2023 CALE Summer Institute

• Create culturally responsive curricula that empower students in the face of important issues of our time.
• Discuss critical pedagogies with a community of teachers and researchers from around the world.
• Develop meaning and purpose in your teaching as you provide the same for your students.

For the second consecutive year, we invite teachers and educational innovators to join a unique professional learning community organized at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. For two weeks this Summer, participants from around the world will meet online to explore important ideas in Critical Action pedagogy. Together, we will design new curricula that empower our students in the face of important issues of our time, such as climate anxiety, social justice, economic futures, and career identity.

Your participation

This August, teachers who wish to join CALE can take advantage of a FREE summer institute. Online activities will start on August 1st, and we will meet on Zoom on the following Tuesdays and Wednesdays (August 8, 9, 15 and 16).

Meetings will include guest panels of researchers and teachers experienced in critical action pedagogy. Experienced CALE teachers will present and discuss successful lesson designs and experiences and help new community members incorporate critical action into their practice. Teachers will create small groups who spend time working closely on the design of new critical action lessons, units, or whole courses.

To support teachers in their design work, CALE offers a framework that includes a set of critical action approaches, including arts-based methods, storytelling, community engagement, critical action games, and critical making. Each approach is accompanied by examples and a design guide. The end product of the Summer Institute will be a complete lesson plan and implementation plan.

Teachers who join the Summer Institute and the broader CALE community will be assured of personal privacy and security of their information. They will be able to choose how much information to share and will collaborate with peers in a safe space. By the end of the workshop, participants will ideally have a draft lesson plan that they can work into their 2023-24 curriculum and active membership in CALE going forward into the school year.

The CALE community of teachers

The broader goal of CALE is to support teachers not only in designing such activities but also in reflecting on their enactment, and supporting one another during the school year. The design of such learning activities is a nuanced challenge, and one best achieved through close cooperation amongst teachers, including sharing and exchanging resources and lesson designs and staying in touch as they enact their new designs during the school year. The ENCORE lab, a team of researchers, teachers and designers at the University of Toronto, has developed CALE as a safe space where teachers can develop and discuss their designs, exchange reports from classroom enactments, and engage in critical discussions.