{"id":52341,"date":"2026-05-04T11:27:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T15:27:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/?p=52341"},"modified":"2026-05-04T12:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T16:15:19","slug":"inspired-symposium-explores-relationship-rich-teaching-and-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2026\/inspired-symposium-explores-relationship-rich-teaching-and-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"InspirED Symposium Explores Relationship-Rich Teaching and Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carleton journalism students Justin Campbell and Clarisa Gonzalez\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Teaching and Learning Services hosted a one-day symposium on April 28 showcasing the transformative power of \u201crelationship-rich education\u201d \u2014 an innovative approach to student development that emphasizes how a post-secondary learner\u2019s relationships with faculty, staff and peers are crucial to both academic success and personal well-being.<\/p>\n

The event, which featured more than 30 speakers and panelists, drew some 200 participants to lecture and seminar spaces throughout Carleton\u2019s Nicol Building, where two main plenary sessions and a dozen panel discussions, workshops and other activities were held over the course of the day.<\/p>\n

Symposium highlights included a morning keynote address from U.S. education researcher Peter Felten<\/a> and an afternoon keynote by the University of Windsor\u2019s Bonnie Stewart<\/a>, a leading Canadian scholar on the impact of digital technologies in higher learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is literally more than five decades of research in the United States that demonstrates that the most important factor \u2014 or among the top two or three most important factors \u2014 in essentially any good thing that happens in undergraduate education is connected to the quality of relationships students have with faculty, with each other and with staff,\u201d said Felten, a professor of history and executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning at North Carolina\u2019s Elon University.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Keynote presenter Peter Felten, co-author of the book Connections Are Everything and executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning at North Carolina\u2019s Elon University, said that \u201cessentially any good thing that happens in undergraduate education is connected to the quality of relationships students have with faculty, with each other and with staff.\u201d [Photo \u00a9 Justin Campbell]<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cRelationships are extra important for students from marginalized communities,\u201d added Felten, who spent the 2022-23 academic year at Carleton as a Fulbright Canada Distinguished Chair in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. He identified students of colour, LGBTQ+ students, non-traditionally aged students and those who are first in their families to attend a post-graduate institution as learners for whom \u201cpositive relationships with faculty, with staff, with peers are extra motivating, convey an extra sense of belonging (and) contribute to them persisting through struggle and succeeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her address, Stewart explored the implications of AI in post-secondary education and in society broadly. She explained that she has been guided in her thinking by a former colleague\u2019s piercing insight into what he called the three \u201clogics\u201d or overarching sets of values shaping modern life, and why students\u2019 post-secondary experiences are so important.<\/p>\n

\u201cEducation holds a particular space in society. There are three key logics that are driving what we do\u201d in the 21st-century world, said Stewart. \u201cOne is the logic of business \u2014 profit, things need to make money, institutions need to make money, etc. One is the logic of media \u2014 we live in an \u2018attention economy,\u2019 you want eyeballs on the thing you\u2019ve done in order for it to make money. But the third one \u2014 and the one that he said is the balance to the other two if you want to keep living in a society, is the logic of education. He framed that as the one that values knowledge as a public good.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

University of Windsor professor Bonnie Stewart\u2019s afternoon keynote address explored the challenge of preserving educational values and human-centred learning in the age of AI. \u201cI don’t think we’ve completely recognized that (the) logic of education is actually under threat in the version of society that our would-be tech overlords are dreaming of,\u201d she said in an interview. [Photo \u00a9 Justin Campbell]<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cThis type of place,\u201d Stewart said of the university, \u201cis where we build people\u2019s capacity to live in a society that values, (yes), the logics of business and media, but also<\/em> the values and logics of education. It doesn\u2019t mean we\u2019re not using (generative AI) but we do need to be aware of what it is, and limit the agency that we give over to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In later interviews, the two keynote speakers elaborated on their messages to symposium attendees.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t think we’ve completely recognized that (the) logic of education is actually under threat in the version of society that our would-be tech overlords are dreaming of,\u201d said Stewart. \u201cAI takes away the process (of learning) for us. There are so many things (where) the learning process itself is what has changed me along the way, allowed me to grow as a human, allowed me to make connections with other humans \u2014 and those are the things and the parts of learning that have enriched my life, but also enriched my capacity to contribute to a community. The parts of learning that are actually more process-based tend to be the ones that make a difference to us as humans, as individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Felten said he learned from his own experience as a student how critical those kinds of relationships were to his journey in education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized really quickly I needed to understand my students and their lives if I was really going to be able to teach them,\u201d said Felten. \u201cWhat mattered was not how much knowledge I had or how much knowledge I conveyed, but what students learn, how students developed, how students thought of themselves as capable and working, of doing certain things and knowing certain things. And that flipped it a lot for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Symposium attendees participated in more than a dozen panel discussions, workshops and project demonstrations in the Nicol Building on April 28. [Photo \u00a9 Justin Campbell]<\/p><\/div>\n

He recalled a moment from his undergraduate years that encapsulated what he considered an enriching experience with a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy first semester at university, I had a professor in my philosophy course write on my final paper, \u2018Peter, this is a really good paper.\u2019 She gave me an A. Then she wrote, \u2018You could have written a better paper. I’d love for you to come talk to me about that next semester.\u2019 And honestly, my head exploded, because I’m like, but the point is getting an A! And she’s like, that’s not right. And so, I think one of the reasons why we should develop these kinds of connections is so that we can challenge (students) to develop their capacities even more, to push themselves even harder.\u201d<\/p>\n

Felten is co-author of the acclaimed 2023 book Connections are Everything: A College Student\u2019s Guide to Relationship-Rich Education<\/em>, billed as a resource that \u201cshows students the simple steps they can take to make their own college experience meaningful and transformational.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Hornsby, Carleton\u2019s Vice-Provost (Academic and Global Learning) and a professor in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, offered words of welcome to those assembled for the April 28 event.<\/p>\n

In an interview, Hornsby said the themes Felten explored in Connections are Everything<\/em> \u201creally resonated\u201d with the Carleton community, which made his time at the university as a Fulbright Scholar a few years ago especially impactful \u2014 and also made him a perfect keynote for this year\u2019s innovation symposium.<\/p>\n

Relationship-rich education, said Hornsby, is \u201ca theme that we think is an enduring issue that we want to focus on in terms of how Carleton orients itself from a teaching and learning perspective, and relationships.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Sprott School of Business instructor Julie Caldwell (left) discussed strategies for creating small-group connections between students in large classes. Carleton biology professor Martha Mullally also shared ideas for large classes and gave closing remarks at the conclusion of the April 28 symposium on relationships-rich education. [Photos \u00a9 Justin Campbell]<\/p><\/div>\n

He added: \u201cWe want our teaching-learning environment to be globally relevant; we want to be examining themes or supporting teaching and learning practices in ways that matter. But we also accept that there’s going to be a Carleton flavour to all this. We really want to highlight what the Carleton approach to relationship-rich education is about. This is what InspirED allows us to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

A series of concurrent panel discussions and workshops followed each of the plenary sessions that featured Felten and Stewart\u2019s keynote presentations. These breakout sessions spotlighted the many ways that Carleton\u2019s faculty, students and staff have been fostering relationship-enriched teaching and learning.<\/p>\n

Among those sessions was one focused on creating small-group learning communities within large classes where hundreds of students may come together for foundational lectures in their discipline.<\/p>\n

Carleton professors Julie Caldwell (Sprott), Edward Cyr (Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering), Martha Mullally (Biology) and Laura Pickell (Health Sciences) shared various strategies \u2014 experiential learning, collaborative syllabus creation, journal clubs and more \u2014 to help build meaningful connections between students so they can engage in \u201cconversation, reflection and learning from one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another session focused on the deployment of the Collaborative Indigenous Learning Bundles<\/a> \u2014 17 different online modules covering a wide range of issues and perspectives \u2014 to foster challenging discussions between students about history, science, film and immigration, all aimed at \u201cweaving relationships into learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

A panel on \u201cLearning in the City\u201d featured testimonials from professors in Art and Architectural History, English Language and Literature and Industrial Design describing excursions beyond the classroom to \u201cneighbourhoods, public spaces, cultural sites and community settings to support learning in real\u2011world contexts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The symposium agenda<\/a> also included workshops on game-based learning and project demonstrations on podcasting and virtual reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of this,\u201d said Hornsby, \u201cis meant to feed into a broader effort to support student success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal, he explained, is that while students are taking their degree programs at Carleton, \u201cthey feel like they are welcome and they belong and that they matter.\u201d But then, as well, \u201cwhen they leave the university, they have transferable skills and they’ve had a good experience. So they look back fondly on their time here.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s the really important piece here,\u201d he added. \u201cWe think about our learning environment as not only about the classroom, but about creating a student, a graduate, a citizen-scholar that really cares about the community, cares about society more broadly, and having a positive impact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carleton journalism students Justin Campbell and Clarisa Gonzalez\u00a0 Teaching and Learning Services hosted a one-day symposium on April 28 showcasing the transformative power of \u201crelationship-rich education\u201d \u2014 an innovative approach to student development that emphasizes how a post-secondary learner\u2019s relationships with faculty, staff and peers are crucial to both academic success and personal well-being. 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