What a busy few days it has been, but exhilarating nonetheless!
From May 3rd to May 5th, I participated in the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning Conference that brought together a diverse crowd, but all who were passionate to share their experience, knowledge and stories of what it means to be a mentor in line with this year’s conference theme, “Mentorship in Higher Education.” For the past two days, I gained new insight and perspective about the mentorship process and to think more conscientiously and critically about the different facets of mentorship in relation to my subjective Self—what does it mean for me as a Japanese - Canadian woman to aspire to one day be in a position of leadership? Why aren’t there more Japanese - Canadian mentors? Can I even name one? What can be done to raise awareness and shift the dominant paradigm to include more Asian / Asian descent women?—especially in the wake of all this anti-Asian hate and violence? As I plant the seeds of these thoughts in the back of my mind, I want to talk about a workshop that my mentor, Jordan Long, and I facilitated at the conference. It was awesome!
Here’s a funny backstory of how I found about TICONF.
I learned about the Taylor Institute for Teaching and Learning from Jordan, who has attended their previous conferences. I remember sitting and chatting over a beer at the RATT with Jordan (this was pre-Covid days), and he told me about an institute specializing in teaching and learning. As a Japanese Studies scholar specializing in detective stories and emerging into the realm of Education Studies, I was completely oblivious, and I remember thinking, WOW. Something like this really exists?! I wish I’d known about it sooner! 😂 So, it was such an honour to have been accepted to present at this year’s conference, and I’m thankful to Jordan for keeping me in the loop with teaching conferences!😅
Our 75-minute workshop was titled “Mentor-morphosis Navigating Through Cycles of Learning and Self-exploration in Higher Education.” It involved my mentor Jordan, his mentor Dr. Billy Strean and me, and each of us discussed our roles at the different stages within what we call mentor-morphosis. Although Billy couldn’t join us in person, he made videos for us to reflect on how mentorship comes from a place being over just doing. To use Billy’s words, “people don’t care what you know until they know that you care,” and it’s a simple idea, but it’s one that I think gets lost in our, often, selfish pursuits of enrichment and growth. These videos were followed by a mini-lecture delivered by Jordan, who contextualized the importance of relational ethics, or “compassion rather than empathy,” in the mentorship process. We then had two enjoyable and lively breakout room sessions facilitated by Jordan and me about what we think are essential skills for a mentor and mentee. We also played some very fun “Never Have I Ever: Mentor Edition” games. I was, overall, incredibly pleased with the turnout and everyone’s deep and thoughtful engagement with our discussion questions! So thanks to all the attendees for making the session a blast! Special thanks to our moderator, who also participated in the session and for her tech expertise!💛
This conference provides such an encouraging and inclusive space for instructors, and I recommend it to those who are especially passionate about their growth and development as one.
For those who were in our session, you can watch the rest of the video, Never Have I Ever: Teacher’s Edition, below!👇🏻👇🏻
Click on the buttons below to learn more about the conference that just happened and also about the Taylor Institute of Teaching & Learning. 👇🏻👇🏻