Longing, belonging and everything in between – the results of the cultural mapping of experiences of equity, diversity and inclusion at TRU
In March 2021, through a federal Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Capacity-Building Grant, TRU hired a postdoctoral researcher to investigate experiences of belonging (and exclusion) at TRU.
The study (February to August, 2022) saw significant engagement with over 130 participants, which included students, staff, faculty members and senior leadership.
Each participant created an artefact depicting their story (i.e., a map) and gave an interview.
The data analysis summarized the findings into 22 inductive themes providing perspectives on how communication, power and worldviews show up at the university.
The stories provide nuanced interpretations of the multi-faceted challenges and barriers to belonging at TRU.
To our knowledge, this project is the first to use cultural mapping to study experiences of inclusion in a Canadian post-secondary institution.
In October 2022, the researchers invited the TRU and Kamloops communities to review participant maps in an exhibition at the TRU Art Gallery called Longing, Belonging, and Everything in Between.
When: Thursday, March 14 at 3 p.m.
Where: Mountain Room, Campus Activity Centre
About the presenters:
Dr. Evelyn Asiedu is currently director of program delivery and education at the Office of Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion at MacEwan University, and vice-president of the Canadian Association for the Prevention of Discrimination and Harassment in Higher Education. From 2021 to 2023, as the postdoctoral fellow for EDI data analysis at TRU, Evelyn led two institutional projects: the first provided recommendations to the Office of the Provost for an ethical and community-supported strategy for the collection of sociodemographic data of staff and students. The second was a qualitative research project to understand how people experienced belonging at TRU.
Kara Nickerson Wright is a Master of Education student at TRU, and principal researcher of “Research Friends: Paths, places, and portals to belonging,” a mental sketch mapping study at TRU, which builds on her experiences of belonging with(in) TRU’s collaborative cultural mapping research team. Kara was recently awarded the Ken Lepin Research and Graduate Studies Award for her academic and research achievements.
