Simon Fraser University
Engaging the World

Course Outlines

Fall 2023 - EDUC 807 G011

Inquiry into Practice (5)

Class Number: 3907

Delivery Method: Online

Overview

  • Course Times + Location:

    Location: TBA

  • Prerequisites:

    Acceptance into the MEd in Educational Practice program.

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Supports learners in engaging in ethical inquiry practices within their specific professional contexts.

COURSE DETAILS:

Prerequisite: Acceptance into the MEd in Educational Practice program

Caldendar Description:
Supports learners in engaging in ethical inquiry practices within their specific professional contexts. Pre-requisite: Acceptance into the MEd in Educational Practice program.

Course Details:
Building on the philosophical and methodological foundations developed in the previous semester, this course is designed to further enhance teacher-learners’ capacities for enacting practitioner inquiry. Participants will undertake an inquiry project during the term, engaging in spirals of action and reflection, often in collaboration with community members, to extend, enrich and theorize professional practice. As a community of inquirers, we will support each other in making meaning of teaching and learning within our specific contexts through diverse methods. Our goal is to critically and creatively investigate our practice as teachers, imagine relations that go beyond normative categories, and reconfigure lives in schools.

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

The MEd EP program aims to develop teachers-learners’ capacity to:

  • Deepen and extend a disposition of inquiry, ethical practice, critical and creative reflection and responsiveness to learners as well as communities, both human and more-than-human
  • Develop and theorize their own inquiry practice through the investigation of multiple educational theories, philosophies, paradigms, and methodologies around the cohort theme of nature-based experiential learning
  • Inform and articulate their scholarly understanding of various world views and orientations in relation to their educational perspectives, including ecological place-based education
  • Critically and creatively engage in learning communities to situate, further develop, and align their inquiry practice within personally relevant and related paradigms
Collaborate with multiple communities to extend and augment their relationships and enable an active voice and presence within and beyond the classroom, including the natural world.

Grading

NOTES:

Grading: (assignments)
Reading Responses and Synthesis (30%)

  • Teacher-learners will respond to the weekly readings (and other provided resources) and synthesize themes within their reflections.

Reflections and Creative Responses (30%)

  • Teacher-learners will reflect on the learning and challenges from their inquiries and incorporate evidence from readings, class activities, and lived experience. They will draw upon their inquiry journal.

Presentations on Inquiry Journey (15%)

  • Teacher-learners will facilitate an experiential session with the class that explores one or more aspects of their inquiry projects.

Inquiry Journal (ungraded) and

Final Reflection (25%)

  • Teacher-learners will continue to document observations, experiences, reflections, insights, and scholarship related to their inquiries. Excerpts may be shared during class discussion and as part of written/creative reflections. They will submit a final reflection, drawing upon the readings, inquiry journal, and lived experience of their inquiry project.

Note: all readings will be provided on Canvas.


 

Materials

REQUIRED READING NOTES:

Your personalized Course Material list, including digital and physical textbooks, are available through the SFU Bookstore website by simply entering your Computing ID at: shop.sfu.ca/course-materials/my-personalized-course-materials.

Graduate Studies Notes:

Important dates and deadlines for graduate students are found here: http://www.sfu.ca/dean-gradstudies/current/important_dates/guidelines.html. The deadline to drop a course with a 100% refund is the end of week 2. The deadline to drop with no notation on your transcript is the end of week 3.

Registrar Notes:

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: YOUR WORK, YOUR SUCCESS

SFU’s Academic Integrity website http://www.sfu.ca/students/academicintegrity.html is filled with information on what is meant by academic dishonesty, where you can find resources to help with your studies and the consequences of cheating. Check out the site for more information and videos that help explain the issues in plain English.

Each student is responsible for his or her conduct as it affects the university community. Academic dishonesty, in whatever form, is ultimately destructive of the values of the university. Furthermore, it is unfair and discouraging to the majority of students who pursue their studies honestly. Scholarly integrity is required of all members of the university. http://www.sfu.ca/policies/gazette/student/s10-01.html

RELIGIOUS ACCOMMODATION

Students with a faith background who may need accommodations during the semester are encouraged to assess their needs as soon as possible and review the Multifaith religious accommodations website. The page outlines ways they begin working toward an accommodation and ensure solutions can be reached in a timely fashion.