Monday, June 23
11:00am - 12:00pm EDT
10:00am - 11:00am CDT
9:00am - 10:00am MDT
8:00am - 9:00am PDT/MST
10:00am - 11:00am CDT
9:00am - 10:00am MDT
8:00am - 9:00am PDT/MST
These concurrent sessions will take place in different Zoom rooms.
Lightning talks will be held consecutively in the same Zoom room.
Breakout rooms:
Written engagement:
Spoken engagement:
Session Description
The world of faculty development is very much a disproportionate space when it comes to race, gender, and disability. As a developer of color with disabilities, the journey to becoming an educational developer was not equidistant for me compared to most of my colleagues. In this session, we would like to share our stories and invite the audience to recheck our assumptions and reevaluate the way we interact and engage with our academic community. This session will be primarily aimed at raising awareness about ways that educational developers of color may be uniquely suited to connect with various corners of the campus community during these challenging times, and inviting participants to develop and design programs that intentionally center educational developers of color with great intention and care.
Key Takeaways
Participants will be able to:
Evaluate ways of interactions that may have included assumptions and biases regarding individuals of color
Identify ways in which educational developers of color can contribute to marginalized communities and beyond
Explore ways to strategically (and with great intention and care) incorporate voices of educational developers of color in professional development programming
Key Takeaways
Review principles outlined in On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World
Consider how transactional apologies harm (working) relationships
Reflect on how we are positioned in institutions that continue to perpetuate harm Identify where communities of care are in our (working) lives
Session Description
The session, led by a current graduate student, will provide participants with an overview of our weekly discussion circles program that brings students and faculty together to discuss topics related to creating accessible and welcoming class environments. In this lightning talk, the facilitator will share how they and other students have used self-disclosure in these discussions to facilitate faculty better understanding the experience of students requesting more accessible classes (through both formal and informal channels). Through the discussions, we have observed that faculty seem to be more receptive and open to adopting more accessible classroom practices when invited to reflect through these discussions than when feeling imposed upon them by accommodation requests (both formal and informal).
Key Takeaways
Participants will:
Learn about the structure and implementation of Pedagogy Circles through the Student Pedagogy Advocates (SPA) Program
Hear from a Student Pedagogy Advocate whgo will share their experiences with self-disclosure during Pedagogy Circles
Be encouraged to reflect on how the involvement of students can support faculty engagement with accessibility
Be encouraged to reflect on how to create spaces that empower students to disclose and share in appropriate ways on their own terms.
Session Description
Participants will spend time articulating their own concept of what it means to ‘connect’ in educational development, and participants will be prompted to reflect on ‘relational successes’ (relational points of pride), with examples provided by presenters as a starting point for discussion. Presenters will introduce Allison Pugh’s concept of ‘connective labor’ and prompt participants to consider the value(s) of structured v. unstructured approaches to connecting in both individual and group settings (coaching/motivational interviewing v. conversational style). Participants will be asked to consider elements of their contexts (both their institution and higher education broadly) that can support or inhibit their ability to engage in connective labor.
Some points for discussion include:
How do we balance measuring our work and its impact in terms of ‘countables’ (workshops, programs, user data and outcomes) and the qualities of relationships and experiences we’re able to facilitate?
Counting and scripting create accountability, but what are possible tradeoffs for us as educational developers as well as for the faculty we work with?
Finally, presenters and participants will collaborate to consider ways we can advocate for relational values to a.) instructors we support/collaborate with and b.) administrators, and other institutional stakeholders.
Key Takeaways
Define the role of relational work (‘connective labor’ (Pugh, 2025)) in your definition of educational development, with examples (i.e., what does connection look/feel like in your work?)
Compare structured (re: scripted) to unstructured approaches to ‘connective labor’ and different opportunities to building connections
Consider where we see a lack of connective labor in our work and factors (including competing values) that might inhibit our ability to connect with others in our work
Advocate for the value of ‘connective labor’ to stakeholders (faculty, administrators, etc.)
Session Activities
Participants share their existing connotations and knowledge of complexity theory via polling.
Presenters briefly outline complexity theory and some of its applications to educational development, as well as set up the mapping activity.
Two-stage complexity mapping activity: 1) Individually, participants outline relationships and dynamics of one element of their work as educational developers. 2) In breakout groups, participants will share (if they choose) their individual maps, and the group will further expand and connect the maps to outline the relationships and dynamics across examples. Participants will also discuss the limitations of the maps and of what can be known in these contexts.
Back in the full group, discussion (with option to use voice or writing) of what this activity has opened up. Discussion questions may include the following, but we will also follow the lead of the group if what has emerged from the activity goes in a different direction:
When in your work do you seek to complexify your own and/or others’ thinking? When in your work do you seek to simplify your own and/or others’ thinking?
What is gained and what is lost when we complexify and when we simplify in educational development?
What, if anything, does complexity have to do with your values as an educational developer? What about with the values of your institution and/or of the field/profession of educational development?
What are concrete ways that we can leverage the idea of complexity to create more space–defined however you want–within our work?
Key Takeaways
In this session, we will introduce complexity theory as a lens for exploring and making space in educational development. Our work contributes to and takes place within complex systems: that is, systems whose members have multiple non-linear and non-hierarchical relationships with one another, where those relationships and interactions lead to outcomes both unpredictable and irreducible to their component parts. Put another way, humans and ideas contain so many multitudes that when we begin to interact, we have unforeseeable potential to become more than the sum of our parts. Complexity theory gives us a framework and vocabulary for the relational “moreness” of educational development: the learning and connection that happens beyond and between the backwards-designed lesson plans, the practices that have lent themselves to being investigated via particular methodologies, and the practicalities of running programs and facilitating workshops. What happens when any particular group of humans connects with one another in a learning environment? How do we make space for all that we can’t predict or pin down
During our session, participants will:
Be introduced to a framework and vocabulary that will help them recognize and discuss complexity in their work.
Explore the intersections of their values as educational developers with the idea of complexity, thinking particularly about whether and how the concept of complexity can be leveraged to create space for more accessible, inclusive, equitable, and just education and educational development.
Bring themselves and their ideas into the interactions and community of the session, collectively creating knowledge and outcomes beyond what we can foresee.