Radical Hope Talk & Workshop
Join us for a talk, lunch, and teaching workshop from author and educator Kevin Gannon influenced by his book, Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto.
Friday, October 28, 2022
Oak Room, Student Center, Taylorsville Redwood Campus
Open to all SLCC students, staff and faculty.
Feel free to attend the morning talk and lunch, or lunch and the teaching workshop, or the whole event!
Morning Talk: “Creating and Sustaining Communities of Hope”
11 a.m.-Noon (In-Person and Zoom)
While it may seem counterintuitive to talk about hope in our current, fraught times, hope is the very foundation of student success. In this sense, hope is the product of agency and pathways. For our students to feel genuine hope that they will be successful in their time with us, they have to believe that success is in their power to achieve (agency), but also be able to discern what routes they need to take to reach it (pathways). This session will ask participants to imagine the ways in which their own work, no matter where it’s located in the college, can fit within this larger framework of creating hope. We’ll look at some of the most significant barriers to student success—such as not feeling a sense of belonging, or “mismatched” approaches to the campus climate—and identify specific strategies and practices to mitigate them. Finally, we’ll consider how embedding our work in an ethic of hope can help us find solidarity and community with our colleagues and sustain us while we do the hard work of supporting higher education.
Lunch: 12pm-1pm
Teaching Workshop: “Climate Matters: Inclusive Practices for Meaningful Learning”
1-2:30 p.m. (in-person only)
We create the conditions for the most meaningful student learning when we are attentive to both the cognitive and affective dimensions of the learning process. Emotions such as curiosity and excitement can be powerful motivators. But negative emotional states—anxiety, resentment, and discomfort—can just as powerfully hinder students’ learning. This interactive session explores classroom practices with an emphasis on inclusivity and climate, with the goal of fostering awareness of our design choices and their importance for student learning. In particular, we’ll examine effective class discussions and transparent assessment methods as case studies for building more inclusive practices.
Adjunct faculty are compensated for this event and must receive prior supervisor approval. Register for these events in the SLCC Registration System under Faculty Development (Radical Hope Kevin Gannon FD22).