Supporting and Engaging the Adolescent Learner

Undergraduate

This course focuses on adolescence as a critical developmental stage marked by rapid emotional, social, and cognitive changes. Many learners face mental health challenges during this period, often rooted in larger sociological and political structures of exclusion, inequity, and harm. They can also face challenging social dynamics with their peers, family, and the society in which they live. Systemic factors, such as racial and economic disparities, societal stigmas, and institutional practices, can exacerbate these challenges, creating barriers to student success and well-being. Through this course, teacher candidates will explore how punitive and exclusionary policies and practices in education and in the contemporary era target poor and marginalized students and families, and how issues of class, including the need to caretake family, work after school, and lack of social capital exclude adolescences and places them at risk. Teacher candidates will critically examine the sociopolitical factors that impact adolescent development, academic success, and well-being, and learn to advocate for equitable and supportive practices in education. By considering why certain theories of adolescence have been privileged in Canadian systems, and examining adolescence from multiple perspectives, including Indigenous knowledge systems, educators will be prepared to guide their students toward success in school, higher education, career development, and social engagement. (Credit weight 3.0)