Curriculum Integration and FOA Thinkspace | Faculty of Arts | Seneca Polytechnic

When we look at worldwide efforts towards sustainability, reconciliation, equity, diversity and inclusion, we often think of changes we, as humans, need to make in how we steward the natural world, sentient and non-sentient beings, and one-another. (McMillen, Campbell, Svendsen, Kealiikanakaoleohaililani, Francisco, & Giardina, 2020). Link. The FOA Thinkspace is a Community of Practice that seeks to decolonize curricula in line with equity as outlined by both Au Large and Skoden (as well as Biindigen). It operates as both a drop-in space (you can attend to join in the day’s conversation; to listen to invited speakers; to troubleshoot an aspect of your course outcomes, content, assignments) or you can commit to a start and end date with a proposal to change some or more elements of course development, to create a course, or the create an aspect of a course (high impact practice). The Thinkspace can also be used to develop microcredentials, and programs.  

The FOA Thinkspace honours that learning is social and that knowledge can be shared within teams. The learning modules ('spotlights') are asynchronous and there are synchronous/asynchronous opportunities to share ideas and feedback on your curriculum redevelopment. The spotlights are the curation of knowledge and ideas developed in the community of practice by its membership. 

The FOA Thinkspace is a living space. There is no set agenda. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion hold place in an ever-changing Seneca landscape. Our Thinkspace plants seeds in this landscape - we invite you to be the water.  The way we choose to share, learn, interact and help one another in the space creates the culture of the space and we all have shared responsibility towards it. 

If you are interested in joining the community of practice, please connect with your Chair/Manager. If you have questions about the Thinkspace or would like to learn more, please reach out to the community facilitators: Maxine Britto, Taunya Tremblay and Nigel Wynne. 

Thinkspace Intro (link)

Thinkspace Spotlight 1 (link)

Thinkspace Spotlight 2 (link)

Thinkspace Spotlight 3 (link)

Thinkspace Spotlight 4 (link)

Thinkspace Spotlight 5 (link)