Pedagogical ethic

I begin with a deep respect for adult learners’ commitment to broaden their perspectives and build their capacities as individuals and citizens. I strive to help them do so through rigorous and engaging teaching, mentoring and professional example, be it in face-to-face or online learning communities. I bring an ethic of care to my students as individuals, born of a marked affinity for personal and cultural differences as a first-generation, trilingual Canadian. I deploy a diverse mix of pedagogical methods and tools such as interactive lectures, short-notice team presentations, illustrative skits, and party-game-style discussions that encourage full participation. As a professional media producer, I use technology to enhance learning, as in filming students’ presentations to provide constructive criticism on their delivery. As a professional speaker, I delight in bringing a performative flair to the classroom, encouraging students to bring their fullest selves to their learning and to that of their cohort. An example of this is the final assignment in the first offering of my course on Public Persuasion (COMM352), in which students presented publicly in the time-honoured format of Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, London.

Courses taught

My ethic of tailoring and updating each class to suit the needs of its students and share the best and latest of my knowledge is reflected my having developed or significantly revised most of the courses that I have taught at Royal Roads University (RRU). Here, my teaching in the School of Communication and Culture has embraced emphases on theory (e.g., communication theory, media and cultural studies) and practice (e.g., media project, professional portfolio, public persuasion), along with a disciplinary concentration on sustainability communication, and most recently, communication in Indigenous contexts. I also developed and teach a foundational, residency course on environmental communication in the MA in Environmental Education and Communication (MAEEC) program in our School of Environment and Sustainability and contributed to redeveloping, and guest-taught in, the capstone course in that program. I supervise and/or serve on committees of students in RRU’s MA in Professional Communication, MA in Intercultural and International Communication, MA in Environmental Management and MAEEC programs.

Guest lectures and webinars

My transdisciplinary approach to teaching and learning integrates diverse aspects of communication (e.g., speech, visual, aural, written), performance, media studies and environmental studies, and arts-based methods of research-creation, in both theory and practice. This is why I have given invited guest lectures across seven programs at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels at RRU (and in other institutions) on a kaleidoscope of topics. These include arts-based research methods, media effects and framing, communication ethics, multimedia storytelling, reading and writing scholarly prose, creating research questions, pitching research projects, writing grant applications, conducting media interviews, and much more. Webinars that I have given recently address impactful teaching and learning, climate communication (framing climate in the media, eco-comedy) and communicating in a virtual world.

Other teaching

Courses that I developed and taught for other institutions at the undergraduate or graduate levels encompass communication theory, research methods in communication, organizational communication, online communities, speechwriting, and introductory, intermediate and advanced screenwriting. I have also designed and taught workshops in diverse aspects of communication for the public and private sectors.

Contribution to pedagogy

My contribution to teaching in my primary area of scholarly interest is included in the edited collection, Environmental Communication Pedagogy and Practice (Routledge 2017). My chapter (the sole Canadian entry) sets out the case for complementing the roots of the discipline in scientific and technical communication with arts-based methods of research and practice. I implement this in my courses, Foundations for Environmental Communication (EECO503) and Sustainability Communication (COMM464). This teaching also draws on my experiences in professional practice, as documented and analyzed in the case studies in arts-based environmental communication shared in my book, Scripting the Environment (Palgrave Macmillan 2016); this work is freely downloadable by students at our university. My approach has been featured in the Research in Action series by RRU’s Research Office, in the National Post and in the Public Lands Podcast perpetrated by Dr. Mark Pedelty of the University of Minnesota.

I am particularly honoured and delighted to have conspired with the wonderful Russell Johnston, RRU’s Indigenous Education Advisor, to co-develop and co-teach Communication in Indigenous Contexts (COMM443), a course inviting learners to situate themselves in light of Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and on lands where they are located within the colonial state popularly called Canada.