Teaching and Learning Centre
Teaching and Learning Centre
Teaching and Learning Specialist, Internationalization
Abbotsford campus, G104
email VictoriaMy role is to support faculty and staff interested in culturally responsive teaching and in building the intercultural, international, and global dimensions of their courses and programs. I hold a PhD in Teaching English as a Second Language from UBC and have taught undergraduate courses at six different universities in Canada and Europe.
I am the host and producer of a podcast called Ekta: Learning Differently, Together, where students share their stories about what has made them feel powerful and powerless in their learning journeys.
I seek to celebrate, support, and collaborate with faculty and staff. We can learn so much from each other’s expertise and experiences. Feel free to reach out and share your ideas.
PhD Teaching English as a Second Language, University of British Columbia
MA Applied Linguistics, Concordia University
Post-Bacc English-French Translation, Université de Montréal
BA French Honours
My approach is firmly rooted in a commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion as well as anti-racism.
Surtees, V., Marlor, M., Smith, D., & Akuffo, E. (2024, June). Building Communities Across Cultures: Faculty and Staff Intercultural Development. Workshop presented at BC International Education Week, Vancouver, B.C.
Surtees, V. (2023, June). Weaving frayed threads: Indigenizing an EDI statement? Story presented at the Building Reconciliation Forum, London, On.
Surtees, V., Hiltermann, K., Mutter, M. Mannington, P. & MacLaren, C. (2023, May). Innovations in collaboration: Working with experts and community stakeholders to design trauma-informed materials. Workshop presented at BCTEAL, Vancouver, BC.
Surtees, V. (2020). The hidden rules of school: Unpacking the cultural norms beneath the strategies we teach. Invited E-Keynote for Learning Strategists Association of Canada.
Abdi, K., Becker, A., Doherty, L., Duff, P., Li, D., & Surtees, V. (2019, June). Transnationalism and language socialization: Negotiating ideologies, identities, and practices. Colloquium presented at the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics Conference, Vancouver, BC.
McGregor, J., & Surtees, V. (2023). The audio-recorder as a resource for L2 learning in study abroad. Second Language Research & Practice, 4(1), 48–66. https://hdl.handle.net/10125/69878
Surtees, V., & Yamamoto, M. (2021). Creating an interactive online orientation to academic practices for international students. BC TEAL Journal, 6(1), 29-41. https://doi.org/10.14288/bctj.v6i1.378
Surtees, V. (2019). Challenging deficit constructions of the international student category in Canadian Higher Education. TESL Canada Journal, 36(1), 48–70. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v36i1.1302
Duff, P., Zappa-Hollman, S., & Surtees, V. (2019). Research on language and literacy socialization at Canadian universities. The Canadian Modern Language Review / La revue canadienne des langues vivantes 75(4), 308-318. https://muse.jhu.edu/article/744626.
Surtees, V. (2016). Beliefs about language learning in study abroad: Advocating for a language ideology approach. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 27, 85-103. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1099435.pdf
Surtees, V., & Balyasnikova, N. (2016). Culture clubs in Canadian higher education: Examining membership diversity. Canadian Journal for New Scholars in Education, 7(1), 66-73
Surtees, V. (2025). Podcasting with students: Affordances for counterstorytelling. Amplifying Student and Youth Voices in Education Research
Surtees, V. & P.A. Duff, (2022). Sociocultural approaches to speaking in SLA. In The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition and Speaking (pp.54-67). Routledge.
Duff PA, & Surtees, V. (2018). Social interaction and second language learning. In Cambridge Guide to Learning and Second Language (pp. 101-109). Cambridge University Press