2024 STLHE Core Values
The Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) respectfully recognizes that we all work and live on the traditional unceded territories and sacred lands of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples.
STLHE seeks to support, enhance, and advance effective teaching and learning in post-secondary institutions across Canada.
STLHE’s individual and institutional members have done much work on inclusion, diversity, equity, and antiracism. But much more needs to be done. This recognition led to the establishment of an Equity Diversity and Inclusion Task Force (EDITF).
STLHE knows there are many obstacles faced by equity deserving groups – groups including, but not limited to, women, Indigenous Peoples, persons with disabilities, members of racialized groups, persons with different socioeconomic status, and members of 2SLGBTQ+ communities. We stand in solidarity with all communities with whom we live and work.
As educators, we are committed to devoting our energy, talents, and resources to raising awareness about the history and destructive impacts of systemic and structural exclusion and inequity, and their consequences on groups of people historically marginalized in a range of social locations.
CORE VALUES:
STLHE has adopted verbatim the following core values recommended by the EDITF. We are committed to using these values to guide our decisions, actions, communications, policies, programs, systems, and procedures – in STLHE specifically as well as more broadly in advocating for postsecondary education.
STLHE is committed to:
- identifying and actively fighting against systemic and structural racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia and transphobia, xenophobia, and other forms of discrimination and exclusion. We recognize that these are intersecting systems of oppression that differentially impact people’s lives, and commit to naming, confronting, and contesting those systemic oppressions from our multiple social and economic locations;
- encouraging and respecting all forms of diversity, including people’s diverse and different identities, lived experiences, and perspectives. We recognize that we all occupy multiple and intersecting identity categories, and are committed to creating more inclusive environments for the range of communities with whom we interact;
- ensuring both fair access to opportunities and services for all people, and more equitable and just outcomes for groups historically marginalized in the dominant structures and practices of academia. This requires working to identify and remove barriers that disadvantage those groups and creating more just practices and policies;
- establishing processes that ensure that people traditionally excluded in decision making processes, activities, or positions of power are included, visible, and heard as a part of those processes;
- demonstrating professional integrity in relationships with colleagues, faculty, staff, students, and administrators; and
- honouring the common humanity of all individuals and groups in our various communities, and dedicating ourselves to actively working towards more just structures and practices so we can all survive and thrive.