Successful Student Defences

Congratulations to all of our Graduate Students and their Supervisors on the successful defence of their PhD dissertations, and or MA thesis.


Dana Lee

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies

August | 2024

Dissertation title | ChildCareBC initiatives: a Foucauldian-inspired policy analysis

Supervisor | Dr. Anne Phelan


Meghan Allen

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Science Education)

August | 2024

Dissertation title | An in-depth exploration of student experiences and perspectives of learning technical writing in undergraduate computer science education

Supervisor | Dr. Anne Phelan


Ken Morimoto

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Art Education)

July | 2024

Dissertation title | Walking an a/r/tographic garden: propositions with art education, curriculum theory, and love

Supervisor | Dr. Rita Irwin


Shahidul Islam

Master of Arts (MA) | Science Education

July | 2024

Dissertation title | British Columbian and Bangladeshi secondary science teachers’ views on the role of professional learning communities in the growth of their knowledge for teaching

Supervisor | Dr. Marina Milner Bolotin


Margaret O’Sullivan

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Music Education)

June | 2024

Dissertation title | Community music making and learning for the 21st century: autoethnographic stories, touchstones of quality, and positive youth development

Supervisor | Dr. Peter Gouzouasis


Suresh Ghimire

Master of Arts (MA) | Curriculum Studies

June | 2024

Dissertation title | Hands-on pedagogies in science classrooms: exploring Nepali teachers’ perspectives on learning kits and inquiry-based science learning

Supervisor | Dr. Marina Milner Bolotin


Laura Werbitsky

Master of Arts (MA) | Curriculum Studies

June | 2024

Dissertation title | Exploring how discourses of curriculum reform shape teachers’ subjectivities

Supervisor | Dr. Anne Phelan


Ting Zhang

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Mathematics Education)

April | 2024

Dissertation title | Exploring children’s mathematics learning and self-regulation in robotics

Supervisor | Dr. Ann Anderson


Angela Baldus

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Art Education)

March | 2024

Dissertation title | Art, address, and correspondence: variations on pedagogical presence

Supervisor | Dr. Rita Irwin


Tsubasa Saito

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Math Education)

March | 2024

Dissertation title | Sense-making in learning mathematics across languages and countries: cases of multilingual students in a weekend Japanese school (hoshuko)

Supervisor | Dr. Susan Gerofsky


David Strich

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Science Education)

January | 2024

Dissertation title | Exploring Students’ Understandings and Perspectives of Place: The Case of Place in a Skagit Valley

Supervisor | Sandra Scott and Samson Nashon


Rodrigo Mendonça dos Santos

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Curriculum Studies)

January | 2024

Dissertation title | Teachers’ narratives of resisting deprofessionalization

Supervisor | Dr. E. Wayne Ross


Naomi Kawamura

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Social Studies Education)

December | 2023

Dissertation title | The intergenerational transfer of nikkei memory: museums facing the absence of “witness” founders

Supervisor | Dr. Penney Clark


Matthew Isherwood

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Art Education)

November | 2023

Dissertation title | Towards a pedagogy of disidentification: the promise of queer aesthetic sensibility as a cultivated disposition

Supervisor(s) | Dr. Rita Irwin and Dr. William Pinar


Travis Fuchs

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies

August | 2023

Dissertation title | Engaging in Socially Responsible Science Education (SRSE): professional development of secondary science teachers through a Learning study approach

Supervisor | Michelle Yuen Sze Tan


Conan Chung Man Lee

Master of Arts (MA) | Science Education

May | 2023

Thesis title | Science learning through YouTube comments on science videos embedding movies

Supervisor | Dr. Marina Milner-Bolotin


Renee Diemert

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies

May | 2023

Dissertation title | Exploring International Baccalaureate students’ experiences of community-based learning: an interpretive case study

Supervisor | Dr. Cynthia Nicol


Hannah Sanvido

Master of Arts (MA) | Health, Outdoor & Physical Education

May | 2023

Thesis title | Women and nonbinary people’s understandings of their sports-based activism

Supervisor | Shawn Forde


Kshamta Hunter

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies

February | 2023

Dissertation title | Urban youth sustainability leaders’ leadership competencies in engaging transformative social innovative solutions for local wicked problems

Supervisor | Dr. Samson Nashon


Joann Ihuoma Anokwuru

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies

January | 2023

Dissertation title | Living and Learning with Disabilities in Nigeria: An Ecological Narrative Inquiry

Supervisor(s) | Dr. Karen Meyer and Dr. Leyton Schnellert


Anna Ryoo

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Art Education

November | 2022

Dissertation title | Art, education, Arendt : political and aesthetic gestures of amor mundi

Supervisor(s) | Dr. Rita Irwin, Dr. Samuel D. Rocha


Angela Rutakomozibwa

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Science Education

December | 2021

Dissertation title | Effect of computer simulations on female students’ motivation for and engagement with physics learning: a case of secondary schools in Tanzania

Supervisor(s) | Dr. Samson Nashon and Dr. Sandra Scott


Anne Hales

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies

December | 2021

Dissertation Title | Towards a genealogy of the mentor in early career teacher mentorship programs

Supervisor | Dr. Anne Phelan


Haideh Hashemi Nouri

Master of Arts (MA)

December | 2021

Thesis Title | Becoming anew as an educator: thinking with Arendt through narrative

Supervisor | Dr. Anne Phelan


Alexis Gonzalez Donoso

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Science Education

November | 2021

Dissertation Title | Exploring in-Service Science Teachers’ Assessment Literacy on Teaching with Models

Supervisor | Dr. Samia Khan


Fay Bigloo

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies

October | 2021

Dissertation Title | Cosmo-Currere: To Understand Curriculum as Bio-Geospheric Justice and Terra-Didactic Text

Supervisor | Dr. William Pinar


Amanda Fritzlan

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Mathematics Education

September | 2021

Dissertation Title | A Narrative Inquiry Into Teachers’ Experiences with Community, Place, and Indigenous Knowledge in Mathematics Education

Supervisor | Dr. Cynthia Nicol


Keenan Way

Master of Arts (MA) | Home Economics Education

August | 2021

Thesis Title | Women’s experiences of knowledge sharing, empowerment & connecting through domestic cooking

Supervisor | Dr. Kerry Renwick


Bruce Moghtader

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies

August | 2021

Dissertation Title | Human capital theory of education

Supervisor | Dr. William Pinar


Kwesi Yaro

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Mathematics Education

August | 2021

Dissertation Title | Understanding African immigrant families’ support for their children’s mathematics learning in Canada

Supervisor | Dr. Ann Anderson

Current Position | Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education, University of Alberta