In this workshop, we explore how cultural perspectives and previous educational experiences can influence students’ understandings and approaches to plagiarism and citation practices. We confront the complex relationships between ethnocentrism, social injustice and academic integrity. Students are encouraged to critically engage with notions of academic integrity in diverse cultural contexts, at the same time as recognizing their responsibilities to academic integrity at TRU.

In this workshop, students will gain skills, knowledge, and practice for safely and effectively responding to discrimination. Through activities and discussion, participants will recognize the harm caused by various forms of discrimination, ranging from unconscious bias to harassment. Using Dr. Ishu Ishiyama’s active witnessing model, participants will explore the roles of victim, offender, and witness in discriminatory situations and apply an active witnessing model to responding to discrimination. Participants will practice various responses and consider the appropriateness of different responses to various situations.

This workshop empowers students to differentiate between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation. Participants will gain a foundational knowledge of the definition, histories, and ongoing impacts of cultural appropriation. They engage in dialogue about cultural appropriation, and skill-building activities for responding to cultural appropriation in safe ways that attend to issues of saviourism.

This workshop provides skills-based learning for intercultural communication in work settings. Students are given contextual information on the importance of intercultural communication skills in contemporary workplaces. They engage in interactive activities that demonstrate the impacts of influences on intercultural communication at work, and develop practical strategies to adapt to different contexts and situations.

In our classrooms, we expect students from all around the world to form teams and complete discipline-based projects. This often becomes an exercise in frustration for educators and students alike. Research shows that these experiences may actually entrench stereotypes or cause students to avoid working with other cultures due to their perception of risk factors. This workshop is designed to empower students to engage in multicultural group work, and is ideally timed prior to or at the very beginning of group projects.

The concepts of equity and inclusion are culturally specific and variable. As a result, students in our classroom may have vastly different understandings of not only these terms, but also of each other. This workshop encourages students to embrace cultural humility while thinking critically about issues of equity and inclusion in intercultural contexts. They have the opportunity to learn how to move beyond ethnocentrism in such discussions, while also gaining an understanding of their own responsibilities to foster equitable and inclusive campus communities.

In this workshop, participants will explore how cultural values influence preferences in communication styles and patterns. Through activities and discussion, participants will become more aware of their own verbal and non-verbal styles and consider adaptive strategies to enhance understanding and effectiveness communicating in culturally diverse situations.

Misunderstanding and conflict are not uncommon in the context of intercultural engagement. Research shows that such experiences of conflict can entrench stereotypes and/or encourage the avoidance of opportunities to engage with cultural diversity. In this session, participants will learn about cultural dimensions that commonly lead to intercultural conflict and misunderstanding. They will learn about some non-Western approaches to conflict, conflict resolution, and conflict transformation. Participants will engage in skills-based, interactive activities to develop strategies to reduce, mitigate, resolve and transform conflict.

Learn how to engage in anti-oppressive thought while considering complex social relationships within and between communities. This workshop will blend story, reflection, participation and anti-oppressive thought. Participants will be supported to think critically about our complex relationships to each other, to communities, and to power.

While the cultural plurality of our student body, faculty, and staff is an undeniable resource for the development of a rich and cosmopolitan university experience, the increasing convergence of groups with different ethnic backgrounds also creates the potential for cultural frictions and even acts of discrimination and inequitable treatment. Moreover, the increased public presence of ethnic nationalism around the world and in Canada has sparked renewed interest in the balance between free expression and equality rights at universities. Classrooms and public spaces in universities have increasingly become sites of politically and emotionally charged exchanges between groups who subscribe to deeply conflicted ideologies. In this session, students will have the opportunity to be in dialogue about these challenging contexts, while building practical skills to enable them to learn from, unlearn about, and engage with people who are different from themselves.

Story circles is an interactive, experiential learning activity for intercultural development that has been piloted around the world by UNESCO. It is based on the principles that: a) every person has a story that can be shared, b) we all have something to learn from others, and c) listening for understanding can be transformational. Students will be guided through a multi-stage interactive storytelling activity.

Intercultural encounters are embodied experiences that are structured by power and spatial dynamics. This workshop invites students to critically engage with social theory to consider the impacts of spatial relations for intercultural engagement. The workshop involves a blend of lecture, dialogue, interactive and experiential learning and is ideally designed for upper-level students.

In this workshop, we explore how cultural perspectives and previous educational experiences can influence students’ understandings and approaches to plagiarism and citation practices. We will review the process for reporting academic dishonesty, consider strategies to minimize academic integrity infractions and share resources for teaching citation and Canadian academic writing standards.

In this session, participants will explore aspects of identity and privilege in relation to discrimination and consider how privilege assumes responsibility to respond to discrimination. They will consider how having privilege entails responsibilities to respond to discrimination. Through activities and discussion, participants will recognize the harm caused by various forms of discrimination, ranging from unconscious bias to harassment. Using Dr. Ishu Ishiyama’s active witnessing model, participants will explore the roles of victim, offender, and witness in discriminatory situations and apply an active witnessing model to responding to discrimination. Participants will practice various responses and consider the appropriateness of different responses to various situations.

This session will consider some of the unique challenges and potential rewards of working with culturally diverse students who may come to us with different values, experiences, and expectations. Participants will explore how intercultural frameworks can help educators to support students’ learning in Canadian institutions.

Using the Intercultural Development Inventory, this workshop provides groups and individuals with a profile of their intercultural development. We will explore how culture shapes worldviews and how our experiences influence how we respond to cultural differences and similarities. Following the workshop, participants will have the opportunity to debrief their individual profile and consider their own individual development plan.

In our classrooms, we expect students from all around the world to form teams and complete discipline-based projects. This often becomes an exercise in frustration for educators and students alike. Research shows that these experiences may actually entrench stereotypes or cause students to avoid working with other cultures due to their perception of risk factors. In an effort to enhance both the students’ experiences of multicultural group work and their intercultural learning, Robin Reid and Kyra Garson conducted SoTL research at TRU that improved outcomes for students. In this session, we will outline our study and share findings that provide a base for promising practices in facilitating multicultural group work. Following a presentation of the study, we discuss the implications for practice and the potential to replicate this approach in other disciplines.

In this workshop, participants will explore how cultural values influence preferences in communication styles and patterns. Through activities and discussion, participants will become more aware of their own verbal and non-verbal styles and consider adaptive strategies to enhance understanding and effectiveness communicating in culturally diverse situations.

TRU has commited to the promotion of intercultural understanding. Recent years have seen a significant shift in focus towards the internationalization and Indigenization of postsecondary education. This session invites TRU educators to engage in dialogue about the social and cultural contexts of common myths concerning diversity and intercultural dynamics on campus. We will explore how these myths influence student/teacher interactions, classroom dynamics, and reconciliation responsibilities.

Internationalization has become a key strategy for most Canadian institutions. What are the benefits and challenges of internationalization? What are promising practices in terms of ensuring our campus has the skills and capacity to support culturally diverse students from all over the globe? This session will provide an overview of rationales and approaches to internationalization with a focus on building intercultural capacity across the campus to ensure success for students and benefits to the institution.

TRU’s unique demographic composition represents an advantage, but also a challenge. While the cultural plurality of our student body, faculty, and staff is an undeniable resource for the development of a rich and cosmopolitan university experience, the increasing convergence of groups with different ethnic backgrounds also creates the potential for cultural frictions and even acts of discrimination and inequitable treatment. Moreover, the increased public presence of ethnic nationalism around the world and in Canada has sparked renewed interest in the balance between free expression and equality rights at universities. All around the world, prejudice has been emboldened and we witness increasing forms of racism and cultural intolerance in the public space. At the same time, there is a growing reaction against the presence and achievements of equality movements, such as feminism and 2SLGTBQAI+. Classrooms and public spaces in universities have increasingly become sites of politically and emotionally charged exchanges between groups who subscribe to deeply conflicted ideologies. During this session we will explore strategies that the seek inclusion of multiple perspectives while at the same time decreasing the risk of full blown conflict or unsafe learning environments.

In this session, participants are invited to examine culturally influenced writing and rhetorical preferences and how culture may interplay with student success in writing intensive programs. Through activities and discussion, we will consider pedagogies and supports for culturally and linguistically diverse students by examining expectations and assumptions. Discussion and presentation will focus on how culture influences attitudes and practices, including in ways that can result in plagiarism. We will identify resources to support both students and educators to ensure policy and practice are equitable.