Faculty Learning Communities (FLCs)

DISCOVER CURRENT AND PAST FLCs 

Our Faculty Learning Communities (or FLCs) bring together small, inter-disciplinary groups of 6 to 10 faculty who meet twice a month for an academic year to address a pedagogy or academia-related topic of mutual interest. At the end of the year, each group shares its findings with the university community in some fashion. 

Participation in a Faculty Learning Community is a commitment to a deep process of learning together with a diverse, intentionally-created community. Under the guiding direction of a faculty Facilitator, each group identifies a convenient time for bi-weekly meetings for two consecutive semesters, discusses a division of labor for the work to be completed, and determines a method for sharing their work with the university as appropriate.

Each Facilitator gets one course release for the year (probably best taken in the fall semester). The FLC is awarded $300 per participant, up to $3000 total, to support the work of the group and contribute to the USF community. FLC funds may be used in a variety of ways. Past FLCs have organized events to share the group's work (such as lectures, symposia, workshops, or mini-conferences); invited visitors or speakers to campus; purchased books or materials; and supported student activities.

One key to a successful FLC is to make a topic broad enough to invite participation across disciplines and schools, but narrow enough to lead to significant benefits for faculty and students. 

 

2022-23 FLCs

‘Zine Making as Transformative Pedagogy

 Facilitator: Adrienne Johnson (Environmental Studies) 

‘Zines' have long been us
ed as a tool to disseminate information and material to the masses. Zines, which are self-published, do-it-yourself (DIY) booklets, often contain bold images and text that aim to inspire and revolutionize. They can reflect deeply personal work. Most importantly, they allow for the authentic, creative expression of ideas often considered ‘fringe.’ In contemporary times, zines have played a key role in the communication of messages and actions linked to anti-oppression movements, environmental justice, and mutual aid. Tapping into the transformative and subversive, yet playful potential zines can have in spaces of higher education, many educators have begun to employ zine-making techniques and zine pedagogy in the classroom, seeing them as ways to “repurpose universities into more generative, loving spaces for engaged learning and living” (Bagelman and Bagelman, 2016: 365).

This FLC will examine the pedagogical value of zines in transformative social justice teaching and learning in the classroom. It will explore the strengths, limitations, and opportunities of zine-making and how zines can be used as effective classroom tools to inspire critical student thinking, reflective dialogue, and meaningful action. Lastly, the FLC will examine how zine pedagogy links to broader academic movements to democratize knowledge production and dissemination practices such as open education resources (OER) and open-access publishing.


Knowledge Sovereignty and Indigenizing Universities

Facilitator: Kouslaa Kessler-Mata (Politics)

What does it mean to integrate or incorporate Indigenous knowledge into University instruction? How can we do this responsibly and respectfully in a way that does not replicate inequitable, extractive practices that harm communities? What is data sovereignty and what are Indigenous research methods? In this FLC, faculty will consider questions that push us to think about the challenges in decolonizing university teaching and learning. We will read works from Indigenous and non-Indigenous authors about decolonial and anticolonial research practices and discuss whether and how to employ these practices and considerations to develop our department’s courses and curriculum.
 

 

"FLCs are like freshman seminars for faculty"

-EJ Jung (Computer Sciences)

"With FLCs I regained my addiction for learning."

-Shawn Doubiago (Comparative Literature and Culture)