A theoretical and experiential study of strategies for teaching adults, and of the procedures educators can use in group settings to enhance the development of learning processes. Students will explore personal institutional and societal variables that shape teaching/Learning environments, examine the factors that promote or hinder success, experience and analyze different teaching approaches, and develop a personal approach to the teaching/learning process.

This course explores the nature(s) of trauma and the different ways of working with survivors. The emphasis is on difference-different types of trauma, different ways of coping, and the significance of different and multiple identities. Work with adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse is particularly highlighted. Other areas include survivors of: homophobic assault, ritual abuse, residential schools, refugee traumatization, war trauma, trauma associated with imprisonment, trauma associated with psychiatric intervention, and second generation trauma (e.g., children of Holocaust survivors). The trauma inherent in systemic oppressions, the fact that we live in an oppressive and violent society, and the implications for practitioners is emphasized throughout. While the primary emphasis is on practitioners as counsellors, other roles are also considered, including: advocates, befrienders, community workers, and literacy workers. Practitioner self-care in light of vicarious traumatization is given special consideration. Attention is divided between individual work, group work, and community work. The course is counter-hegemonic. Dominant perspectives include: critical theory, feminism, and existentialism. Permission of Instructor is required to enrol. Failure to contact the instructor for a screening interview well in advance (at bonnie.burstow@utoronto.ca) may result in not being able to take the course.

This course will focus on gender processes in work settings. We will identify patriarchal rules and expectations which run through contemporary workplaces (factories, offices, homes, hospitals, shopfloors, etc.) and propose ways in which normalizing discourses which reify gender hierarchies can be challenged. The course will focus on how ''gender,'' ''race'' and ''class'' can be conceptualized as processes rather than demographic attributes possessed by individual workers. We will trace the connections between gendered jobs and gendered workers and explore how individuals learn to ''do gender'' in organizational settings.

While our economic GDP is growing today via enclosure and destruction of the Commons, our human wellbeing and sustainability increasingly depend not only upon protection of the Commons (economic, ecological, cultural and electronic) but their extension in most areas of human experience. With the participation of all faculty members of the AECD Program, the course will be based on introducing students to the following: i) a history of Commons in societies; ii) conceptualization of Commons; iii) relevance of Commons for understanding adult education in relation to a variety of learning contexts and social issues. In this context, the course will specifically seek to explore the following dynamics of change: a) the current impact of ‘counter-commons’ market measures of wealth, well-being and ‘development’; b) current commons- related education, policy and activism in economic, social, cultural and spiritual realms at the local, national and global levels; and c) theoretical and strategic debates among commoners and between commoners and corporate ‘sharing economy.’

This course focuses on learning for the global economy. We will explore workers' learning which occurs during migration and as a result of the movements of global capital. In order to support the growing interconnectedness between workplaces located in different countries, organizations and states have developed strategies and programs which serve to "train" workers to engage in transnational interactions. Workers engage in a wide range of language, communication, and vocational training as a result of migration as well as through their involvement in global economic processes. We will explore what and how workers learn to conceptualize the "world as a single social space" (Robertson 2002) and the impact of this learning on their lives and communities.

Peter Senge's concept of the Learning Organization has now been embedded in organizational thinking since 1990. Many organizations have struggled to create learning cultures with varying degrees of success and much has been discovered about the factors that contribute to or inhibit this success. In this course, we will look at the Learning Organization as Senge and others have conceived it through the lens of productive conversation. The course will employ a variety of learning strategies including student presentations, theory bursts and organizational simulation. As part of our process, we will examine our own ability to create a learning organization within the class and the impact that our conversations have on the quality of our own learning.

The content of this course focuses on work and learning dynamics within professional workplaces and seeks to place these dynamics within their broader social, political, economic and historical context. Themes concerning professionalization, de-professionalization, professionalism, the nature of professional and/or expert knowledge, ethics, identity, knowledge cultures, and the organization of professional labour processes will also be addressed. The first half of the course will review the history of approaches to the meaning and study of professions as well as address key concepts, issues and dynamics of professions and professional work. The second half of the course will focus on leading conceptual issues and research on professional learning dynamics specifically. Students will be encouraged to combine the development of course assignments with existing research projects/goals/interests. The basic elements of a typical week in this course are as follows: 1. Opening lecture video posted by the instructor on Monday evening of each week 2. Group discussion each week (Monday to Thursday) 3. Closing lecture video posted at the end of each week (based on key themes emerging from the discussion groups and related issues from the readings).

This course provides an opportunity for students to put theoretical ideas they have learned in other courses into practice. Students will identify a placement setting and develop a project in consultation with the instructor. The practicum can be situated within such settings as schools, private sector organizations, community groups, hospitals. Suitable projects may include (but are not limited to) the development of curriculum, programs or online resources, the organization and/or delivery of courses and workshops, and the evaluation of teaching materials and programs. Weekly discussions will provide for support, feedback and reflection.

This course focuses on the experiences of a generation of young adults who have come of age under the auspices of fiscal crisis, austerity and massive shifts in social policies landscapes, and recent upheavals and mobilizations against the state across North and South America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Young adults today are uniquely positioned within the cultural, economic, and policy landscapes of growing conditions of social and material insecurity. Compared to adolescence, which is a much-researched area of educational scholarship, young people who are "emerging" or "young" adults are an under-researched population. Emerging adulthood includes the period between 18 and 30 years of age when young people become more independent and explore various life possibilities. It is a time of profound change, when young adults acquire the skills and education they need for jobs and careers, when they establish households and relationships, begin families, and begin to contribute to society in meaningful ways. It is also a time in which young people gain political status vis-a-vis the state and become subject to rules and regulations concerning criminal justice and financial institutions and can experience an attenuating loss of social supports. There is a growing body of research to suggest that that the forms of 'crisis' experienced by young people today will have a profound effect on their transition to adulthood, their engagement in traditional social and political institutions, and their ability to participate meaningfully in the knowledge economy. For these reasons, emerging adulthood and youth studies are important areas of study in adult education.

This course will provide students with little background in feminism and students wishing to renew and deepen their knowledge of feminism with an overview of: 1) the principles of feminist social analyses and social practice, and 2) feminist perspectives on current issues. It will be useful for students who are facing issues of gender in their research, their work, or their personal lives and are interested in how gender intersects with race, class and sexuality.

This course presents a hands-on approach to community organizing on lgbtq issues, and is meant to supplement the skill base of those currently working in communities as health and social services professionals, as well as those who are grass roots community organizers. The curriculum is designed to engage lgbtq history and contemporary issues, and to integrate this knowledge with a skill-building approach to community development through organizing and participatory action.

This course examines the theory and practice of conducting participatory and collaborative research that bridges the academic, workplace, and community divide, with an emphasis on research from feminist, anti-racist, and anti-colonial perspectives. In addition to readings, students will undertake a research project as part of the course requirement.

This course will focus on the impact of war on women and their rights. We will engage in critical analyses of contemporary conflicts and their impact on gender, race and learning. Specifically, we will examine the link between war, globalization, nation-states and learning and the link between non-state, non-market forces and learning. We will look at current feminist approaches to the study of war, violence and women's resistance and learning. The theoretical approach in this course is anti-racist and anti-imperialist feminism.

This course will examine the gender, race, and class dimensions of population movement and forced migration. The focal point of our work will be understanding how these experiences intersect with questions about learning and work. Much of the world population is ‘on the move.’ According to the United Nations, as of 2020, about 281 million people were living outside their country of birth. War, environmental disasters, and massive restructuring of certain sectors of economy are forces that displace population mostly from the global south. In this context, a significant percentage of migrants move in search of financial stability. Participants in this seminar will study a range of learning experiences connected to the flow of people and jobs in various sites and scales––Canada, transnationally, globally. We will follow the adjustment and transformation of market economy and educational initiatives in response to these movements. Emphasis will be on the challenges faced by women migrants and refugees as they navigate changing labor markets in search of waged work. The course will pay attention to competing theoretical analyses of the relationship between gender, sexuality, race, and class in the context of migration, learning and work. We will discuss critical feminist and race theories, Marxist feminist analysis, transnational, diaspora, mobility and cultural studies, and adult education. The course will rely on theoretical studies and pay attention to social relations, politics, policies, and practices of migration, learning and work. Additional course materials, including policy documents, reports, novels, and other creative media will further inform our discussions and inquiries. 

This course explores theories and practices of democratizing work, organizations, and the economy. It looks at the ways workers and communities can take stewardship of working life, work organizations, and the economy and critically assesses management and workers' strategies of workplace and organizational participation. The course also homes in on how contemporary alternative economic arrangements (such as worker cooperatives and numerous forms of self-managed community initiatives), the social and solidarity economy, and environmental and social movements prefigure the expansion of economic democracy and social change while they, at the same time, directly contest the ongoing crisis spawned by neoliberal capitalism. The course applies theory to practice via multiple case studies from the global North and South and student' own experiences with work and participative organizations in the for-profit, not-for-profit, and public sectors. Throughout, the course interlaces explorations of workplace, organizational, and economic democracy with critical adult learning theory and practice.

Some of the most pressing problems affecting community wellness can be traced to how stable infrastructures are eroding, resulting in underemployment, insecure housing, expulsions from prime real estate, and criminalization of the racialized and indigenous poor. This course provides some important conceptual frameworks that help us understand how these themes are interconnected through militarized finance capitalism that is also alternatively referred to as 'the new economy', 'casino economics', and 'crisis economics'. As devastating as these trends are, never have possibilities for transformation been more accessible through a myriad of inspiring social movements and innovative community activism and development. This course provides some critical literacy for organizing, and some hands-on experience in transformative community development.

Critical approaches to organizations focus on how organizational change and development is experienced by diverse groups of women and men who work within organizations, as well as how organizational change is influenced by broader historical, social, political, and economic forces. Through this course, students will have the opportunity to develop theoretical and analytical skills to critically assess organizational change, its socio-economic contexts, and its dimensions of sense making, language, power, inequality, and resistance in a variety of organizational settings (offices, factories, service sector firms, NGOs, non-profits, cooperatives, community groups, government units, schools, family businesses, etc.). We will explore the methods frequently used to ''restructure'' organizations (such as downsizing, outsourcing, contingent just-in-time policies); develop critiques of recent trends which emphasize ''empowerment'', ''organizational learning", and ''reengineering'' and reflect on alternative organizational models with a vision of social change. Throughout the course, we will endeavour to situate the critical perspectives, theories, and methods of organizational change we will be studying to actual cases (including your own experience with organizations) via a variety of learning formats.

Specialized exploration, under the direction of a faculty member, of topics of particular interest to the student that are not included in existing courses. While credit is not given for a thesis topic proper, the study may be closely related to such a topic. Guidelines and Form are available from the website: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/ro/UserFiles/File/Graduate%20Registration/GradReg_ReqIndReadRsch.pdf This course can also be designed as a field-based practicum in adult education and/or community development in an agreed setting. The course will include reflection, research, and writing on issues raised in practice.

This is the foundation course for Transformative Learning studies. It is designed to introduce students to a global planetary perspective. The concept of a global world order will be examined from historic, critical, and visionary perspectives. Issues of development/underdevelopment, human rights, and social justice perspectives are considered. A critical understanding of social power relations will be highlighted in the areas of gender, class, and race dynamics. The topics are approached as interdependent dimensions within a holistic education perspective.

This course is designed to provide an interdisciplinary approach to the analysis of Aboriginal education in Canada. Emphasis is on understanding the influences of policies, programs, and institutions that affect the Aboriginal community in respect to Aboriginal education. One of the major data sources will be the report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Aboriginal guest speakers will also comment on selected topics. Components of this course will include the Aboriginal world view; contemporary history/politics relevant to Aboriginal Peoples; and Aboriginal education and healing. Treaties were originally signed between First Nations and the Federal Government of Canada. These treaties for the most part have not been honoured. In this course we shall discuss the ways and means to redress this situation as we focus more specifically on issues relevant to Aboriginal education.

This course will provide a deeper understanding of Aboriginal worldviews and an appreciation of how this knowledge can enhance teaching, learning and research. Learners will examine philosophical views shared by Aboriginal people while honoring a diversity of identities, culture, language, and geographic locations. Course content may include Aboriginal cognitive styles, values and ethics, traditional teachings and indigenous methodologies. This course will promote an understanding and appreciation of Aboriginal perspectives and explore strategies for integrating this knowledge into the work of educators and researchers.

Some very innovative community activism takes place through creative forms of embodied learning, including theatre, dance, slam poetry, hip hop, and various other art forms. In addition, many of these art forms offer alternatives to western Eurocentric frameworks of objectification, subjugation and alienation, emphasizing, instead, relationality and connectedness. The two alternative embodied arts explored in this course include Qigong and Mindfulness Meditation, with a view to examining how these can augment Marxist Feminist dialectics, and inform social justice movements, through deep personal and social transformation. Students will develop a community development proposal involving embodied learning and social movement building, and will participate in a group-based art-as-public pedagogy project.

This course discusses critical issues facing nonprofits, co-operatives, and the social economy, which is a bridging concept for organizations pursuing a social purpose. The course examines the differing organizational forms and accountability structures and the challenges faced by these organizations. Issues to be considered are: social enterprises and their increasing prominence in an age of government retrenchment; community economic development in low-income communities; and civil society organizations and their functions in encouraging social engagement and challenging social norms. The course views the social economy in relation to the government and business sectors, and attempts to understand the multiple roles of organizations in the social economy as they interact with the rest of society. The course materials include innovative case studies and adult education materials with regular guest lectures from social economy practitioners.

This seminar is designed to support Master's students in the process of writing a thesis or a substantial research paper. Issues to be discussed will include: choosing a topic, writing a proposal, developing an argument, selecting a supervisor, and organizing the writing process. The class will be participatory, and weekly readings will be assigned on the various parts of the thesis-writing journey. Class members will also receive instruction on effective library research techniques. In addition, students will have the opportunity to read completed theses and proposals. The course is required for all MA students. Full-time MA students are encouraged to take this course at the start of their program. Part-time MA students should ideally take this course when they are ready to start working on their thesis proposals. If you have difficulty fitting this into your schedule, please contact the instructor.

The course is also open to MEd students who are interested in gaining research experience by writing a substantial research paper equivalent to a thesis.

This course will explore Indigenous ways of knowing and knowledge systems and how this knowledge might inform the work of teaching, learning and research. Course content may include indigenous research protocols, decolonizing methodologies, ethics and politics of researching and teaching in Aboriginal communities, indigenous knowledges in the academy, intellectual property rights, curriculum development and innovations in Aboriginal education. Traditional teachings from respected Elders may be incorporated into learning. For learners with a research focus, this course enables inquiry into the production of knowledge, from both western and indigenous perspectives. For those interested in education implications, the course provides a footing in the workings and characteristics of indigenous knowing which will aid their pedagogical practices in Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal contexts.

This course provides you with opportunities to examine current principles, practices, trends and issues related to organizational leadership, and apply these concepts to your own professional practice. You will explore leadership styles, practices, tasks and models, and are encouraged to reflect on and analyze your own leadership experiences in light of theories examined.

This course explores concepts, practices and processes in organizations, with specific emphasis on the challenges and strategies for addressing the human aspects of change. The course combines an experimental approach and critical analysis to examine issues in organizational change. Students will gain understanding of theories, practices and the importance of Human Resources Development, Human Resources Management and Labour Relations principles in planning and implementing effective organizational change.

This course will examine issues faced by individuals, groups and communities trapped in ongoing cycles of violence due to historic and current traumas, and systemic injustice. The course will focus on healing and peacebuilding initiatives at the community level and will draw on diverse cultural traditions. The course will acquaint students with current theoretical concepts of community healing and peacebuilding. Participants will also develop skills, values and attitudes that will enable them to work towards healing, reconciliation, and comprehensive, viable peace. The notion of praxis is key, and students will be given the opportunity to reflect on their own practice.

This course will introduce students to the emerging field of adult education for sustainability. As a form of critical pedagogy, it concentrates on the interface between the education of adults and the question of sustainability. The task of adult education for sustainability involves helping us to learn our way out of unsustainable modes of thinking, feeling and acting about ourselves, our communities and the wider world, and to learn our way in to more sustainable ways of life. This course will cover issues such as globalization, sustainable development, community, environmental integrity, social justice, gender, energy and ecological literacy. It will also examine the role of adult education in exploring alternative models to our current unsustainable direction.

Drawing from several disciplinary perspectives, this course provides an opportunity to interrogate the relationship of the Internet to adult education. The main objectives of this course are: to engage participants in an examination of the influence of contemporary information and communication technology, including social media and other platform-mediated activity, on key adult education praxis areas such as community development, literacy, employment and services. The course provides participants with a critical framework for analyzing Internet mediated environments; and encourages students to explore Internet resources that may be used in conjunction with traditional community development and adult education practice. The course is conducted using a seminar format where discussion is informed by weekly readings.