2015 RTL Conference

Focusing on examples of cross-campus curricular initiatives at OCAD University, this short paper will consider how to engage faculty through discourses of community to develop and advance curricula change. The session will begin with a brief overview of change initiatives in the postsecondary context, examining in particular how the discourse of “academic freedom” can be widened from the individual instructor or course to include consideration of the needs and concerns of multiple discourse communities—institutional, pedagogical, disciplinary, professional, societal—in the development of course and program-level curricula. The session will focus primarily on examples at OCAD University and the successes and challenges that were faced in the development and implementation of cross-campus quality enhancement initiatives, including a university-wide Writing Across the Curriculum initiative. The session will include the demonstration of strategies and tools used in professional learning contexts that employed approaches based on the language of and positioning within communities of teaching and learning. Participants will be invited to use and adapt these strategies to their own context and share their own approaches and tools.