Through our array of services and programming, we welcome all learners to bring their authentic selves to nurture, collaborate and experiment with teaching and learning that leads to transformative experiences. As we seek to fulfill Centennial College's mission and vision, the goals of our Academic Plan, and the four pillars of the Indigenous Strategic Framework, our work is guided by our commitments to:
We are committed to providing innovative and flexible programming in the areas of teaching, learning, scholarship, and digital technologies. We work collaboratively with faculty and staff to co-create responsive, meaningful, and exploratory programming that supports the achievement of your learning goals. We are dedicated to helping you find approaches and strategies, whether new or old, that work for you, your course, and your students. We are also committed to providing high-quality services and just-in-time support. From one-on-one dialogue to group consultations, our services will empower you to incorporate and implement strategies focused on improving the learning experience of your students.
We strive to work collaboratively to create inclusive teaching and learning communities, within and beyond the College, to nurture relationships that humanize education and to recognize and celebrate the contributions and successes of our Centennial faculty. We welcome, recognize and honour diverse knowledges, perspectives, and ideas. By co-creating environments that offer opportunities to connect, collaborate and build community, we can inspire each other.
CFDTI Accessibility Statement
Our commitment to accessibility starts with an inclusive view of our college community, one that focuses on experiences and designs that allow for differences to be recognized and valued. It is our vision to provide equitable access to our services and resources while working to dismantle barriers and/or restrictions. We recognize that equitable access is not the same for all groups and that we must work harder to ensure that the needs of historically marginalized groups, such as those with disabilities who face greater barriers to access, are centered. We will take proactive and responsive approaches to strive for continuous improvement as needs and contexts change. We are committed to working in partnership with faculty, staff, students and communities to nurture meaningful experiences as we aspire to build awareness and capacity in the creation of accessible learning environments.
We will:
- Proactively design and facilitate professional development opportunities and experiences and create teaching and learning resources that are accessible, multimodal and inclusive of all
- Procure and provide accessible tools and training to build capacity and support and empower faculty in creating accessible teaching and learning environments
- Actively seek opportunities to work collaboratively with other departments and external communities to consider and incorporate additional perspectives to ensure greater inclusion and accessibility
- Use effective communication strategies to build awareness, enthusiasm and momentum to mobilize change and advance our practices to reflect accessible learning environments
- Invite feedback and continually reflect on and adapt our services to become even more accessible as we advance our own knowledge and experience
We strive to be transparent. Despite our best efforts to ensure accessibility and provide multiple means of access, engagement and participation, we recognize there are limitations that we are committed to addressing. Please contact us if you experience or observe an issue, have a suggestion for improvement or if you have feedback to share with us at CFDTI@centennialcollege.ca.
Decolonization in the country we now call Canada is an Indigenous-led struggle to achieve self-governance and self-determination for Indigenous peoples. While recognizing the importance of decolonization globally and the need for truth, reconciliation, and healing for all who experience the ongoing legacies of colonial oppression, we believe that decolonization in Canada, as a responsibility we all share, begins by acknowledging the Land we are on, who we are and how we came to be here. Recognizing the centrality of land and natural environments to Indigenous knowledge systems, we are committed to the individual and collective work that is necessary to decolonize our minds, spirits, knowledge systems, teaching practices, learning environments and educational systems. In seeking to decolonize teaching and learning, we honour and make space for Indigenous and diverse knowledges and ways of knowing, doing, being and communicating.
Education has traditionally excluded, silenced, and oppressed the knowledges, lived experiences and ways of knowing of racialized and other marginalized communities. We are committed to anti-racism and anti-oppressive praxis (melding of theory and practice) and will ensure that our programs, services, and spaces welcome and include all voices, and center those that have been most marginalized (especially Black and Indigenous). We will work collaboratively to sustain and advocate for dialogue that dismantles hierarchical spaces of teaching and learning.
Centennial College is rich in its diversity. Our students come from globally diverse cultural traditions and backgrounds and collectively speak more than 80 languages. We are committed to valuing and celebrating multilingualism in our teaching and learning environments and promoting practices that centre diverse languages, literacies, and ways of knowing and communicating while removing systemic barriers to learning rooted in linguistic difference and language discrimination.
We believe that education is a central driving force behind committing to a sustainable future. We are committed to advancing sustainability by supporting our faculty in exploring how sustainability can be integrated into curriculum and pedagogy, and how to equip students with the skills and a holistic worldview necessary to address environmental injustice and ensure a sustainable future. As per the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, we recognize that environmental health intersects with the health of communities, and that the negative impacts of climate change are felt and experienced by marginalized communities exponentially more.
We aim to build an accessible and inclusive Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research culture that is embedded in reflective practice and supports all educators to critically question teaching and learning practices in higher education. This will advance ongoing scholarly educational work anchored in decolonized theoretical frameworks and evidence-informed practices, based on reciprocity and collaborative sharing of diverse knowledges and ways of knowing.
We are committed to building faculty capacity in using digital tools to enhance instructional practices and create innovative learning experiences. We will explore emerging educational technologies and their place within your learning environments with a focus on flexible, equitable, impactful, and meaningful teaching and learning. Together, we will approach digital tools from a critical pedagogical perspective ensuring intentional and purposeful technology integration.
We promote the practice of open education and the development of open educational resources (OER) with the goals of widening access to participation in education and lifelong learning across borders and organizations, and eliminating barriers related to cost, geography, accessibility, and technology. We seek to apply the principles of openness, collaboration and sharing to our own work and invite the Centennial community to share in the creation of an open teaching and learning community.