The novelist Arundhati Roy has argued that historically pandemics force “humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew”. A liminal moment like this is rare, exciting, and perilous. What should we establish as the foundations of “new normal” teaching and learning in higher education? I will invite you to consider putting teacher-student and student-student relationships at the heart of your teaching. Drawing on some 400 interviews with students, faculty, and staff in U.S. higher education, I will explore how relationships are a flexible, scalable, and humane approach to ensuring that all students experience welcome and care, become inspired to learn, and explore the big questions that matter for their lives and our communities.
Teaching@Sydney