Faculty of Education News Bulletin

Top Stories

Susan Dion awarded 2025 Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies (CACS) Outstanding Publication Award –  Congratulations to professor Susan Dion on being awarded the 2025 CACS Outstanding Publication Award for Dion, S. (2024). Indigenous Students and Settler Teachers Caught in the Double Bind of Settler Schooling. In W. F. Pinar & A. Phelan (Eds.), Curriculum Studies in Canada: Present Preoccupations. Toronto, Ontario: University of Toronto Press. Dion will be presented with the award during the CSSE Conference, at the CACS Celebration of Scholarly Works and Awards event on June 3 at George Brown, Waterfall campus, room 205 starting at 6 p.m.

From crisis to prevention: York U leads shift in approach to homelessness - For more than a decade, Professor Stephen Gaetz and the York-based Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH), which he directs, have pushed to create a shift in how to approach modern homelessness. They’ve succeeded. Read more

Sustainability champion Charles Hopkins earns lifetime achievement award from AASHE - The Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) announced Charles Hopkins as the recipient of the 2025 AASHE Lifetime Achievement Award. This award honors outstanding leaders (both academics and practitioners) who have made significant contributions to the advancement of sustainability in higher education over their lifetimes. Hopkins is the seventh recipient of this prestigious award. Read more

Assistant professor Cristina Delgado Vintimilla will be teaching a new summer course on how Pedagogy and Emergence intersect

Double Vision - Marnie and Rena Schwartz are a force to be reckoned with. The identical twins, who both earned double degrees (BA ’01, BEd ’01) from York University, have spent more than two decades transforming the Greater Toronto Area’s dance scene through their ViBE Dance and Fitness Studio. Read article in the winter 2025 issue of the York University Magazine

PhD candidate Myrtle Henry Sodhi will discuss how Black communities' relationship with water affects Black students' health and well-being at the 2025 Physical and Health Education National Conference. Learn more

On Tuesday, March 25, professor Susan Dion and undergraduate student advisor Jane Larsson had the privilege of visiting the beautiful Miziwe Biik Aboriginal Employment and Training Centre to present information about the Waaban BEd program. Positioned on the left at the bottom of the photo is Tim Milan, the Academic Upgrading Instructor, with Caleb Wesley, a 2020 graduate of the inaugural Waaban cohort, sitting just above him. Caleb’s personal account of his journey through the program was undoubtedly the highlight of the session, offering an inspiring and heartfelt perspective.

Research Office

Wednesday, June 4, 2025
2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Miles S. Nadal Management Centre
222 Bay Street, Suite 500

Lecture Hall # 1

Join us for an afternoon of insight and inspiration as we celebrate the Faculty of Education’s contributions to research, teaching and community engagement at York University.

Explore how education can spark transformation and inspire hope through:

• Engaging roundtable discussions
• Innovative research presentations
• Thought-provoking conversations

Open to all – everyone welcome!

We hope to see you there as we reflect, connect and envision the future of education together.

Mark your calendar and be part of the conversation!

RVSP HERE

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Program Office

Cochlear Implantation Presentation - The DHH program hosted a presentation on pediatric cochlear implantation for our students on March 20. The speaker was a cochlear implant audiologist from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto

Practicum Placements – DHH students are now completing their final practicum placements in 7 different school boards across Ontario

Admissions - Interviews for short-listed applicants were held during the week of April 7. Offer letters have been sent with an anticipated 2025-2026 intake of 20 full and part time students, for a total program enrolment of approximately 50 students

New Publications

Associate professor Qiang Zha and PhD student Ya Xuan Wang have co-authored a new article titled “North America and European Union Policy Changes Towards Higher Education Relations with China: A Comparative Study” in the Journal of Studies in International Education

Assistant professor Natalia Balyasnikova has co-authored a paper titled “Learning in the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing: Insights from Canada and the UK” in the Journal of Global Ageing

Assistant professor Stephanie Fearon has a new article titled “I See You, Mama: Low-Income Black Mother Leaders Reimagining Schools as Homeplace for Their Children” in the Journal of Canadian Studies

Assistant professor Stephanie Fearon has a chapter titled “Ay-Yai! Black Mother Leadership and Storytelling Traditions” in Haile Eshe Cole, Luciane O. Rocha, Shana Calixte Pitawanakwat’s book Mothering and Mother(Work) in the Times of Black Lives Matter

News from the York Community

York named one of Canada’s Greenest Employers for 13^th consecutive year – York University extends an impressive streak of leadership in sustainability with the prestigious recognition as one of Canada's Greenest Employers, highlighting the University's commitment to environmental stewardship and innovative initiatives. Read more

Appointment of Pina D'Agostino as associate vice-president research - Amir Asif,
Vice-President Research and Innovation announces the appointment of Pina D’Agostino as associate vice-president research (AVPR), with her term commencing on April 1, 2025 and running through to June 30, 2026. Read more

Parking rate adjustment coming May 1  - York University’s Parking Services will implement rate adjustments effective May 1. This will be the first change since 2016. Read more

Events

Defending Public Education Against Privatization: Outsourcing and Enshittification

The Public Exchange (PEX) invites you to an online panel discussion about the privatization of public education.

Please join us as we chat with two education leaders and authors from the recent special issue of Our Schools / Our Selves magazine, a PEX collaboration with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Audience members will be invited to participate in the discussion. This is an opportunity for people to share experiences, ask questions, and learn together.

Details:
Date: May 1, 2025
Time: 12:00 to 1:30 EST
Location: Zoom

Please click this link to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation emails from Zoom containing information about joining the meeting.

Towards generative and reciprocal research teams and partnerships with/for youth in Canada and beyond

Wednesday, May 7, 2025
10:00 – 11:30 a.m.
Online via Zoom

The panel discusses the joys and complexities of building generative research teams and partnerships. What are some principles and processes by which we proceed? What works well and could be improved upon? The Panel answers these questions by invoking the case of our Partnership for Youth and Planetary Wellbeing with a team of youth, academics, community members, and NGO members from Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, and Belize.

They invite questions and dialogue in an interactive session.

Chair:

• Kate Tilleczek, Faculty of Education, York University

Invited Speakers:

• Roxanne Cohen, Young Lives Research Lab & Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, York University
• Kasia Lujan, Las Nubes Eco Campus, York University (Costa Rica)
• Lee McLoughlin, Florida International University
• Pablo Aranguiz, INGENIO Research Centre, Polytechnic University of Valencia (Spain)
• Deborah MacDonald, Young Lives Research Lab, York University

Faculty of Education Public Lecture
Featuring Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Disability Studies in Education
Gillian Parekh

Education, schooling and disability studies

Tuesday, May 27, 2025
7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom

Education holds a complicated relationship with ability. In Ontario, K-12 schools are tasked with teaching important skills aimed to ensure youth can participate in future civic, social, academic and employment opportunities. However, when schools suspect a student may not be learning as expected, the determination as to “why” and the decisions that follow can hold critical consequences. Employing a disability studies lens, Dr. Parekh’s research examines how student identity characteristics (e.g. gender, race, SES, etc.) and contextual factors can play a role in how ability and/or disability are constructed in schools as well as implications associated to program, pathway and placement decisions. Recognizing the importance of institutional and identity data to monitor student outcomes, Dr. Parekh will draw on earlier studies with the Toronto District School Board as well as her own Ontario-wide study, Critical Transitions, to illustrate the need for a relational and intersectional understanding of disability in the examination of K-12 and postsecondary education outcomes

REGISTRATION info to follow

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