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Brave conversations

Learning and Teaching Conference gives faculty opportunity to learn from the students
May 25, 2018
From left: Almerinda Colella, Michelle Woolfrey and Rudhra Persad led a session at the Learning and Teaching Conference

Photo: From left, students Almerinda Colella, Michelle Woolfrey and Rudhra Persad led the session Brave Conversations: Building Empowering Spaces for Students with Disabilities at the Ryerson Learning and Teaching Conference. Photo credit: Clifton Li.

Three students who presented at last week's Ryerson Learning and Teaching Conference had a simple message for faculty members: be brave.

Almerinda Colella, a social work student graduating in 2018, along with arts and contemporary studies students Rudhra Persad and Michelle Woolfrey, led the session Brave Conversations: Building Empowering Spaces for Students with Disabilities. The presentation was part of the annual daylong event at Ryerson that focuses on innovative ideas in teaching and learning.

Colella, Persad and Woolfrey explored how professors can make their classrooms feel safe and welcoming and how they can structure their teaching to maximize each learner's ability to progress. All the presenters, whose disabilities include mental illness, ADHD, chronic pain disorder and issues with auditory processing and visual impairment, have first-hand experience in this area. They're also affiliated with Ryerson's Tri-Mentoring Program (TMP), which helps students find a sense of belonging on campus.

Colella, a recent recipient of a Dennis Mock Student Leadership Award, is the TMP's lead mentor for diverse-abilities and accessibilities. Persad, a mature student, is a TMP mentoring facilitator while Woolfrey is the TMP's mature student lead mentor and a special projects assistant in Ryerson's office of academic accommodation support.

During their presentation, the students emphasized the importance of recognizing that every learner has unique needs. To that end, the presenters encouraged faculty members to work with students, preferably in private, to devise solutions that will address those needs using universal design concepts as highlighted by the Learning and Teaching Office and accessible classrooms that will help everyone succeed.

That may mean, for example, professors must extend deadlines, revise the nature of assignments, or when delivering a PowerPoint presentation, provide photocopies of the slides to everyone. It may also require faculty to redefine their notion of success in the classroom; a high grade isn't the only sign of achievement.

Above all else, professors must strive to be approachable and communicative, and use multiple modes of teaching, says Woolfrey, who is blind. She described a time, when enrolled in a science course, she was given soil samples to hold in her hands while the professor discussed their similarities and differences with the class.

"I was able to touch and smell the soil. The professor really brought the lesson to life for me," says Woolfrey.

"Everyone is multi-layered and has intersections in their identities that need to be considered,” says Colella. “If you only look at a person with disabilities as a problem, and also do not consider your own privilege, you will perpetuate ableism and the medical model of disability.”

That model, say the students, suggests that disability is a problem that lies with the individual. As a result, there is constant societal pressure to "fix" that person.

“Professors can cultivate the desire of students with disabilities to challenge themselves by supporting their learning inside and outside of the classroom,” says Persad. “The TMP and the Department of Student Life can support faculty members in decolonizing the classroom in unique and innovative ways.

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