What is it?
Classroom climate is a framework that invites instructors to consider additional layers of nuance and context for situating classroom experiences and student learning. Ambrose, Bridges, DiPietro, Lovett, and Norman (2010) in How Learning Works define “Classroom Climate” as, “the intellectual, social, emotional, and physical environments in which our students learn” (p.170). The framework acknowledges different aspects of classroom climate and student development, particularly in how intellectual and social identity interact to impact student learning, experiences, and performance.
The Indigenous Initiatives teams’ approach to classroom climate builds off an extended and complicated version of the framework created by Hanae Tsukada and Amy Perreault in 2016. They suggest additional layers, contexts, and implications that impact classroom climate. Specifically, adding contextual layers of recognizing place, histories, policies, and social relations within and beyond the classroom. This version allows space to acknowledge UBC’s Vancouver campus’ multilayered and complex history and the diversity of perspectives and experiences on this campus. For these reasons, UBC classrooms are not static and neutral spaces; they continue to be multidimensional and dynamic spaces where complex interactions occur. These layers also acknowledge what instructors and students bring into the classroom and how learning should include reciprocating knowledge to broader communities (Tsukada & Perreault, 2016).
Considerations
The historical setting of a classroom can inform and guide the ways students learn from the institutional contexts surrounding the classroom. UBC Vancouver’s Point Grey campus is located on the ancestral and unceded lands of the Musqueam people, which informs the history and fabric of learning here. As an instructor, you have an integral part in the classroom because you model ways to engage with the intersecting layers of history and place. This challenges and adds to the ways we understand and have come to know our respective disciplines, the lands we are learning on and the relationships that exist.
In the research project, What I Learned in Class Today, students share several important considerations for their instructors. For instance, they identify the value of knowing that their instructors, regardless of discipline, are engaging in learning about local and national histories and contemporary realities of Indigenous peoples. They also want to know who their instructor is and who they are in relation to their work. It may feel vulnerable to engage in what is often called “positionality work,” yet it is one actionable and meaningful step that you can take to create a more trusting and impactful learning environment for all students.
Where to start
As an instructor, you can design, conceptualize and integrate aspects of Classroom Climate into your practice through the approaches you take in your course curriculum and the learning environment you create. In this guide, you can explore ways to do this as early as the first day of class. In the “Go further” section, you will see several resources. This can be an excellent place to get started on your learning journey at UBC Vancouver. It’s important to remember that everyone is in different places in their learning so you may not all start in the same place. We suggest starting with resources that resonate most with you and your discipline. If you are brand new to Indigenous topics and interested in how to take a “co-learner” approach with your students, consider looking at the in/relation resource.
Go further
The following is a list of resources that may help you explore the topic of Classroom Climate:
What is Classroom Climate? A framework of Classroom Climate in teaching and learning.
CTLT Indigenous Initiatives: Visit our website for further information and resources.
What I Learned in Class Today is a resource that addresses how to respond in a difficult moment in the classroom and supports a productive classroom climate.
In/Relation is a resource designed for non-experts in Indigenous studies who are introducing Indigenous topics to new learners.
Indigenous Learning Pathways is a self-directed training that supports new UBC staff and faculty to meaningfully and respectfully engage with Indigenous histories, knowledges, realities and perspectives.
Faculty stories
Joaquin Muñoz, Assistant Professor
Department of Curriculum & Pedagogy
“My experience as an educator in K12 settings established a belief in practices of community building within the classroom as key to learning and well-being for students. Based in socio-cultural educational approaches that center the community knowledge that students carry with them, pedagogies of relationship also celebrate the knowledge that is developed when students connect.
I work to create environments for my students that are both welcoming and inviting while simultaneously being academically rigorous. These do not need to be mutually exclusive. Rather they facilitate each other. Students who are connected in classrooms are able to take greater risks in their learning. These relationships offer support and encouragement and uplift the unique work that can be accomplished in collaboration with others.
Building environments where students can connect and build community helps to facilitate challenging concepts and difficult topics. It is essential for students to have a sense that their views are accepted and celebrated. By fostering connections, students have the chance to engage with challenging topics in a safe way. “
Tricia Logan, Assistant Professor
Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies (CIS) and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Faculty of Arts
“I am always trying to find different ways to “read the room” and create a classroom climate, while also reassessing that climate year to year and class to class. Topics that I teach related to Indigenous rights, colonialism, residential schools, Indian hospitals or child welfare will carry stories very close to home for a lot of students in the class or they may be entirely new teachings, for others. Building conversation space for safety without silences is often a difficult balance to navigate day-to-day. I really lean on Indigenous knowledge holders and teachers who remind me often that we are all teachers. I have to expect that I will not be the leader or teacher in the classroom every day. Students carry a lot of knowledge, and they are teachers in that space as well. A benefit of this huge campus is the huge network of experts and teachers. Especially difficult conversations and teachings, the conversation does not have to end in the classroom. This will not be the only space for their voice, their debates or for finding silence if they need it, too. Leveraging other spaces or venues and creating spaces in and around campus has been so important to build on those kinds of lessons. “
