SELS Dialogues Volume 5 Number 1 (Spring 2025)

SELS Dialogues
School of English and Liberal Studies Journal
AI generated image
Volume 5, No. 1 | Spring 2025

Land
Acknowledgement
Centennial College is proud to be a part of a
rich history of education in this province and
in this city. We acknowledge that we are on the
treaty lands and territory of the Mississaugas
of the Credit First Nation and pay tribute to
their legacy and the legacy of all First Peoples
of Canada, as we strengthen ties with the
communities we serve and build the future
through learning and through our graduates.
Today, the traditional meeting place of Toronto
is still home to many Indigenous People from
across Turtle Island and we are grateful to have
the opportunity to work in the communities
that have grown in the treaty lands of the
Mississaugas. We acknowledge that we are all
treaty people and accept our responsibility to
honour all our relations.
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Table of Contents
Land Acknowledgement.... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. .2
Acknowledgements.... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. .4
Managing Editor’s Note by Sherry Hejazi.... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. .5
Pedagogy and Critical Thinking . ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. .7
AI and Promethean Shame by Ron Schafrick.... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. .. 8
Critical Thinking: Did Shakespeare Have a Rubric? by Yixin Diao and
Dr. Richard Williamson.... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 11
Educational Technology.... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... . 14
Developing a Generative Artificial Intelligence Intervention by Violetta Cupial,
Manijeh Masoodi Moghadam, Matthew McGravey, and Mary Lawless,
with supervision from Raluca Tunison ... ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 15
Book Reviews... ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... . 18
Unsettling Education: Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Land, edited by Anna-Leah King,
Kathleen O’Reilly, and Patrick J. Lewis. Reviewed by James Papple . .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 19
Research Initiatives.... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... . 21
Writing Accuracy through Written Corrective Feedback by Yousef Fooladi... ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 22
Creative Pursuits . .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... . 26
About Lumière’s Bataille de Neige by Cecilia Aponte-de-Hanna . .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 27
To My Students by Ksenija Spasic .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 28
We Are Re-New-ed! by Margot Van Sluytman.... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 29
Reflections on SELS by Golam Dastagir. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 31
Honey by Paul Taborsky.. .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 32
SELS Dialogues Editors .. .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 36
Call for Submissions... ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. ... .. 39
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Acknowledgements
The SELS Dialogues editorial team extends its heartfelt gratitude James Papple and Meera Mather
for their unwavering support, which has been instrumental in sustaining our journal’s journey.
We also deeply appreciate the enthusiasm and dedication of our staff and faculty, whose active
participation in discussions and projects continues to enrich and shape this publication.
A special welcome and sincere thanks go to our esteemed advisory board members:
• Stephanie Power, Centennial College Librarian
• Dr. Chadia Mansour
• Dr. Georgios Vlassios Kormpas
• Dr. Phoebe Kang
Your invaluable contributions and guidance are greatly appreciated.
We hope you enjoy reading this volume!
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Managing Editor’s Note
by Sherry Hejazi
Welcome to SELS Dialogues, Volume 5, No. 1!
In this issue, we are delighted to showcase a diverse
collection of works exploring pedagogy, critical thinking,
research, and literary pursuits.
The Pedagogy and Critical Thinking category features
a thought-provoking piece by Ron Shafrick, “AI and
Promethean Shame,” which examines the negative
impacts of AI on creativity and education. Meanwhile,
Yixin Diao and Dr. Richard Williamson challenge
traditional assessment methods in “Critical Thinking:
Did Shakespeare Have a Rubric?” They argue that
true critical thinking flourishes only when students can
articulate their thought processes beyond rigid rubrics.
In the Educational Technology section, “Developing a
Generative Artificial Intelligence Intervention”
by Violetta Cupial, Manijeh Masoodi Moghadam,
Matthew McGravey, and Mary Lawless, under the
supervision of Raluca Tunison, examines student
perceptions of generative AI and develops innovative
workshops to foster critical and ethical engagement
with AI tools in higher education.
James Papple’s book review of Unsettling Education:
Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Land highlights
this essential collection’s role in challenging
colonial narratives in higher education. His analysis
offers thought-provoking insights into unsettling,
indigenization, and decolonization while urging readers
toward deeper engagement and reflection.
Under Research Initiatives, Yousef Fooladi’s
“Corrective Feedback” provides a comprehensive
exploration of corrective feedback strategies in secondlanguage
writing. Drawing from decades of teaching
experience, he analyzes their effectiveness in enhancing
grammatical accuracy and student learning.
The Creative Pursuits section showcases remarkable
contributions. Cecilia Aponte-de-Hanna, in “About
Lumière’s Bataille de Neige,” captures the timeless
joy and fleeting nostalgia of a winter snowball fight. Her
poetic reflection weaves vivid imagery and rhythmic
motion, exploring themes of cinema, memory, and play.
Ksenija Spasic offers a deeply heartfelt piece in
“To My Students,” where she speaks with admiration
for her students, celebrating their beauty, resilience, and
quiet strength. She encourages them to move forward
on their own terms, shaping their paths with intention,
courage, and grace.
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In “We Are Re-New-ed!,” Margot Van Sluytman offers
a moment of reflection, renewal, and shared purpose.
Inspired by the resilience and vision of the Centennial
College community, she extends deep gratitude for the
spaces that allow creativity to flourish.
Golam Dastagir’s “Reflections on SELS” captures the
rhythm of perseverance, leadership, and unity within
the Centennial College community. His work reminds us
that progress is built on resilience, collaboration, and an
unwavering commitment to student success.
As you read through this issue of SELS Dialogues,
I hope these voices and ideas resonate with you.
Whether they challenge your perspective, spark a new
thought, or simply remind you why we do what we
do, may they inspire meaningful conversations and
continued growth in our community.
Closing the issue, Paul Taborsky’s “Honey” offers a
gentle, beautifully observed reflection on family, place,
and the quiet, surreal rhythms of life in rural China.
Through tender moments—a child’s cough, a late-night
search for honey—he brings to life a world that feels
both distant and deeply familiar, capturing the subtle
complexity of love, belonging, and the disorienting grace
of being far from home.
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PEDAGOGY
AND
CRITICAL
THINKING
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Pedagogy and Critical Thinking
AI and Promethean Shame
by Ron Schafrick
At a recent faculty drop-in meeting held over Zoom,
the topic of—what else?—AI came up. But, what was
different this time was that an informal survey was
posed to those in attendance to gauge how faculty felt
about incorporating the use of AI into the classroom.
While I don’t recall the exact wording, the prompt
asked whether it is okay for a student who “struggles
at coming up with ideas” to turn to the assistance of AI
for a school assignment to write a short story. Though
the number of respondents was fairly small, I was the
only one who adamantly opposed the idea. But as
often happens when I have a lot to say, I was unable to
adequately articulate my opposition in a pithy, tweetlength
way (as is our wont in the world we now live in),
and so I’d like to take that opportunity to do so now.
The first thing that needs to be stated is that the
proposed scenario is highly hypothetical. As others at
the meeting identified, the obvious problem here is
the threat of the “slippery slope” whenever this kind of
suggested use of AI is mooted. As I’ve said elsewhere,
telling students it’s okay to use ChatGPT to brainstorm
ideas is equivalent to saying it’s okay to open a tub of
ice cream but limiting oneself to just one spoonful: it
simply doesn’t work.
Hypotheticals aside, however, what struck me most
about the prompt was the choice of assignment—a short
story—which is not something we assign our students at
the college. I assume this was done to somehow render
the task neutral and thus distinct from research. Yet the
choice of a short story ironically points to what lies at
the heart of this issue: that writing (and the short story
in particular) is an art as much as it is a craft, and that
art is a fundamentally human act that arises from the
distinctly human need for expression in our perennial
search for Truth. As someone who is an avid reader, as
well as, the writer of a collection of short stories, the
notion of turning to “the machine” for inspiration is not
only anathema (as it would be for anyone who cares
about art, language, thought, originality, and creativity),
but it also suggests an enormous lack of imagination
on the part of the one who turns to AI for the purpose
of writing a short story. Everyone has a story to tell—if
not many stories—and if the point of reading fiction is to
connect with something deeply human (after all, don’t
we teach fiction to ostensibly teach empathy?), what
attraction is there in reading something that has been
generated or inspired by the machine, regardless of how
limited in scope its use may have been?
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Pedagogy and Critical Thinking
The other difficulty I had with the prompt is the notion
that “the student struggles at coming up with ideas.”
Who doesn’t think that of oneself? And is it not the
task of the teacher to undermine such negative
self-appraisals that are little more than self-fulfilling
prophecies? Isn’t the task of the teacher to inspire our
students to look within and to give them the confidence
to do so? The prompt also fails to take context into
account. No teacher will assign a short story (or an
essay) ex nihilo. The competent teacher will have
assigned a number of short stories—powerful, moving,
and beloved short stories from masters of the genre—
that just might inspire the reader to write something
similarly powerful. Mavis Gallant once wrote that
writing comes from reading, by which she meant that
not only does fiction inspire the potential writer, it can
also provide one with a roadmap for how to structure
one’s own story. Turning to AI for “ideas” or to generate
an outline for an essay, does not inspire. It becomes
a cop-out, a paint-by-numbers exercise, a crutch that
breeds indifference to the assignment, and only makes
the daunting task of writing without the assistance
of technological aids even more daunting. When we
remove the challenge from that which is challenging, we
also eliminate the possibility for reward, and, ultimately,
who will be driven to write?
Furthermore, if the task of the teacher is to foster
independent thinking and to help our students become
reflective individuals, allowing or even encouraging them
to turn to AI not only severely undermines that goal, it
also further reinforces the belief that they are incapable
of coming up with ideas of their own, particularly when
what AI produces exceeds that of the student’s ideas
with regard to diction, sophistication, speed, and
eloquence. What it does, in effect, is instill the notion
that ideas must come instantly, fully formed and perfect,
and are not part of a sometimes slow, time-consuming
and potentially painful process of trial and error. It also
produces impatience (as does all our technology) by
fostering the illusion that writing an essay should simply
and easily flow, from the very first sentence to the last,
like magic, and thereby conceals a much harsher reality
that writing involves plenty of false starts, deletes, edits,
and rewrites.
To borrow a term from the philosopher of technology,
Günther Anders, turning to AI in this way can’t help but
instill a sense of what he calls “Promethean Shame” in
one’s own lack of abilities. After all, isn’t that the real
reason why so many of our students turn to AI when
writing an essay? It’s not out of a lack of time. That’s
a fallacious argument; students have always been
pressed for time. It’s out of shame—shame in their own
limited reading and writing skills, their limited knowledge
and ideas; shame in what Anders calls our own “human
obsolescence”: our growing inability to do anything
without the assistance of technology. That ChatGPT
tends to produce essays that are full of bombastic
diction, spurious references, and paragraphs that are
essentially void of meaning and specific examples hardly
matters for those who turn to use it. Students either
don’t recognize that or, if they do, it’s still better than
anything they can produce, particularly when what’s
most at stake are their grades. And so, I don’t see this
as a tech issue; I see this primarily as a literacy issue, a
lack of skills issue, a lack of confidence issue. I see this
as a shame issue. For, rather than helping or inspiring
students, or whatever else the futurists enthusiastically
claim, turning to AI in whatever limited capacity sends
the message that the only ideas worth considering are
those produced by the machine. Far from liberating the
student from a sense of shame, it perpetuates the belief
that “I struggle with coming up with ideas.”
AI generated image
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Pedagogy and Critical Thinking
Many will argue that “AI is here; we have no choice but
to use it.” But, I have little patience for this argument,
for it is little more than the sound of resignation,
perhaps even apathy, or, as Anders shrewdly intuits, an
expression of the human desire to overcome our flawed
selves by becoming machines. For Anders, humans
want to become robots; we want to become machines,
and the advent of AI offers us that possibility. But,
regardless of how difficult the challenge may be, I resist
capitulating to this line of thinking, and as teachers, I
think we need to ask ourselves: What is our goal in the
classroom? For me, it’s not about getting the students
to meet certain learning outcomes, to be able to write a
boilerplate essay, or to learn how to cite.
Like Miss Jean Brodie, I too have something of an
ulterior motive in the classroom; only in my case,
I want to get students excited about reading, to get them
excited about books—actual print books—excited about
the world of ideas. It’s about fostering contemplation
and to not be afraid to be alone with one’s thoughts, to
cultivate the life of the mind. That’s the real goal, and
it’s one that isn’t in the least interested in AI. It’s not an
easy task, and if only a few take the bait, it’s certainly
worth it
References
AI generated image
Müller, C.J. (2016). Prometheanism: Technology, digital culture and
human obsolescence. Rowman & Littlefield.
Gallant, M. (1996). The selected stories of Mavis Gallant. M & S.
Author’s Bio
Ron Schafrick’s short fiction has appeared
in a number of journals and anthologies,
including Best Gay Stories 2015 and The
Journey Prize Stories 27. His collection
of stories, Interpreters, was published by
Oberon Press in 2013.
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Pedagogy Research and Initiatives Critical Thinking
Critical Thinking: Did Shakespeare
Have a Rubric? by Yixin Diao and Dr. Richard Williamson
How much do your students think? And if they are
thinking, how do you know? Even more challenging,
when they are thinking, how do you assess them?
In contemporary education, we are all familiar with
Bloom’s Taxonomy (Bloom et al.,1956) and how it
illustrates the various levels of thinking that teachers
use to reinforce and extend learning. No modern
classroom is complete without a very healthy dose of
higher-order thinking. Education, at whatever level, is
simply incomplete without a purposeful and intentional
focus on building and developing such skills. This is a
given. The challenge for teachers then becomes how
to assess student work that reflects analytical and
critical thinking.
Currently, most of the homework assigned to students
expects them to follow a specific set of instructions and
a certain format that the teacher creates, which can
restrict higher-order thinking. While rubrics might be
helpful as a guideline for the teacher when marking,
they can also put a limit on creativity and ingenuity.
Students need to be allowed to delete or add criteria to
their own rubric in order for the results of their work to
be what they intended. Remember, William Shakespeare
didn’t have a rubric to follow. The same goes for many of
the great works of art we see in museums today.
Great artists throughout history were the ones who
were brave enough not to follow the standards of their
time, instead using their creativity to give life to their
work. An example of this would be Rembrandt. He is
considered one of the greatest visual artists in history.
Once, he was commissioned to create an oil painting
depicting eighteen members of a city guard. During
his time, it was typical for the artists to position people
side by side, with the same expression and gestures
under the same lighting. Rembrandt didn’t follow the
conventions. He used bold contrast between light and
dark, and he painted a scene depicting the guards with
everyone in different positions doing different things.
This was a major change from the dull formats to which
previous artists were confined. However, the clients
weren’t pleased with the painting. It wasn’t what they
envisioned. Everyone paid the same amount of money
to be in the picture, but some characters stood out
more than others. To the clients, this was unacceptable.
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Pedagogy and Critical Thinking
The end product was The Night Watch, considered by
many to be one of the finest artworks ever created.
Rembrandt couldn’t have produced this if he followed
a rubric. He exercised higher-order thinking to produce
this masterpiece.
Thinking of this in an educational context, there is
always a test, assignment, or an essay, because final
marks are always needed. History has given Rembrandt
an A+, but teachers don’t have the luxury of evaluating
their students based on historical outcomes. At some
point, work needs to be ‘marked’. If a rubric or marking
scheme for student work articulates a requirement
for critical, creative, and/or analytical thinking, a
conventional test or assignment simply cannot assess
these skills. So… how is critical thinking assessed?
The answer to this question is likely much simpler
than one might expect, but it takes a shift in thinking
(perhaps higher-order thinking for teachers?). Critical
thinking is best assessed when the students have a
chance to explain their thoughts to the teacher. Many
ideas that the students might go unnoticed when the
teacher doesn’t ask the students about their work. To do
this, it requires re-thinking of assessments for students.
A typical test that simply determines if students recall
information only taps into the very lowest of human
learning-recall.
To assess higher-order thinking, teachers need to
engage with students and this generally can take the
form of a conversation, when time allows, or a wellcrafted
written reflection specific to the material being
assessed.
Let’s consider how to do this, and it really isn’t all
that difficult. First, students indeed need direction,
guidelines, and clarity when asked to demonstrate
their learning. However, when we create these we must
always be sure that the tasks are open-ended enough
to allow for abundant higher-order thinking. Second,
students need to be provided sufficient time, and
perhaps opportunities to discuss ideas with others so
that they can fully draw on their best thinking. Finally,
when marking the assignment, teachers need to include
students in a conversation about what they are trying
to express in their work so that the teachers don’t
miss any significant concepts in their haste to finish
all the marking. In other words, we need to provide
students the opportunity not only to show their work
but also to express the thinking that went into it. While
a conversation is best, alternatively, if there absolutely
isn’t the time for students to explain their thinking, a
well-designed written reflection is a good second-choice
for students to express themselves.
AI generated image
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Pedagogy and Critical Thinking
Critical thinking isn’t achieved by a set of strict rules on
a rubric, or a teacher marking the student’s work based
on their own understanding. Instead, critical thinking,
essential in all classrooms, is best activated when
students are given clear direction balanced with enough
space and freedom to shape their work the way they
envision it. Subsequently, it then needs to be partnered
with a conversation with the teacher to explain their
thinking. Anything less, simply does not do justice to the
learning process.
References
Bloom, B., Englehart, M. Furst, E., Hill, W., & Krathwohl, D. (1956).
Taxonomy of educational objectives: The classification of
educational goals. Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York and
Toronto: Longmans, Green.
Co-Author’s Bio
Richard Williamson earned his B.A., B.Ed, M.Ed,
and PhD and has focused his entire career on
teaching, learning, and research. He currently
facilitates Centennial’s Leadership and Inclusion
program.
Co-Author’s Bio
Yixin Diao (Sunny) is a grade 9 student living in
Toronto. She loves art and likes to spend her free
time drawing. When not studying, you’ll probably
find her reading a book or binge-watching her
favourite TV shows.
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EDUCATIONAL
TECHNOLOGY
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Educational Technology
AI generated image
Developing a Generative Artificial
Intelligence Intervention
by Violetta Cupial, Manijeh Masoodi Moghadam, Matthew McGravey,
and Mary Lawless, with supervision from Raluca Tunison
More than half of students who are eighteen years old
or older used generative AI (GenAI) in their schoolwork
despite as many as 60% of students associating the
tool mostly with cheating (KPMG, 2023). Despite stigma
towards GenAI, students continue to express interest
in these tools, and research has shown that as many
as 72% of students in the Canadian context would like
to engage in courses that educate them on the uses of
GenAI tools (KPMG, 2023). The GenAI floodgates have
been opened, and the use of GenAI in higher education
(HE) is likely to continue to increase due to its simplicity
and accessibility (Chu et al., 2024; Crompton & Burke,
2023). In response to these trends, a team of tutors
and their manager at the English Tutoring Centre (ETC)
at Centennial College embarked on a project in the
summer of 2024 to understand students’ perceptions
and experiences with GenAI.
Driven by widespread dialogues and debates in HE
settings on the place (or lack thereof) of GenAI, the
ETC team set out to investigate student attitudes
and perceptions around GenAI as well as explore
the possibility of providing GenAI resources to our
students to bolster their GenAI skills and applications in
academic settings. During our project and investigation,
our team remained open to avenues that could
potentially leverage GenAI as a learning opportunity
for students and shift away from a perspective of
associating GenAI tools primarily with dangers and
pitfalls such as plagiarism and skill deterioration.
Our investigation began with a student survey followed
by focus groups, which revealed an interesting
contradiction. While most students indicated
perceptions of universal usage of these tools in the
academic context and recognized the tools’ profound
impact on the future, they also expressed a negative
attitude towards GenAI usage in academic work. As a
writing centre, we wanted to know how we could model
thoughtful integration of GenAI within HE to empower
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Educational Technology
our students to use such tools critically and ethically
and prepare our learners for a future steeped in AI
technologies. In tandem with our survey, our team
conducted research regarding the responses, support,
and resources offered by HE in the North American
context to seek out what other institutions were doing
as a response to the increasing pervasiveness of GenAI
on our campuses. During this process, it became
increasingly clear that what we were doing was novel
and timely.
Our investigation led to the development of six
workshops for students, facilitated by ETC Tutors.
Our workshops are one hour in length with up to 10
participants. They strongly focus on constructivist
principles, providing a space where students can coconstruct
knowledge with the tutor as a facilitator.
Workshops are based on collaborative discussions,
questioning, discovery, and tool usage demonstrations,
leading to students’ critical knowledge building,
discovery of solutions, autonomy and confidence, as well
as, discussion of the potential limitations and concerns
of GenAI tools. We are also developing “companion
modules”: interactive H5P resources for students and
faculty to make use of across the college.
Drawing on the insights gathered from our process of
exploration and development, we have identified broad
categories for resources that can help us change the
perceptions of GenAI in our academic context and
reimagine the centre’s role in an era of GenAI. Several
aspects of consideration for the centre have emerged
from the process.
The current project is a starting point for future
endeavors. We are planning to further survey our
workshop attendees to garner information on the
reception of our workshops. Seeking information
from various perspectives will be essential for the
improvement of our workshops to be effective for
our students, as well as, the institution as a whole.
We also plan to engage with the broader institutional
stakeholders to assess the reception of the workshops
and ensure transparency and alignment with the
college’s expectations. This will involve discussion with
the English Department Chairs. We are also interested
in building external connections with other writing
centers in the Canadian context. This is not only to
facilitate a model for best practices for GenAI in HE
but also to gain insights on the adaptive processes
that other centers are implementing towards these
technologies in the academic context. By sharing our
investigation and development process, we hope that
our practice and the dialogue around GenAI tools will
spark inspiration for expanding the dialogue where this
can be a starting point for discussions for and between
other HE writing centres grappling with students’ usage
of GenAI. We welcome questions, partnerships, and
continued dialogue to further the responsible integration
of GenAI in education.
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Educational Technology
References
Chu, X., Xu, J., & Zhai, X. (2024). Investigating the knowledge building
process of collaborative learning between student and virtual
tutor supported by ChatGPT: A discourse analysis. In Proceedings
of the 17th International Conference on Computer-Supported
Collaborative Learning-CSCL 2024, pp. 363-364. International
Society of the Learning Sciences.
Crompton, H., & Burke, D. (2023). Artificial intelligence in higher
education: the state of the field. International Journal of
Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20(1), 1-22.
KPMG. (2023). Transparency Report 2023: Committed to driving
audit quality. KPMG LLP. https://kpmg.com/ca/en/home/
services/audit/transparency-report.html
Project
Supervisor’s Bio
Raluca Tunison, MEd, is the Manager of both the
English Tutoring Centre and Assessment Centre.
She is passionate about holistic and forwardthinking
student support as well as the role of
digital innovation in pedagogy.
Co-Author’s Bio
Mary Lawless, M.Ed.,TESL, OCELT, is a Professor
at Centennial College in the School of English
and Liberal Studies where she is currently
teaching communications and Academic
Upgrading courses as well as tutoring in
the English Tutoring Centre. Before joining
Centennial, she taught at U. of T. in the English
Language Program.
Co-Author’s Bio
Manijeh Masoodi Moghadam, M.Ed., TESL,
THLE, is a Professor at Centennial College in the
School of English and Liberal Studies. She has
taught Communications, ESL and EAP for nearly
three decades internationally and in Canada
collectively in different colleges.
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BOOK
REVIEWS
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Book Reviews
Unsettling Education: Decolonizing
and Indigenizing the Land
edited by Anna-Leah King, Kathleen O’Reilly, and Patrick J. Lewis.
Reviewed by James Papple
Conversations around reconciliation, indigenization,
and decolonization have gained significant momentum
in Canadian communities and institutions since the
release of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s
final report in 2015. Unsettling Education: Decolonizing
and Indigenizing the Land, edited by Anna-Leah King,
Kathleen O’Reilly, and Patrick J. Lewis, acts as a guide
for settlers seeking a timely and thought-provoking
contribution to these discussions in relation to higher
education. Included in this collection are a series of
writings by Indigenous scholars from a diverse range of
Canadian communities offering insights on educational
policy, frameworks for discussion, and new teaching
techniques. Published in 2024, by Canadian Scholars,
this collection explores the intersections of unsettling,
indigenization, and decolonization in education and
beyond, challenging readers to reimagine possibilities
for action.
The book is organized into three interconnected parts:
Unsettling, Indigenization, and Decolonization. Each
section addresses critical concepts and practices that
provoke readers to question their assumptions and
engage deeply with the themes.
The first section, Unsettling, delves into an area that
many in higher education are still trying to understand.
Jessie King, Doris MacKinnon, Katya Ferguson, and
Teiji Wallace-Lewis, the authors of this section of the
book, challenge readers to confront uncomfortable
truths about colonial legacies entrenched in education
systems and societal structures. Rather than providing
clear solutions, the authors encourage readers to
accept the discomfort of not knowing and unsettling, as
a starting point for reflection.
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Book Reviews
In the largest section, Indigenization, the book
addresses the evolving interpretations of the term.
It highlights the tensions and possibilities when
integrating Indigenous knowledge and practices into
educational contexts. Contributors, Ruth Beatty and
Colinda Clyne, in chapter 10, examine relationships
and reciprocity to foster meaningful collaborations
and respect for Indigenous ways. This section invites
readers to consider how indigenization might unfold
authentically within diverse settings.
The final section, Decolonization, is particularly
provocative, with titles such as “Who Claims You and
What Do You Claim” (chapter 13), and “It’s about
Damn Time” (chapter 16) urging readers to reimagine
relationships to land, knowledge, and power. These
essays challenge colonial narratives and structures,
proposing pathways toward decolonization that prioritize
Indigenous self-determination. The authors do not shy
away from the complexities, challenges, and the unease
in this work, making this section the strongest.
Nevertheless, this book will be useful for college
courses specializing in or supporting Indigenous
studies or education that wish to incorporate ideas of
decolonization, land-based learning, and reconciliation.
Overall, Unsettling Education: Decolonizing and
Indigenizing the Land is an important read for those
interested in transformative education. It underscores
the need for further dialogue and discussions on difficult
and challenging topics connected to colonial legacies.
This book suggests the possibilities of a decolonized
future for education.
One of the book’s strengths is its ‘provocations’
that push thinking, encouraging readers to grapple
with the intricacies of reconciliation, indigenization,
and decolonization. The editors have curated a
collection that not only educates but also demands
active engagement from its audience. The writing is
clear, making it suitable for educators, scholars, and
policymakers alike.
However, some readers may find the book’s 408
pages a dense read, which offers more questions
than answers. For those readers looking for concrete
strategies for implementation, this book will fall short.
Author’s Bio
James Papple is the Associate Dean of English
and Communication in the School of English and
Liberal Studies at Centennial College.
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RESEARCH
INITIATIVES
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Research Initiatives
AI generated image
Writing Accuracy through Written
Corrective Feedback by Yousef Fooladi
Introduction
To make the corrective feedback (CF) theories more
feasible, I am analyzing my teaching experiences in two
contexts:
1. Teaching EFL in middle school and high school
during 1990-2004 as well as in the Academic
Centre for Education, Culture and Research Tehran
University of Medical Science (ACECR), 2004-2015.
2. Teaching ESL in two colleges in Canada from 2016
until now, 2025.
Referring to the EFL context, the learners received
focused direct CF, while my adult learners in ACECR
received unfocused indirect CF. Both groups showed
improvement in their subsequent writing tests; however,
to what extent these improvements could be applied
to all sorts of L2 writing- composition, academic, or
journalistic content—still needs more research. Although
a lot of research has been done on the focused and
unfocused WCF (Written Corrective Feedback), more
scholastic research is still needed (Bitchener & Ferris,
2012).
Academic Writing
Academic writing, as defined by Grabe and Kaplan
(1996) “a set of skills which must be practiced and
learned through experience,” requiring “Training,
instruction, practice, experience, and purpose” (p.6).
Johns (1997) points out that many ESL learners,
after some years of studying English, fail to meet the
academic writing criteria. The issues arise as the
students do not know where and how the errors are
made and resolved.
Throughout the courses being taught, I have
experienced that when the students get WF, their
grammar improves by 30%. More interestingly, when
the revision test is done in pairs or groups, their grades
increase up to 40%. Swain and Lapkin (1995) argue
providing focus-on-form feedback makes the learners be
aware of learning gaps, discuss the issues, analyze and
reformulate their utterances or constructs.
Spending many hours correcting the students’ errors
or giving them written corrective feedback (WCF) has
always been a debatable topic among the teachers.
Based on the author’s personal experience, many
teachers usually debate on how and what errors should
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Research Initiatives
be corrected. For teachers to know how far and what
errors should be corrected, more extensive research and
conclusive evidence are required so that WCF wouldn’t
be frustrating or discouraging for students (Bitchener
2008, as cited in Chong, 2017).
The author of this article has always addressed his
college students’ grammatical and spelling errors
and has consistently utilized coded metalinguistic
corrections. Rubrics are regularly provided before the
test for the learners. These rubrics mainly focus on
different writing elements such as content, organization,
analysis and development, use of language, and use of
grammar, mechanics, and punctuation. Such CF with
detailed assessment benchmarks would enable the
learners to benefit from the CF. Therefore, it is not just
grammar feedback that can contribute to good writing.
In other words, providing the CF as input will take the
students through the “cognitive processing stage”
(Gass, 1997, as cited in Nassaji, 2017, p.131) which
results in better grades in subsequent tests.
As Ellis (2008) pointed out, CF should meet two criteria:
1. teacher’s instructions and provisions
2. student’s response to the CF
Typology of Written Corrective Feedback
There are different types of WCF; due to the word-count
limitations, this article will focus on some of them
mainly based on Ellis’s (2009) findings:
Explicit or Direct CF
In this type of CF, the teacher identifies the place of
error (grammar) in writing and provides the correct
answer (Ellis, 2008). Lambart (2015) argues that it
does not correspond to active learning principles.
Based on the author’s EFL teaching experience, when
the higher intermediate or advanced level students
received explicit corrective feedback, it did not have a
significant impact on their grammar. “Although it can be
beneficial for lower proficiency level students, direct CF
is unlikely to pay off in the long run as it does not require
that much processing” (Asassfeh, 2013, p.86).
However, the author of this article applies a different
error correction policy for his ESL students. His ESL
learners have some revision tests after their first
“Reading and Writing Test.” All the “Revision Tests”
are done collaboratively. They do much better in
grammar by 60% especially in the verb form, verb tense,
sentence fragment, and run-on sentences after they
receive the rubric of their “Reading and Writing Test.”
McDonough (2005) acknowledges “The production of
modified output, which refers to learners’ revision of
their errors…, has been suggested to be an important
process that contributes significantly to L2 learning” (as
cited in Nassaji & Kartchava, 2017, p.124).
Implicit or Indirect CF
In this type of CF, teachers either highlight the error
location or indicate the type of error on the margin, but
they do not correct it (Nassaji & Kartchava, 2017). It
has been proved that self-correction enhances language
acquisition (Hyland, 2002).That could be the reason
that most of the teachers are interested in implicit
or indirect corrective feedback. As in the “Noticing
Hypothesis”, Schmidt (1991) maintains that a second
language can be learned through noticing. He adds
there are different types of attention, namely noticing,
understanding, and awareness. When the learner gets
CF which is form-oriented as well as content-oriented, it
draws the learner’s attention. As a result of employing
more attention and awareness, the accuracy in writing
increases.
Metalinguistic CF
According to Ammar and Spada (2006), metalinguistic
CF is when students receive prompts or linguistic clues
to reformulate their utterance for correcting errors.
Teachers could either highlight the error and give
prompts about the form, or they could just provide the
required syntax clues without highlighting the errors so
that the learner could locate the error and reformulate
it. They are as follows:
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Research Initiatives
Error Code Feedback
This is a sub-category of metalinguistic CF (Ellis, 2009).
The errors are highlighted with written codes. The
students already have the list of the error codes. After
receiving the CF, learners need to attend to errors on
their own. However, Brown (2012) believes that this is a
mixed CF, implicit and explicit. She also adds that if the
students do not have the grammar competence, they
will be discouraged.
Based on the author’s personal experience, this type of
feedback is frustrating for students because it requires
the learners’ more analytical processing; however, “it
aligns with teachers’ philosophy of active learning”
(Lambart, 2015). Ellis (May 2009) has acknowledged
that there is not ample evidence proving that error
codes can enhance the learners’ accuracy in writing,
and there is no superiority of this type of CF among the
other ones.
Numbering Errors
In this type of metalinguistic CF, teachers number the
errors and give some grammatical descriptions about
the type of errors being made. This type of WCF seems
to be frustrating for the learners, as the learners do not
have the errors directly in their sight.
Focused and Unfocused WCF
In focused corrective feedback, the reader or teacher
focuses on some specific linguistic errors while in
unfocused CF, the reader will focus on all kinds of errors.
As Burt (1975) suggests, the former is local while the
latter is called a global error. He argues that global
errors should be addressed by teachers. On the other
hand, Schmidt (1994), who suggested the “Noticing
Hypothesis” believes that to learn L2 accurately, one
needs to notice on intake. Bitchner and Ferris (2012)
concluded, based on Schmidt’s Noticing Hypothesis,
that if the policy in providing the CF is focused
and limited to a few errors, learners can pay more
“attention” and “understand” the errors better, and they
can correct it more carefully.
Conclusion
In summary, although WCF has improved students’
writings, the quality and the quantity of WCF should be
well selected by the teacher; that’s why there are some
controversial differences in the efficacy and the howto
procedures of WC; hence, more research should be
done to consolidate the effectiveness of CF in writing
courses. An ideal type of WCF that most of the teachers
and linguists agree on is the one in which the teacher
highlights the error, codes it, provides a rubric, and
puts the students in pairs or groups to do a revision
writing test together.Through the indirect WCF and
clear instructions, the teacher can draw the learner’s
attention and awareness, which can contribute to their
grammar improvement, and it can enhance the writing
accuracy.
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Research Initiatives
References
Ammar, A., & Spada, N. (2006). One size fits all? Recasts, prompts
and L2 learning. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 28,
543–574.
Asassfeh, S.M. (2013). Corrective feedback (CF) and English-Major
EFL learners’ ability in grammatical error detection and correction.
English Language Teaching 6(8), 85-94.
Bitchener, J. (2008). Evidence in support of written corrective
feedback. Journal of Second Language Writing, 17, 102–118.
Bitchener, J., & Ferris, D. (2012). Written corrective feedback in
second language acquisition and writing. New York: Routledge.
Brown, D. (2012, December). The written corrective feedback
debate: next steps for classroom teachers and practitioners.
TESOL Quarterly, 861-867. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org/stable/43267895
Burt, M. 1975. Error analysis in the adult EFL classroom. TESOL
Quarterly, 9(1), 53–63.
Chong, S. W. 2017b. “A Three-Stage Model for Implementing
Focused Written Corrective Feedback.” TESL Canada Journal
34(2): 71–82. doi:10.18806/tesl.v34i2.1267
Lyster, R., & Saito, K. (2010b). Interactional feedback as
instructional input: A synthesis of classroom SLA research.
Language, Interaction and Acquisition, 1, 276–297.
Mitchell, R., Myles, F., & Marsden, E. (2019). Second language
theories (4th ed.). Routledge.
Nassaji, H. & Swain, M. (2000). A Vygotskian perspective on
corrective feedback in L2: The effect of random versus negotiated
help on the learning of English articles. Language Awareness,
9(1), 34–51. doi10.1080/09658410008667135
Nassaji, H., & Kartchava, E. (Eds.). (2017). Corrective Feedback in
Second Language Teaching and Learning. New York: Routledge.
Schmidt, R. (1994). Deconstructing consciousness in search of
useful definitions for applied linguistics. Aila Review, 11, 11–26.
Swain, M., & Lapkin, S. (1995). Problems in output and the cognitive
processes theygenerate: A step towards second language
learning. Applied Linguistics, 16, 371–391.
Truscott, J. (1996). The case against grammar correction in L2
writing classes. Language Learning, 46 (1996), 327-369.
Ellis, R. (2009). A typology of written corrective feedback types.
English Language Teaching Journal, 63, 97-107.
Ellis, R. (2009). Corrective feedback and teacher development. L2
Journal, 1(1), 3-18.
Ellis, R. (2009). A typology of written corrective feedback types. ELT
Journal, 63(2), 97-107.
Ferris, D. R. (2004) The ‘grammar correction’ debate in L2 writing:
where are we, and what do we go from here? (And what do we
do in the meantime?) Journal of Second Language Writing, 13,
49–62.
Ferris, D. (2006) Does error feedback help student writers? New
evidence on the short- and long-term effects of written error
correction. In K. Hyland and F. Hyland (eds), Feedback in second
language writing, 81–104. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Gass, S., Behney, J., & Plonsky, L. (2013). Second language
acquisition: An introductory course. (4th edition) New York, NY:
Routledge.
Grabe, W. and Kaplan, R. B. (1996) Theory and practice of writing.
London: Routledge.
Lambert, J. (2015, December 10). Written corrective feedback:
Effective for students, timesaving for teachers [Webinar].
Cambridge University Press. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=AZz3Td-Hc4k
Author’s Bio
Yousef Fooladi has been teaching EFL, ESL, EAP,
and ESP in Iran, Germany, and Canada since
the early 1990s. He received his MA in Applied
Linguistics and TESOL from the University of
Leicester, UK, in 2023 and his CELTA Cambridge
certification in 2013. Yousef is passionate
about facilitating second language learning
through engaging the learners in the teaching
and learning process actively, such as setting up
student-led workshops, peer-to-peer discussions,
and doing activities collaboratively. Yousef has
taught English at Centennial College since 2017.
He has also taught English at YUELI, Seneca,
and Humber College.
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CREATIVE
PURSUITS
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Creative Pursuits
About Lumière’s Bataille de Neige
by Cecilia Aponte-de-Hanna
Splash of snow
Flying across the street
Men and women like children
Playing in snow
A silent movie
a kaleidoscope of life
black and white
in slow, staccato motion
Houses stand still
side by side
A man on a bicycle
a flash of movement
Laughter
Grownups returning to youth
If only we were 20
It was 1897
Men in suits
having fun
Women joining in the fun
All in loud silence
Author’s Bio
Cecilia, M.A. Applied Linguistics, currently
represents SELS at Centennial College’s College
Council and leads COMM 160 as course
Coordinator. Cecilia’s teaching philosophy is
grounded on praxis shaped by her background in
Theatre Arts—the idea that theory makes sense
only when it is actively rehearsed, performed,
and produced with an audience in mind—which
is why it is always evolving through reflection,
inquiry, and the ever-changing waves of
technology and students’ needs.
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Creative Pursuits
To My Students by Ksenija Spasic
There is not one of you that is not beautiful.
I tilt my head to look up
at your futures
I reach my hands out to warm them
at your fires
your names wash over me
season after season
leaving
only a few remembered syllables
and this sappy, persistent
love.
So let me say something to you;
and this time
I will keep it short.
The world is pushing:
what you owe, you should feel for
carefully
in yourself.
The world demands
decision, action, compassion, contribution,
outrage.
Stillness is not weakness.
Even in the face of the monster,
let your mind shape slowly
a path into the mountains
or a shield
or a sword.
The world is screaming
—each mouth about itself—
learn to fold
silence about you.
Author’s Bio
Ksenija Spasic has been teaching at Centennial
College for over a decade. She is a poet and a
visual artist, currently working on a chapbook
with Horsebroke Press. She has recently
showcased an interactive art installation at Nuit
Blanche. Ksenija’s teaching and other creative
pursuits are informed by her belief that everyone
can produce meaningful, beautiful work when
given means and support.
AI generated image
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Creative Pursuits
AI generated image
We Are Re-New-ed! by Margot Van Sluytman
The invitation from Associate Dean Dr. Philip Alalibo to
write a poem to conclude our Welcome Back Conference
in Humanities and Social Sciences, was joy itself. My
over forty-year relationship with our college infuses not
only my life, but the life of my four Grandchildren. When
I graduated in 1985 in our stellar Book Editing and
Design Course, the second graduating cohort, I had not
even, for a second, thought that I would be connected
with our amazing college, let alone be a Grandmother.
In writing this poem, for this day, for each of my
colleagues, who are my community, I was inspired by the
challenges, the beauty, and the opportunities that speak
our Fall 2024 Semester.
Philip honoured my vocation as a Poet and a Teacher by
offering me the gift of time and space to birth a poem
that grew from me. From the heart of my intellect. From
the intellect of my heart. And, too, from my life’s work
with and for Sawbonna: shared-humanity, a sibling of
what and how it means to be a Global Citizen.
In leaning in closely to what was being called out of me
from this invitation, I was profoundly inspired by the
way in which Centennial College chooses to find and
create ways not only to survive but to thrive. To thrive
with each new challenge. With each new opportunity.
Dr. Cary Di Pietro’s visceral excitement about the name
of our new Learning Management System, and Dr. Craig
Stephenson’s determined and focused vision, along with
Dr. Meera Mather’s unparalleled leadership resurrects
my hope. These young leaders shine such light upon
staff, faculty, and our precious students.
The name of our new Learning Management System,
Luminate, called out to me. Spoke to me of re-new-all.
Why, you might ask, is this so? The answer is simple:
This is us. This is what and how, and why we do as we
do. Here. Each and every day. With and for and because
of each other. And our students. Who are, as well, our
teachers.
We Re-New. We are Re-New-ed. We are Luminated. We
Luminate! I offered my poem on Monday, August 26th,
with profound respect and heart-felt gratitude. And in
this sharing, I offer it to you, each and every one of you
with and from those very places.
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Creative Pursuits
Sawbonna, Margot Van Sluytma / Raven Speaks.
Re-New-ed
Wiley words
Whisper.
Whisper.
Whisper.
Like falling leaves
Silently loosening
Summer’s hold.
They speak
Lumination.
AI generated image
In newly
Naming ways by
Which to communicate,
Hope, possibility,
Justice, and joy
Alight. Whereby
We are each
Re-new-ed.
Together glowing
Ever, ever brighter.
Raven Speaks, HUSS, For the closing of our
HUSS Faculty Meeting. Centennial College,
Monday, August 26th, 2024.
Author’s Bio
Margot Van Sluytman is an award-winning
Poet and Therapeutic Writing Mentor, Justice
Activist, and College Instructor. She graduated
from Centennial College with a Diploma in Book
Editing and Design,followed by a Master of Arts
Integrated Studies from Athabasca University,
where she developed a new and award-winning
model of Restorative Justice entitled: Sawbonna.
Recognition for her work includes: Alumni
of Distinction, Centennial College, Alumni of
Distinction, Athabasca University and, Ontario
Premier’s Award Nominee. In the year 2000, she
was gifted with the Spirit Name, Raven Speaks.
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Creative Pursuits
Reflections on SELS by Golam Dastagir
The sun rises and sets every day and night,
The earth cycles between darkness and light.
Our lives get better and worse through the years,
Barriers and strife shroud the universe.
Yet Centennial moves forward with a roll of resistance,
For the key to SELS’s success is unwavering
persistence.
Hundreds of programs start every semester,
Dr. Craig Stephenson is our supreme leader.
Dr. Meera Mather aspires to SELS’s utmost
accomplishment,
She works painstakingly for great achievement.
Constance is involved in management and compliance,
While Alyssa provides the Dean with her best
assistance.
Dr. Meera’s resilience makes the SELS unique,
She reshapes the school with candid critique.
Contract faculty desire full-time position,
If, of course, SELS confronts no opposition.
Let’s all revisit our renewed commitment,
Dynamic leadership triggers no disappointment.
We foster a sense of belonging and diversity,
And express dissent in the spirit of collegiality.
We engage in research to embrace new knowledge,
More funds should be created by our beloved college.
A gala dinner once a year is our expectation,
Hope it will be taken into kind consideration.
We share and care for each other,
Harmony is our workplace culture.
We value dedication for a better future,
Without teamwork, none can prosper.
We work together without any faction,
Our success lies in students’ satisfaction.
Author’s Bio
Golam Dastagir did PhD in Philosophy on a
United Kingdom Commonwealth Scholarship.
His areas of interest include Global Peace,
Intercultural Philosophy, Applied Ethics, Mental
Health and Addictions, and Comparative
Mystical Traditions with a specialty in Sufism
on which he writes extensively in journals,
encyclopedias, books, and social media. Dr.
Dastagir teaches Philosophy, Critical Thinking,
Moral and Social Issues, and Global Citizenship
at Centennial.
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Creative Pursuits
Honey by Paul Taborsky
Mayang is a small industrial town in western Hunan
province (China), a couple of hours or so by bus from
the regional capital, Huaihua, northwest along hilly
country roads that doubtlessly turn what would be
a fairly short trip along a proper modern highway
into something of a multi-hour ordeal in this part of
China—a region which, after all, is officially (as it was
once explained to me) part of ‘western China’ and thus
considered to be a part of the country that is under
development. It is also a ‘minority’ or ethnic region,
officially “Mayang Miao Autonomous County.” The Miao
are a local ethnic group, better known as Hmong outside
of China.
We were here during the Chinese Spring Festival one
year, on one of my wife’s interminable multi-city sales
trips (at the time, my wife was flogging Amway products).
We had been staying in Hongjiang, to the south, visiting
family, but the three-week holiday gave us—or rather,
my wife—ample time to fit in other business. This also
afforded us the opportunity to take local intercity bus
trips to various places. One of these is Mayang, a city
of dark wooden buildings along a muddy river, where
barges full of lumber from further upstream dock in the
central port.
I remember clearly the little hotel we stayed in. Dark
red carpets, fake-looking dark wood panelling, and a
large, enormous pillar in the lobby, the latter a standard
feature in these little hotels. The smaller and more
insignificant the hotel, the bigger and more imposing the
pillar, or so it often seemed. The reception desk had, like
so many similar small hotels in out-of-the-way places
in the countryside, several large clocks behind it that
displayed the times in New York, London, Paris, Tokyo,
and Beijing, as if anyone from any of these places,
Beijing not excepted, would ever have passed through.
The receptionist seemed nonplussed at my presence
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Creative Pursuits
as my wife filled out the bureaucratic forms, so perhaps
I wasn’t the only ‘foreigner’ who had stayed there. Yet
aside from a couple of backpackers, I never saw any
other non-Chinese (native ethnic minorities excluded)
during this or any other trip I took over the years to my
wife’s native region of Huaihua, in the mountainous
regions of western Hunan.
The hotel, in an indiscriminate building on a gently
sloping street, led onto a larger road that led into the
city centre. My wife had many meetings during the few
days we spent there, and one of my jobs this holiday
was to occupy my daughter as we traipsed along with my
wife, trying to find some things for the little one to do.
Earlier in the day we had
found a large, but rather
scruffy, riverside park,
with lots of swings and so
on in a children’s area. It
looked not too different
from the parks back in the
big city (Changsha, the
provincial capital), but a
little bit wilder and more
unkempt in comparison,
with scruffy uncut grass
growing along the concrete
walkways. It was February,
but in southwestern China
February is still green, albeit
with grey skies and a chilly
and smoky humidity, so
outdoors and parks were
still options. The park also
had some simple outdoor gymnastic equipment that
one often finds in parks in modern China, apparently
installed everywhere in a bid to keep the populace fit.
My daughter and I spent a bit of the afternoon at
the park. On the way back to meet my wife, walking
the streets, I could see some of the riverside barges
and workmen loading trucks with lumber. We met
up together; the first meeting was over. But, my wife
informed me, after this another meeting was to follow.
This time, we would go together.
The meeting was to be, as it would turn out, on the
second floor of a low-rise commercial building in the
central part of the town. I followed my wife, and we
arrived at the pIace, a building on the corner of an
intersection. I think the building housed a pharmacy or
something similar on the first floor. Upstairs was large
and empty. I remember the wooden floors creaking
as we walked along the floor on the second story.
A few pieces of furniture were scattered about. The
building was on a corner, and large windows faced the
street below, letting in light, light which only served
to illuminate the empty upstairs room and make it
seem even emptier. My wife met a few of her contacts
there, and we all went out
for dinner, as by this time
it was getting on into late
afternoon. After dinner, now
evening, we walked along
the quiet grey streets and
returned to the semi-empty
corner building.
We looked around
downstairs in the deserted
shop (it was Chinese New
Year, so few people were
about), and eventually
proceeded up a flight of
stairs to the second floor.
We sat around for a while
in a circle of chairs, around
a whiteboard and some
posters. There were about
six or seven of us: my wife
and daughter and me, my wife’s business contacts, the
owner of the pharmacy below, and some others. There
was an interval of inconsequential chatter. After a bit,
it was clear that I was to take my increasingly restless
daughter (who at that time was about three years old)
away from the little group, as the serious part of the
meeting was about to begin.
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Creative Pursuits
But what to do? There was really nowhere to go on the
empty floor. By this time it was late and had gotten
dark out. As a semi-literate stranger in an unfamiliar
countryside town, I dared not go far (my spoken Chinese
at that time had much room for improvement). I didn’t
know how to get back to the hotel, or even where exactly
it was. After a bit of agonized bewilderment, facing the
increasingly perturbed glare of my wife, I retreated with
my daughter to a chair on the opposite side of the room,
looking out one of the open windows onto the now dark
side street below.
My daughter was very restless and clearly didn’t enjoy
being there. But with little independence, I had to figure
out a way to distract her. We looked down on the nearempty
street, black with a few yellowish lights among the
wooden buildings. Occasionally something or someone
would pass by below, emerging out of one corner of the
darkness, only to disappear into the gloom of the corner
opposite. And so I figured out a little game. Every time a
bicycle would pass by, I would say ‘bicycle’ (in English)
to my daughter. If the moving object below was a car,
it would be ‘car’; a motorcycle would elicit ‘motorcycle.’
Thus, the game was to name the object that appeared
on the street. A slow but steady stream of vehicles
passed by through the evening, giving us plenty of
opportunity to name things. My daughter’s attention was
thus focused, and she stopped her fidgeting.
I glanced at my wife and her friends, in a small circle
of light on the other side of the room. I wondered how
long this little game could last. Finally, eventually, the
meeting appeared to be over, the circle broke up, my
wife came over to us, my daughter and I were able to
leave the chair by the window, and we were part of the
group again. We went downstairs together with the
friends. After a bit of looking around and explaining, it
was time to leave. ‘Baobao, zou ba’ (‘Little one, let’s go’)
said my wife to her daughter, and we left the group and
the building, into the dark streets among the bicycles,
cars, and motorcycles, which, down here, seemed to
have mysteriously thinned into nothing.
After the interminable upstairs meeting, however,
another problem arose. Up here in the hills, in February,
it was cold and damp, both inside and outside, and
my daughter had developed a persistent cough. Now,
walking back to our hotel, late in the night, it seemed
to have gotten worse. We weren’t sure what to do. It is
not possible for a three-year-old to take adult cough
medicine. After a bit of frantic back and forth with some
friends over her cellphone, my wife decided that the
best remedy was honey. But, where to find honey? It was
late, and the little town had gone quite dark. Also, being
the new year, a lot of places were shut for the holidays.
As well, here in the western countryside, there was
simply less stuff available, especially pricey luxuries
like honey.
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Creative Pursuits
We wandered the yellow-lit streets, looking here and
there, inquiring in the few places that hadn’t closed, but
place after place, no luck; no one stocked honey. My
wife seemed rather frantic about what to do—she, after
all, was a stranger, of a kind, in this place as well (in
China, as my wife had explained, even if you are from a
certain region, in the next village you are still a stranger).
Dark alley led to dark alley; finally, a light ahead.
Although it was New Year, one rather large place was
improbably still open. We entered the otherwise empty
store. Red New Year’s decorations were everywhere. We
looked around, the upper shelves filled with large gift
packs of ginseng and tea. My wife asked the proprietor
if they stocked any honey. No, but … in our desperation,
there was an option. Among the gift packs, there was a
large carton of honey, six clear jars in a big decorative
cardboard package. It was far more than we needed,
and rather expensive. But we had no choice.
white minibus for the return trip. It was a bright morning,
the white minibus sitting on the grey pavement behind
equally white buildings. We entered the open door of
the bus. After a while, the driver got on, and after a few
minutes, a rather solemn young woman in a uniform
boarded, holding two flags in her hands, small triangular
flags on sticks, one green, one red. She made a little
speech, and then got off and positioned herself behind
us on the pavement. In what seemed like a rather
ceremonious send-off for a little bus, she first raised
the red flag, blew a whistle, lowered the red flag, and
then raised the green flag. We were off, finally, leaving
Mayang, the bus depot, and the streets and wooden
buildings behind.
Gaocun, Mayang Miao Autonomous County, Huaihua
District, Hunan Province, February 2006; Toronto 2019.
We bought the gift pack. I remember several red 100
yuan notes changing hands. With the honey, we were
able to return to the hotel. We gave my daughter a few
teaspoons with some boiled water, and it seemed to
work somewhat. Her coughing stopped, and we went
to bed.
Later, back in Changsha, in the bright light of day, I was
able to look at what we had bought, and interestingly
enough, the honey turned out to be ‘fake’. At least, it
wasn’t pure honey, but mixed with corn syrup (it said so
on the package). And we had a lot of it. Originally there
were six large jars. I think one had broken on the return
trip. A few we gave to others as new year’s gifts. A few
remained in our kitchen for years afterwards, as it was
funny-tasting stuff (due to the corn syrup, no doubt), and
I wasn’t sure what to do with so much ‘honey’.
But, I didn’t know any of this at that time. The next
morning, we prepared for the return trip (to Huaihua).
Changsha itself was an overnight train trip away.
Somehow, with a bit of work, we were able to find space
for the six large jars, tightly packed into our suitcase.
We left the little hotel with its international clocks,
arrived at the local intercity bus depot, a few buildings
scattered behind a row of low concrete white structures
on an outlying street, and climbed aboard the small
Author’s Bio
Paul Taborsky lives in Toronto with his wife and
daughter. He graduated from the University of
Toronto with a degree in Philosophy. He has
taught in the English department at Centennial
for a number of years, having returned from
teaching in South-Central China between 2001
and 2009. He is the author of a number of
publications, including The Logic of Cultures:
Three Structures of Philosophical Thought.
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SELS Dialogues Editors
Sherry Hejazi
Sherry Hejazi, MEd, OCT, OCELT, is a faculty at the English Department, School
of English and Liberal Studies. She has been an educator for more than 20
years, and her research interests include program development, incorporating
EdTech tools in teaching, learning, and assessment, gamifying education,
enhancing student engagement, and student knowledge production. Sherry
is a TESL Ontario Blog Team member/writer and a TESL Ontario Conference
presenter. She is also the managing editor of SELS Dialogues.
Andres Iriarte
Andrés Iriarte, MA, OCELT, TESL Trainer, has taught English and ESL at
Centennial College since 2004. He has previously served as the English
Foundations Program Coordinator and has also been a teacher trainer in
programs such as the TLHE and the TESL programs at Centennial, among
others. He has a true passion for teaching and teacher training
and enjoys building positive relationships with students and faculty
for intellectual growth.
Philip Alalibo
Philip Alalibo is the Associate Dean of the Department of Humanities and Social
Sciences (HUSS) and has been a professor for 16 years. Philip has contributed
to curriculum development initiatives, including several General Education and
Specialized Academic Credential (SAC) courses. A published poet and author of
seven books, Philip co-authored a college textbook on global citizenship and a
children’s storybook. He is a founding member of Centennial’s Writers’ Circle.
His recent books include his best-selling work “A Day in Our Skin: A Struggle
between Race and Resilience” (2021), “How to Make Black People Happy in
February and All Year Round” (2022), “Why We Study Political Science: The
Versatility of A Political Science Degree,” (2024), and “Teaching College While
Navigating Race, Diversity, and Classroom Experiences” (2024).
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Shelley Steele
Shelley Steele is a Rotman-certified executive coach, personal development
coach, educator, and media producer—on a mission to inspire personal growth
and compassionate leadership. Shelley has produced, directed, and hosted
award-winning educational documentary series, and projects in collaboration
with TVO, Sick Kids Hospital, the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General,
the Ontario Ministry of Education, several school boards and community
organizations.
Shelley is the founder of Heartspeak, an initiative that empowers community
development through mentoring and coaching programs, training, and
resources. Shelley is a professor of Centennial’s Inclusive Leadership
Practices and Entrepreneurism Certificate programs, as well as Centennial’s
Healthy Lifestyle Management, and Global Citizenship.
Ivan Su
Ivan is a professor in the EAP program and has been a language educator for
the past 20+ years, teaching in Japan and Canada. He enjoys implementing
new skills and innovation from EdTech in his courses, as well as researching
new learning strategies in language education.
Ilana Lucas
Ilana Lucas holds a BA in English and Theatre from Princeton University and
an MFA in Dramaturgy and Script Development from Columbia University. For
Centennial, she has developed The Power of Communication, The Show Must
Go On: Theatre Studies, and Professional English Communication. She writes
for Intermission Magazine and BroadwayWorld Toronto, and is the current
President of the Canadian Theatre Critics Association. Her most recent play,
“Let’s Talk,” won the Toronto Fringe Festival’s 24-Hour Playwriting Contest. She
is also a regular contributor to The Globe and Mail’s theatre section.
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David McCarthy
David McCarthy teaches various English courses, and, occasionally, General
Education (GNED) courses in the School of English and Liberal Studies.
He is especially interested in the development of capstone courses (post-170
courses) on report writing and research analysis. David believes in customizing
English curricula to career/program-specific knowledge-building and skill
development. Lately, he has been working with a team dedicated to developing
a new program on Emergency Management. This program is expected
to be launched at Centennial in September of 2025 and will be
substantially indigenized.
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Call for Submissions
SELS Dialogues accepts submissions on an ongoing
basis, with the goal of publishing twice a year. Our
mission is to inform staff and faculty about school
initiatives, share best practices, foster community, and
provide professional growth opportunities within the
School of English and Liberal Studies (SELS).
Why Make a Submission?
By contributing to SELS Dialogues, you will:
• Strengthen your resume as a published scholar
• Increase your visibility within the college community
• Make a meaningful contribution to your
Centennial family
Journal Sections Open to Submissions:
• Pedagogy: Teaching Tips, Innovations in Pedagogy,
Successful Teaching Practices, Classroom
Management Techniques, Assessment and
Learning, Reflective Pedagogy
• Educational Technology (EdTech Tools): Reflections
on Implementing EdTech Tools in Teaching and
Assessment
• Critical Thinking: Strategies for Teaching and
Assessing Critical Thinking, Reflective Practices on
Critical Thinking
• Research Initiatives: Scholarship of Teaching and
Learning (SoTL) projects, Conference and Seminar
Reflections, Research Practices, Building Research
Capacity in in Education, Reflective Practices
on Research
• Creative Pursuits: Short stories, Art, Paintings,
Fiction, Non-fiction, Short Essays, Poetry,
Creative Writing and Literary Reviews: Play,
Movie, and Book Reviews
• Other
Newsletter Sections Open to Submissions:
• Beyond the Classroom/Academics: Off-campus
staff and faculty pursuits: staff and faculty travel,
engagement in the community, and other
• Student Work: Exceptional student emails to
faculty, student achievements, and outstanding
academic or creative contributions
Written Submission Guidelines
• Please follow the Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association (APA, 7th ed.)
• Author Bio and Image: Authors are requested
to provide a biography (75 words), an image
of themselves, and sign a journal submission
agreement
• Word Count: Written submissions should be
between 500 and 1,000 words
• Journal Submission Agreement: Selected authors
will be required to sign a submission agreement
• Feedback and Resubmissions: If your submission
is not accepted, our editorial team is happy to
provide constructive feedback for future revisions.
We also encourage authors to discuss potential
ideas before submission
Copyright
The copyright for staff and faculty work will be
reserved to them, and they may publish their work on
other platforms. A waiver form will be provided upon
acceptance.
How to Submit and Contact Information
Submit your paper via this link
For inquiries, contact:
Sherry Hejazi – Managing Editor, SELS Dialogues
Email: shejazi@centennialcollege.ca
We look forward to your contributions!
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