Building Community and Starting the Semester Strong: Beginning and Ending in a Goodway

This session will explore teaching and learning pedagogies that help build “brave space” in a classroom community; using a Two-Eyed approach to equity, diversity and inclusion. We will explore decolonial teaching and learning pedagogies; and how non-Indigenous instructors can apply this to their practice. Also, we will look at other ways of creating positive spaces through framing classroom space beginning and ending in a Goodway.

Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Understand the Haudenosaunee practice of Starting and Ending in a Goodway and how this can be applied to your classroom, as a non-Indigenous person, in a non-appropriative way
• Consider different ways you can begin and end your classes (and semester) in a Goodway through relevant, and intriguing, content and/or your own personal gifts.
• Reflect on how you can encourage students to co-create positive space with you and how they can bring their strengths into the classroom.