Teaching Assistants' Training Program

Robin Sutherland-Harris, TATP Humanities Coordinator
Salina Abji, TATP Social Sciences Trainer

An essential skill for any academic working in higher education is the ability to engage with pedagogical research and theory. As graduate students, situating our own teaching practice in the larger theoretical landscape that informs pedagogical approaches can be challenging. How do we find time to familiarize ourselves with such a broad and dynamic field? And how can we apply the abstractions of theory to the realities of our classrooms? In this round table session, participants will be introduced to key texts in critical pedagogy, one of the most influential theoretical fields in education over the last thirty years. We will read and discuss short excerpts that have been identified as particularly provocative and/or relevant by TATP trainers, who are also TAs and CIs at the University of Toronto. We will focus not only on exploring the theory itself, but also on the implications it has for our own teaching practices. TATP trainers will be on hand to share how readings in critical pedagogy have begun to shift their own classroom and course design approaches, and the session will primarily take the form of an open round table discussion with brief periods of individual reading. By the end of the session, you will have a sense of what critical pedagogy is all about, a reading list to use in following up areas of personal interest, and some practice in identifying and articulating how pedagogical theory can have an impact in your classroom.

Please note: This session is aimed at experienced TAs and Course Instructors, therefore graduate students with three or more years of teaching experience at UofT will have priority in registration.