Catherine Giroux (PhD ’20), assistant professor, health professions education (HPE)
Catherine Giroux helps nurses, doctors and other health-sector providers strengthen their understanding of evidence-based teaching methods for training health care professionals. Her work is influenced by postdoctoral fellowships she completed at the Institute of Health Sciences Education (IHSE) and the Knowledge Exchange and Education in the Health Professions (KEEP) Lab, at McGill University, during which she focused on health professions educators’ use of digital media during the pandemic. Building on this specialization, Giroux’s recent research has examined how health professions educators create and use social media content in their teaching and the place of digital media in nursing students’ formal and informal learning. Giroux has a strong foundation in health policy and K-12 education with expertise in how evolving technologies and online platforms facilitate knowledge mobilization in health care.
“I am thrilled and honoured to be joining the Faculty of Education,” says Giroux.
“I have a diverse background that includes not only health professions education research and practice, but also teacher education. Finding a home in this community allows me to expand all areas of interest and further develop these different parts of my identity. I look forward to learning with and from esteemed colleagues in health professions education, but also in counselling psychology, equity, inclusion, technologies and digital literacies, and citizenship and democracy.
“My work focuses on critically exploring the implications of how health professionals use emerging technologies, and this faculty is a great home to investigate these issues from diverse lenses,” she adds.
Lisa Howell (PhD ’22), assistant professor, Indigenous histories, perspectives and contemporary issues in educational research
Lisa Howell is a longtime educator who spent more than a decade with the Western Quebec School Board, teaching and learning alongside Cree, Inuk, Anishinaabe and non-Indigenous students. Her research explores education policy and ways current teachers and teacher education candidates learn to challenge settler-colonial narratives and honour Indigenous knowledges and perspectives in their classroom practice.
Howell led a research project described in a piece titled “Just Because We’re Small Doesn't Mean We Can't Stand Tall,” on reconciliation education in the elementary school classroom, and was a key contributor to the Spirit Bear Virtual School curriculum. A committed advocate for community-led, social justice-oriented research initiatives, Howell also received a 2018 Indspire Indigenous Educator Award as a partner in Indigenous education recipient and the 2018 Governor General’s History Award for Excellence in Teaching.
“It’s an honour to become a faculty member in a place that I’ve been part of for many years, through my work as a student, researcher and part-time professor. I am proud to be welcomed into the community, and I look forward to collaborating with colleagues and students as we work and learn together on the unceded, ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg,” says Howell.
“My research and teaching reflect my passion for community-led research, social justice, teacher education, culturally responsive teaching, processes of unlearning and holistic pedagogies. Specifically, I am interested in how local Indigenous wisdoms might promote a more sustainable, ethical and kinder way of living, learning and teaching in schools and communities,” she says.
