Assistant Professor, Faculty of Education (Home)
Assistant Professor,Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry (Cross Appointment)
Assistant Professor, Department of Women’s Studies and Feminist Research, Faculty of Arts and Humanities and Faculty of Social Science (Affiliate Member)
Core Researcher, Centre for Education Research & Innovation (CERI)
Research Fellow, Centre for Education Research & Innovation (CERI) 2011-2012
Core Member, Interdisciplinary Network for Scholarship in Professions' Research in Education (INSPiRE)
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Research Interests
My research interests revolve around a focus on the 'scholarship of teaching and learning' (Boyer, 1990), the pedagogy of multiliteracies (The New London Group, 2000) communities of professional practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991), and the pedagogical potential of virtual learning environments. In particular, my interests lie in looking at the policies, decisions and practices surrounding learning environments that stimulate and engage educators' intellectual curiosity in ways that inform pedagogical decisions that ultimately create rich learning environments. I am keenly interested in what we, as educators, can achieve in participatory encounters with learners. I am interested in sociocultural approaches to literacy that first ask 'What is the nature of literacy in this setting' and then critical and feminist approaches that see to understand interests served, assumptions and consequences.
Selected Research Projects
A few of the projects I have recently been working on are,
- leading an investigation of scholarship in medical education across Canada with the support of an Academic Development New Research and Scholarly Initiatve Award: Major Grant;
- leading a research and development team designing digital interactives to enhance the literacies of Canadian youth in the area of managing their personal finances (funded by the not-for-profit Investor Education Fund);
- leading an investigation into research methodologies that may better capture multiliteracies through web-based social interaction networks (funded by SSHRC);
- participating in a BRIDGES project to develop educational resources for teachers working with women who are abused (PI: Susan Rodger, Collaborators, Rachel Heydon and Kathy Hibbert);
- participating in RURAL EDUCATION AND LITERACIES (REAL) RESEARCH NETWORK (PI Mike Corbett, Acadia).
Past Experiences
Administrative:
Director of Continuing Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, University of Western Ontario.
Director, Centre of Education in Medical Imaging, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario.
Consulting:
In addition to my teaching and research, I have worked with students, instructors and faculty in the fields of education, medicine, health sciences, policing and construction technology to develop pedagogical expertise in both the on-site and virtual environments.

