AERA 2022 Presentations

I will be presenting the following papers at this year’s AERA conference. Please click here to see specific times and location.

Overcoming Inert Ideas: The Power of Design, Agency, and Experience

Co-author with Meghan Cook

The Seven Oaks School Division in partnership with Wayfinders, an after-school tutoring program, and New Media Manitoba, a non-profit organization designed to bring together the interactive digital media community in the province of Manitoba, have created an interactive digital media experience for learners within Seven Oaks. Two different programs engage learners with the skills and knowledge to participate in the video game industry while in high school. This paper outlines the design of the program and then captures the experience of learners and posits that by lengthening the school day, engaging learners in deep learning, creating post-secondary pathways, and connecting them with passionate adults, learners develop mastery and identity that leads to flourishing.

Keywords: Experiential Education, Interactive Digital Media, Mentorship, Equity

AERA Presentation Link

Link to Paper

Indigenous Learners in the Manitoba Teacher, 1919 to 2019

This paper analyzes The Manitoba Teacher, the principal publication of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, since its first publication in 1919. The analysis focuses on what has changed and what has remained the same in terms of how Indigenous learners have been perceived by settler educators over a century. This paper argues that over the century Indigenous people in Manitoba have been prohibited from the conception, design, and management of their own education. Coupled with this, there has always existed an intense desire on the part of settlers to provide a system of education with a variety of aims stemming from eradication, integration, and good intentions. The tension between the prohibition and intent to provide a colonial education has also been shadowed by moments and movements of resistance, resurgence, and reclamation. Indigenous communities began to counter the cultural erasure in The Manitoba Teacher by the 1970s. There are hints and glimpses of Indigenous communities and allies trying to wake teachers up and advocating for Indigenous control of education in the name of the inclusion of land, language, and culture in schools.

Keywords: Indigenous Education, History of Education, Reconciliation, Decolonization

AERA Presentation Link

Link to Paper

Experiential Education: Evidence of Learning

Scholar-Educators in the Seven Oaks School Division Post Baccalaureate Degree Programme in Inquiry at the Seven Oaks School Division Aki Centre — the Division’s land-based learning centre.

This past term, twenty scholar-educators came together every Tuesday evening to think deeply about teaching and learning, about what we mean by an educative experience, and about the numerous false dichotomies that plague educational discourse. The Topics in Experiential Education course offered by the Seven Oaks School Division and the University of Winnipeg Post Baccalaureate Degree Programme is an opportunity to dive into what it means to teach and learn and to put our design and assessor hats on.

We will be launching the third PBDE in Inquiry Cohort in Fall 2022.

Below are the final reflections of some of the scholar-educators:

TEDxMaplesMetSchool

Each year, I get the opportunity to plan a TEDxYouth event with learners from the Maples Met School. This year, due to COVID, we had to do some fancy foot work, but we were able to produce what we think is powerful evidence of youth thinking critically and in an anti-colonial way. Enjoy!