Transforming Our Pedagogies
We are pleased to continue to support our Transformative Pedagogies (Summer) Institute, which launched in June 2023. The Transformative Pedagogies Summer Institute is one component of our three-pronged initiative focused on transforming what we teach and how we teach at Macalester. Expanding the year long faculty learning community with facilitation and participation from the , this initiative will focus on practices that can help us (re)member who we are, who we have been, and who we want to be as humans, as cultural and social beings, and as teachers and learners and scholars. Informed also by the spring Pedagogies of Hope learning community, the initiative expands our capacity for wonder and joy. We have expanded the focus of our Friday Conversations about Scholarship and Teaching to engage this theme more fully.
The institute allows cohort members to engage in a process that can help:
- transform what we teach and how we teach at Macalester
- increase sense of belonging, hope, and connectedness to our cultures, to one another, and to ourselves as members of the Macalester community
- reduce experiences of marginalization, oppression, and isolation that are experienced by students and colleagues alike
- inform dimensions of the strategic planning process related to culture, wellbeing, curriculum, and being a student-ready college
Over the past two summers, selected cohort members participated in six, three-hour sessions to further a practice of cultural self study in relation to how they teach. Through a partnership with the Cultural Wellness Center, we utilize a community-based curriculum called 鈥淔rom Race to Culture鈥 that undergirds our learnings. We read and discussed a variety of texts grounded in critical and liberatory pedagogies and pedagogies of hope. Four of the six sessions focused on reflection, study, and community building; two sessions provided cohort members the opportunity to redevelop and work on their syllabi for the next academic year (with a particular focus on a spring course), applying learnings from the cultural self study process. We also hosted check in opportunities in July and August for cohort members to provide more time in community to work on syllabi. With generous support from the Strategic Planning initiative, each participating cohort member received $2000; food was served at each session.
We are pleased to continue TPI during the 2025-2026 academic year by supporting a cohort of four faculty members who will meet regularly over the academic year to engage in cultural self study and reflect on pedagogical practices.
2023-2024 Faculty Cohort
- Jim Dawes (English)
- Gonzalo Guzm谩n (Educational Studies)
- Summer Hills-Bonczyk (Art & Art History)
- Christina Hughes (Sociology)
- Marianne Milligan (Linguistics and Environmental Studies)
- Annie Pezalla (Psychology)
- Michelle Tong (Biology and Neuroscience)
2024-2025 Faculty Cohort
- Erika Busse-C谩rdenas (Sociology)
- Cari Gillen-O’Neel (Psychology)
- Walter Greason (History)
- Christie Manning (Environmental Studies)
- Sonia Mehta (Educational Studies)
- Phil Nicolaides (Athletics)
- Kari Shepherdson-Scott (Art & Art History)
For the 2024-2025 academic year, seven students were pedagogical partners with faculty who have participated in the summer institute, modeled on the developed at Bryn Mawr and Haverford. In the fall 2023 and 2024 semesters, students built relationships with the colleague with whom they will be working and met regularly as a cohort to read and discuss some of the same curriculum that faculty engaged with over the summer. During the spring semester, students attended one class session a week with their faculty member to observe class dynamics and provide in-time feedback. Students were paid (or received course credit) for their participation in this process.
2025-2026 Faculty Cohort (an academic year cohort)
- Amin Alhashim (Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science)
- Ruth Janisch (Community Engagement Center)
- Megan Vossler (Art and Art History)
- Olga Gonz谩lez (Anthropology)
2023-2024 Student Fellows
- Jizelle Villegas 鈥26
- Sophia Salinas 鈥24
- Cecilia G贸mez Jim茅nez 鈥24
- Ryan Cotter 鈥24
- Emanuel Deleon Otazu 鈥25
- Aminah Mohamed Bouna 鈥24
- Anahi Sanchez Lazcano 鈥26
- Solomon Dawit 鈥26
2024-2025 Student Fellows
- Isabella Benjamin-Quintana 鈥25
- Vanessa Francis 鈥25
- Marco Lopez 鈥27
- Meril Mousoom 鈥25
- Chukwubunkem (Chi Chi) Okezi 鈥27
- Aine Ramiro-Shanahan 鈥25
- Yoselyn Rodriguez 鈥27
If you have any questions about this initiative, please contact Ebony Aya.