Social Innovation

In 2020, Selkirk Innovates was successful in securing a Community College Innovations grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This grant was used to conduct research to find out how post-secondary institutions can support reconciliation within our region. The result is the Viewpoints report.

Viewpoints presents diverse Indigenous community perspectives regarding the efforts needed to enable systemic change toward reconciliation within a public post-secondary educational institution in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. 

The main research question for this project was, “How does a community college respectfully engage in reconciliation through education with the First Nations and Métis communities in the traditional territories in which it operates?” 

This research was realized by a team of six Indigenous researchers, representing distinct Indigenous Nations within the region: the Sinixt (Lakes), the Syilx (Okanagan), the Ktunaxa and the Metis Nation of BC.

It offers Indigenous perspectives, insights, and recommendations that can help guide post-secondary education toward systemic change. This research project was Indigenous-led within an Indigenous research paradigm and done in collaboration with multiple communities throughout the Southern Interior region of British Columbia. 

Read the report.

Housing is a fast-growing challenge. Differences in demographic trends and housing stock mean that housing issues look different across rural communities. There are many existing housing resources that can help communities build on their housing needs assessments. Below are key resources that may be of assistance.

Selkirk Innovates Resources

• Housing affordability
• Housing stock diversity
• Occupation by usual residents
• Renting households
• Residential property values
• Subsidized housing
• Vacancy rates and rents

(In collaboration with the University of Waterloo)

Remote Controlled is a study that seeks to understand the ways technology is changing how the mining industry works in Canada. 

• What are the emerging technologies that are disrupting the mining sector in Canada?
• How is work changing as a result of these technologies and what drives the adoption within the mining sector?
• How are mining communities impacted by these changes? 

These are the key questions driving the research towards a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities present as the Canadian mining sector enters an age of disruption.

Remote Controlled will look at four case study regions: Newfoundland and Labrador; Northern Ontario; the Kootenays in British Columbia; and the Yukon. Phase one is focused on identifying the technologies being developed and used in each of the case study regions. Phase two will focus on developing an understanding of how the Canadian mining industry is adopting disruptive technology. Phase three will focus on understanding of social and economic impacts as a result of technological changes. 

This website, developed in partnership with Columbia Basin Trust, is a one-stop source for climate change data and impacts information that is relevant to the Columbia Basin and Boundary regions. This climate information and resource tool is here to help to strengthen the adaptive capacity of rural communities in our region. 

The website includes Community Climate Profiles for municipalities and First Nations in our region; impact assessments of our environment, quality of life, economy, and infrastructure; case-studies of how regional organizations and businesses are taking climate action; and climate science learning modules.

Visit the Columbia Basin Climate Source.

The construction and operation of dams associated with the Columbia River Treaty has had an immense impact on communities in the Columbia Basin. Negotiations to modernize the treaty are currently underway between Canada and the United States. In collaboration with the Columbia River Treaty Local Governments Committee, Selkirk Innovates is assessing and revising a set of performance measures that can be used to understand socioeconomic conditions affected by management of treaty reservoirs.

The performance measures will inform a modeling process that aims to evaluate how US proposals for treaty changes will impact the interests of Basin communities, and explores how the treaty can be modernized to increase flexibility and improve conditions in BC. Selkirk Innovate’s involvement in this project runs from August 2021 to July 2022. 

Get for more information.

The Teaching & Learning Centre does a variety of projects in collaboration with Selkirk Innovates. Currently, their faculty and students are involved in three applied research projects related to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.

Work Integrated Learning Hub Project

Selkirk College was funded by the Province of BC for the Work Integrated Learning Hub project. This grant provided course releases to instructors in eight schools to implement pilot projects related to work integrated learning. Guided by the Education Division and Selkirk Innovates, WIL School Facilitators will learn from each other and work collaboratively to share their learning with other instructors at Selkirk College.

According to previous research, there are common gaps in curriculum related to WIL, leaving many WIL students lacking in key work-readiness criteria on graduation. This has implications for the quality assurance, evaluation, and design of work-integrated learning placements. Using Smith, Ferns and Russel’s six curriculum gaps and six domains of employability as a framework, the proposed research will assess the impacts of the Selkirk WIL Hub project on WIL in the region. The research will include a student survey (pre and post school project intervention where possible) and interviews with WIL School Facilitators about their WIL Hub projects.

Pivoting to Inclusion: Designing Ancillary Open Educational Resources in a Collaborative Cross-institutional Environment

From 2020 to 2022, Theresa Southam, the Teaching & Learning Centre coordinator at Selkirk College, along with College of the Rockies, will implement and measure the effect of Hockings (2010) Principles of Inclusion for 4–6 Open Education Resources (OER), asking:

• What difference does the application of inclusion principles make to instructional design when instructors are designing and using ancillary OER in an online environment?
• Do students perceive ancillary OER (e.g., videos, podcasts, formative assessments, collaborative peer-based learning, and homework) in an online environment as inclusive, and if so, how? If not, why not?
• If staff are asked to make institutional changes to be more inclusive in the online environment, how do they react? What is their perception of the importance of the principles of inclusion?

According to Theresa, students utilizing the open educational resources (OER) in this research project will be asked to reflect on the inclusive nature of OER in their course (e.g., the original intention and their perception of the success of inclusivity or the lack thereof) so that the research pays attention not only to principles of inclusion from the research, but to the voices of students.

Academic Integrity

Communities in BC, like many around the world, are today deeply divided around a multitude of social and political issues. Public opinion seems to be polarizing, and the moderate middle ground is shrinking. There is a tendency to greater close-mindedness, more fear of “the other” and less willingness to interact with anyone holding different beliefs. Politics has become as much about identities as it is about issues and policies. This social dynamic threatens our individual and collective wellbeing and also impedes collaboration on vitally important issues – e.g., COVID, racial justice, climate change – at a time when we most need to come together to deliberate carefully, problem-solve, and seek solutions.

This research will bring together three BC post-secondary institutions and partnering local non-profits to

1. Gauge the level of polarization within selected sites in our communities.
2. Identify a variety of capacities necessary to transcend polarization.
3. Determine what tangible and intangible supports (interventions, skill development, tools etc.) we can provide to offer to help people in our communities come together in greater understanding.
4. Adapt/develop, field test, and evaluate effective, replicable, context-sensitive tools/methods that can build the skills and attitudes necessary to bridge our differences. Building on existing research and practice we will be able to apply this learning to realms where important (and sometimes divisive) work is underway in our institutions and organizations (e.g., equity, diversity and inclusion). We will innovate by adapting what already exists, developing anew, and applying our own critical evaluation to create practical tools for helping bridge invisible social gaps in our communities, before they grow wider.

Our research will ultimately make space for, and invite participation from, the diverse voices and perspectives that are needed to co-create inclusive, equitable solutions to the challenges we face.

Learn more about Courageous Dialogues: Moving Beyond Polarization.

This project occurred from May 2021 to May 2022.

Focused on better understanding rural connectivity, this project is identifying and exploring the different pathways that local governments can take to improve connectivity in their communities. 

The main objective of this project is to identify, interpret, and evaluate existing approaches to connectivity in rural British Columbia. This will be accomplished by developing a classification system for the existing approaches, as well as an evaluation method to assess the range of factors contributing to the successes and challenges of each approach. Both the classification system and the evaluation method will be tested and refined by identifying and evaluating two existing examples. 

These evaluations will highlight the impact and effectiveness of different connectivity approaches and are intended to be used as a guide by local governments in decision-making processes related to improving connectivity. 

Read the project reports.