by Tom Carey
This month, we were delighted to have educators from four new institutions collaborating with us on Developing Student Capability for Inclusive Innovation in the Workplace:
Robert Danisch, University of Waterloo.
Tracy Penny Light and Laura Kinderman, Capilano University (North Vancouver)
Linda Pardy, University of the Fraser Valley (Abbotsford, BC)
Joanna Sheridan, University of King’s College (Halifax, NS)
Each of these new partners – and their distinctive institutions – will add to the diversity of our higher ed team, in line with the innovation team precept that a more diverse team can create greater opportunities for breakthrough innovations. This is also a wonderfully interdisciplinary group, with backgrounds or current responsibilities in the areas of Communications Arts, History, Women’s Studies, Science, Business, English Literature, Health Sciences, Education, Philosophy, Workplace Learning and Employability.
Each week in March, we’ve been exploring together the shared Principles underlying our adaptable learning resources and activities, including the evolution of our original resources to develop “every employee” capability in Understanding Workplace Innovation as well as the emerging new package to build capability for Enabling Inclusive Innovation in the Workplace (which will also prepare students for work-integrated learning placements as Innovation Catalyst Interns with our workplace partners).
This new cohort will be sharing insights and adaptable from their distinctive offerings with our previous partners in Ontario (Anahita Baregheh, Nipissing University; Victoria Abboud, University of Windsor; Libby West and Vicky Lowes, University of Toronto; Kasey Dunn, Sheridan College) and Australia (Felix Nobis, Monash University). All of the collaborating institutions will be participating in a June workshop where we will invite more educators and institutions from across Canada to help their students develop capability for Inclusive Innovation in the Workplace.
The workshop is a pre-conference event in collaboration with the annual meeting of Canada’s Society for Teaching and Learning Higher Education, on the morning of June 11 in Niagara Falls. For attendees at the conference, registration for the workshop is free; others can register just for the workshop ($50). A full prospectus for the workshop is attached here (as a 2-page PDF); the first three paragraphs are appended below (click on the + to read more).
Since our first offering of Understanding Workplace Innovation in 2021, we have been able to double the number of collaborating institutions each year. We expect the June workshop will get us well on the way to engaging at least 8-10 new institutional programs for offerings in 2025 (including two more Canadian provinces). You can find out more about our process of collaboration and the resulting diversity of approaches in this 2023 scholarly publication:
Leveraging a Diverse Collaboration in Tertiary Education to Develop Capability for Workplace Innovation. European Journal of Workplace Innovation 8(1), pp. 105-135.
(While the primary focus of our collaboration is on our students’ learning, there are ample opportunities for collaborating educators to also make scholarly contributions. So far, authors from nine different institutions have contributed their research insights as co-authors of these contributions.)
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Workplace Innovation is the social process of mobilizing new ideas to create value in the workplace, enhancing performance for the organization and quality of work for employees. Inclusive Workplace Innovation incorporates larger social goals, to ensure diversity, equity, and inclusion in innovation (i.e., both participating in and benefiting from innovation).
Recent developments in our universities and colleges demonstrate how students in multiple programs can develop capability for inclusive workplace innovation – a capability equally applicable in their roles beyond the workplace as community members and global citizens.
In this workshop, participants will experience award-winning learning resources and activities that help students develop understanding and capability in inclusive workplace innovation, created by a diverse set of collaborating post-secondary institutions. Example contexts include multiple disciplines (e.g., Faculties of Arts, Science and Business) and formats (e.g., new course offerings, incorporation into existing courses, or programs to prepare students for external work placements)…