Description: In eduspaces we talk about values in nebulous terms. We believe in open, we believe in barrier-free, we believe in social justice, we believe in student-focused pedagogies. But what are these values as praxis for those of us who support student-focused spaces? In this keynote, Dr. Ann Gagné will discuss how we are currently living through a crisis of trust in higher education, institutionally, governmentally, societally, and within our own communities. She will support reflection on how trust is a vector, with both magnitude and direction that impacts the work we do and the work we want to do. By highlighting broken reciprocal values and support systems, this talk defines the moral injury seen in our eduspaces and gives participants the opportunity to leave with tangible next steps to promote trust as reciprocal and etymologically radical.

Speaker bio: Dr. Ann Gagné (she/her) is Senior Educational Developer, Accessibility & Inclusion at Brock University and a sessional instructor at George Brown College. She has worked in higher education in Ontario at colleges and universities for 21 years. Her work focuses on the need for accessible pedagogies through holistic awareness of disabled learners, faculty, and staff lived experience to decrease barriers to inclusion in higher education. She has facilitated workshops and keynotes on accessible pedagogy, accessible event design, accessible social media practices, and trauma-aware UDL. In March 2023 she started her own podcast Accessagogy, which talks about accessibility and pedagogy in short (under 15 minute) episodes.