Chasing Encounters

Today marks the end of an era but the beginning of another one. Chasing Encounters was my personal/academic project to highlight the work of others, learn from them and showcase it as a form to level the playing field in knowledge production and mobilization. Thanks to all of you who listened and supported me throughout these years. In this final episode, Alonso Mateo, a highly experienced educator and researcher in Spain, shares with us his work through an intercultural project with the Erasmus project in Europe. I hope you enjoy it.

We are on pause and we will be coming up with more content as soon as we can. This hiatus is helping us to re-charge, re-evaluate and re-invigorate ourselves so we can come stronger. Thanks for following us this far.

Three parents came to Chasing Encounters podcast to share their experiences about being graduate students and how their families supported them throughout their journey. We discussed how rewarding is when they feel the support of their children in difficult times. * Biography: Meng Xiao is a scholar on international student engagement and the founder of Dream X Education Inc., an educational agency supporting international students engaging in North America. Latifa Soliman is a faculty of English communication at Durham College and is proud to be teaching a diverse group of adult students who decided to re-join school after years of abandoning it, aiming to fulfill their goals and invest in their education. Yi Liu is a spiritual teacher who helps to elevate awareness, happiness & parenting skills. Her insight on spirituality stems from both Chinese and western wisdom. Cite this podcast (APA): Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2021, October 20). CES6E1 – parenting while being a graduate student. https://soundclou

Dr. Katie Entigar joined us to have a conversation about their first experiences in Toronto as a new assistant professor at the University of Toronto. Katie enlightened us about what is meant by adult education. Dr. Entigar discussed how education, learning and meaning-making need to go beyond the school years as these take place in different contexts formal, informal and non-formal. In our conversation, we talked about various forms of adult education that fall into the concepts of communities of practice in which people learn from each other. Also, we considered how adult education is conceptualized depending on different contexts as different meaningful approaches to engage communities are enacted in what is called Diacultural Pedagogies. * Biography: Dr. Katie Entigar’s agenda focuses on nonprofit education with.of.by.for adult immigrants. As a scholar, they draw upon sociocultural theory, critical applied linguistics, women of color feminist philosophy and praxis, intersectional analyses, queer theory

Born in Peru, Fernando Calderón-Figueroa accompanies us to learn about how cities have been designed to welcome or not their citizens. His research focuses on geography and territoriality with a focus on different international cities. He describes his fascination for how amazing humans have developed technology to adapt to their needs and create shelter. However, he questions the impact of built environments in urban design, and the concept of trust among people in relation to those contexts. He posits that there is a history of displacement, gentrification and social mobility that responds to how cities evolve and change over time. Listen to know more about our favourite spaces in the city of Toronto and our relationships with them. * Biography: Fernando Calderón Figueroa is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Sociology, University of Toronto. Fernando’s main interests are urban and political sociology, social policy, and quantitative and computational methods. His dissertation addresses the relationshi

Colombian born and educated in Europe, Dr. Diana García shares her thoughts about her experiences being a woman in different contexts and how these have shaped her work with youth communities in urban and rural areas in her home country. She discusses how youth have been excluded from the Colombian sociopolitical conversations at local and larger levels. She questions her own privilege and positionality as she reflects on what she can do to support marginalized communities to challenge corruption and inequality. She asks how the national identity is constructed and what citizenship means for young students and how they can be empowered to fight essentialist views of what it means to e Colombian. We finished our discussion by questioning the role of elite private schools and organizations to help Colombia build a prosperous future for all. Biography: Diana C. García Gómez is a recent Ph.D. graduate from the Childhood Studies Department at Rutgers University—Camden. Drawing from the fields of childhood studies

With a vast language teaching experience, Dr. Heng Hartse describes his first experiences in ESL education as he tried to understand students’ backgrounds more in depth and trying to build bridges among the international students. He talks about second language writing and the difficulties some have when it comes to adapt to the Western forms of academic writing. He also discusses the tensions, challenges and possibilities of an EFL/ESL teacher. In understanding these, Dr. Heng Hartse explains translingual practice, world languages and English as a lingua franca (ELF) as concepts that respond to the emerging multilingual students in today’s classrooms. * Biography: Dr. Joel Heng Hartse is a lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University, where he teaches academic literacy and TEAL teacher training courses. His work focuses on academic writing at the intersection the internationalization of higher education and the globalization of English, and has appeared in the Journal of Second Language W

A true American Southerner born in Georgia and with a vast experience in South America, Dr. Jason Mizell discusses some if his work with Testimonios as a form of research methodology. His work stems from his culture, family, and community efforts to bring the voices of the most marginalized peoples (Latinx) to the front. He describes how he uses his skills and privileges to support them and questions how linguistics can really be anti-racist from both pedagogical and empirical approaches. Dr. Mizell briefly explains what is necessary to become a researcher who uses Testimonios as a methodology, as such, you need: • To be invited • To build relationships in communities and gain trust • To be humble and learn with them • To know why you want to do the work with the communities and educate yourself • To be willing to push against the system * Biography: Dr. Jason Mizell is an Assistant Clinical Professor in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut. He has taught in and directed variou

Dr. Niyozov grew up in Tajikistan, former Soviet Union, in a small village and a large family. He is a true plurilingual person with a vast international experience in education and research by engaging with numerous cultural groups along the span of his life. These experiences provided an ontoepistemological rationale that has driven the work he currently does with immigrant and refugees and with religious education. In today’s episode, Dr. Niyozov argues that religious education is important because there are subjects that have not been taught in some parts of the academic world or engaged as they have become taboo. It is important to provide the space for different religious dimensions from different parts of the world, engage, question and challenges how education is or not welcoming these experiences. He points out that we need to find spaces for challenging and pushing back ideas and to allow space for conflict and disagreement so we need to be able to handle controversy; this way it takes away the fear

Maria Montejo was in our episode to help us understand the many nuances of Indigenous knowledges and epistemologies. From animal spirits and nature, she embarks us on a journey of respect to mother earth and other living and non-living creatures. She describes the presence of a Spiritual intelligence as a way to connect through life to a deeper understanding of who we are in convergence with all elements of nature. She posits that humans would not be able to truly understand others unless we go through a process of healing the trauma and pain of our past experiences. * Biography: Maria Montejo (Deer clan) is a member of the Mam Jakaltec/Popti (Mayan) community of Indigenous people who reside in the Xajla territory of Guatemala. Many years ago, Maria and her family came to Canada as refugees and settled in Toronto. Maria works to introduce Canadians to the basic knowledge of the worldview of Indigenous Peoples, as well as their spiritual and cultural values. In addition to her formal schooling, Maria has

Chilean born Marlen Mondaca describes her experiences within the nonprofit organization sector. She provides some useful information about what it means to work with international and development organizations such as Seeds of Hope, Save the Children, Plan International, and OXFAM. Rooted on a rights based approach, Marlen explains that some of the objectives of these organizations are alleviating poverty, supporting local organizations, providing formal and non-formal education programs on health, nutrition and child & family protection among others. Marlen offers specific information about the necessary skills anyone needs to pursue a career in this sector: 1) Having a good theoretical and historical foundation of international issues, 2) being able to make management or technical decisions, 3) having some knowledge of statistics, and program evaluation, 4) having good communication skills to connect with donors, managers and program officers, 5) having some experience in areas such literacy, numeracy

In today’s podcast, we have Yecid Ortega from the University of Toronto. He sees himself as a citizen of the world, and his work certainly reflects an international perspective to education and research. With a very marginalized background, he studied primary and secondary education in public schools and got interested in learning languages to understand the world. He tells the story of his life from poverty in Colombia, to working in the USA and to becoming a Canadian citizen. From a very young age, Yecid knew education was key to engage with communities and move socially. He noticed the idea of English as a symbol of power and has worked vigorously to dismantle it through critical education. His epistemological vision is engaged in a future of decolonial praxis in which educators, researchers and stakeholders work towards a better future for humanity. *Biography: Yecid Ortega is a Ph.D. candidate in the program of Language and Literacies Education (LLE) and the specialization program in Comparative Inter

In this metaepisode, we had a great conversation with El CafeciTO podcast produced by Latinx students at the University of Toronto, we learned about the challenges and the possibilities of creating and producing a podcast that supports the work of our communities. More information: https://www.elcafecitopodcast.ca/

With a Filipino background, Monica Batac and Hilary Naluz shared with us their work with the communities. They defy the idea that Filipinos do not go to post-secondary by demonstrating that both of them are pursuing graduate studies. With their community-oriented work, they hope to provide culturally responsive materials to youth as they engage with parents and other relatives to preserve the language and culture. One of their main goals is to help students maintain their heritage while working tirelessly towards their academic success and well-being by practicing self-care and appreciating where they are coming from. *Cite this podcast (APA): Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, December 10). CES4E7 – Filipino Community Engagement. https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces4e7-filipino-community-engagement

Shakespeare said that “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.” Acting and performance are at the centre of this episode as Nae Hanashiro Avila, a PhD student here in Toronto, discusses how identity and performance relate. Of Peruvian-Japanese descent, her mixed ethnical background and her expertise in performing arts begin a conversation about how we can be true to who we are as our different identities collide: Are they performed according or in opposition to expectations? She argues that however we express our identities, we need to be aware of how those performances reproduce or resist power relations. Her experience with theatre and the performing arts inspired her current research focusing on exploring feminist public performances in the Latin American context to contest power in the form of neoliberalism and patriarchy. *Cite this podcast (APA): Ortega, Y. (Producer). (2020, November 25). CES4E6 – https://soundcloud.com/chasingencounters/ces4e6-performance-arts-reproducing-

Growing up, reading was Adriana’s way to travel the world. The places, people, and cultures she read about motivated her to go and see it for herself. Finding beauty in every place she has visited, her experiences have inspired her research. Where does one experience the best of nature? Patagonia. History and architecture? Turkey. Night life? Hong Kong and Barcelona. Site-seeing aside, at the heart of her travels has been the opportunity to connect with people and learn from others about their cultures. While travelling to learn Chinese Mandarin in Taiwan, she serendipitously stumbled upon her current research focus. Listen to hear how this former computer programmer became impassioned about education and how the goal should be bringing together different languages and cultures, ultimately learning from each other. *Biography: Adriana Marroquin-Rodriguez is a Ph.D. student in Higher Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto in Canada, specializing in Com

Drawing from her personal experiences and a critical lens, Dr. Ruth Hayhoe shares a brief history and background of the concepts of comparative, international and development research and education. She illustrates the complexity of this rich field, emphasizing that CIDE’s main goal should be about learning from others on equal terms. The paradigm that the south must learn from the north can and should be challenged. How does one begin to do this? Bidirectional listening. In this way, each country can choose its own political systems based on international cooperation rather than domination. * Biography: Dr. Ruth Hayhoe is a professor in the Department of Leadership and Higher Education at the University of Toronto (OISE). Dr. Hayhoe's research has mainly related to Chinese higher education and educational relations between East Asia and the West. She has been interested in the ways in which cultural values and epistemologies from Eastern civilizations may provide a resource for new thinking in global highe

Language and how we communicate with each other is at the centre of this conversation with multilingual and multinational, Dr. Uju Anya. With intelligence and good humour, she provides a healthy reality check: contemporary society is multilingual and we need to face it, accept it and educate with that framework in mind. For her, this necessitates changing up how language plays a role in the classroom to reflect interactions in everyday society. How do we do this? We need to reexamine the biases and purist notions we have internalized about language. Teachers, in particular, must move from being arbiters (police) of language and become the enablers of cultural and linguistic diversity. *Biography: Dr. Uju Anya is an assistant professor of second language learning in the Curriculum and Instruction Department and a research affiliate with the Center for the Study of Higher Education at The Pennsylvania State University. She specializes in sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, and second language learning with

Norin Taj takes us on a journey from and back to Pakistan in this conversation. We start with growing up in her homeland, a place that contributed to her identities of being South Asian as well as Muslim - two complex and intricate entities that cannot be separated. Moreover, she shares stories of teacher training and teaching in Pakistan before immigrating to Canada, a move that provided her the opportunity to continue being an educator and a researcher. All of these experiences led her to return to Pakistan for her research that leaves us pondering two key questions: Should education focus on numbers/budgets or on actual education for the most marginalized? and how can girls’ education make use of better terms for empowerment? * Biography: Norin Taj is a doctoral candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy with a specialization in Comparative, International and Development Education at OISE. Her research interests are in the global policy discourse on girls’ education and its understanding in the South A

Opening this season, Canadian Mexican JP Mathias teaches how if you follow the water, you can begin to understand abstract concepts such as development/underdevelopment or how political processes affect various groups differently within a community in a tangible way. Drawing from his educational background and from his work with different organizations, he discusses and questions water management in Indigenous territories (Pueblos Originarios) in Mexico illustrating how power relations and political processes affect marginalized communities by various stakeholders in the water question. He suggests that better education can potentially raise awareness of water inequalities, whether in Mexico or here in Canada, allowing for communities to imagine a new narrative that ensures equal access for all. * Biography Jon Paul Mathias is a PhD student in Human Geography at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the historical constitution of racial disparities in access to water in Mexico City. He has an