Dr. Karen Ragoonaden appointed Associate Dean, Teacher Education

April 8, 2022

Dr. Karen Ragoonaden will assume the role of Associate Dean, Teacher Education, for a three-year term commencing September 1, 2022

Dr. Ragoonaden joined UBCO in 2005, was promoted to Senior Instructor with tenure in 2012 and to Professor of Teaching in 2018. As a university teacher and researcher, her focus and commitment to educational leadership and curricular innovation have been recognized by virtue of her on-campus, professional and community work relating to equity, diversity and inclusion.

In 2020, in recognition of her significant impact on the culture of teaching and learning, Dr. Ragoonaden received the Provost Office’s Teaching Excellence and Innovation Award. In 2021, she received the Killam Teaching Prize in recognition of her excellence in teaching. She served on the Faculty of Education’s Task Force on Race, Indigeneity, and Social Justice and as Senior Faculty Advisor to President Ono. Dr. Ragoonaden is currently serving as Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba.

As an active researcher, Dr. Ragoonaden’s scholarly interests lie in the area of mindfulness and well-being, culturally responsive pedagogy and conceptions of teaching and learning. Her current SSRHC grant (2021–24) is entitled “Mindfulness and Antiracist Education: Developing Critical Reflection.”

Thank you to Dr. Marianne McTavish, who has served as Associate Dean, Teacher Education since 2018. In her role, Dr. McTavish provided academic and operational leadership for all undergraduate and diploma programs in the Faculty of Education. Over the course of her time as Associate Dean, Teacher Education, Dr. McTavish interacted with numerous external groups and partners, including schools, school districts, the Ministry of Education and Childcare, and the Association of BC Deans of Education (ABCDE), which recognized Dr. McTavish’s contributions through the 2021 ABCDE Teacher Educator Award.

2022 Alumni Builder Award Reception

By anshnoor kaur

Thank you for joining us at the 2022 Alumni Builder Award Reception!

We hope you enjoyed the event. Click here to access the photos.

The Alumni Builder Award recognizes a cross-section of alumni representing both campuses who have significantly contributed to the university and enriched the lives of others, and in doing so, have supported alumni UBC’s mission of realizing the promise of a global community with a shared ambition for a better world and an exceptional UBC.

Performances

The reception will feature the Magee String Orchestra and the Magee Chamber Choir.

Presenter

Dr. Jan Hare, Dean pro tem, will present the Alumni Builder Award.

Recipient

Greg Quan, BEd’98, MEd’04

Through volunteerism and philanthropy, Greg’s support of the UBC Faculty of Education has helped lift one of the Faculty’s key commitments–mental health literacy and wellbeing.

Date

Tuesday, May 3, 2022

Time

7:00 – 8:30 pm PDT

Location

Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre

2022 UBC Okanagan Social Sciences and Humanities Researcher of the Year

By Paula Sabti

April 7, 2022

Dr. Margaret Macintyre Latta, Professor and Director, Okanagan School of Education, is the 2022 UBC Okanagan Social Sciences and Humanities Researcher of the Year

Dr. Margaret Macintyre Latta is a prominent researcher transforming traditional approaches to education. A champion of interdisciplinary and community-based research, her focus is to advance curriculum as a shared participatory learning experience that inspires reconciliation. Her practice-engaged research with Indigenous, school district and community partners supports educators in decolonizing their curriculum and teaching practices.

Over her career, she has received significant research funding over her career and has demonstrated a distinguished record of research. Notably, her current SSHRC Partnership Grant, Co-Curricular-Making: Honouring Indigenous Connections to Land, Culture, and the Relational Self, is connecting researchers, practitioners, and community members to inquire into, provoke, confront and challenge the colonizing practices that influence education, while also seeking respectful ways for educators to embody and orient their curricular practices toward productively contributing to reconciliation efforts.

Her research contributes to reorienting understandings of the roles and place of knowledge towards individual and collective growth and well-being, alongside reorienting understandings of curriculum as shared participatory learning experiences.

To learn more about her research, read Dr. Macintyre Latta’s profile.

Award Celebration

A special celebration to honour the 2022 Researcher of the Year award recipients will be hosted online and in-person on May 6, 2022 from 2:00-4:00 pm at the Innovation Centre in Kelowna. Hosts Phil Barker, Vice-Principal and Associate Vice-President, Research and Innovation, and Lesley Cormack, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Principal, will lead the awards ceremony which will feature video profile screenings, followed by an outdoor rooftop reception with live music. All are welcome to join. Registration is required.

About the Award

The Researcher of the Year awards were established in 2009 to recognize excellence in research and creative scholarly activity at UBC Okanagan.

To learn more about all four 2022 Researchers of the Year recipients, visit the UBCO Research and Innovation award page.

Practicing Anti-racism in (Language) Teaching Through Genre Analysis and Remixing

By Ayla Collins

Project Name

Practicing Anti-racism in (Language) Teaching Through Genre Analysis and Remixing

Team Members

Dr. Kathryn Accurso
Dr. Margaret Early

Project Summary

As part of their studies, Elementary Bachelor of Education students take a mandatory course in teaching English as an additional language. In 2021, the project team began piloting three new modules and one major course assignment on the topic of “anti-racist genre pedagogy”. This approach involves teaching language through the analysis of community counter-texts from racialized authors alongside canonical texts typically found in school curricula.

In order to refine and enhance this curriculum, the project explores: how elementary teacher candidates interacted with this curriculum; affordances and challenges for instructors; and what additional or refined materials are needed to better support teacher candidates’ and instructors’ knowledge, beliefs and practices of anti-racist language teaching.

2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject – School of Kinesiology

By Paula Sabti

April 6, 2022

The School of Kinesiology in the UBC Faculty of Education, together with the UBCO School of Health and Exercise Sciences, is ranked 1st in North America and 3rd globally, according to the 2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject

These stellar rankings reflect the dedication and support of the Faculty’s leading researchers, faculty, students, staff, donors and more, as well as our commitment to inclusion and innovation.

QS World University Rankings develops and successfully implements comparative data collection and analysis methods used to highlight institutions’ strengths. To learn more about QS World University Rankings, visit their 2022 rankings by subject web page. To learn how QS World University Rankings compiles rankings, visit their methodology web page.

2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject – Faculty of Education

By Paula Sabti

April 6, 2022

The UBC Faculty of Education is ranked 7th in North America and 14th globally according to the 2022 QS World University Rankings by Subject

These stellar rankings reflect the dedication and support of the Faculty’s leading researchers, faculty, students, staff, donors and more, as well as our commitment to inclusion and innovation.

QS World University Rankings develops and successfully implements comparative data collection and analysis methods used to highlight institutions’ strengths. To learn more about education and training QS World University Rankings, visit their 2022 rankings by subject web page. To learn how QS World University Rankings compiles rankings, visit their methodology web page.

Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur receives Advancing Community Engaged Learning Grant

By Ayla Collins

April 5, 2022

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur, who has been awarded an Advancing Community Engaged Learning Grant for the project Mapping Attachment to Place Through Walking Methodology. The project will support students in the Human Development, Learning, and Culture program course Advanced Seminar: Adolescence Through Emerging Adulthood to learn from and with youth through the Chilliwack Youth Health Centre’s programs offered Neighbourhood Learning Centre, Tzeachten Land Office and Stó:lo Wellness Centre. Together, participants will explore the meaning of place and place attachment, and represent this exploration through an open Wiki resource.

Dr. Vadeboncoeur’s work focuses on imagining and moral imagining in both imaginative play and student-teacher relationships in alternative programs, including how relationships enable children and youth to imagine and work toward more equitable social futures. Her work builds from critical ethnographic research in Canada, Australia and the United States with young people and teachers in alternative programs examining the ways in which they can both become safe spaces and perpetuate inequity. Dr. Vadeboncoeur has edited three books and authored one, most recently Vygotsky and the promise of public education (New York: Peter Lang). Learn more about Dr. Vadeboncoeur’s work.

Dr. Kenneth Miller appointed Edith Lando Professor in Counselling for Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families

By Paula Sabti

April 19, 2022

UBC Faculty of Education launches Professorship in Counselling for Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families

Edith Lando Professor in Counselling for Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families

“At least 82.4 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes. Among them are nearly 26.4 million refugees, around half of whom are under the age of 18.” – Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

There is limited research focusing on refugee children from war-torn countries and their transition to Canadian schools. Similarly, there is limited research on the impact migration and refugeehood have on children and their families, and on the role that counselling might play in overcoming their psychological isolation and trauma.

The Edith Lando Professor in Counselling for Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families—the first of its kind in the UBC Faculty of Education—will provide leadership in research to understand and respond to the current needs of immigrant and refugee children, youth and their families settling in Canada, and to further knowledge on the delivery of education and counselling services for these groups of people in British Columbia schools and beyond. Learn more.

“It is timely and significant that this position is dedicated to leadership addressing the current needs of immigrant and refugee children and youth and their families settling in Canada to extend the knowledge based on the delivery of education and counselling services. I think that now more than ever, with the current geopolitical crises unfolding, this role will make a difference to so many. The Faculty of Education is pleased and honoured to be able to support this work in the name of refugee and immigrant children and families with this generous donation.” – Dr. Jan Hare, Dean pro tem

Appointment

Dr. Kenneth Miller is appointed the Edith Lando Professor in Counselling for Refugee and Immigrant Youth and Families. The appointment will commence on June 1, 2022 for a five-year term.

Throughout his career, Dr. Miller has taken a unique approach to academia, centering his research, teaching, and service as opportunities to effect change through working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in war-affected countries.

Dr. Miller is currently a Senior Researcher at War Child Holland, a Netherlands-based, international non-profit organization that works to improve the resilience and wellbeing of children living with violence and armed conflict. He joined War Child in 2015 to help establish the organization’s Research and Development Department, where he develops and evaluates psychosocial interventions for conflict-affected communities. Previously, Dr. Miller was an Associate Professor of Psychology at Lesley University (2012–14), Pomona College (2005–08), and San Francisco State University (2004–05) where he was initially an Assistant Professor (1999–2004). He has published extensively on the mental health effects of armed conflict and displacement, and co-edited the book The Mental Health of Refugees. His book War Torn explores resilience and its limits in six war-affected communities. He also writes a popular blog on PsychologyToday.com named The Refugee Experience.

The Faculty of Education offers sincere thanks to the Edith Lando Charitable Foundation.

Tea with the Dean | June 21, 2022

By Paula Sabti

Faculty, instructors and staff are invited to attend the presentation of the 2021-22 Staff Excellence Awards

Date

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Time

3:00 to 4:30 pm PDT

Location

Ponderosa Ballroom

Host

Dr. Jan Hare, Dean pro tem, UBC Faculty of Education

Nominate a Faculty of Education staff member

Nomination packages are due on or before May 12, 2022.

Dean’s Award for Staff Excellence – 2022 Nomination Form

Send your completed nomination package to Shelly Liu at info.educ@ubc.ca.

Registration

Award Winners and Nominees

Congratulations to last year’s award winners and nominees.

2020-21 Award winners

Emerging Leader: Kai Kaufman, Research Coordinator, Kinesiology
Outstanding Service: Jesse Liang, Administrative Manager, ECPS

2020-21 Nominees

Kristin Schuppener, Administrative and Operations Manager, OSE
Natalie Simkin, Program Administrative Support, NITEP
Vicki Domansky, Senior Program Assistant, PDCE

Protected: Supporting International Students’ Academic Success

By Paula Sabti