Held over a shared lunch and engaging dialogue, the Café featured an interactive, art-based session led by Dr. Bruno de Oliveira Jayme, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba and a celebrated arts educator. Rather than simply discussing pedagogical theory, participants experienced it—through creative exercises that brought vulnerability and connection to the forefront. 

The session began with a quiet challenge: staring into a partner’s eyes before drawing their face—without looking at the paper. What followed was a powerful metaphor in motion: overlapping drawings, cutting out shared shapes, and building a balanced sculpture in community with others. As Dr. Jayme guided participants through this artful process, the activity embodied the core of humanizing education—embracing imperfection, fostering trust, and working together to create something meaningful. 

Dr. Juliana Marini Marson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Environment and Geography, shared practical approaches she uses to build building community with her students, like learning their names and integrating personal stories into her lessons. Though not previously familiar with the formal concept of “humanizing education,” Dr. Marson illustrated how small, authentic practices can significantly impact student engagement and belonging. 

Organizers Cintia Costa and Renato Bezerra reflected on the intentional design of the Café, which emphasized meaningful classroom experiences over traditional lecture. “We wanted participants to have time and space to reflect on their own teaching practice,” Costa shared. “And we knew that art could offer a unique way to explore identity and trust in the classroom.” 

Participants left the event not only with fresh insights, but also with a curated list of practical strategies and reflective prompts to take back to their own classrooms. The energy in the room was palpable, with one attendee noting, “This was the best Teaching Café yet—everyone was truly engaged.” 

For Dr. Mirella Veras, the experience was especially meaningful. She reflected, “The Teaching Café created a space of openness and care. Cintia Costa set a welcoming tone, and Dr. Bruno Jayme’s art-based activity became a powerful moment of connection—with ourselves, and each other. It reminded me just how vital it is to build community and humanize our roles as educators, especially in the health sciences, where that approach is often most needed.” She added that this kind of pedagogical dialogue is something she hopes to see more of in her field. 

Special thanks to Dr. Bruno Jayme and Dr. Juliana Marson for generously sharing their time, perspectives, and creative energy. Their contributions helped shape an experience that went beyond teaching techniques—one that invited us to reflect on the relationships, values, and shared humanity at the heart of education. 

Teaching Café 2025 reminded us that meaningful learning begins with trust, curiosity, and the willingness to connect. We look forward to continuing this conversation—and to welcoming you to next year’s Teaching Café. 

“To experience even a bit of that moment creates a completely different understanding than reading a book or watching a video,” says Markwart.

The Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management’s sessional instructor and current PhD student in Peace and Conflict Studies, says Experiencing Dance History (KPER 4000) blends classroom learning of dance history with studio sessions to create a totally new understanding of the information.

“The classroom lets us focus on places and things and dates a little bit more, where in the studio they get to feel what it might feel like for some of these people doing their cultural dances,” says Markwart.

The course is part of an ongoing effort to incorporate more dance in the faculty’s curriculum. Dr. Cheryl Glazebrook, a professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management, who helped Markwart develop the course, says the role of dance in the study of human movement can’t be understated.

“Dance is human movement with communication, with connection,” says Glazebrook. “It’s a way to communicate and connect with people when you can’t always speak the same verbal language.”

Glazebrook says dance allows people with different abilities and skills to come together and work towards a singular goal. She says verbal expression is one of the most complex motor skills we perform, posing challenges for people with disabilities. But dance provides “a way for people to express themselves when words might not be an option.”

Markwart says dance, and classes like Experiencing Dance History, are also important for reflecting on and learning about the past. She says whenever people are taken from their places of origin, whether it happens during their lifetime or generations before, pieces of their identity are lost when as they are forced to “integrate, let’s say,” into another culture.

But dance is a way to reconnect to their own culture and see it as equally “varied, vibrant and beautiful” as any other, leading to important conversation about family history and migration, says Markwart.

“There’s always a little piece that you get of yourself once you’ve learned something else. And if that can be through movement, I’ve done my job,” says Markwart.

During one of the last classes of the term, students Isabella DiGirolamo and Isabella Cotroneo performed a traditional Italian folk dance called a Pizzica. DiGirolamo says the year-end project, where they taught the dance and its background to the class, was a rare opportunity to share her culture and love of dance with people at school.

“It was really cool having everyone all start from this level and learning together,” says DiGirolamo about the class learning the Pizzica. “It’s been great learning new dances with everyone, laughing together, enjoying this time and seeing people that didn’t have any dance background fall in love with dancing.”

From the structured classroom to the movement in the dance studio, students in Experiencing Dance History in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Recreation Management have an opportunity to experience learning not only through seeing or reading, but through feeling rhythm and history in their own bodies.

Teaching Café 2024: Accessible Pedagogy at the University of Manitoba

Date and time: Wednesday, May 1, 9:00 AM – 1:30 PM

Each year we offer a Teaching Cafe. This year’s theme will be on accessibility. A more detailed description will be provided at a later date.

Register for the Teaching Cafe: Accessible Design across the Academy

TLC Mini-Institute – Designing and Evaluating Assessment Strategies

Date and time: Monday, May 6, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM

This workshop (over two sessions) will provide instructors with opportunities to design assessment strategies to support student learning. You will design formative and summative assessments and learn strategies for providing constructive feedback on students’ work. You will also have opportunities to evaluate the effectiveness of different assessment tools, such as holistic and analytic rubrics.
Please have at hand a current course syllabus with learning objectives.

Register for the TLC mini-institute workshop

TLC Mini-Institute – Strategies for Maintaining a Respectful Classroom Environment

Date and time: Tuesday, May 7, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

As instructors, you may have experienced behaviour by your students that you felt was disrespectful, rude, or disruptive. These can be challenging situations to deal with. This interactive workshop will focus on teaching strategies that foster and maintain respectful classroom behaviour.

Register for the TLC mini-institute workshop

Indigenous Knowledges (TLCN08)

Date and time: Wednesday, May 8, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

This workshop introduces participants to Indigenous pedagogies by contextualizing Indigenous knowledges, discussing the importance of making space for Indigenous content and knowledge transmission in the academy, and providing participants with resources about the pedagogical significance of Indigenous knowledges.

Register for the Indigenous Knowledges workshop

Developing Intercultural Teaching Competence (TLCN05) 

Date and time: Wednesday, May 8, 1:00 PM – 4:00 PM

Every student and instructor brings their own culture into the teaching and learning contexts in which they inhabit. Similarly, every teaching and learning context is informed by and situated in institutional, regional, and national cultures. In this workshop, you’ll explore your own cultural attitudes, knowledge, and skills, and those of your learners and the environments you all find yourselves in. Then, you’ll apply this to your own teaching practices through elements of course design.

Register for Developing Intercultural Teaching Competence workshop

Navigating Challenging Student Situations (TLCN03) 

Date and time: Thursday, May 9, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

As instructors, you may have experienced behaviour by your students that you felt was disrespectful, rude, or disruptive. These can be challenging situations to deal with. Staff from Student Advocacy and Case Management and the Office of Human Rights and Conflict Management will provide an overview of pertinent University policies and procedures to help you understand your rights and responsibilities as an instructor. This interactive workshop will provide you with strategies and tips for preventing and responding to these behaviours.

Register for Navigating Challenging Student Situations workshop

Mental Health in the Classroom: Responding to Students Demonstrating Mental Health Distress (TLCN07) 

Date and time: Monday, May 13, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM

Young adults are highly susceptible to mental health problems. We know that most instructors encounter many students who are struggling with mental health issues that affect their academic performance, behaviour in the classroom, and interactions with teaching staff.  Research also indicates that the incident rate and intensity of mental health problems experienced by students is increasing. These situations can be stressful, time-consuming, and potentially can involve risks to personal safety for the students and others. David Ness, the Director of the Student Counselling Centre at the University of Manitoba, will provide you with information about how to identify and respond effectively to student mental health issues, how to understand the factors that contribute to student distress, and how to access resources.  This interactive workshop will involve case study material to apply your knowledge of risk assessment, response alternatives, and on- and off-campus resources.

Register for the Mental Health in the Classroom workshop