Resources
At the Mokakiiks Centre for SoTL, Academic Development Centre (ADC) faculty provide tailored support for experienced, exploring, and emerging SoTL researchers across campus. We offer individual consultations to guide scholars through all stages of their projects—from navigating the research ethics process to designing and disseminating studies. Our team curates a comprehensive list of recommended readings and connects faculty to the extensive SoTL resources available through the MRU Library, ensuring that researchers can access the evidence, tools, and networks they need to advance their scholarly work in teaching and learning.
The policy governing research ethics in Canada is contained in the Tri-Council Policy Statement on the Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (TCPS 2). All research conducted involving human participants must undergo an ethics review. Mount Royal University’s Human Research Ethics Board (HREB) conducts all such reviews.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning has a special relationship to human research ethics, in the sense that SoTL is usually done within the context of a teacher-student relationship. This relationship is defined by the TCPS 2 as a “dual-role” relationship. Protections must be put into place to prevent students feeling unduly obligated to participate in the SoTL research of their instructors, and to prevent any perceived repercussions of participation (or non-participation).
Dual role of researchers and their associated obligations (e.g., acting as both a researcher and a therapist, health care provider, caregiver, teacher, advisor, consultant, supervisor, student, or employer) may create conflicts, undue influences, power imbalances, or coercion that could affect relationships with others and affect decision-making procedures (e.g. consent of participants)” (TCPS 2, p. 95).
At the Mokakiiks Centre for SoTL, we take this responsibility very seriously. The following resources are provided to help you design your SoTL study with rigorous attention to the ethical dimension. If you need further advice, please contact the Director of the Mokakiiks Centre for SoTL (mokakiiks@mtroyal.ca) for general insight into how to design an ethically appropriate SoTL study. For particular advice related to the HREB review process, please contact the Research Compliance Officer at hreb@mtroyal.ca.
- Resource created by Lisa Fedoruk at the Taylor Institute at the University of Calgary: https://taylorinstitute.ucalgary.ca/resources/ethics-scholarship-teaching-and-learning
- Resource created by the Research Ethics Board at Dalhousie University https://sites.google.com/view/sotl-user-guide/
To help connect faculty with MRU students who are interested in being research assistants in the area of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, we have created this job board to promote available positions. Please note that this is an informal job board and all employment has to be properly vetted through MRU Human Resources and follow MRU policy.
For more employment opportunities at MRU please see the career opportunities page through Human Resources. For student specific opportunities, see the job bank provided by Career Services.
Resources for Students
The scholarship of teaching and learning or SoTL is the in-depth examination of teaching and learning at a post-secondary level. To find out more check out this website: https://library.mtroyal.ca/sotl
Engaging in research during your undergraduate studies is an enriching experience. You will bring skills but you will also have the opportunity to learn new things as an RA. Student RAs who engage in SoTL often report that it is a great opportunity to connect research with their learning experience.
The activities you do as an RA can really vary and will be determined by the type of project you are joining. Typical tasks can include conducting literature reviews, supporting data collection and analysis, providing updates on research activities, and planning research techniques and using specialist software and equipment. Sometimes there are opportunities to help shape the research questions being asked and working with your supervisor on things like applying for ethical clearance for the research.
Many supervisors are keen to work with students to present and publish the outcomes of the research, too. You can discuss these opportunities with your supervisor and whether to consider applying for additional funding to support you presenting at conferences.
Steps for Faculty to Advertise for and Hire an RA
- Fill out this form to post your RA position on the job board
- Learn more about hiring an RA at MRU.
Once all the administrative paperwork has been completed and your RA is ready to start work, it is useful to have a conversation about the specifics of the work involved and any training and development required. Completing this research training template together in one of your early meetings can help facilitate this.
Some SoTL projects have opportunities for faculty and students to work in partnership to shape the research. This approach provides meaningful opportunities for students to bring their ideas to your project. This worksheet can be used to help decide where and how partnership opportunities can occur in your project.
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is supported by a well-established and continually evolving literature that examines teaching and learning as a field of rigorous scholarly inquiry. The books and peer-reviewed journal articles highlighted here represent foundational and emerging contributions that inform SoTL theory, methodology, and practice. Together, these works provide critical perspectives and empirical research to guide educators and scholars seeking to advance evidence-based approaches to teaching and learning. The following curated reading list highlights key resources that contribute to the advancement of SoTL, providing a foundation for those seeking to deepen their understanding and engage with current scholarship.
Academic Journals
Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Transformative Dialogues: Teaching and Learning Journal
Collected Essays on Learning and Teaching (CELT)
Books
A comprehensive guide for conducting SoTL research, this book illustrates a broad array of contexts and a spectrum of research methodologies to expand, enrich, and support both novice and experienced SoTL practitioners and researchers in answering the contexts and questions at the heart of teaching and learning.
Becoming a SoTL scholar involves reckoning with one’s academic identity since SoTL occupies a kind of “borderland” or liminal space outside of traditional disciplines. For faculty members who become interested in SoTL, this new space is typically disorienting at first, as the scholar grows from these initial moments to ultimately finding a place in the SoTL community. This book explores what happens after that phase after one has come to embrace the identity of a SoTL scholar.
Through its impact on students in their lives in and beyond college, and recognizing the porous boundary between the classroom and the "real world," SoTL can offer insights into broader societal issues, offer evidence of activities that facilitate everyday learning, promote intrinsic motivation, better support people from underrepresented communities, or uncover the ripple effects of changing educational environments. It has the potential to deliver messages of broad public interest. This book extends the field-building work of Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered and Hutchings, Huber, and Ciccone's The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Reconsidered by taking a new look at SoTL's ubiquitous call to "go public."
SoTL in action: illuminating critical moments of practice
By unpacking SoTL processes through rich narratives that illustrate what they look like, this collection offers inspiration to anyone at any stage of engagement with SoTL. Nancy Chick has selected contributions that compellingly illuminate why their authors focused on a particular critical moment, the questions they asked as they refined their approaches, and the theoretical and observational tools they employed to conduct their research. Each introduces a specific critical moment in doing SoTL, taking the reader through the author’s reflections, concerns, and choices in doing meaningful SoTL work."
The scholarship of teaching and learning in and across the disciplines
The scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) began primarily as a discipline-based movement, committed to exploring the signature pedagogical and learning styles of each discipline within higher education, with little exchange across disciplines. As the field has developed, new questions have arisen concerning cross-disciplinary comparison and learning in multidisciplinary settings This volume by a stellar group of experts provides a state-of-the-field review of recent SoTL scholarship within a range of disciplines and offers a stimulating discussion of critical issues related to interdisciplinarity in teaching, learning, and SoTL research.
The SOTL in 60+ podcast series consisted of ten episodes recorded during the 2024 Symposium for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, which took place from November 7–9, 2024, in Banff, Alberta, Canada. The series was sponsored by the Mokakiiks Centre for Scholarship of Teaching and hosted by Sally Haney of Mount Royal University.
Session 1: Emma Duke and Linh Bui (MRU students), interviewed by Sally Haney
Mount Royal University broadcasting alum Emma Duke and her research partner, marketing student Linh Bui provide keen insights about students as partners.
Length: 8 mins
Session 2: Jessica Legacy (Red Deer Polytechnic) and Jay Wilson (University of Saskatchewan) interviewed by Sally Haney
Jessica Legacy and Jay Wilson discuss the legitimacy of teaching and SoTL research in higher education. Keynote speaker Sarah Bunnell's talk on SoTL principles as Leadership principles resonated in this conversation.
Length: 7 mins
Session 3: Leda Stawnychko (MRU), interviewed by Sally Haney
In Session 3, the Banff SoTL Symposium podcast series features academic leadership scholar Leda Stawnychko from Mount Royal University. She dropped by shortly after co-presenting with her student research team. If we had a camera, you would see an educator who absolutely lights up when speaking about her student team.
Length: 5 mins
Session 4: Sarah Walshaw (Simon Fraser University), interviewed by Sally Haney
Attending her first SoTL Symposium in Banff, Sarah Walshaw from Simon Fraser University is a historian educator who brings fresh insights about entering the SoTL conference space.
Length: 3 mins
Session 5: Vikas Menghwani (University of British Columbia, Okanagan), interviewed by Sally Haney
Vikas Menghwani joins our podcast table in Session 5 at the Banff SoTL Symposium. Vikas presented his work on immersive virtual reality and group student engagement. Like many educators and students who joined our sessions, Vikas reported the gathering in Banff as inspiring and reinvigorating.
Length: 4 mins
Session 6: Julie Mooney (SAIT), interviewed by Sally Haney
Thanks to SAIT’s Julie Mooney, Ph.D. for dropping by our podcast sessions. Julie is no stranger to using podcasting in the academic setting. She shared some quick takeaways about the Banff SoTL Symposium.
Length: 3 mins
Session 7: Jodi Nickel (MRU) and MRU students Jessica Cuillerier and Emma Minish, interviewed by Sally Haney
Mount Royal University Education students Jessica Cuillerier and Emma Minish sit down with their professor, Jodi Nickel, who is also their research partner. The trio offers rich insights about the power of “going public” with their research at the Banff SoTL Symposium.
Length: 5 mins
Session 8: Richard Harrison and Beth Everest (poets), interviewed by Sally Haney
The Poets! Poets at a SoTL conference? Absolutely. Pop-up Poetry is a fixture at the Banff SoTL Symposium where poets Richard Harrison and Beth Everest invite attendees to share an idea, a word, really anything that is percolating. A short exchange soon results in a finished poem for the attendee to take away, likely never again to be seen by the poet. Thanks, Richard and Beth, for stopping by the podcasting table to share this delightfully creative approach to capturing our experiences.
Length: 10 mins
Session 9: Sam Paley (MRU student), interviewed by Sally Haney
What a dynamic conversation with MRU social innovation student, Sammy Paley! Attending the Banff SoTL Symposium for the first time, Sam was the ultimate connecter, allowing his curiosity and caring to lead. In this session, Sam walks us through, among other things, a chance meeting with Education professor Shannon Kell. Thanks, Sam, for stopping by. Your appreciative nature is deeply inspiring.
Length: 8 mins
Session 10: Sarah Bunnell (Elon University) and Joshua Hill (MRU), interviewed by Sally Haney
The keynote speakers connect! Attendees at the Banff SoTL Symposium were treated to a provocative opening keynote by Sarah Bunnell (Elon) and an equally inspiring closing keynote by Joshua Hill (MRU). Sarah and Josh dropped by the podcasting table just before Josh's closing address. Thank you, both, for sharing your ideas, your time, and your service to higher education.
Length: 13 mins
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403 440 6042
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