Research - Dr. Lisa Taylor
Dr. Lisa Taylor
School of Education
Lisa Taylor’s range of research projects explore theoretical, ethical and practical directions in inclusive models of education which build on cultural and linguistic diversity as a resource for pluralist, globally engaged societies. Grounded in feminist, antiracist, postcolonial and cultural studies, in psychoanalytic and post-reconceptualization curriculum theorizing, her more recent research explores the psychic, ethical and pedagogical dynamics of pedagogies that seek to learn from historical memory, representations of violence, genocide and injustice, and that mobilize affective and aesthetic engagement in learning for social change:
2011- Principal Investigator, Bishop’s Senate Research Committee Research Grant, 2011-2012 ($8999): From Consultation to Collaboration, from Guest Speaker to Expert Stakeholder: Community-centred participatory action research into collaborative curriculum development regarding the 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsis.
The bridge to the future: Re-envisioning teacher education through theatre in Rwanda
- Principal Investigator, Bishop’s Senate Research Committee Research Grant, 2009-2010 ($6999)
- A qualitative case study of ‘theatre for development’ and critical pedagogy training to engage preservice secondary teachers in multimodal memory work (e.g. photo journals), dialogic deliberation and re-envisioning educators’ role in re-building a resilient, pluralist, peaceful civic culture in a fragile post-conflict society.
Literacy on the Move: Building Multiliteracies and Critical Citizenship Through Culturally Inclusive Literature Curriculum
- Principal Investigator, Bishop’s Senate Research Committee Research Grant, 2008-2009 ($5657)
- A qualitative action research case study of a unique grade 11 English course (Black Canadian Literature) analyzing students’ development of multiple literacies, ‘critical language awareness’, identity expression and critical civic competencies through a culturally affirming curriculum of African diasporic literary and multimodal expressive forms. Output: The report will contribute to a forthcoming critical Canadian Reader in Afrocentric education (Dei & Lawson)
Multicultural Literacy in Canada
- Co-Investigator, SSHRC Multiculturalism Strategic Joint Initiative (Principal Investigator, Michael Hoechsmann, McGill University), “Multicultural Literacy: a national survey of Canadian youth”, 2004-2005 ($35,940)
- Co-Investigator, SSHRC Multiculturalism Strategic Joint Initiative (Principal Investigator, Michael Hoechsmann, McGill University), “Multicultural Literacy: Exploring the Rural, Urban and Rurban” SSHRC Multiculturalism Strategic Joint Initiative, 2006-2007 ($36,364)
- A national survey (1000 grade 10 and 11 students; 10 urban, rural and ‘rurban’ boards; 5 provinces) taking stock of multicultural education in the 21st Century context of youth's multiple, intersecting multi-media spheres of learning. Correlating demographic, survey-based and school-based data allowed for textured analysis of students’ in- and out-of-school learning vis-à-vis globally relevant curriculum. Output:An innovative research instrument measuring what young people know about the struggles and the intellectual, social, political and cultural contributions of racialized peoples globally and nationally and where they learned it (school, media, family and community)
From literacy to multiliteracies: designing learning environments for knowledge generation within the new economy
- Co-Applicant (Principal Investigators: Margaret Early, UBC and Jim Cummins, OISE/UT), SSHRC Initiative for the New Economy, 2002-2005 ($760 000)
- The national research alliance analyzed over 50 critical case studies in 4 school boards documenting and extending current literacy and pedagogy practices to maximize educational development for all in the globalized digital new economy. The Alliance produced an integrated Literacy Framework for the New Economy (curriculum, assessment, and policy recommendations; www.multiliteracies.ca); Output (Taylor): Taylor, Bernhard, Garg, Cummins, 2008, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy; Taylor, 2008, Canadian Modern Language Review.
Multicultural Literacy in Spain’s emerging pluralist society
- Principal Investigator, Bishop’s Senate Research Committee Research Grant, 2006-2008 ($6 700)
- This quantitative pilot study adapted a research tool to measure the ‘multicultural literacy’ of a broad sampling of Spanish youth with the intention of producing a stratified composite of what young people are learning and assimilating in the context of the emerging diversification of Spanish society and institutional promotion of intercultural education. Output: Taylor, 200.
Negotiating Linguistic, Cultural and Ethnoracial Difference: Learning Experiences of Minoritized New Quebeckers
- Principal Investigator, Bishop’s Senate Research Committee Research Grant, 2005-2007 ($4 100)
- This qualitative study investigated the learning experiences of immigrant students who attend or have attended schools in Sherbrooke, bringing critical race and postcolonial theory and critical sociolinguistics to examining these within the context of provincial discourses of ethnic and linguistic national identity as these are articulated in institutional policy and practice.
Developing Multicultural Competencies: A Framework for Curriculum Development and Implementation in integration with the Québec Education Plan
- Principal Investigator, Bishop’s Senate Research Committee Research Grant, 2004-2005 ($2 900)
- This qualitative pilot study investigated the development and implementation of an original multicultural curriculum framework by Bishop’s students teaching in socially diverse, urban and rural schools. This framework represents a vital expansion of the Quebec Education Plan (2003) in response to the dramatic diversification of Quebec society.
