Joining the Faculty of Education in 2023, Dr. Cristiano B. Moura came to SFU from Brazil, where he taught at the Federal Center for Technological Education Celso Suckow da Fonseca. From 2019, he held the position of assistant professor in the Graduate Program in Science, Technology & Education, supervising masters and PhD students in science education. In 2019, Dr. Moura earned his doctorate at the Federal Center for Technological Education of Rio de Janeiro with an exchange period at York University. Previously, he also taught chemistry in Brazil’s public school system.

Dr. Ana Maria Navas Iannini joined the Faculty of Education in Fall 2022 from the University of Los Andes in Colombia. Specializing in informal science education (ISE), she brings an extensive array of graduate and undergraduate teaching and graduate mentorship experiences as well as a portfolio of research projects in collaboration with Simon Fraser University, the University of São Paulo (Brazil) and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education - University of Toronto, where she received her PhD in 2017.

Joining the Faculty of Education in fall 2022, Dr. Jeannie Kerr describes herself as “an educational philosopher, theorist, and qualitative researcher” of Irish and settler identity. Appointed as an associate professor in Curriculum Studies: Educational Theory and Pedagogy, she brings to bear significant experience as a teacher in culturally enriched urban K–12 classrooms, which deeply informs her scholarship focused on examining societal inequalities in K-12, teacher education, and higher education settings. Her work seeks to disrupt the centring of Euro-Western approaches and knowledges in research, theory, and practice.

Dr. Ching-Chiu Lin joined the Faculty of Education in July 2022 as an assistant professor in Arts Education. Ching has been actively engaged in scholarship since 2011, much of it funded by SSHRC. Her focus is community art education and new modes of learning and practice, particularly involving digital media. She highlights visual methods such as graphic novels, participatory videos, and video case studies, all within the framework of arts-based educational research.

Appointed to the Faculty of Education as an assistant professor in summer 2022, Dr. Lilach Marom is interested in questions related to diversity, inclusion, anti-racism, and social justice in teacher education. Having worked as an educator in multiple locations and countries (Israel, the United States, and Canada) with culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse populations, Lilach is particularly concerned with the barriers facing internationally educated teachers, racialized, and Indigenous teachers. Her work focuses on efforts toward diversifying teacher education and the teaching force. A starting point of her academic inquiry is grounded in her positionality as an immigrant, Jewish, settler educator.

Dr. Sara Florence Davidson is a Haida/Settler educator and scholar who has a PhD in Literacy Education. One of the main areas of focus in her research is seeking ways to merge the strengths of Indigenous and non-Indigenous perspectives and pedagogical practices in the K-12 system. She is also the project lead on Indigenous Storybooks where she is learning about how traditional Indigenous stories can be used to strengthen text-based and Indigenous literacy practices.

Dr. Cher Hill’s primary areas of expertise include teacher education, qualitative research methods, and practitioner-inquiry, as well as reflective and diffractive practice. Her current scholarship utilizes new materialist theories and to make visible the complex entanglements between humans and more-than-humans within educational contexts. Her recent work involves collaborating with community partners to educate citizens about the impact of colonialism on the Fraser watershed and mobilizing them to restore local creeks.

Dr. Robyn Ilten-Gee’s research is interdisciplinary and focuses on three areas: children’s moral and social development with applications to education, critical pedagogy and social justice education, and digital media production and journalism education. She is interested in taking a critical approach to moral development and moral education, critical digital literacy and ways in which multimedia production and journalism can grow critical consciousness and critical moral reasoning.

Dr. Gillian Judson’s current research looks at the role of imagination in leadership. Her previous scholarship examines imagination’s role in learning (K-post-secondary), imaginative and ecological teaching practices (PreK through post-secondary), and imaginative assessment in the post-secondary context. She plans to research the nature of the leadership (involving both formal administrators and instructional leaders) in schools implementing Imagination in Ecological Education practices such as the "Walking Curriculum".

Dr. Kristiina Kumpulainen’s research focuses on children’s digital literacies, agency and creativity, and learning and teaching practices with evolving technologies in formal education and informal learning environments, including early childhood education centers, schools, homes, museums, science centers, libraries, outdoors, and in digital and immersive worlds. She has researched and developed pedagogies, learning environments and tools for children’s Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) learning, multiliteracies, and for children’s environmental and climate change education.

Anchored in critical disability studies, decolonial theory, and sociocultural, constructivist approaches to learning and teaching, Dr. Stepaniuk’s research and teaching (a) expose the politics of dehumanization embedded in educational systems and (b) support schools and educators to become social justice-oriented educational leaders. Two inquiries that have guided her academic and professional journeys are how to transform schools into inclusive and equitable communities and how to support educators to become social justice-oriented educational leaders.

Dr. Yumiko Murai’s research focuses on designing and studying technological tools, programs, and environments that support learner motivation and confidence through online and in-person creative activities. She shared her journey from a music educator to a researcher and how her experiences from her music classes inspired her to pursue an Ed.D and to explore creative learning approaches in education.

Geneviève Brisson is an assistant professor in Language and Literacy and Francophone Education at SFU. Since joining the Faculty of Education in the Fall of 2017, she has been busy working on a variety of research projects, teaching in the French module of the PDP (Professional Development Program) and contributing to the next generation of researchers by sitting on master and doctoral committees. She has recently come back from participating in the AAAL (American Association of Applied Linguistics) conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

Dr. Angel Lin is a Professor in the Faculty of Education and Canada Research Chair in Plurilingual and Intercultural Education. Dr. Lin's current research focus is language use in the classroom. She is exploring new theoretical horizons in classroom language education, beginning with the ways that formal teaching and the use of standardized national languages are in tension with ordinary language use.

Dr. Goodwill, Registered Psychologist in British Columbia (BC), joined the Faculty of Education in September 2017 as an Assistant Professor in the Counselling Psychology program. She is an Indigenous scientist-practitioner and educator who uses decolonization lenses to mental health practices by addressing serious manifestations of colonial violence.

Dr. Dharamshi talks with us after recently concluding the data collection phase for her project funded by a grant from the Institute for the Study of Teaching and Learning in the Disciplines (ISTLD).

Dr. Minami, Assistant Professor, joined the Faculty of Education in May 2016. Currently, he serves as the Assistant Secretary General for the International Committee for Morita Therapy.