Robert is a Professor in the Faculty of Education at UBC in the Adult Learning and Education program. His research expertise is in sustainability and the related areas of social movements and capacity building, and is rooted in an abiding interest in human action and social change. Since 2016, he has applied a neo-pragmatist approach to human action on sustainability programing, creating both a Masters (3x) and Bachelor’s (7x) program in Education for Sustainability as a result. These efforts entail his working shoulder-to-shoulder with students to step outside the traditional classroom to get involved in sustainability projects within Vancouver and neighbouring communities. The second strand is a SSHRC-funded study of social innovation as a transformative intervention in cities addressing the complex challenges of climate change, equity and decolonization. From 2003–2012 he was also the PI on a study of the impacts of the Olympic Games hosting from a sustainability perspective. The above research marks a re-conceptualization of adult learning and community engagement relating both to classroom efforts to contribute to progressive social movements seeking sustainability, social justice and decolonization. Structurally, neo-pragmatism supplants social psychological emphases on attitudes, beliefs and context in order to scale up behaviour change and focus on meaningful collaborations among classrooms, communities and citizens. The original source of these seemingly innovative ideas was a PhD done in collaboration with the Walpole Island First Nation where VanWynsberghe saw first-hand the power of new thoughts and new ways of acting in the interest of environmental and social justice. His career can be said to represent a reflection on the individual and collective action for a better society that this experience represented.

Dr. Iris Berger has been involved in the field of early childhood education as a classroom teacher, researcher, community organizer, policy consultant and university instructor since the mid 1990s. At the centre of her pedagogical inquiries lies the abiding notion that matters pertaining to education and childhood are entangled with question of ethics and politics. To this end, Dr. Berger has developed a special interest in rethinking leadership in early childhood education with an interest in storytelling as a form of participation and political action.

In her teaching, Dr. Berger focuses on creating pedagogical spaces that convey a sense of welcoming and possibilities for collaborative thinking, dialogue, and engagement; while at the same time, provoking intellectual ‘restlessness’ and questioning that invite an experience of ‘awakening’ to new ideas and perspectives. She strives to convey that knowledge is dynamic, always situated and incomplete and thus each one of us has something unique to contribute to the ongoing (necessary) conversations about the purpose(s) and form(s) of education.

Dr. Daniel W. Cox is a Professor at the University of British Columbia and hosts the podcast Psychotherapy and Applied Psychology. Dan does mental-health research on helping and change processes, particularly related to suicide. Dan is involved in several funded projects examining how to best help those in suicidal crisis.

Michelle Blown is a reflective and responsive teacher-researcher with over 15 years of experience leading learning with students of all ages, teacher candidates, and practicing teachers. Michelle is currently completing her Master of Literacy Education at UBC and her research interests include multimodality, arts-based pedagogies, digital literacies, emergent literacies, and inquiry-based pedagogical approaches. Her graduating project will unpack the relationship between inquiry-based teaching and literacy learning. Michelle is excited to share both her research and practical knowledge as it pertains to creative writing with students in the digital age!

Wendy Traas is a Reference and Instruction Librarian at the UBC Education Library. Wendy is a co-founder of the Seed Lending Library, which now has 4 locations on campus. She is a contributor to the library’s Critical Literacy Kits, and oversees the branch’s collection of makerspace materials for k-12 learning environments.

Karen O’Regan teaches academic writing at the University of British Columbia English Language Institute (Faculty of Education). Her research on the writing of community in contemporary literature of Caribbean diasporas informs her current study of how language performs relationality—interactions between people, ideas and things—and how these connections, in turn, shape language.