Dr. Kevin Gannon, the author of the viral blog post and subsequent book, Radical Hope: A Teaching Manifesto, gave a series of two workshops on themes very relevant to our campus efforts to improve teaching and learning and support the student experience.

This session explores the ways in which we can make the learning environments we create more transparent, and thus more equitable and successful as well. By examining research on student belonging and transparent teaching methods, we’ll consider strategies that we can easily implement into our teaching to help our students see explicitly what is all too often only hinted at implicitly. We’ll also ask ourselves how these transparent methods might inform the larger culture and practices at our institution, and what the implications are for equity and student success.

This session explores what it means to do the work of teaching and learning from a place of hope, even and especially in the difficult times in which we find ourselves. What does it mean to embody a pedagogy of hope in conditions that have made our work–and the work of our students–so difficult? How do we avoid cynicism and detachment without weakening our opposition to the things that are negatively affecting us and our institutions? In short–what gives meaning to our work of teaching and learning? A Pedagogy of Hope, based in practice instead of empty slogans, offers a compelling way forward for those of us committed to higher education as we know it can be at its best.