Professor of Teaching, Michael Lee, is part of a team (including SPPH colleague Susan Cox and Department of Philosophy PhD candidate Matthew Smithdeal) which has been awarded a Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education 2024 D2L Innovation Award for ‘Rock the Boat‘, an open educational resource to support the development of respectful relationships in graduate supervision.
Graduate supervision is a vital but sometimes neglected form of pedagogy that can be rife with challenges – especially relating to equity, diversity and inclusion.
‘Rock the Boat’ uses the methods of Research-based Theatre to support students, faculty and staff in developing respectful supervisory relationships, and enhancing wellbeing in the teaching and learning environment.
“The resource includes four professionally acted and produced scenes, each seven to ten minutes long as well as an extensive facilitation guide and supporting resources.
Each scene dramatizes a relationship between one or more graduate students and their supervisors and provokes dialogue around specific points of tension that arise.
These include problems with supervisory communication, misunderstandings about co-authorship of scientific papers, competition between students, gender and racial discrimination, balancing personal and professional priorities, mental health and privacy.”
‘Rock the Boat’ is freely available for download, and can be used for graduate student orientation, graduate credit courses, during equity, diversity and inclusion workshops, for supervisory training sessions and new faculty orientation, or during faculty or departmental retreats. It has already been incorporated in the UBC Faculty of Medicine Healthy Environments for Academic Research Teams (HEART) program and other inclusive graduate education supports across the country.
Congratulations to Michael and the team for this exciting win, and may Rock the Boat be shared widely to improve graduate-supervisor relationships in higher education across the globe.