My approach is rooted in personal positionality and an intercultural lens. It is based on my experiences in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, Canada, Cuba, the United States, Switzerland, Hong Kong and Peru. Additionally, my studies in international development and working in the public sector, with NGOs, and multilateral organizations have informed my pedagogical practices and approaches.
As a practitioner and an academic, I discern the correlation between community-centered, community-led projects and create a co-learning space. Through facilitating brave, safe, and ethical learning spaces, I challenge isomorphic mimicry (Woolcock et. al, 2017) and prioritize historically silenced “ways of being.”
My impetus as a practitioner to collaborate with policymakers, gender experts, engineers, village elders, and environmentalists, while making space for multi-disciplinary, intercultural, and multi-sectoral perspectives, evokes an enriching experience for learners.
I incorporate community-building, participatory approaches in flipped classroom, studio-style sessions that reframe contemporary global issues through the lens of each individual. By prioritizing alternative perspectives, and welcoming individuals’ grounded expertise, learners are able to acknowledge themselves as experts in their own right. This co-created space we enter through our unique (and sometimes ubiquitous) experiences is foundational to our learning.
my values:
connection
Fostering community through connection to create a space of sharing, vulnerability, safety, bravery, and ethical communication.
collaboration
Engaging course content through student-centered, co-learning where lived experiences inform what is learnt in the shared learning environment.
centering
Gathering the lived experiences of those present and illustrating that they already have the knowledge they need and that I am only a conduit of the vernacular and frameworks that supports their engagement.
candour
Establishing brave, safe and ethical spaces where learners can engage honestly and openly on contentious topics in a respectful and honoring manner conducive to learning and examining the differences between people with care and love, humility, and genuine curiosity.
(keeping it) current
Creating functional, empathetic, and real-world content and methodologies that allow learners to see direct correlations between the learning space and beyond and discover how each implicates the other.
Ardilles, P. (2019). Plenary 1 – The Inclusion Project Conference Strategic Dialogue on Equity Diversity and Inclusion. Presentation, Royal Roads University – Victoria, BC
Ermine, W. (2007). The ethical space of engagement, Indigenous Law Journal, 6(1), 193-203.
Scholz, R.W., Lang, D.J., Wiek, A., Walter, A.I. and Stauffacher, M. (2006), “Transdisciplinary case studies as a means of sustainability learning: Historical framework and theory”, International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp. 226-251.
Woolcock, M., Pritchett, L., & Andrews, M. (2017). Building State Capability: Evidence, Analysis, Action. Oxford University Press.