Abstract:

This session focuses on emerging doctoral research exploring the perspectives of Canadian student affairs professionals on how they understand and mobilize ethical relationality in their work. In the Canadian context, higher education institutions are increasingly adopting policy language surrounding reconciliation (TRC, 2015), of which ethical relationality (Donald, 2012; Ermine, 2007) is a core component. Exploring conceptualizations and practices that uplift ethical relationality provides insight into how student affairs professionals approach their roles—not solely as service providers or policy implementers, but as relational individuals acting on behalf of higher education institutions who are responsible for nurturing more ethical, interconnected relationships with students, colleagues, and external partners.

This presentation aims to provide participants with a thorough understanding of ethical relationality (Donald, 2012; Ermine, 2007) as an Indigenous concept that can contribute to improved relationships between students and student affairs professionals, contextually located in Canada wherein higher education institutions have a responsibility to mobilize truth and reconciliation as per the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC, 2015). This seminar features research that is part of a doctoral project seeking to understand how ‘reconciliation’ moves from policy to practice in Canadian higher education through the uplifting of ethically relational student affairs practices. This presentation is intended to introduce participants to these constructs that are innovative in the field of student affairs, an increasingly important area of scholarship within higher education studies, to expose participants to key Indigenous conceptualizations of relationality and their applicability in student affairs work.

Bio:

Danielle Gardiner Milln (she/her) is a doctoral candidate at the University of Alberta whose work focuses on equity-centered practices and policies in higher education. Her scholarship includes work centered on Indigenous student success, internationally educated teachers, and experiences of belonging for higher education students. This presentation emanates from her doctoral dissertation focused on how student affairs professionals in Canada understand and mobilize reconciliation in their work, aligned with Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission 94 Calls to Action (TRC, 2015),  with focus on ethical relationality as underpinning underpin the practices of student affairs professionals who choose to prioritize relationality in their work (Gardiner Milln et al., 2025). As a woman of settler ancestry, Danielle am continually committed to exploring how reconciliatory relations can be and are fostered in Canada, particularly within higher education, and the resultant impacts on student belonging and success.