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The Faculty of Education at UBC is advancing educational research and understanding in ways that celebrate diversity, equity, and innovation, and welcomes international collaboration in an increasingly borderless world.

UBC’s Faculty of Education, one of the world’s leading education faculties, has served the local, national, and international education community through leadership in research, teaching, service and advocacy for more than 60 years. As the largest Faculty of Education in British Columbia, it plays a critical and influential role in the advancement of education in the province, shaping and participating in education’s possibilities and potential as a social good. 

Today, the Faculty of Education creates conditions for transformative teaching, innovative learning, and leading-edge research guided by the highest standards of scholarship and the principles of collaboration, social justice, inclusion and equity. Offering undergraduate and graduate programs, as well as professional development opportunities, the Faculty of Education enrolls thousands of students each year on two campuses and ranks 10th in the world, according to QS World University Rankings (2021).

UBC’s Faculty of Education prepares more than 45% of the elementary and the majority of secondary educators in British Columbia, and a significant proportion of British Columbia’s school counsellors, administrators, special education professionals, and school psychologists. With more than 57,000 alum located in 100 countries, the UBC Faculty of Education truly is a global entity. 

The Faculty of Education is home to four departments (Curriculum and Pedagogy, Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education, Educational Studies, and Language and Literacy Education) and two schools (the School of Kinesiology and the Okanagan School of Education).

Mission
To advance education's role in the well-being of people and communities.
 

Research Facilities

We provide outstanding research facilities for faculty and graduate students that promote leading-edge research. Our Education Library is a specialized resource with access to all of UBC’s research and special collections, including the X̱wi7x̱wa Library with materials produced by Indigenous organizations, tribal councils, schools, researchers and publishers.

The Faculty’s Education Research and Learning Commons at Ponderosa Commons features technology-enhanced teaching and learning spaces and also informal learning spaces. A number of faculty manage their own research labs, situated throughout campus. 

Many of our PhD students have been selected as UBC Public Scholars and have received other honours.

Research Highlights

https://ivet.educ.ubc.ca/Notable strengths are in literacy education and multilingualism; struggling and marginalized youth; Indigenous education, decolonization, and research; transformational program and curriculum design and inclusive pedagogies for schools, community organizations and higher education; sexual orientation and gender-identity inclusive education; social-emotional learning and well-being; autism; exercise physiology, socio-cultural aspects of health; neuromechanical studies; and multidisciplinary research in diversity, health, early childhood education, and digital media. The School of Kinesiology ranks 1st in Canada and 4th in the world by QS World University Rankings (2021).

UBC’s Faculty of Education is the national leader in the number of education graduate student fellowships received from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). Additionally, the Faculty of Education is home to six Canada Research Chairs, one CIHR chair and nine donor-funded research chairs and professorships. 

Graduate Degree Programs

Recent Publications

This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Education.

 

Recent Thesis Submissions

Doctoral Citations

A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
Year Citation Program
2021 Dr. Wojcik studied how cognitive and affective processes affect trauma-related distress in adults. She found that across populations maladaptive cognitions can worsen negative self-appraisals following traumatic events. This knowledge will help improve clinical interventions for PTSD, depression, and other forms of trauma-related distress. Doctor of Philosophy in Counselling Psychology (PhD)
2021 Dr. Whitehead explored early adolescent students' perceptions of their student-teacher relationships in three studies, by developing and validating a new student self-report measure, exploring students' qualitative descriptions of caring teachers, and examining the congruence of student and teachers' perceptions of their relationships. Doctor of Philosophy in Human Development, Learning, and Culture (PhD)
2021 Dr. Lee's a/r/tographic, curricular, and philosophical study develops a four-movement framework for cultivating a relationship with the unknown. She finds equanimity by mapping challenges along the square and moving through thresholds. Each turn layers concept, making, and breath, offering a curriculum for artful, purposeful, and meaningful living. Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum Studies (PhD)
2021 Dr. Low studied how feeling shame or guilt as a parent impacts their capacity to learn during a parenting program. She found that guilt can be adaptive but shame hijacks learning. Her research showed that shaming parents does not help them learn, and that providing compassionate messages to counter shame led to better learning outcomes for parents. Doctor of Philosophy in Human Development, Learning, and Culture (PhD)
2021 Dr. McKeon, as a settler person, inquired into her changing spiritual, emotional, physical and mental relationships with land, colonialism and ancestral knowledges. Through story and poetry, this creative and critical work posits that by taking responsibility for our ways of perceiving the world, we can dialogue productively and bring about change. Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Literacy Education (PhD)
2021 Dr. Moghtader has undertaken an historical assessment of underlying ideas in human capital theory. By tracing, contextualizing, and examining an economy applied to human life his work offers an opportunity to deliberate on education ethics. Doctor of Philosophy in Curriculum Studies (PhD)
2021 Dr. Wu's research focused on movement behaviours and cardiovascular risk factors in individuals living with type 1 diabetes. Her research contributes to a theoretical understanding of movement behaviours for diabetes management. She also provides valuable information to health professionals regarding creating evidence-based guidelines on optimizing movement behaviours among these individuals. Doctor of Philosophy in Kinesiology (PhD)
2021 Dr. Lee examined the meaning and the experience of a sense of belonging with participant researchers from a local refugee community in Vancouver, BC. She proposes a framework for designing and implementing programs and services that facilitate successful refugee settlement by means of addressing the fundamental human need to belong. Doctor of Philosophy in School and Applied Child Psychology (PhD)
2021 Dr. Amber Moore's feminist research examined secondary English teacher candidates' responses to teaching and learning about sexual assault narratives. She found that many future educators were committed to combatting rape culture in the literature classroom, which demonstrates the significance of attending to issues of trauma in literacy learning. Doctor of Philosophy in Language and Literacy Education (PhD)
2021 Dr. Lee studied teacher responses to student peer victimization. By way of a social experiment, he found that teachers respond differently to bullying victims with emotional and behavioural problems. His research highlights teacher sensitivity to student mental health differences, and the need for further teacher-focused mental health initiatives. Doctor of Philosophy in School and Applied Child Psychology (PhD)

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