Special Projects 2024-2025
While most research conducted by our members falls within the various themes of our two research axes, certain special projects span themes in pursuit of multi- and interdisciplinary knowledge and outcomes.
Political Challenges of/for/in 21st Century Schools: Addressing Polarization in the Classroom
Fall Institute, held October 4 - 6, 2024 at McGill University. Organized by David Waddington (Concordia University) and Kevin McDonough (McGill University) and featuring Bruce Maxwell (Universite de Montreal) and Vivek Venkatesh (McGill University).
Politically speaking, classrooms have never been a more challenging space to navigate. Students come to school armed with new and ever-changing conspiracy theories with which to provoke their classmates and teachers. Anti-vax parents demand that their scientifically suspect views be aired and given respect. Teachers find themselves under fire from local communities and politicians when they attempt to give instruction on politically tense topics like climate change, or respect for gender diverse people.
In response, the CSLP helped to convene a Fall Institute to address urgent theoretical and practical questions and solutions about the role of education in politically polarized societies. Jointly organized by McGill University and Concordia University, the Institute featured two days of knowledge mobilization activities designed to further understanding of what problems arise when political polarization infiltrates schools and classrooms, and how teachers and schools can productively address these problems.
Complete programme and speakers list.
Our news item about the event includes the session recordings (also posted to YouTube).
Unveiling Equity
The Unveiling Equity series invites participants to unpack, unsettle, and critically reposition themselves from a decolonized perspective in order to engage more actively with social justice issues. Through thought-provoking discussions and reflective activities, the series challenges conventional views, encourages deeper self-awareness, and promotes meaningful action toward equity and justice. This series is designed to inspire participants to critically examine their roles and responsibilities in fostering inclusive and transformative change within their communities and professional spaces.
The series began in the 2023-2024 academic year, and now continues with further programming in 2024-2025.
The first event, It is the violence not pathology that is the problem! A conversation with Catherine Richardson and Ghayda Hassan on dignity in violence prevention, was held on October 29 in partnership with the Canadian Practitioners Network for the Prevention of Extremist Violence (CPN-PREV) and the Indigenous Healing Knowledges Concordia Research Chair.
Check out our coverage of this event, including a recording of the session by Concordia's 4th Space.
The next session, taking place January 13, 2025, Laughter as Resistance, will explore the transformative power of humor as a form of resistance and within decolonized contexts.
Additional events in the Unveiling Equity series will be held in 2025, with Dalia Elsayed following up her Decentering the Margins session from 2023-2024, and a two-day conference planned for March 30 to April 1, that will be co-organized by the CSLP, CPN-PREV, and the Indigenous Healing Knowledges Chair.
Theorised Identities
The series Theorised Identities—Race, Class, and Gender in the Field of Education addresses the complex interplay of race, class, and gender in educational settings. Through a series of roundtable discussions, the series highlights both theoretical frameworks and the lived experiences of educators and minoritized individuals. Each session will focus on one category—race, class, and gender—bringing personal narratives and scholarly perspectives together to bridge the gap between researchers and the communities they study. Central to the series is the question: How do these categories shape our identities as educators and influence our understanding of education?
The first roundtable discussion occurred on September 27, 2024, with Race in the Field of Education, featuring Keenan Daniel Manning (PhD student, Department of Educational Studies, University of British Columbia), Ian Klaus-Springer (PhD candidate, Educational Studies, Concordia University), and Samira Karim (PhD student, Educational Technology, Concordia University) as participants with mediation by Neslihan Sriram-Uzundal (PhD student, Educational Studies, Concordia University).
The next roundtable, Class in the Field of Education, will take place on December 20, 2024, and the series will conclude on February 21, 2025 with Gender in the Field of Education.
Plurilingualism in Education: Cultivating Inclusion and Diversity to Teach and Learn in a Plural World
On June 10-11, 2024, the CSLP co-sponsored a two-day conference, Plurilingualism in Education: Cultivating Inclusion and Diversity to Teach and Learn in a Plural World, that took place at Concordia’s 4th Space and online via Zoom.
The conference was made possible thanks to funding from a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Connection grant obtained by Diane Querrien (Département d'études françaises, Concordia University), Kathleen Sénéchal (Département de didactique des langues, UQAM), and Angelica Galante (Department of Integrated Studies in Education, McGill).
Pedagogical Innovation Awards
The Pedagogical Innovation Awards and Symposium looks to acknowledge and reward teachers who implement creative practices in their classrooms by offering them a prize and the opportunity to promote their innovation and discuss it with peers and researchers. Any teacher (full-time or part-time) in a government-recognized public or private elementary or secondary school in Quebec is eligible to apply for these awards (two prizes of $1,000 each), which have three purposes:
- To recognize innovative teaching practices.
- To bring teachers together with educational researchers to discuss how their innovations connect with recent research findings.
- To spread the word about these innovative practices to other teachers and researchers.
Technological innovation
Innovations of this kind could include new uses for computer programs, mobile phone applications, video games, or other kinds of digital tools to engage students.
Curriculum innovation
These innovations can include new Learning and Evaluation Situations (LES) that teachers have designed, fresh approaches to an especially difficult topic, or experiential learning activities that students do outside the classroom.
Outcomes
The first edition of the Pedagogical Innovation Awards took place on May 4, 2023 - find out who won and read our coverage of the event.
The second installment of the awards was held on May 8, 2024 - find out who won and read our coverage of the event.
The third installment of the awards will take place on May 7, 2025.
Unweaving the Researcher from the Research
The CSLP is sponsoring and hosting a new colloquium series by and for graduate students, Unweaving the Researcher, which will explore their experiences beyond research. The colloquium series will feature collaborative discussions and offer peer feedback to provide a range of diverse perspectives and critical insights. Organizer Rawda Harb (PhD candidate, Education) hopes to foster a more comprehensive and balanced approach to research.
Harb notes that “not only will this strengthen the community and create a safe space for us at the CSLP to talk about our progress and process, but also it would serve as training in case, for example, you haven't been part of a panel to talk about your work and/or self as a researcher.”
The first of three planned sessions took place October 23, on the theme of Life Balance & the Personal versus the Grad Student. The session featured two speakers, Jenna Rose (MA student, Educational Studies at Concordia) and Frédérica Martin (PhD candidate, Concordia's Interdisciplinary program), with Maud Woiczik (PhD candidate, Social and Cultural Analysis Program, Concordia Sociology & Anthropology Department) acting as mediator.
The next installment, Parenting and the Grad Student, is scheduled for December 5, 2024, and the last session, Integration, International Students & Newcomers, will be held on February 25, 2025.
Urban Gardening at the Grey Nuns
Mitch McLarnon (Department of Education, Concordia) has been granted access to space on the Grey Nuns grounds to build an urban garden as part of his research in environmental education and the challenges of working in urban environments. Along with Kim McDonough (Department of Education, Concordia), McLarnon has obtained funding from Concordia University's Sustainable Transitions Team Research Initiative to pursue the project.
He has recently collaborated with Concordia's 4th Space to produce two videos introducing his work. In the first talk, he discusses how local politics can add complications to projects, and the knowledge he has gained attempting to use gardens for social change and educational purposes. In a second recording, he takes viewers on a tour from his storage facility in the CSLP’s basement out to the new garden at the Grey Nuns that he developed during the Spring and Summer.