Tag Archives: teaching

Resource-Reliant or Resource-Ready? UofT’s Approach to Professionalized Student Tutors
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Resource-Reliant or Resource-Ready? UofT’s Approach to Professionalized Student Tutors

Posted on by • Leave a comment

By Molly McGouran t UofT, being the ideal professionalized student-tutor is about more than just excelling in your studies or helping others with theirs.  The University of Toronto Tutor Training Program (UT3) has a clear vision of what an ideal student-tutor should be: vigilant, honest, ethical, and, above all, well-informed. But what does that actually … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Assessment vs Evaluation

Posted on by • Leave a comment

By Maia de Caro My project concentrates on assessment as an overarching topic and is honing in on the Signature Program Assessments (SPAs), a unit-level assessment mechanism grounded in objectives set out by the Strategic Plan that promotes student success and development. One key insight from my research was the emphasis made by my interlocutors … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / final papers / Undergraduate Ethnography

The Undocile mind: ‘coping’ with neoliberal education?

Posted on by • Leave a comment

A Final Report by Lukey Lu Imagine you are an undergraduate student now approaching the end of the semester in the University of Toronto. You just finished some term tests and survived through some assignments. You thought you are doing fine — everything is under the control. However, the reality soon slaps your face: you … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / final papers / Undergraduate Ethnography

Empowering Learners, Transforming Institutions:Learning Strategists’ Role in Higher Education 

Posted on by • Leave a comment

A Final Report By Hanisha Mistry Introduction The fluorescent light hummed softly in the temporary office on Bay Street, a functional yet impersonal space where the Centre for Learning Strategy Support (CLSS) had set up during the Koffler Student Centre renovations. Despite its unremarkable setting, the CLSS is defined not by its location but by … Continue reading →

The Complementary Roles of Mentors and Strategists
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

The Complementary Roles of Mentors and Strategists

Posted on by • Leave a comment

By Hanisha Mistry There is a need for Student Life’s resources, and there is a reason why we have both peer mentors and Learning Strategists. A poignant quote from a conversation I had with a Learning Strategist captures this need: “Students are saying, ‘I need to talk about my learning in not an evaluated space.’” … Continue reading →

Too Many Students, Too Few Strategists
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Too Many Students, Too Few Strategists

Posted on by • Leave a comment

By Hanisha Mistry Learning Strategist’s days cannot accommodate all of U of T St. George. The University of Toronto’s St. George campus serves approximately 68,454 students, while the Centre for Learning Strategy Support (CLSS) operates with only 22 professional staff and 12 peer mentors. This stark disparity reflects a systemic imbalance between the student population … Continue reading →

Student Life’s Strategic Plan: an Ethnography of Organizational Culture in Higher Education
Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / final papers / Undergraduate Ethnography

Student Life’s Strategic Plan: an Ethnography of Organizational Culture in Higher Education

Posted on by • Leave a comment

Final Report By Daisy Sanchez Villavicencio We have become familiar with the idea that large organizations like Universities are guided by Strategic Plans and produce annual reports. My research in the University of Toronto’s division of Student Life permitted me to examine the practices involved in this production and the rationality or mode of reasoning … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Liminality within Higher Education: OISE Master’s Students Experience Contradictory Identities

Posted on by • Leave a comment

By Daisy Sanchez Villavicencio It’s 2:10 pm on a Friday and rather than finding a comfy seat in a lecture hall, I face a panel of rectangular screens with students in varying settings and others’ black/blank. Since the pandemic, I’ve attended countless online lectures and feel myself instinctually take my position as a traceless attendee … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Staff Turnover

Posted on by • Leave a comment

By Cameron Miranda-Radbord What the heck happened to the staff who were supposed to conduct Signature Program Assessments? No, really – as I spoke to a Student Life staff member, I was perplexed by her explanation of why many of the Signature Program Assessments were not completed. Administrators, she told me, had moved departments. If … Continue reading →

Ethnography of the University / Ethnography of the University: Focus on Student Life 2024 / Undergraduate Ethnography / Updates

Fieldwork from above and below

Posted on by • Leave a comment

By Cameron Miranda-Radbord Walk to Simcoe Hall, arrive at 9:10am – late, because administration doesn’t function on UofT time. Listen to financial update. Ask questions. Fight a losing battle against schoolwork that could have been done last night.  I approached my ethnography of Accessibility Services from what I consider a unique standpoint – both “below” … Continue reading →