Jan Green — Quality Teaching and Learning Perspectives

Inter­view sum­ma­ry by Mered­ith McEvoy, Teach­ing and Learn­ing Fac­ul­ty Devel­op­er, Cen­tre for Teach­ing and Learn­ing Inno­va­tion

NIC’s Cen­tre for Teach­ing, Learn­ing, and Inno­va­tion staff con­duct inter­views with instruc­tors to explore the per­spec­tives and insights they have about qual­i­ty teach­ing and learn­ing. NIC embraces the diver­si­ty of approach­es each instruc­tor takes as they cul­ti­vate a sup­port­ive envi­ron­ment tai­lored to their pro­gram and stu­dent needs. These inter­views share how North Island Col­lege is mak­ing qual­i­ty stu­dent learn­ing a pri­or­i­ty.

Jan comes from diverse cul­tur­al roots on her moth­er and father’s side and is a mem­ber of the Suther­land, Haiyupis, and Mor­ris fam­i­ly through her hus­band, Moy Suther­land Sr., Ahousaht First Nation. Jan holds a Bach­e­lor of Arts degree in anthro­pol­o­gy, a Bach­e­lor of Edu­ca­tion degree in spe­cial edu­ca­tion, and a Mas­ter of Edu­ca­tion degree in adult learn­ing and glob­al change. Her pas­sion over the past 30 years has been work­ing along­side Indige­nous com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers and orga­ni­za­tions in the areas of edu­ca­tion, employ­ment, essen­tial skills, tutor­ing, and train­ing. In 2018, Jan became a ses­sion­al instruc­tor in NIC’s Edu­ca­tion­al Assistant/Community Sup­port, Indige­nous Focus cer­tifi­cate pro­gram, and a con­tract instruc­tor with Dou­glas College’s Essen­tial Skills Prac­ti­tion­er Train­ing cer­tifi­cate pro­gram. Jan became a reg­u­lar fac­ul­ty mem­ber at NIC in Human Ser­vices in 2023. She con­tin­ues to offer edu­ca­tion­al ser­vices to indi­vid­u­als, small groups, large groups, and orga­ni­za­tions in her pri­vate prac­tice.

Question 1: What does quality student learning mean to you?

Qual­i­ty stu­dent learn­ing is estab­lish­ing respect and tak­ing time to get to know each oth­er in a gen­tle, authen­tic way. These prin­ci­ples estab­lish the foun­da­tions to cre­ate a safe learn­ing envi­ron­ment through mean­ing­ful con­ver­sa­tions, reflec­tive prac­tices, and medi­at­ed learn­ing expe­ri­ences. I am on a learn­ing jour­ney, right beside learn­ers. Qual­i­ty learn­ing means being avail­able and respon­sive to learn­ers. We are build­ing atti­tudes and abil­i­ties that have real impact in the com­mu­ni­ties, fam­i­lies, and indi­vid­u­als we sup­port. One impor­tant way this trans­lates into my prac­tice is by respond­ing to emails in a time­ly fash­ion. A per­son may feel stuck until they have a clear­er under­stand­ing or direc­tion. I remem­ber feel­ing this way as a master’s stu­dent, so I know how impor­tant it is to keep lines of com­mu­ni­ca­tion open. Stu­dents often hear me say, “Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is key in all aspects of life.” There is time and space need­ed to build trust around com­mu­ni­cat­ing: to trust that I care about each one of them and their indi­vid­ual edu­ca­tion­al jour­neys. Com­mu­ni­cat­ing pro­vides qual­i­ty learn­ing expe­ri­ences for all.

How we view our­selves with­in our devel­op­ing prac­tice is very impor­tant. From an Indige­nous per­spec­tive, we dis­cuss how all of us are in the rela­tion­ship of “host­ing”. For exam­ple, I’m not an instruc­tor, a man­ag­er, a recep­tion­ist or a jan­i­tor. I am in a posi­tion of host­ing. When a per­son shifts ener­gy in life and sees them­self in terms of host­ing, we come to know how to look after each oth­er in gen­eros­i­ty and kind­ness. As a facil­i­ta­tor, if I walk in class and the garbage has­n’t been dumped, that is my job. If it’s too warm or cold or the lights are too bright, that is my con­cern to address. As we come to under­stand this val­ue of rela­tion­ships and we engage in the rec­i­p­ro­cal act of host­ing each oth­er, it changes where we come from and how we form respect­ful rela­tion­ships togeth­er. Being a host pro­vides qual­i­ty learn­ing expe­ri­ences for all.

In class, we spend time talk­ing about assess­ments; what they are and what they are not. For their own edu­ca­tion­al jour­ney and for any­one they will work along­side, stu­dents are encour­aged to think about the act of assess­ing and the con­text of assess­ments. They only show a tiny lit­tle win­dow of who a per­son is and what they know. We are all intel­li­gent, beau­ti­ful peo­ple. As an instruc­tor, I will nev­er real­ly get to know them very well. Our time togeth­er is short. Stu­dents are encour­aged to know that they hold answers inside their spir­its, hearts, and brains and con­tin­u­ous­ly explore this tru­ism. Through syn­er­getic col­lab­o­ra­tion, we cre­ate some­thing big­ger and tru­ly sacred, when we sit togeth­er. Rec­og­niz­ing that each stu­dent has a depth of under­stand­ing and expe­ri­ences we will nev­er ful­ly explore togeth­er pro­vides a plat­form of respect and qual­i­ty learn­ing expe­ri­ences for all.

Over the years, I have come to know that this path of respects lays the foun­da­tion for a healthy, last­ing com­mu­ni­ty of prac­tice and care.

Question 2: Can you share a time when you made a significant change in your teaching practice and why?

A sig­nif­i­cant change in my teach­ing prac­tice start­ed many years ago and con­tin­ues into today. I worked at an adult edu­ca­tion cen­tre for 11 years, from 1996 to 2007. Dur­ing this time, I reflect­ed on my prac­tice on a dai­ly basis. I could see that I was not address­ing all of the needs of peo­ple enrolled in our pro­gram. The two main gaps in my prac­tice were around build­ing more expe­ri­ences and con­ver­sa­tions in the areas of iden­ti­ty and belong­ing. I knew that stu­dents would have a deep­er edu­ca­tion­al expe­ri­ence once these aspects were infused into pro­gram­ming; result­ing in peo­ple with more resilient, hap­pi­er lives. It sat with me for some time how to bring these needs into our offer­ings in adult edu­ca­tion. I lis­tened to and learned from many peo­ple along the way.

In 2007, I moved into an edu­ca­tor and train­ing posi­tion, where I coor­di­nat­ed and taught in a brain train­ing, sen­so­ry inte­gra­tion pro­gram for 8 years. With­in this posi­tion, I was respon­si­ble for essen­tial skills train­ing. Not know­ing what essen­tial skills were, I soon learned they includ­ed; read­ing, writ­ing, doc­u­ment use, com­put­er, numer­a­cy, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, work­ing with oth­ers, con­tin­u­ous learn­ing, and think­ing skills. My years of search­ing had end­ed, and a new part of my jour­ney began. At my core, I knew we need­ed to look at tra­di­tion­al essen­tial skills first, before any oth­er skills.

It is from under­stand­ing of our­selves, with­in our unique cul­tur­al world­views, we can find align­ment, belong­ing­ness, and a new under­stand­ing of the world. The devel­op­ment of FEAST (Facil­i­tat­ing Essen­tial Skills Action Skills Train­ing) trans­formed my prac­tice and opened many path­ways for peo­ple to see more of who they are; espe­cial­ly as learn­ers. FEAST starts with expe­ri­en­tial and reflec­tive activ­i­ties uti­liz­ing tra­di­tion­al mate­ri­als. There are no pens or paper. Through FEAST each per­son opens up to pos­si­bil­i­ties for them­self, their fam­i­ly, and their com­mu­ni­ty.

With­in this jour­ney, devel­op­ing the metaphor of the “canoe box” has sig­nif­i­cant­ly changed my teach­ing prac­tice. “A canoe box is a pre­cious piece of equip­ment: hold­ing things secure that you will need on your jour­ney. Each one of us has our own canoe box. There may be tools to keep you safe, foods to pro­vide sus­te­nance, and sacred objects to keep your spir­it strong. What is in your canoe box for your jour­ney?”

FEAST and the canoe box devel­oped from being on a jour­ney with stu­dents, along with fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty. It came from my quest to do bet­ter, be bet­ter in my prac­tice. When I made the leap from in-com­mu­ni­ty edu­ca­tion and train­ing to pub­lic edu­ca­tion, at NIC and Dou­glas Col­lege, I con­tin­ued to devel­op and use both metaphors in my prac­tice. These andr­a­gog­i­cal tools give pause, a breath, where every­one looks at their inher­ent gifts and bless­ings from their ances­tors and their envi­ron­ments. Learn­ers enhance under­stand­ings of how they con­tin­ue to hold and enhance these lega­cies and con­nec­tions from indi­vid­ual birthrights.

Question 3: How do you adapt your teaching practice to drive quality learning for diverse students?

It comes from stu­dents. I lis­ten to feed­back and act on their feed­back in a for­ma­tive way through­out each course, each term, and each year. My prac­tice has devel­oped and grown from sit­ting with learn­ers. In the online learn­ing envi­ron­ment we work in, qual­i­ty learn­ing for diverse learn­ers comes from invit­ing each per­son to col­lab­o­rate with­in a grow­ing range of online learn­ing envi­ron­ments and tools.

In class, we dis­cuss the impor­tance of their edu­ca­tion in terms of real-world appli­ca­tions in their devel­op­ing prac­tice. Work­ing in col­lab­o­ra­tive ways togeth­er, through­out our cer­tifi­cate cours­es, is an impor­tant tool to define, refine, and apply to many diverse envi­ron­ments. Just one exam­ple of this is an online, col­lab­o­ra­tive midterm that stu­dents work on togeth­er. To ground the activ­i­ty ahead of time, each per­son receives a doc­u­ment out­lin­ing an inte­grat­ed health and well­ness ser­vice for BC youth, called the Foundry. Stu­dents are prompt­ed to explore the wrap­around sup­ports offered by the Foundry by vis­it­ing their web­site. The overview also pro­vides prompts for ways to move for­ward out­lin­ing how stu­dents will work togeth­er by;

• A focused ques­tion to think about their per­son­al strengths they bring to their prac­tice,
• Pro­pos­al ques­tions that their group will work on togeth­er; to apply for a local Foundry chap­ter to come to their com­mu­ni­ty,
• A link to the Google slide tem­plate cre­at­ed for them, where on their own time they can explore and vision the look and feel of the work ahead,
• Offer­ing alter­na­tive pro­vi­sions, with­in the midterm expe­ri­ence, for any­one unable to attend the work on that day or some­one who feels chal­lenged to work in this small group set­ting, as well as offer­ing 1:1 instruc­tor sup­port,
• Wrap­around reflec­tion is pro­vid­ed after the col­lab­o­ra­tive class time togeth­er; to reflect on the whole of the activ­i­ty and make com­ments where peo­ple want to reflect on oth­ers’ work.

A safe space is built over time, with skills devel­op­ment and expe­ri­ences for all learn­ers, in how to work togeth­er in online envi­ron­ments. We build on incre­men­tal suc­cess­es well before this activ­i­ty is intro­duced. There are many lay­ers of learn­ing, con­nect­ing, dream­ing, and cre­at­ing that flow through proces­su­al devel­op­ment of knowl­edge, skills, and abil­i­ties. At the con­clu­sion of the activ­i­ty, many peo­ple say that they feel a sense of com­pe­ten­cy; that they feel they could be involved in the process of work­ing on a real pro­pos­al in the com­mu­ni­ty. It is fun and engag­ing. It is based on past stu­dent feed­back and being aware of where each learn­er is on their path of learn­ing.

Question 4: Can an instructor be certain that quality student learning is taking place in their classroom?

Togeth­er, we look at all expe­ri­ences in terms of a jour­ney. I ask stu­dents, “What was your process for work­ing togeth­er? What steps did you take to get there? What tech­niques and strate­gies did you use along the way? What were the chal­lenges? What new learn­ing hap­pened? What do you want to know more about? What will you share with oth­ers? How did you know you were fin­ished?” Feed­back is com­plet­ed through oral response, typ­ing in the chat on Kaltura, emails, World Café activ­i­ties, and jour­nal­ing.

It is in this place of deep reflec­tion we find anoth­er lay­er to the rich­ness of learn­ing. I am a host in the ground­work and the process. They are hosts too. I make con­cert­ed effects to think of every aspect of the learn­ing envi­ron­ment, so we devel­op a safe space for our sacred cir­cle. Class engage­ment hap­pens through read­ings, videos and con­ver­sa­tions. We draw on the exist­ing and devel­op­ing tools that we have, like our canoe box. Togeth­er, we cre­ate authen­tic learn­ing expe­ri­ences in each class; where we can assess per­son­al growth and learn­ing and appli­ca­tion. There is an inten­tion to cre­ate a gen­tle cir­cle, where learn­ers are con­tin­u­ous­ly being invit­ed in; to par­tic­i­pate and share their under­stand­ings in large group, small groups, and 1:1 con­ver­sa­tions to gauge learn­ing out­comes. We talk about the impor­tance of know­ing there are many ways to do one thing. We acknowl­edge that each one of us presents dif­fer­ent­ly in dif­fer­ent envi­ron­ments and with dif­fer­ent cir­cles of peo­ple.

Question 5: Does building a cohesive classroom environment resonate with you? Why?

Yes, of course! With­in build­ing a cohe­sive class­room is the prin­ci­ple of cel­e­brat­ing the unique­ness and indi­vid­u­al­i­ty of each per­son as we build this envi­ron­ment togeth­er. I have been an edu­ca­tor for a long time, and I am still learn­ing. “We are all learn­ers, and we are all lead­ers,” stu­dents hear me say through­out the school year. We are all con­tin­u­ous learn­ers devel­op­ing our prac­tice. Our time togeth­er is tru­ly sacred. We have a pause, a breath, a moment to sit togeth­er. We are where we are sup­posed to be.

Build­ing a cohe­sive class­room eth­ic hap­pens through defin­ing respect. Respect is how we wait and lis­ten to each oth­er with open ears. Respect is being pre­pared for class. Respect is how we pause and do not inter­rupt oth­ers. Respect is acknowl­edg­ing what we come with and what we learn from each oth­er along the way. Cohe­sive­ness is as much in the pause, in the spaces of silence, as it is in what we do togeth­er.

Question 6: What strategies do you employ on day one of your class to build a cohesive class environment?

I affirm how impor­tant it is for each per­son who is present. I acknowl­edge stu­dents indi­vid­u­al­ly each and every time we have class. They come to learn that I see them as indi­vid­u­als: peo­ple with full lives that require bal­ance in every day along with the extra pres­sures of being stu­dents. I acknowl­edge the impor­tance of fam­i­ly first. Their lived expe­ri­ences and their under­stand­ing of the world through cul­ture is impor­tant and val­ued in our pro­gram. These are some of the main prin­ci­ples I employ from day one to build a cohe­sive class envi­ron­ment.

Question 7: What is your favourite learning technology resource that you’ve used in your teaching and why?

To date, I am still explor­ing the many tools and resources for online teach­ing and col­lab­o­rat­ing. This year, I leaned into Google Suite. We used Jam­board, Sheets, Doc­u­ments, and Slides. Over the sum­mer, I will explore oth­er tech­niques to employ in my devel­op­ing prac­tice.

Question 8: How would your peers describe you as an instructor?

I asked a per­son who I have known for a long time. I do not think she would be con­sid­ered a peer in the tra­di­tion­al sense. I am first and fore­most her aun­tie and a sec­ond mom to her. I have sup­port­ed her phys­i­cal, spir­i­tu­al, and emo­tion­al path through­out her life. Most recent­ly the focus has been to pro­vide tutor­ing in her master’s pro­gram and as a trust­ed advi­sor in her cre­ative process of art­work. She has been one of my learn­ers in for­mal edu­ca­tion envi­ron­ments. She has expe­ri­enced me in the role of edu­ca­tor.

These are her own words….

“Jan as a teacher has taught me to be a reflec­tive crit­i­cal thinker. She has taught me that learn­ing opens up the uni­verse to many oppor­tu­ni­ties, choic­es and deci­sions. Jan has helped me to under­stand that as a stu­dent, this is only one way. This is only one way to see what is being taught. It isn’t the only way to see the world.

Fur­ther­more, stu­dent learn­ing should reflect a stu­den­t’s life, morals and val­ues. Jan, as a teacher, helped shape and mold me to be an active com­mu­ni­ty mem­ber.

I have learned as a res­i­den­tial school sur­vivor that hav­ing some­one crit­i­cal of your learn­ing isn’t always a bad thing. Jan took patience and care with my style of learn­ing. I found it incred­i­bly uplift­ing as a stu­dent to have a teacher take care of my trau­ma, help me move past it. This pro­cess­ing helped me as an adult.

My gen­uine under­stand­ing of Jan’s teach­ing style has lit­er­al­ly held a mir­ror to me and showed me who I am and what are my great­est strengths. I almost quit my pro­gram at one time, but Jan’s belief in changed me when I could­n’t believe in myself.

As a stu­dent who has invest­ed in my edu­ca­tion, Jan’s teach­ing, prac­tice, and style helped me take the broad sweeps of knowl­edge I had and brought it into focus. As an instruc­tor Jan has tak­en my dark­est moments in life and taught me to turn that hurt into my life and help some­one else to hurt just a lit­tle bit less.

I have tak­en my pain and shift­ed it into learn­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties.”