Building on the energy and excitement around broad discussions about teaching—generated by events this semester such as Dr. Natasha Kenny’s public talk and day-long teaching retreat, as well as Dr. Kevin Gannon’s public talk the following week—this series aims to engage colleagues across the university in a series of wide-ranging conversations about teaching. No matter our many different fields and focuses, we all teach—but what and how and who and why…those are the questions we rarely stop long enough to really investigate and talk about. So here’s an opportunity to do so! Join us for an ongoing series of “coffee hour conversations” about teaching as a core activity of the university’s mission. Each meeting (six planned, with more possible) will focus on a separate question or issue that challenges us to think deeply about what we mean by teaching and what a culture of teaching can (or should) look like at both the individual and institutional levels. If you teach in any way, if you want to teach, if you care about teaching, or if you want to know more about teaching – come join your colleagues for any or all of the sessions in this series!

Session 1 – Starting the conversation! 

“What’s the purpose of a university education? or, what are we even doing here?” 

What does it mean to say we “teach,” across our many fields and areas at UPEI? Is there something in common about our teaching that we all share and could articulate? Could we, for instance, agree on what we want students to have at the end of their degrees—in terms of skills, knowledges, and questions for their lives after graduation; would we want to? Or is teaching, a core activity of the university, one of those taken-for-granted activities—and what might be some consequences of not holding it up to the same scrutiny we hold up many of the other knowledges we look at? How does—how can—our teaching respond to a rapidly changing world, a post-secondary sector under much duress everywhere (for lots of reasons), and an ever-changing student body articulating different needs and wants for their learning? (How) Does what we do in the classroom and in our curricula fit with UPEI’s strategic initiatives? At a time when many of us are quietly asking ourselves some version of the question “what are we even doing here,” let’s have that conversation together!