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Dear OISE Community,

I hope that you are well and enjoying a bit of a change of pace during the summer months.

I write to provide an update on the progress of our academic planning to date. As noted when we began in January, the planning process in itself represents an important opportunity to bring the community together in establishing a shared vision and understanding of our work as a leading faculty of education and how to move our best ideas forward. I thank all faculty, staff, students, alumni, partners and friends for contributing their ideas and perspectives during the initial engagement phase of the planning. A very special thanks to members of our Academic Planning Engagement Team (APET) for inspiring community engagement Institute-wide, and for gathering insights beyond the Big Questions Survey and the focus groups that took place over the course of the winter term.

As you might recall, the engagement phase comprised eight focus groups across various OISE constituencies (students, faculty, staff, alumni, OISE Programs Strategic Advisory Committee—OPSAC, the Dean’s Advisory Groups including DACIE, SCAN & Black Faculty Caucus, Early Career Faculty, and the All-Community session, which provided an opportunity to “look back” at the previous academic plan). These focus groups were well-attended with close to 200 participants across eight sessions. The Big Questions Survey also generated many insights with a total of 456 responses from community members (incl. 48% students, 23% faculty, 15% staff, 11% alumni, 4% partners/other). Additionally, about 350 APET connections contributed ideas to this phase. Our OISE Deans and Chairs (DAC) and APET members also contributed their ideas, all of which resulted in more than a thousand touchpoints and interactions around planning and a wealth of insights from OISE community members.

Over the first six months of this year, these activities have generated much data about OISE’s values, strengths and opportunities, as well as forces and environmental factors that impact our work. I have greatly appreciated ongoing generative conversations as we continue to move forward. A rich set of themes is emerging, underpinned by our cross-cutting core values (including equity, inclusion, diversity, accessibility, well-being, and sustainability) and deepening commitments to educational opportunity for those underserved, including Black and Indigenous children, youth, and adults. Some themes include building on the notion of OISE as a gathering place, which centers broader community connections and community building both within and beyond OISE; creating flexibility in and diversifying learning opportunities beyond our traditional programs; and cultivating more interdisciplinary and collaborative spaces for excellence in research and teaching across programs and departments. These themes intersect strongly with our shared desire to continue to develop, lead, and amplify important research initiatives that transform education policy and practice locally, across Canada, and globally.

In June and July, DAC members engaged in collaborative conversations with our partners from the Potential Group to review data, explore insights from the engagement phase, and to begin crafting strategic directions and initial intentions for OISE based on emergent themes. Over the course of the summer months and into the fall, this work will be shaped into a preliminary academic planning framework that will be reviewed by both DAC and APET members to ensure alignment with insights and feedback we have heard throughout the engagement phase. We will develop a draft plan, and I anticipate that this draft will be ready for community review and feedback early in the fall term, with the aim of finalizing the plan for approval in principle by OISE Council by term’s end.

This is such an exciting time for OISE as we chart a course for the next five years and continue to shape new futures for education within and beyond our walls. Once again, I thank all members of our amazing community for their continued participation and contributions to the academic planning process. I look forward to sharing more in the coming months. If you have questions, please reach out to oise.planning@utoronto.ca, or feel free to write me at dean.oise@utoronto.ca and stay tuned for further academic planning updates.

Sincerely,

Erica

Erica N. Walker
Professor and Dean
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University of Toronto