INTERESTS: My interests stem from my experiences as a special education/literacy teacher in a variety of communities and settings. These interests include: language and literacy teaching, learning, and curricula (particularly in regard to young children and other persons who are minoritized), multimodal literacy, art as literacy, intergenerational learning, early childhood curricula, teacher professional learning. These interests are all firmly rooted in critical theory with its goal of emancipation.
Professor Rachel Heydon
B.A. (Hons.), B.Ed., M.Ed. (UWO), PhD (OISE/UT)
Teaching:
I help coordinate the pre-service elementary language arts courses and teach graduate courses in the areas of early literacy and curriculum studies. The doctoral students whom I supervise are doing a range of exciting studies including, the multimodal learning opportunities in a grade six classroom (Terry Loerts), principal's perceptions of the relationship between school and Mennonite children's literacies (Wendy Crocker), and the multilingual literacy curricula of a transnational education program in China (Zheng Zhang). Some sample master's projects/theses that I have supervised include the documentation of pedagogical strategies for teachers to support ELLs in the intermediate grades (Magdalena Ciesla), the creation of multimedia support for pre- and in-service teachers striving to implement a balanced literacy program (Cathy Hunter), and an analysis of what junior-level students say would help them in the development of their writing and representing (Carrie Lyons).
Selected scholarly activities:
I am a co-editor of the journal Language & Literacy.
