Webinars & Events

Ontario Regional Webinar

28 April 2026
7:30p to 8:30pm Eastern
Research Project Presentation and Experiential Workshop: Mindfulness and Compassion Practices to Address Racism: An Anti-oppression Framework for Adult Education

Description:
The CASAE Adult Literacy Special Interest Group invites you to join us on Friday February 20, 2026 at 3:00–4:30 PM (Eastern) to learn more about the National Literacy
Strategy, an initiative led by United for Literacy, ABC Life Literacy and the Canadian Children’s Literacy Foundation pushing for the vision that “everyone in Canada has the
literacy skills necessary to fully participate in learning, work, and in community life.

Poster

Session Description:

This study builds on previous work conducted by the researcher, using racial affinity focus groups, to explore how people who identify as Indigenous or Black, South/East Asian, Middle Eastern and other ethnic minorities living in Canada (jointly referred to here as BIPOC or Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour) experience possible racism or oppression and use mindfulness or compassion practices to support them in processing these experiences. Mindfulness has been shown to have many benefits. However little research has been done with racialised adults. Mindfulness practice has been shown to increase our self-awareness and ability to regulate emotions, and improve our relations with others. It is an important component of compassion, which requires awareness and clear seeing into our stress, both as individuals and collectives. Compassion involves acknowledging stress and suffering, combined with the wish or actions to alleviate the stress or suffering.

The general aim of this expanded research is to improve knowledge and help professionals in the fields of education and clinical care and to propose anti-oppressive teaching methods for mindfulness-based and adult education and care, making these areas more inclusive and culturally sensitive.

This presentation covers the intentions and rationale of the study, supported by key points from the literature review. It also discusses the methodology and some early findings from interviews conducted so far on the impacts of racism or oppression as continued stressors, responses to those stressors, and possible ways to address the impacts in order to improve the well-being and autonomy of BIPOC people with mindfulness and compassion-based approaches, combined with existing cultural practices. There will also be an experiential component so that attendees may experience some of these practices and do hands-on reflection exercises to explore how they might incorporate such approaches into their teaching and/or research.

Presenter Bio:

Rose Mina Munjee is a PhD candidate (ABD) in Education at the University of Reading in the UK. She has written for DIME and Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies. She has taught “Mindfulness-Informed Interventions for Mental Health” at the University of Toronto and curated a speaker series entitled, “Diverse Perspectives in Mindfulness and Mental Health.” She is a Registered Psychotherapist and certified teacher, mentor, and teacher trainer of evidence based Mindfulness programs (MBSR, MBCT, MSC). She develops curricula and has taught mindfulness-based interventions at the Center for Mindful Self Compassion, the Centre for Mindfulness Studies, the University of Toronto, UCSD Mindfulness, and for various corporations and in healthcare. Rose Mina has practiced insight meditation since 2007 and is a community meditation teacher with True North Insight, running groups, retreats, and nature walks. She is a racialized woman of South Asian origin and is from South Africa.

Adult Literacy SIG

20 February 2026
3:00p to 4:30pm Eastern
Building a National Literacy Strategy: Possibilities for Adult Literacy in Canada

Poster

Adult Literacy SIG

25 November 2025
“Adult Education Community Research Networking: Sharing Ideas and Resources for Change”

Description:
In Fall 2025, the Canadian Association for the Study of Adult Education (CASAE) in collaboration with the New Society Institute (NSI) hosted the event, “Adult Education
Community Research Networking: Sharing Ideas and Resources for Change”. This roundtable-style gathering was designed to spark conversation about how community
members and researchers can collaborate more effectively and meaningfully to address pressing social issues. Together, we explored the barriers that community organizers,
adult-education practitioners and researchers face when trying to work collaboratively, and explored ways around these challenges. A key objective was to identify
opportunities for collaboration related to adult education, including funding realities and needs. Co-creating knowledge to advance collective understanding was, therefore,
an important aspect of this event, which welcomed presenters from CASAE, NSI, OISE, and Toronto Drop-In Network (TDN).

Event Summary Notes

Ontario Regional Webinar

27 March 2024 5:30p to 7:00p Eastern Writing Journal Articles and Preparing Manuscripts for Publication Description: In this webinar, we will discuss the necessary steps and important aspects to consider when writing and publishing. Writing a manuscript, preparing a paper for submission, working with editors, and finding time for consistent writing practice are all part of the process and will be topics addressed in this webinar. Poster Recording:

PIMA Climate Justice Education Teach-In Series

14 September and 5 October 2023 Co-hosted by PIMA, ALA, CASAE, SCUTREA, MOJA INVITATION TO A TWO-PART TEACH-IN: Towards a pluriverse of possibilities: unlearning separation, re-learning relationality Facilitators: Elizabeth Lange Description: The world as we know it is not sustainable. To change these realities, we need to dig deep to the very roots of Western thinking – this is a big story of alternative worldmaking at every level. This includes how we live, work, produce and distribute food, water, and energy. This set of two participatory workshops encourages us to rebuild understandings of the inter-connectedness of everything so that we reignite relationships with one another and the planet. Instead of continuing to exploit the natural world we nurture and sustain it. Through dialogue we will question: how and why did we lose our connectivity, our kinship with other living beings, our own embodiedness; and how do we unlearn separation and relearn relationality? As educators and activists, how do we generate a pluriverse of possibilities? Workshop One will focus on Relearning kinship ethics – this is based on understanding the shift from modernity to relationality; Workshop Two will focus on Composting Modernity, using past values and ethics to ‘compost’ practical possibilities for transformative practice. Dates: 14 September and 5 October 2023 Time: Canada-Pacific Time 10h00; SAST 19h00 Length: 2 hours The workshops will be led by Dr Elizabeth Lange, author of the inspiring book (2023), Transformative Sustainability Education: Reimagining our Future. This book lays out the principles and practices of transformative sustainability education using a relational way of thinking and being. We invite you to commit to both workshops and register in advance: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkce-prjkiHN1Lwmb-IaFAK1aYafKMuv2b Background: This Teach-In series is a continuation of the PIMA webinars on Climate Justice Education which have run since 2020 in collaboration with the Canadian Association for Studies in Adult Education (CASAE), Adult Learning Australia (ALA), Standing Conference on University Teaching and Research in Education of Adults (SCUTREA), and MOJA African Adult Education Network. The webinars have fed into two special editions of the PIMA Bulletin 39 (Nov 21), 45 (Jan 23) January 2023 Bulletin TOC | PIMA Network – they both provide useful background to the Teach-In. For more information, contact: Shirley Walters, PIMA Climate Justice Education ferris@iafrica.com

PIMA Webinar Series: Climate Justice and Adult Learning and Education (ALE)

24 May 2022 Co-hosted by PIMA, ALA, CASAE, SCUTREA, MOJA Climate Justice Education: Weaving Together Our Stories of Nature and Place Facilitators: Shauna Butterwick, Darlene Clover and Joy Polanco O’Neil Description: Link to post-webinar report on workshop – Report on Climate Justice Education: Weaving Together Our Stories of Nature and Place

PIMA Webinar Series: Climate Justice and Adult Learning and Education (ALE)

2 March 2022
Co-hosted by PIMA, ALA, CASAE, SCUTREA, MOJA
Climate pedagogy: What have we learned?
Host: Shirley Walters, PIMA President
Moderators: Jane Burt, Astrid von Kotze, and Shirley Walters

Description:

Link to post-webinar report on workshop – Link

PIMA Webinar Series: Climate Justice and Adult Learning and Education (ALE)

13 October 2021 Co-hosted by PIMA, ALA, CASAE, SCUTREA Ecofeminism makes sense. Towards life-affirming Adult Learning and Education (ALE) Host: Shirley Walters, PIMA President Moderators: Joy Polanco O’Neil and Astrid von Kotze Speakers: Jacklyn Cock and Serap Brown Description: Climate justice, including social, gender and economic justice, is attained by foregrounding the needs and interests of the people who have contributed least to climate catastrophes yet are most affected by them. Due to unequal patriarchal divisions of labour and exploitative practices, the majority of women around the world carry primary responsibility for putting food on the table and taking care of ecosystems, families and communities. Ecological breakdown, capitalism and patriarchy are closely inter-linked and undergird the environmental catastrophe that is unfolding. Ecofeminism, a discourse that began in the late 1980s, remains a useful theoretical framework because it refuses to separate entangled dimensions of life. It presents a change in paradigm from separation to interconnectedness, from the mechanistic and reductionist to the relational and holistic. This webinar will explore ecofeminism – its theory and practice – and in particular, its application to the principles and practices of a life-affirming ALE. Link to post-webinar report on Ecofeminism workshop – Link

PIMA Webinar Series: Climate Justice and Adult Learning and Education (ALE)

25 May 2021
Resilience or rebellion? Exploring ‘resilience’ and climate justice: challenges for ALE
Host: Shirley Walters, PIMA President
Moderators: Joy Polanco O’Neil and Astrid von Kotze
Speaker: Odirilwe Selomane
Commentators: Mela Chiponda, Eurig Scandrett, and Mercy Kappen

Description:
In these times of extreme precarity, a new buzzword is ‘resilience’. In combination with adjectives resilience means many different things to different constituencies across the natural and social sciences, ranging from absorptive to adaptive; restorative to transformative resilience. This webinar explores different interpretations of resilience and outlines a variety of resilience capacities in the context of climate justice. We pose the questions: how do we as adult educators understand and utilise the concept of ‘resilience’? What understandings of `resilience’ are most useful and generative in the collective struggles towards climate justice?

Kitchen Table Talk Series

6 May 2021 Diversity and Inclusion: Are organizations doing the right things? Host: Cindy Russell Description: Organizations have strived to make a difference around diversity and inclusion, but is it working? Many say no. Common practices include setting up a diversity office, hiring a Director of Diversity, creating pamphlets, videos, and asking staff to participate in diversity training. Is this making a difference? Let’s look at what some researchers are saying and share experiences from the field. What are some of the unintended consequences that are emerging from these efforts?

PIMA Webinar Series: Climate Justice and Adult Learning and Education (ALE)

30 March 2021 Climate justice and related struggles: aesthetic, creative and disruptive strategies Host: Shirley Walters, PIMA President Moderator: Darlene Clover, feminist, scholar-activist, professor at University of Victoria. Canada Speakers: Victoria Foster (United Kingdom). Victoria Foster is involved in social and environmental justice education. Hannah Geldeman (Canada). Hannah Gelderman (she/her) is an artist, educator and organizer who recently completed a Master of Education in Leadership Studies. Njabulo Chipangura (Zimbabwe). Njabulo Chipangura works at the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe as an archaeologist and is based in Eastern Zimbabwe at Mutare Museum.

PIMA Webinar Series: Climate Justice and Adult Learning and Education (ALE)

10 February 2021 Climate change, resource extraction and adult learning and education – what are the links? Host: Shirley Walters, PIMA President Moderator: Jane Burt, educator-activist in environment/development sector Speakers: Judith Marshall, popular educator and writer, on Mining Companies and Disasters in Canada and Brazil Trusha Reddy, WoMin African Alliance: Organising and learning to defend the land from resource extraction Shauna Butterwick, feminist scholar-activist, reflecting on ALE in the film Women hold up the sky Follow-up Article: This article appeared in PIMA Bulletin Number 35, March 2021

Pandemic Pedagogy Series

4 December 2020 Flattening the Curve: Making a Difference through Mask making Facilitator: Dr. Shauna Butterwick, The University of British Columbia, Canada Sewing for our lives: Women’s enterprising and learning through making masks in India Facilitators: Mansi Shah, Saira Baloch, Savitaben Patel

Pandemic Pedagogy Series

27 November 2020 The Impacts of COVID-19 on Adult Learning and Education: An International Panel Facilitators: Dr. Salma Ismail, Associate Professor, School of Education, University of Cape Town Ms Lyndal Pottier, Lecturer in Adult Education, University of Cape Town Dr. Ellen Boeren, Professor School of Education, University of Glasgow Dr. Srabani Maitra, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of Glasgow

Pandemic Pedagogy Series

13 November 2020 “Time now holds a different meaning for us…”: Evolving pedagogy for teaching Research in COVID19 Pakistan Facilitator: Dr. Shama Dossa, Associate Professor, Social Development and Policy, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Habib University, Karachi

Pandemic Pedagogy Series

25 September 2020 Online professional learning during the time of COVID-19: A collaborative autoethnography Facilitators: Natalia Balyasnikova, Assistant Professor of Adult Education, York University; Ludmila Balyasnikova, Associate Professor, UNESCO Chair in Sciences of Education, Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia.

Pandemic Pedagogy Series

16 July 2020 The pandemic practicum: COVID-19 and the teacher education field experience Facilitators: Dr. Amy Burns (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary), Dr. Patricia Danyluk (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary), Dr. Astrid Kendrick (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary), and Dr. Theodora Kapoyannis (Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary)

Pandemic Pedagogy Series

25 June 2020 Inventive pedagogies and social solidarity: The work of adult educators during COVID-19 Facilitators: Emily Hunter, Suzanne Smythe, Amea Wilbur

Research Methodology Series

16 June 2020
Autobiographical and Autoethnographic Research
Facilitators: Dr. Shauna Butterwick (The University of British Columbia) and Dr. Virginia Rego (National and International Results Coordinator, BC Ministry of Education).

15 July 2020 – Revised PowerPoint presentation. Click here.

Pandemic Pedagogy Series

26 May 2020 “We are all in this together,” but who is the “we”? – Exploring the impacts of the pandemic on immigrants through an intersectional analysis Facilitators: Jingzhou (Jo) Liu, PhD (University of Calgary), Ricardo Morales (Director, Community Development and Integration, Calgary Catholic Immigration Society), and Sinela Jurkova, PhD (Cultural Diversity Services Coordinator, Calgary Catholic Immigration Society).

Research Methodology Series

12 May 2020 Community-Based Research Facilitators: Dr. Budd Hall (Co-Chair, UNESCO Chair in CBR), Dr. Walter Lepore (Research Director, UNESCO Chair in CBR), and Suriani Dzulkifli (Coordinator of the Knowledge for Change Mentor Training Programme).