Congratulations to all of our Graduate Students and their Supervisors on the successful defence of their PhD dissertations, and or MA thesis.
2025
Lee Iskander
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies
April | 2025
Dissertation Title | Gender normativity in teacher education: a critical participatory action research study with trans and gender nonconforming preservice teachers in Canada
Co-Supervisors | Dr. Harper Keenan and Dr. Leyton Schnellert
Yukiko Kaneko
Master of Arts (MA) | Art Education
March | 2025
Thesis Title | Artist-in-residence as space, place, and curriculum: becoming betweenness within material entanglement at the Aomori Contemporary Art Centre
Supervisor | Dr. Anita Sinner
Maria Athie Martinez
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies
January | 2025
Dissertation Title | Understanding reconciliation in the classroom: teachers’ responses to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action
Supervisor | Dr. Cynthia Nicol
2024
Diana Royea
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies
December | 2024
Thesis title | Preservice teachers’ experiences of learning study in an elementary mathematics education course: an activity theory-informed phenomenological inquiry
Supervisor | Dr. Cynthia Nicol
Liya Ma
Master of Arts (MA) | Curriculum Studies
December | 2024
Thesis title | Teaching from east to west: Chinese immigrant teachers negotiating professional teacher identity
Supervisor | Dr. Lisa Loutzenheiser
Julia Nord-Leth
Master of Arts (MA) | Health, Outdoor and Physical Education
December | 2024
Thesis title | Fresh air, fresh perspectives: teachers’ experiences, COVID-19, outdoor learning, and holistic health
Supervisor | Dr. LeAnne Petherick
Elysia Jellema
Master of Arts (MA) | Science Education
December | 2024
Thesis title | Understanding secondary science teachers’ beliefs through a learning study in the context of socioscientific issues
Supervisor | Dr. Yuen Sze Michelle Tan
Scott Robertson
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies
November | 2024
Dissertation title | Teaching from multiple midsts: autonomous secondary ELA teachers negotiating agencies in the context of K-12 curricular revision
Supervisor | Dr. Anthony Clarke
Brittney Townrow
Master of Arts (MA) in Curriculum Studies
October | 2024
Thesis title | Indigenous allyship in the classroom: a self-study of Indigenous education within the BC curriculum
Supervisor | Dr. Shannon Leddy
Marzieh Mosavarzadeh
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies (Art Education)
October | 2024
Dissertation title | Making–place a/r/tographically: invitations to framing and threading and bridging
Supervisor | Dr. Rita Irwin
Dana Lee
Master of Arts (MA) | Curriculum Studies
August | 2024
Thesis 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
Thesis 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
Thesis 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
Thesis 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 | Dr. Sandra Scott and Dr. Samson Nashon
2023
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 | Dr. Yuen Sze Michelle 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 | Dr. 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
2022
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 and Dr. Samuel D. Rocha
2021
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
Katie Gemmell
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies
July | 2021
Dissertation Title | “No longer missionary”: The Sisters of St. Ann and Vancouver’s Catholic Schools in the Long 1960s
Supervisor | Dr. Penney Clark
Nicole Lee
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Art Education
July | 2021
Dissertation Title | Squares for Breathing, Becoming and Beholding: Cultivating a Relationship with the Unknown
Supervisor | Dr. Rita Irwin
Current Position | Assistant Professor, Art Education, Division of Art History and Contemporary Culture, NSCAD University.
Kimberly Baker
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Art Education
June | 2021
Dissertation Title | Wayfinding Peace: Museums in Conflict Zones
Supervisor | Dr. Rita Irwin
Jiyoung Kate Shim
Master of Arts (MA) | Science Education
April | 2021
Thesis Title | Secondary science teachers’ views on climate change education in British Columbia
Supervisor | Dr. Samson Nashon
Mitsy Kwang Dae Chung
Master of Arts (MA) | Art Education
April | 2021
Thesis Title | Early childhood educators’ dialogical engagement in an artmaking space
Supervisor | Dr. Sandrine Han
Mathew Yanko
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Art Education
March | 2021
Dissertation Title | Living Assessment: The Artful Assessment of Learning in the Arts
Supervisor | Dr. Peter Gouzousis
LJ Slovin
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies
March | 2021
Dissertation Title | “Keep it Confusing”: Gender Nonconforming Youth Resisting Structures of Legibility in High School
Supervisor | Dr. Lisa Loutzenheiser
Blake Smith
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Curriculum Studies | Art Education
March | 2021
Dissertation Title | Being Against Disappearance: A Photographic Inquiry Through an A/r/tographic Lens
Supervisor | Dr. Rita Irwin