Now Live! The Apathy to Empathy Curriculum Project Repository
Apathy to Empathy is an interdisciplinary curriculum-based project that was first piloted for several undergraduate courses in civil engineering, chemistry, geography, and social sciences in the Fall 2021 semester. The project provided students and faculty with the opportunity to better understand multiple facets of the First Nations water crisis. Upon completion of the pilot, the Office of Social Innovation (OSI), the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT), and the Urban Water Research Centre (UWRC) teamed up to create a four-part video series and repository to showcase the student projects and learnings.
Hosted by Curtis Maloley, Associate Director, CELT and Dr. Samantha Wehbi, Creative Lead, OSI, the four-part video series features interviews with students, faculty and staff who were a part of the programming and development of Apathy to Empathy. In addition to the interview series, students submitted the work they developed during the program to the Toronto Metropolitan University research repository.
The curriculum project was developed by OSI and CELT, and brought to the Apathy to Empathy Steering Committee, co-founded by Nick Reid, former Executive Director of UWRC (1955-2021) and Joanne Dallaire, Elder (Ke Shay Hayo) and Senior Advisor, Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation. The steering committee brings together Toronto Metropolitan University community members to address the First Nation water crisis.
As a steering committee member, Curtis saw the opportunity to develop a curriculum component of Apathy to Empathy. The goal of the curriculum project was to create a cross-faculty and collaborative opportunity for students and faculty to understand multiple facets of the First Nations water crisis.
We need to consider how we can leverage different kinds of disciplinary skills and knowledge to look at water insecurity and inequity. It’s not just a problem of politics or a problem of science. It's a multi-faceted complex problem.
The curriculum project brought together four undergraduate courses: CVL 913: Water Supply Engineering; GEO 555: Colonial Infrastructures of North America; SOC 540: Indigenous Feminisms; and CHY 422: Environmental Chemistry. With a focus on social innovation through a social justice lens, the goal was not to develop solutions to the water crisis but instead to look at how the students understood systemic issues from different perspectives.
For students, it was great to find out about the other disciplines and their approaches to this work, as well as what they thought and knew about the First Nations water crisis.
During the pilot, students came together for a series of learning sessions hosted by Gary Pritchard, a Conservation Ecologist and Indigenous Engagement Specialist from Curve Lake First Nation and a member of the Apathy to Empathy Steering Committee. These learning sessions focused on the importance of how we build relationships with Indigenous communities, as well as consent, accountability and responsibility in addressing the First Nations water crisis.
In addition to the learning sessions, each class was assigned case studies and projects based on their disciplines concerning Indigenous land and water issues. These assignments were then presented at an end-of-semester learning forum. At the forum, students came together to discuss their learnings, including their sessions with Gary and from one another’s projects. Students also received a water teaching from Elder Dorothy Taylor of Curve Lake First Nation.
I think this was a good learning experience, in terms of the interdisciplinary collaboration, because it's humbling and reminds you that you don't have to have all the solutions on your own. And when you come at it from a place of empathy and curiosity, you can come up with creative ideas that exist across all those different fields.
To learn more about the Apathy to Empathy Curriculum Project, click here.
