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Paper Presentation

Title: Connectedness with Nature: Designing Curriculum for Climate Justice Using Design-Based Research

Leila Refahi is a visual artist, educator, and researcher. She is currently working on her master’s thesis in socially engaged art, public pedagogy, environment, and transformative learning. In her thesis, she is studying Art Based Environmental Education and the potential of art in transforming ecological knowledge.  Throughout her professional career, she ran various educational and artistic projects in Canada, Iran, Finland, and Germany, focused on environmental issues. Her Artworks presented in 6 solo exhibitions and more than 60 national and international group exhibitions and festivals.

Paper Presentation

Title: Mapping out Low-Achievers’ Plights in Turbulent Times and its Remedial Measures in Virtual Classroom

Fariha Asif is a Teacher Trainer, Certified Mentor, researcher, International presenter and an English Language Instructor/Coordinator-Mentoring Committee at English Language Institute, King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia. She is a recipient of Emerging Scholar Award for two consecutive years (2018 & 2019). She has presented her research paper at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK on 21-23 Mar 2018. She also has presented in Applied Linguistics & Language Teaching Conference at Zayed University, Dubai, U.A.E. on 8-10 March 2018. She has been honoured with a prestigious award of one-year Leadership Mentoring Program by TESOL Arabia 2017. She also has been selected as a Conference Ambassador for TACON2017. Furthermore, She has attended China-Europe Dialogue at Media Communication Studies Summer School, Switzerland in July 2016 and presented her research paper there. She has got Graduate Scholar Award-2015 for presenting her research paper in 13th International Conference of New Directions in Humanities at British Columbia University, Canada. In March 2014, she presented her research paper at Harvard University and Nevada University, USA. In July 2013, she attended 19th International Congress of Linguists, Geneva, Switzerland and met Father of Linguistics, Mr. Noam Chomsky there. This presentation will cover all the relevant issues about low performing learners and how to grapple with this issue in a judicious and sagacious manner.

Paper Presentation

Title: Making Art at Home during the Covid19 Pandemic: Young Visitors, Instagram, and Museum Collections

Emma June Huebner is a bilingual multidisciplinary artist and high school teacher from Montreal. She finds ways to make art no matter what medium but primarily expresses herself through her music, dance, and videography. In studying Art History at McGill University and Education at the University of Ottawa, she discovered how museums can be catalysts for placing creativity and cultural objects at the center of learning. She currently does museum education research as part of her master’s in Art Education at Concordia University.

Paper Presentation

Marisa Gelfusa is a Community Facilitator and Learning Designer. She is passionate about adult education and works in close collaboration with communities and non-profit organizations to design activities and tools that encourage knowledge and skill development, as well as agency.

Marisa is a member of the Universal Design for Learning Implementation and Research Network Special Interest Group (UDL-IRN SIG) and continues to learn and share about how the UDL framework can support the values and social mission of the non-profit sector.

The paper seeks to explore the applications of UDL into the many nonformal learning environments of the social sector where they could foster more inclusive learning activities. She is currently completing a Masters degree in Educational Studies at Concordia University in Montreal.

Paper Presentation

Topic: Exploring the roles and involvement of knowledge users in education research: A scoping review

Bernadine Sengalrayan is a Master’s student at the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. Her research focuses on knowledge mobilisation (bridging of research to practice and policy) in education. In particular, the relationship between knowledge producers and knowledge users, and whether those that do research and produce knowledge adequately work with or seek the insights of those who utilise that knowledge to inform classroom practice and policy decisions.
The benefit of getting the inputs of the knowledge users allows for research to be more publicly credible and applicable, and findings to be more readily translated into practice. Through a scoping review, Bernadine takes an exploratory look at the engagement of knowledge users of K-12 teaching and education policy research in Canada. It is hoped that the results from the scoping review will aid in uncovering the types of strong-reiterative-research-producer-user-connections best practices that can be adapted to future research.

Bernadine Sengalrayan

Panel

Title: Paulo Freire’s 100th Birthday and the Importance of his Legacy today.

Eluza Gomes is a master’s student in Adult Education at UQÀM (Université du Québec à Montréal). She has recently finished a graduate diploma in Adult Education at the same university. Eluza has taught in many levels of formal and non-formal education in Brazil and Quebec. Presently, Eluza volunteers for the Byenvini Project – an arts-based education programs for refugee children. Her research focuses on storytelling and women educators.

Eluza Gomes will be performing a song to open the panel. She will also be reciting a poem about diversity and Freire.

Paper Presentation

Title: SparkNotes study guides, reading behavior, and the literary canon in contemporary ELA education​

It is an open secret that high school and post-secondary students do not always read the books they are assigned in their English Language Arts (ELA) or literature classes—novels like Lord of the Flies, To Kill a Mockingbird, and 1984. Numerous editorials, blog posts, and articles in teaching trade publications have bemoaned the scourge of online study guides, which they claim students use to avoid the readings and cheat their way through English class. Of these, the most frequently cited offender is SparkNotes, a subsidiary of multibillion-dollar American bookselling giant Barnes and Noble and the dominant digital successor to printed study guides like Cole’s Notes and Cliffs Notes. The SparkNotes website attracts half a million visitors each month, and high school students report that its use is endemic among their peers; however, except for a passing mention in one qualitative study of reading behavior (Keller, 2013), no formal research has yet addressed the SparkNotes phenomenon.
This paper presents early research from a thesis project exploring SparkNotes’ impact on the ever-evolving theory and practice of ELA education. Preliminary findings from a large-scale survey of students’ SparkNotes use will be situated within a theoretical framework from New Literacy Studies (Hayles, 2012; Keller, 2013). In addition to describing aspects of contemporary students’ reading behavior in quantitative terms, this research raises questions about the role of primary texts in ELA education, particularly texts from the English literary canon.

Presenter

Amanda Light Dunbar is a Master’s student and incoming PhD student in the Department of Education at Concordia University, where she researches the role of SparkNotes study guides in English Language Arts (ELA) education. She holds a BA (Hon) in English Literature and a BEd from the University of British Columbia. In the past, Amanda has worked as an ELA and ESL teacher, and as a learning coach and program coordinator with the Learning Associates of Montreal, Trevor Williams Kids Foundation, and the Montreal Fluency Centre, specializing in literacy and executive function-based interventions for students with learning disabilities. These varied experiences have given Amanda a unique and nuanced perspective on education, which drives her to explore the points of disconnection between research, curriculum, and pedagogy. To connect, email amanda.light.dunbar@gmail.com.

Paper Presentation

Title: The Critical Window of Care: Reflections from Previously Suicidal Students That Shape Our Practice

Matt is finishing his doctoral research on youth suicide prevention at Queen’s University. His work centres around understanding youths’ perceived inaccessibility of others’ care during suicidal episodes, and, more importantly, how we might spark hope during youths’ darkest moments. Interviews, artifacts, and listening booth sessions with 20 youth from around the world reveal powerful glimpses into the profound loneliness of suicide, as well as how belongingness hold a promising key to future prevention efforts

Matthew Drabenstott

Paper Presentation

Title: It’s all Relative: Sibling and Parent Teaching in Early Childhood

Family teaching is a topic which has received limited attention, and within the teaching literature, parent- and sibling-directed teaching have widely been examined separately. However, both relationships are valuable for providing insight about the development of teaching and learning in early childhood. Investigating families’ use of conceptual (i.e., concepts, labels, general knowledge) and procedural knowledge (i.e., step-by-step processes, procedures) can deepen our understanding about how families co-construct meaning and scaffold learning within the home. This presentation will highlight the main findings of Julia’s Master’s thesis, which compared parents’ and siblings’ use of conceptual and procedural knowledge during naturalistic home observations. Particular attention will be paid to implications of family teaching practices in the home.

Julia Fuoco recently obtained her Master’s degree in Child Studies at Concordia University, where she pursued her research interests in sibling and parent teaching. Prior to her graduate studies, Julia completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at McGill University, with a double minor in Education and Behavioral Sciences. Her presentation for the Graduate Symposium centres around her Masters’ thesis, which explored family teaching during naturalistic home observations.

Paper Presentation

Topic: A Case for Accelerated Learning on the Basis of Self-Efficacy

The area of accelerated education has interested psychologists, sociologists, and practitioners for decades. Accelerated learning programs open the possibilities for educators who strive to redefine standards and policies that stigmatize learners who exceed age-based curricular expectations.

Sakina Rizvi is a PhD student in the Educational Studies program at McGill University. She completed a Master of Education degree in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and a Master of Arts degree from UK. Her research interests include self-efficacy development, accelerated learning, and innovative teaching pedagogies. She believes that students should be allowed to excel at a pace that matches their learning styles and abilities. Sakina has worked with accelerated students and has a good understanding of the challenges learners face in the absence of a stimulating learning environment. She is a passionate educator and is currently working as a high school teacher in Toronto. Sakina enjoys ice skating, travelling, and spending time with friends and family. Last summer, she took a road trip all the way to Tuktoyaktuk on the shore of the Arctic Ocean!