Start here: Welcome and learning objectives
Who is this for? This self-paced resource is designed for post-secondary faculty and staff in Manitoba. Its purpose is to enhance the understanding of the concept of allyship in post-secondary institutions and to offer strategies for advancing allyship journey in teaching and learning.
About this resource
- Estimated time: 40 mins
- Format: Asynchronous, self-paced
- Interactivity: Includes optional reflection prompts and linked resources. While these embedded links are not essential to engaging effectively with the module, they have been included to allow learners to explore additional relevant resources if they wish.
- Support: This resource is not instructor-led, but your institution may offer additional programming.
Important note
Throughout the module, you will be asked to reflect on your own past experiences. If you find any of these reflection prompts to be emotionally challenging, take time to pause and reflect. If you think you might need additional support as you work through this module, please reach out to the available support at your institution
Jennifer Monteburno’s Welcome Message
Download ‘Jennifer’s Welcome Video’ Transcript (PDF)
For accessibility or reference, download the written transcript of the video.
Gerardo Villagrn’s Welcome Message
Welcome to module 5: Being and Becoming an Ally in postsecondary education. My name is Gerardo Villagran, I use he/him pronouns, and I am an educational developer at the University of Manitoba’s Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning. As one of the authors of this module, I wanted to share a few words about what allyship means and has represented for me in the various roles I’ve held as an educator. Personally, one of the most important messages in this module is that allyship is an ongoing, lived commitment to support a social group’s search for justice, equity, and recognition. In a previous role as community-engaged learning coordinator, that commitment looked like a constant search for ways to make visible, to administrators, all the different ways in which our policies and procedures create barriers for community partners and organizations, particularly Indigenous partners. Later on, as an instructor teaching a critical thinking course, that commitment looks like efforts to find real, current case-scenarios for my students to think critically about issues such as industrial development on Indigenous Sacred Lands, or the disproportionate impacts of climate change on Indigenous ways of living worldwide. Whatever your role might be in your institution, there are ways, big and small, in which you can demonstrate your commitment to allyship in meaningful ways. I hope you find some useful tools, strategies and inspiration in this module to support you along the way.
Photo from The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning
Learning objectives
By the end of this module, learners should be able to:
- Define the concepts of ally and allyship in the context of postsecondary education.
- Explain allyship as an ongoing process rather than a fixed state.
- Describe the steps involved in the process of becoming and being an ally.
- Identify ways in which allyship can be enacted within one’s own sphere of influence.
How to approach this module
Please take a moment to reflect on the learning objectives for this module, and then briefly describe your initial thoughts on paper or a digital notebook about where you are now. To start, simply consider:
Why am I here? What does being an ally look like for me? To whom am I trying to be an ally?
While the concepts and practices presented in this module are relevant to developing and enacting the role of ally to any systemically marginalized group, we invite you to make a pedagogical commitment as you work through this module and select one of the following equity-deserving groups in postsecondary education to act as a case study as you work through the learning activities (e.g., self-reflection questions) that follow. We encourage you to choose a group that is represented in your teaching context, in order to help you develop concrete insights and strategies to inform your practice. Select one from the following group:
- Black students
- Indigenous students
- Other racialized students
- International students
- 2SLGBTQ+ students
- Students with disabilities
- Low-income students
- Additional groups not listed here
We also encourage you to reflect your thoughts on paper or a digital notebook while interacting with the content of this module.
Media Attributions
- Gera Villagran © The Centre for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning, University of Manitoba
