Conversations and Collaborations

Professional development programs for teaching assistants (TAs) at Canadian universities run the gamut from occasional workshops to complete certifi-cate programs. Until recently, the Learning and Teach-ing Centre at the University of Victoria (UVic) typi-fied this general format with a well-crafted TA program consisting of professional development workshops, annual conferences, and programs leading to certifi-cates. When I was appointed to the newly formed role of TA Training Program Coordinator in the summer of 2008 (now a permanent role on campus), my im-mediate goal was to set up campus-wide programs to ensure that all TAs on campus had access to structured professional development programs that suited their needs and the needs of faculty and staff in a variety of disciplines, and took into consideration the changes occurring for TAs in today’s academic world. To grasp an understanding of UVic’s TA cli-mate (I did have some understanding due to my pre-vious work at the Learning and Teaching Centre for three years as a TA Associate, as well as being a TA myself during my graduate work in the Department of Anthropology), I arranged one-on-one meetings with chairs and/or graduate advisors from each department on campus to talk about TA needs and departmen-tal expectations. These conversations generated the potential for several collaborative projects based on departments ’ individual and collective needs. In this paper, I first discuss the process and outcomes from the conversations and conclude with preliminary dis-cussion about one of the collaborative projects that de-veloped alongside and grew from these conversations regarding TA professional development