Volume 5, Number 2, 2025 Leading Through SoTL

EN:

This paper takes a critical approach towards public speaking assignments and courses that perpetuate colonial perspectives and values. We explore how standard language ideology creates disadvantages for students from marginalized language backgrounds while privileging Western communication norms. In this context, we investigate the tension between speaker authenticity and audience adaptation, particularly for diverse student populations navigating academic and professional contexts. The paper proposes concrete alternatives to behaviour-based assessment through outcomes-based rubrics and reflective self-assessment practices that honour linguistic and cultural diversity while maintaining academic rigor. By reimagining public speaking pedagogy through a decolonial lens, educators can create more equitable learning environments that value diverse communication styles without sacrificing effectiveness.

EN:

Science literacy is essential for informed participation in modern society, and undergraduate education plays a critical role in fostering science literacy among science and non-science students. One important component of science literacy is understanding the nature of science (NOS), yet traditional NOS frameworks have been critiqued for oversimplifying scientific practice and neglecting its social and cultural dimensions. While social identity is known to influence student academic engagement and performance, little is known about how identity factors such as gender, age, program and level of study, being a visible minority, or parental education influences NOS beliefs. In this study, 272 undergraduate students from a Canadian liberal arts university completed an online questionnaire assessing NOS knowledge. Students generally demonstrated a solid understanding of NOS, though their comprehension of scientific methods is limited. No significant differences in NOS beliefs were found across social identity groups, but non-science majors were more likely to report uncertainty in their responses compared to science majors. These findings suggest that traditional NOS measures may fail to capture the nuanced ways that social identity shapes science understanding, emphasizing the need for justice-oriented approaches to NOS education.

EN:

In this reflective essay, a researcher relates her experience of supporting partnerships with undergraduate student research assistants (RAs) during a SoTL study. Unexpected changes to the ethics requirements after the study had received approval and commenced resulted in changing the leadership roles of the research team members and adjusting procedures for facilitating interviews with the study participants. Although unsettling at the time, these modifications opened valuable opportunities for the RAs to co-facilitate focus group interviews and hone their leadership and research skills. Reflections on the researcher’s and a student RA’s experiences exemplify the SoTL principles of “respect, reciprocity, and shared responsibility” in supporting student partnerships (Cook-Sather et al., 2014, p. 27). Expanding further by recognizing rights as a principle promotes equal faculty-student research partnerships and acknowledges the knowledge, professional experience, and leadership skills that undergraduate student RAs contribute to SoTL studies and project work.

EN:

This piece is a creative reflection on my experience with Pop-Up Poetry at the 2024 SoTL Symposium in Banff, in which I consider the intersection of identity, academia, care, and community.