group
mental health service users within South Wales, UK. Discussion will focus on our current research, which, while showing a widening access approach within mental health is affective—this approach has nonetheless been confronted with significant challenges in terms of how to deliver HE to vulnerable groups (confidence and motivation) retention, engagement, perceptual barriers of university and HE, institutional demands (outcomes based). Outcomes of this workshop; sharing experiences and widening awareness of other research activity within mental health.


Concurrent 6

Enlarging Our Concept of Lifelong Learning: Studying Learning in the Preschool Years
Dr. Susan Lynch, Director, Early Child Development Mapping Project (ECMap), Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta

Through a process of community engagement, the concept of ‘lifelong’ learning has been enlarged to include more fully the early years before children enter school. Initiated by a group made up of community members and university researchers, the Early Child Development Mapping (ECMap) project was launched to study the development of preschool children throughout Alberta and the engagement of local communities in supporting the wellbeing of all young children. The focus of the study is at both ends of the spectrum: the early years and adult community.


Job Characteristics and Their Impact on Participation in Work-Related Informal Learning
Milosh M. Raykov, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Research Fellow Department of Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta

Research on participation in lifelong learning demonstrates that a large number of Canadians engaged in formal education, while a significantly larger number engage in informal work-related learning(Livingstone & Raykov, 2011). Despite this relatively high level of involvement, however, Canadians’ participation in lifelong learning falls behind not only the traditionally high participation in Scandinavian countries, but also that in a growing number of other OECD countries (OECD, 2010a, p. 51). To date, there has been little research on forms of organizational support that can foster employees’ participation and even less research on job characteristics that promote or prevent work-related learning and innovative work (Martin, Salanova & Peiro, 2007; Taris & Kompier, 2005). Drawing on the active learning hypothesis, which claims that active jobs,” or those with both high demands and high discretionary control over work, determine the level of engagement in learning (Karasek & Theorell, 1990; Karasek, 2004), this study examines the associations between job characteristics and participation in both formal and informal work-related learning.


Connecting Curricula to Life Options: A Transformative Inter-disciplinary Career Development Learning Journey
Atleo Marlene (PhD) Associate Professor Educational Administration, Ukasoanya Grace (PhD) Assistant Professor Educational Administration, Foundations and Psychology, University of Manitoba

The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate how a course in Career Development could instigate
transformative learning experiences among graduate level education students. It will demonstrate how teacher educators could assist practicing teachers to re-evaluate teaching and learning as mediums for expanding life options for ALL students and gateways to success in life, school, career and membership in students’ own communities. It will present a metacognitive narrative about the design and delivery process of an inter-disciplinary course in Career Development and articulate facets of transformational learning experiences and teaching strategies that occurred in this course.


Community-Based Teacher Education Program delivered to North-Central Albertans by the partnership between the U of A and Northern Lakes College
Kevin Delorey, BACS, Dip.AdEd, AGDDE(T), B.Ed, MAIS Director, Community Learning Centres, Northern Lakes College

Providing post-secondary training to rural communities is not only possible, but can develop successful
lasting partnerships among government sectors, institutions, secondary schools and communities. This presentation will also highlight the historical and future blended delivery model, and the student support mechanisms that will be in place for students to complete the requirements for a Bachelor of Education from the University of Alberta in rural communities served by Northern Lakes College.


Concurrent 7


When Educational Institutions and Communities Collide: Social Activism as Lifelong Learning
Donna Chovanec, Professor, Miriam Cooley, Ayesha Mian, Educational Policy Studies, University of
Alberta

Adult educators studying social movements have observed the lifelong, intensely educational nature of social movement experiences. The eruption of the Chilean student movement in 2006 is an excellent case example of engagement between formal educational settings (high schools and universities) and communities (student groups, teachers unions and other civil society organizations). Through the screening of the documentary, “How to Hatch A Penguin: Generating Women’s Activism in the Chilean Social Movement,” participants in this workshop will engage in reflection and interactive discussion on the issues and challenges surrounding global struggles for educational equity.


Creating Learning Opportunities through Community Partnerships
Jean Madill, Executive Director, Campus Alberta Central, Alice McNair, Dean ,Learning Resources,
Red Deer College, Jann Beeston, General Manager, Campus Alberta Central, Bonnie Ireland, Program Manager, Settler & District Community Adult Learning Council

Campus Alberta Central is developing an innovative learning stewardship model based on community
engagement. The creation of sustainable and vibrant rural communities is enabled by educating the local workforce but also by empowering communities and learners to engage in the process. Through extraordinary partnerships; colleges, schools, communities and service organizations are harnessing
opportunities to build a “Culture of Learning” in rural central Alberta. Creative individuals and organizations are collaborating to develop and implement new educational opportunities in small, rural communities across an extensive region. Let us share with you our progress on developing this exciting and innovate initiative.


Visual Engagement: it’s not just about art (but that’s a great place to start!)
Virginia Stephen, Executive Director, Liberal Studies, Faculty of Extension, University of Alberta

The more we discover about how people learn and think, the more we realize that the development of our creative minds is key to our personal and organizational success. In our increasingly visual world, developing our visual literacy and abilities to learn from seeing is a key element of building our creative competencies. This session will introduce a model for engaged looking and take you on a short journey with a work of art.
Absolutely no art experience required!


Concurrent 8

Helping Citizens
Sandra Copeland, Education Services Supervisor, The Support Network, Edmonton, Alberta

Since 1960, the Support Network has offered community based, professional development workshops for adult learners. Workshops are on various crisis management topics: family violence, suicide awareness and intervention, self-harm, deescalating angry clients, debriefing stressful situations and other customized topics. All crisis management workshops are accredited through the American Association of Suicidology. Some workshops provide certification for employees who are mandated to recertify every few years for their employment. The workshops on-site are accessible to any interested individual to take as personal development. All of the crisis management topics are relevant to personal and professional circumstances that one may encounter.


Facilitating Intergenerational Learning in a Community Organization for Activists in Edmonton: A Social Movement Ethnography
Donna Chovanec, PhD, Misty Underwood, Graduate Student, Educational Policy studies, University of Alberta

In our session we will present the findings and implications from our ethnographic study on intergenerational political learning in an Edmonton community organization. Our research has focused on the pedagogical (i.e., teaching and learning) dimensions of social activism and social movements as political forces in a democratic society. Building on 12 years of previous research with women’s and students’ movements in Chile, we asked “Through what learning processes does one become a social activist?” and “What learning processes
contribute to ongoing or expanded social activism?”


Ambassadors of Literacy: The Learning Centre Literacy Association (Abbottsfield) Writers’ Circle
Cheryl Luck, Anna Marie Sewell, Debbie Lathlin and Phil Beakhouse, Learning Centre Literacy Association

Join an intrepid group of writers who are using our creativity to write for others who don’t often see themselves as main characters and heroes in the stories of our lives. From its tiny beginnings in 2007, the Writers’ Circle has grown and evolved into a success story all its own. We are one-of-a-kind, original, and damn good, and we are making connections to an expanding web of community. Come share in our adventures!


Lifelong learning initiatives in rural India: what it means to rural women?
Stella Mary Ebi Johnson, Graduate Student, Educational Policy Studies, University of Alberta

This session will focus on exploring lifelong learning initiatives undertaken in India and what it means to
the rural woman that is considered as a marginalized sector. The lecture will introduce the participants to various learning programs initiated by the government as well as non-profit organizations. The presenter will examine how predominantly women are educated to participate in the economic growth and this intention marginalizes those who are not able to participate owing to economic and social reasons. This very changing notion of learning as an economic imperative has caused adverse effects in rural women's lives. Alternatives to overcome the challenges will be discussed.

1 comment:

  1. Looks like this will be a GREAT Conference!

    ReplyDelete