2026
Symposium for
Scholarship OF Teaching and Learning
Brave Scholarship: SoTL as Practice, Intervention and Influence
October 22–24, 2026 | Banff Park Lodge
Call for Proposals
The theme of the 2026 SoTL Symposium is Brave Scholarship: SoTL as Practice, Intervention, and Influence. At a moment when higher education - and the world at large - are experiencing profound uncertainty and transformation, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning offers a powerful space for courageous inquiry and collective action. Across higher education, scholars of teaching and learning are increasingly called upon to work with courage—asking difficult questions, experimenting with new pedagogies, and challenging assumptions about how learning happens. Our 2026 Symposium theme recognizes SoTL as a space where inquiry, reflection, and community come together to support meaningful change in teaching and learning.
This theme encourages participants to explore how SoTL can function as a powerful act of intentional practice, intervention, and influence. Through systematic inquiry into teaching and learning, SoTL scholars examine how educational environments shape what is possible for students and educators alike. The 2026 SoTL Symposium invites us to consider how SoTL can act as both an intellectual response to turbulent times and a form of scholarly resistance and reform—generating knowledge that challenges assumptions, opening new possibilities for learning, and strengthening the role of higher education as a space for curiosity, creativity, and critical thought.
Presenting at the SoTL Symposium
Proposals are encouraged from students, faculty, staff, administrators, and community partners committed to advancing scholarly inquiry into teaching and learning. We welcome submissions that demonstrate collaborative approaches across disciplines, institutions, and communities, particularly those that engage students as partners in inquiry. While submissions across all areas of SoTL are invited, preference will be given to proposals that resonate with the symposium theme.
We invite presentations in any of the four following formats:
Oral Presentations (40 mins)
If you are ready to disseminate your research, or parts thereof, consider an oral presentation. Whether a single presenter or a research team, you will have access to a mid-sized room with row seating for attendees, and a visual projection system. (maximum 30 mins presentation + 10 mins for discussion).
Roundtable Discussions (3x 20 mins)
In this popular roundtable discussion format, presenters will be seated at a table to have conversations and share their projects in an informal, low-tech format. This is especially suitable for work-in-progress, calls for collaboration, or those newer to SoTL. Multiple roundtables will run simultaneously in a larger room, and you’ll have the opportunity to engage with three small audiences during the session.
Poster Presentations
The poster session is a long-standing and popular tradition of the SoTL Symposium. Presenters are invited to go public with their ideas during an evening event with refreshments and hors d'oeuvres. What do you want to share? And how do you wish to engage with attendees at the event? Interactive and creative posters are encouraged but not required (think: stickies, QR codes, opening flaps). Most important is that you have ideas to share and you’re looking for direct feedback through conversation.
Pre-Conference Workshop (3 hours)
There are a limited number of pre-conference workshops offered. Submit a proposal if you are interested in offering one of these 3-hour sessions.
Pre-conference workshop proposals should be active in design.
Conference Tracks
We invite proposals that match one of the Conference tracks (see below) from individuals or teams of scholars.
- Research on teaching and learning – sharing findings from in-progress or complete SoTL inquiry projects, such as investigations of innovative pedagogies, student learning, or other aspects of post-secondary teaching and learning, with the full breadth of research methodologies welcome.
- Challenging ways of being, knowing, and doing - Discussions and research focused on critical issues in SoTL, such as social justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, students-as-partners, decolonization, and Indigenization.
- Theories and methods of SoTL - exploring conceptual issues, methodological approaches, and/or thought provoking questions about SoTL as a field.
Submissions
Scholarship is at the center of all successful proposals. We do not accept faculty development workshops at this symposium. Rather, we follow Peter Felten’s (2013) Principles of Good SoTL Practice in seeking abstracts that demonstrate the following elements:
- inquiry into student learning,
- grounded in context,
- methodologically sound,
- conducted in partnership with students, and
- appropriately public.
The following is required for all submission formats:
- names, affiliations, and contact email addresses for each presenter
- session title
- identify appropriate conference track
- maximum 150-word brief description for the symposium program to be published as-is
- maximum 300-word abstract for review, including in-text citations (3-5)
- maximum optional 50-word statement on how the proposal aligns with the theme
- bibliography listing 3-5 references, cited in your abstract
At least three experienced SoTL practitioners will anonymously review all proposals for relevance, fit to conference track, quality, and (when appropriate) audience engagement. While they review the session description, they will consider the following questions and criteria:
- Does the session description identify and explain how the content relates to important question(s) related to SoTL that would be of interest to SoTL practitioners?
- Does the session description demonstrate an understanding of SoTL issues and/or existing scholarship in the field?
- Is it grounded in context and methodologically sound?
- Where appropriate, are research questions, research methods/methodologies, and/or theoretical or conceptual framings articulated?
- Does the session include a relevant bibliography of up to 5 references?
- Where appropriate, is an indication of audience engagement described?
- How well does the proposal align to the conference theme and conference track(s)?
Felten, P. (2013). Principles of good practice in SoTL. Teaching and Learning Inquiry, 1(1), 121–125. https://doi.org/10.20343/teachlearninqu.1.1.121
Call for Proposals
- Call for proposals opens: March 17, 2026
- Call for proposals closes: May 4, 2026
- Notification of decisions: June 15, 2026
- SoTL Symposium registration opens: June 15, 2026
- Participation confirmation for inclusion in the program: July 6, 2026
- Pre-symposium workshops: October 22, 2026
- SoTL Symposium sessions: October 23 - 24, 2026
