Faculty of Education

We're celebrating several Faculty of Education faculty members who have recently received Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Development Grants that will support of their academic research. They are exploring how education can better support students and communities, while tackling challenges that matter today and helps generate new ideas for tomorrow.

Research funding is a key part of that process. It gives us the opportunity to pursue emerging questions, work with community partners, and turn promising ideas into meaningful impact.

For our students, this means learning in a faculty where discovery is happening every day. They study alongside researchers whose work is influencing education beyond the university and helping shape the future of the field.

The following research will be supported by the SSHRC grants:

Dr. Xiaoxiao Du: "Examining Full-Day Kindergarten in Manitoba from an Equity Perspective: Implementation and Impact on Students and Families"

Dr. Amir Michalovich and Dr. Jan Stewart: ”Embracing refugee-background youth's difficult knowledge through digital storytelling in mainstream classrooms: Toward a trauma-informed pedagogical model for teachers"

Dr. Peng Liu: "Exploring the development of optimism among visible minority principals in Manitoba schools"

Dr. Sandra Kouritzin: "Erasure and Epistemic Injustice: Autistic Professors and Institutional Governance in Canadian Universities"

Dr. Merli Tamtik: "School Governance Untangled: Multi-level Governance in Public Schools"

What happens when educators teach and learn through video podcasting? 🎥🎤🎬

As part of a two-week intensive course on multiliteracies, post-bacc and graduate-level students engaged in a live video podcast simulation that combined role-play, collaboration, and digital multimodal learning.

Taking on various production roles (e,g. podcast hosts, guests, directors, and videographers), they explored authentic educational dilemmas using multiple forms of communication while managing the technical and creative aspects of a live production.

The activity highlighted the power of learning by design, agency, and multimodal meaning-making to create engaging and inclusive learning experiences for diverse learners.

Congratulations to Dr. Joe Curnow on receiving the Rh Chrysalis Awards for Exceptional Early-Career Recognition. These awards are an important opportunity for UM to celebrate researchers across disciplines who are leading transformative impacts in society.

Dr. Curnow has established herself as an internationally recognized scholar whose innovative research explores how learning drives social change. Through groundbreaking work on social movements, activism, and community-led approaches to justice and safety, she has advanced both educational research and community impact.

Her impressive achievements include prestigious awards and fellowships, significant research funding, influential publications, and leadership roles within the learning sciences community. Dr. Curnow’s creativity, scholarly excellence, and commitment to more equitable futures make her a truly deserving recipient of this honour.

"To anyone who is considering taking Introduction to Education, whether teaching is a life-long love, a budding curiosity, or if you’re questioning whether teaching is right for you at all: it is beyond worth it for you to take this course. At its core, beyond exploring critical concepts and questions about what education means, Introduction to Education is about connection. You imagine and re-imagine the role of an educator, developing relationships with the aspirations/understandings of those with whom you share a classroom, and as a result, you build a bridge between who you are and the teacher you want to become." - Ayshia Burchill, Introduction to Education student 2025

Registration is now open! Look for EDUA-1790 and EDUB-1790 on Aurora.

Looking for a summer read? ☀️📚

Check out 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘰𝘵𝘩 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘳 by faculty member Dr. Amy Farrell. This captivating novel follows sixteen-year-old Aubrey as she grapples with grief, guilt, and unsettling visions, all while discovering the strength found in Anishinaabe teachings, family, and community. The story blends the physical and spiritual worlds in a powerful journey of healing and self-discovery.

What makes this novel especially unique is its connection to Amy’s research. The Moth Dreamer grew out of her work on Indigenous storying as a method of knowledge sharing, drawing on sacred stories, the Seven Sacred Teachings, and cultural protocols around ethics and behaviour.

This book even made McNally Robinson's best-sellers wall!

✨ Year in review with Marvin Manaol [B.Ed./2025] >>>

He was hired as a term position for the year of 2025-26 as middle years grade 6 core classroom teacher to teach Math, science, ELA, social studies, art, health, and he has now landed a permanent position teaching grade 7 starting in September!
 
Of his experience so far, Marvin says being hired a week into the school year felt challenging and at times with lesson preps, admin work, and coaching various sports, but that he was fortunate enough to be surrounded by people who were very supportive, who understood what it’s like to be a first year teacher and who wanted to help him succeed. “I learned a lot during the first year and develop a better understanding of my own teaching style. Watching my students develop their knowledge and understanding and growing relationships is one of the most rewarding experiences.”

Congratulations to the recipients of the Education Student Council Professor/Instructor Impact awards. 👏

Dr. Cameron Hauseman, Neil Dempsey, and Rachael Fecyk-Lamb were celebrated at the Grad Dinner with B.Ed. students, Faculty, and Administrators.

They were honoured to receive these student-voted awards, recognizing the positive impact they had throughout their students’ studies at the Faculty of Education.

PhD student Ash Alberg is dyeing to learn. 🌸

Using plants, insects, and other natural materials, Ash is exploring how natural dyeing can transform the way students experience learning—bringing together science, history, math, and art in one hands-on process.

Ash’s research at the Faculty of Education also centres on teachers—creating space for curiosity, creativity, and well-being through experiential, land-based learning.

Natural dyeing is the process of drawing colour from plants, insects, and other natural materials.

Natural dyeing in classrooms helps students slow down, focus, and engage in a different way. Ash has seen firsthand how working with natural materials can support students who struggle with overstimulation, offering a more grounded, meaningful learning experience.

Ash Alberg’s research is grounded in land-based learning, Indigenous ways of knowing, and posthumanism theory—approaches that emphasize learning with the land, rather than simply about it.

“I’m not actually interested in getting a particular colour,” Alberg explains. “I’m interested in building a relationship with the plants I’m working with, with the materials, and letting them guide me.” - Ash Albert, Faculty of Education PhD candidate

The benefits for students are visible, much of Alberg’s doctoral research focuses on educators themselves. Teacher burnout and classroom pressures have intensified in recent years, yet opportunities for teachers to experience curiosity-led, embodied learning are limited.

In classrooms, natural dyeing becomes a way to connect learning across disciplines. A single lesson can involve science, math, history, art, and environmental studies

Alberg credits the Faculty of Education for supporting a doctoral path that challenges conventional expectations around research methods and outcomes.

Alberg’s doctoral research also focuses on educators themselves. Teacher burnout and classroom pressures have intensified in recent years, yet opportunities for teachers to experience curiosity-led, embodied learning are limited.

“This is research that doesn’t stay on a shelf—it lives in classrooms, communities, and relationships.”

PhD student Ash Alberg is dyeing to learn. 🌸

Using plants, insects, and other natural materials, Ash is exploring how natural dyeing can transform the way students experience learning—bringing together science, history, math, and art in one hands-on process.

In the classroom, these practices help students slow down, focus, and engage in a different way. Ash has seen firsthand how working with natural materials can support students who struggle with overstimulation, offering a more grounded, meaningful learning experience.

Ash's research at the Faculty of Education also centres on teachers—creating space for curiosity, creativity, and well-being through experiential, land-based learning.

"This is research that doesn’t stay on a shelf—it lives in classrooms, communities, and relationships."

https://loom.ly/SRmbuWg

Dyeing to learn Ash Alberg reimagines doctoral research and how natural dyes are shaping new approaches to education.

Leaders like Dr. Lucy Delgado are helping reimagine what inclusive spaces can and should look like.

Lucy is part of a UM research team that recently received over $1M in CIHR funding to explore how intentionally created inclusive spaces impact the health and wellness of Métis women and Two-Spirit people. Through this work, she is helping lead gatherings across the Métis homeland—starting here in Winnipeg, the heart of the Red River Métis Nation—focused on wahkotowin, or what it means to be a good relative.
Reflecting on this work, Lucy shares:

“When we think about being a good relative to Two-Spirit and Indigiq***r (or 2SLGBTQQIA+) Métis peoples, I think it’s important to remember that there are many different ways that people connect with and identify these parts of themselves, and that just because we’ve put a ‘2S’ in front of the LGBTQQIA+ acronym, it does not mean that the spaces created for those folks are actually attentive to the needs or priorities of Two-Spirit or Indigiq***r peoples. With this project, I hope that we can create actionable guidelines so that others know how to make these spaces reflective of who we are as q***r Métis people, as well as understand the deep impact of spaces that do not account for us.”

Her contributions have also been recently recognized through a University of Manitoba Rh award, highlighting the impact of her work.

Read more about Lucy’s research here: https://umtoday.ca/stories/faculty-education-building-connections-elevating-voices-indigenous-scholars-and-thinkers