Two recently published books, featuring contributions by Faculty of Education members Dr. Michael Hoechsmann, Dr. Ellen Field, Dr. Connie Russell, and Dr. Gerald Walton have won 2022 American Educational Studies Association (AESA) Critics’ Choice Awards.

The three-volume, 125-chapter book, The SAGE Handbook of Critical Pedagogies (S. Steinberg & B. Down, editors) features a chapter by Connie Russell ("Fat Pedagogy and the Disruption of Weight-Based Oppression: Toward the Flourishing of All Bodies") and a chapter by Gerald Walton ("In a Rape Culture, Can Boys Actually Be Boys?"). Michael Hoechsmann edited the 10-chapter section on "Communication and Media." For more information on this book, see this link.

Education for Democracy 2.0: Changing Frames of Media Literacy, co-edited by Dr. Michael Hoechsmann, Gina Thésée (Université du Québec à Montréal), and Paul R. Carr (Université du Québec en Outaouais) has also won an AESA Critics' Choice Award. The book features a chapter by Ellen Field ("Is It All Just Emojis and LOL, or Can Social Media Foster Environmental Literacy and Activism?"). For more information on this book, see this link.

Maria Vasanelli (Former Director of Strategic Initiatives and Professional Learning, Faculty of Education) began her new role as the Chair of Lakehead University’s Board of Governors. The appointment has a term of two years.

Maria joined Lakehead's Board of Governors in 2015 and has served on several of its standing committees, including Finance and Operations, Governance and Nominating, and Learning and Liaison.

Maria's experience in senior administration in education includes Superintendent of Education at the Durham Catholic District School Board and Superintendent at the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board. She is currently the Director of Education at the Superior North Catholic District School Board and a member of the Ontario College of Teachers Council.

After earning her B.A. in Philosophy and a Bachelor of Education from Lakehead University, Maria received a Master in Religious Education degree from Saint Paul University, and a Master of Business Administration from Cape Breton University.

Among other accreditations, she holds a certificate in Canadian Aboriginal Relations from Confederation College, and recently completed a certificate in Executive Leadership at the Rotman School of Business.

Her professional interests include leadership development, board governance, and education equity.

Dr. Ruth Beatty (Associate Professor, Orillia) and Colinda Clyne (Coordinating Principal of Indigenous Education, Upper Grand District School Board) have been awarded a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant for their research project, titled “Researching a Comprehensive Culturally Responsive Indigenous Mathematics Program.”

Ruth describes the creation of culturally responsive Indigenous math educational opportunities for students as “the first step towards responding to the needs of Indigenous students with respect to math education.”

There are three main goals of their research:

(a) to work with community partners to establish protocols for engagement that brings together community members and classroom educators to create respectful, reciprocal relationships;

(b) to study the effects of integrating cultural knowledge, values, and perspectives on participating students’ cultural knowledge and mathematical achievement; and

(c) to assess levels of teacher confidence in co-planning and co-teaching with Indigenous community partners to incorporate holistic approaches of Indigenous pedagogy in mathematics education.

Ruth has been working with Indigenous artists and Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators in the Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) for the past four years, exploring short-term, culturally based mathematics investigations in classrooms. The SHHRC Partnership Engage Award enables this work to continue in further depth through the implementation of year-long investigations in four participating UGDSB classrooms.

In 2021/22, Lakehead University received nearly $2 million in assistance from the Research Support Fund to support the indirect costs of research, which includes costs for supporting the management of intellectual property, research and administration, ethics and regulatory compliance, research resources, and research facilities.

Pictured below: Colinda Clyne (left) and Ruth Beatty (right)

The Faculty of Education's September 2022 Education Exchange newsletter is now published.

This issue features articles on the "Operation Happy to Be Here" research project, the digitization of program archives from the Native and Indigenous Language Instructors' Programs, faculty news, alumni profiles, and more.

To access the Education Exchange newsletter, click here.

Steven Secord (Contract Lecturer, Orillia) has received a Contribution to Teaching award for the 2021-2022 academic year. The Committee noted that Steven’s students cited his passion for teaching, his innovative use of technology, and his clarity of instruction in their nomination. They also shared that his classes are engaging and effective, giving them opportunities to learn from and with professionals in various types of science education.

“Since we teach future teachers, I try to ensure that students have fantastic experiences with their learning, so they can pass this along when they are teaching their students,” he says. “I am very grateful for the students’ nomination.”

Congratulations, Steven!

In conjunction with Lakehead’s Year of Climate Action, Faculty members Dr. Ellen Field (Assistant Professor, Orillia) and Dr. Paul Berger (Associate Professor, Thunder Bay), along with graduate students Devon Lee (PhD program) and Sara Layton, Olivia Hunt, and Craig Barclay (MEd program) edited and curated a special issue of Pathways: Ontario Journal of Outdoor Education, titled “Year of Climate Action.”

The Summer 2022 issue of the Journal features numerous examples of graduate and undergraduate student learning and engagement with climate change in the Faculty.

As outlined in the Editors’ introduction, “We have curated this Special Issue … to share [Lakehead] student writing, multi-modal media art, and poetry about the climate crisis as both a call-to-action and pedagogical inquiry on how we, collectively, as educators, can turn to what profoundly matters in these moments of rapid change and uncertainty. … The pieces selected for this theme are snapshots of our students’ sense of urgency, and offer windows into the accompanying complex climate emotions and the importance of action.”

The journal’s contents are organized into four themes exploring climate change education and pedagogy: Connections to Place and Land - Flourishing and Survival; Urgency and Processing Complex Emotions; Agency and Activism; and Climate Change Education.

Pathways is published by the Council of Outdoor Educators of Ontario (COEO), a non-profit, volunteer-based organization that promotes outdoor education experiences for people of all ages.

To access a digital copy of the Special Issue, please contact Ellen Field.

Dr. Gary Pluim (Assistant Professor, Orillia), has received an International Research Partnership Award from Lakehead University for his research project, “Enhancing international research networks in Malta and Southern Africa.” This VPRI (Vice-President, Research and Innovation) award supports research that promotes increased engagement with international partners to address global challenges and issues.

Gary’s research focuses on the transfer of educational curriculum between Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean, South Pacific, Eurasia, and sub-Saharan Africa. His work examines not just the challenges and opportunities with curriculum lending and borrowing, but also the cultural consequences of education transfer in post-colonial settings. The International Research Partnership Award will allow him to advance this research by formalizing agreements with institutions in Eurasia and South Africa. Previous partnerships from the project have been established with the University of the South Pacific and the Bahamas Technical and Vocational Institute; this funding will enable him to pursue prospective MoUs with organizations in Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini, and South Africa.

“This award will assist in the development of sustainable research collaborations by deepening relations with potential partners in Southern Africa,” Gary explains. “Connecting with organizations directly will allow us to explore the viability of the project in these regions while enabling a greater understanding of the culture and contexts of our research. We will also look at the possibility of drafting collaborative funding proposals for research in which our interests might align.”

Having established relations with international partners in Malta and Cyprus this year, Gary is currently preparing for a field visit to Southern Africa later this year or early 2023. This trip is scheduled to begin in Johannesburg and Pretoria (South Africa), and continue to Gaborone (Botswana), Maseru (Lesotho), and Mbabane (Eswatini), with presentations, meetings, and tours scheduled at each location.

Professor Connie Russell and Joint PhD alumna Erin Cameron (who is now a faculty member at the Northern Ontario School of Medicine University) co-authored a chapter, "Fattening Education: An Invitation to Expand on the Nascent Field of Fat Pedagogy" for the 2021 book, The Routledge International Handbook of Fat Studies (edited by C. Pausé & S. R. Taylor). The book was recently named an Association of College and Research Librarians’ “Choice Outstanding Academic Title.”

A recently published book co-authored by Dr. Graham Passmore (Associate Professor, Thunder Bay campus) aims to provide readers with a deeper understanding of Identity Structure Analysis (ISA). The text uses patterns in theoretical data sets to create reports for different ISA identity variants. The patterns are then used to uncover guidance for mentorship sessions for the purposes of professional development. The text also introduces an ISA mobile app. The app was created to add to the capabilities of an extant analytic ISA software in that it will make data collection possible on a phone or other small screen device.

The book was co-authored by Julie Prescott (University of Law, UK), and builds on a prior publication from 2019: Identity Structure Analysis and Teacher Mentorship: Across the Context of Schools and the Individual.

Dr. Holly Tsun Haggarty, graduate of the Joint PhD in Educational Studies program (Thunder Bay campus, 2021) has been awarded the 2022 Canadian Philosophy of Education Society (CPES) Dissertation Award. This award recognizes an outstanding dissertation that addresses significant issues in the philosophy of education field.

Holly’s dissertation, titled Sky, Ground and In-Between: Metaphysical Belief Systems That Underpin Epistemologies of Arts-Integrating Research, was described by her external reviewer as a “bold and creative dissertation, a work [that] uses a cogent research design that weaves multiple layers of meaning making into the inquiry and rendering,” an inquiry that is “unique, looking at epistemological underpinnings of two arts-integrating methodologies,” and one that “clearly demonstrates expertise, extensive study and attention to convening research to the audience.”

Both the form and content of Holly’s work comprise major strengths of her work. The arts-integrating form includes a vividly presented script (for a play), comic illustrations, and poetry. The depth of study and compelling arguments for why metaphysical orientations matter underpin the work’s extensive literary and philosophical overviews, focusing ultimately on Elliot Eisner’s arts based research and Rita Irwin et al.’s a/r/tography, and the enactment of philosophy in education settings.

The CPES reviewers of Holly’s dissertation offered very positive comments. One noted: “This challenging work confronts our assumptions about how to do philosophy of education and how our ideas can intersect with different genres, including poetry and works of fiction.” And a second reviewer noted: “We rarely think about how to integrate arts-integrated research into the field of philosophy of education. This dissertation provides us with some methodological insights and asks us to think about our own discipline through arts-related methods.”

The dissertation was nominated for the award by committee members Dr. Pauline Sameshima, Dr. Douglas Karrow, and Dr. Donald Kerr.

Holly previously won the CSEA/SCES (Canadian Society for Education through Art) Dissertation Award for her work. A copy of the work is available online.

On behalf of the Faculty of Education, congratulations Holly!