Academic Council

CIRCE’s Academic Council is a diverse professional learning community connected by a shared appreciation for imagination and its role in the world. Through our research, art, writing, and teaching, and through a variety of practices that ground us in the complex, multifaceted realities of more-than-human being and becoming, we work to deepen our understanding of how imagination manifests itself in human lives and cultures and in the life of the Earth.

We encourage members of the Academic Council to reach out to one another, to initiate joint discussion and projects, to propose contributions for the CIRCE Blog, and to share news of your activities and publications. When volunteer hosts are available, online talks and discussions have proven a valuable way of building connections and sharing perspectives. If you think you might feel at home in the Academic Council, please use this form to tell us something about yourself and your reasons for wanting to join.

Here is a list of current Academic Council members, along with short descriptions of their background and work, together with additional web links where relevant.

Council Members

Dr. Gillian Judson

Dr. Gillian Judson is an Assistant Professor in Educational Leadership in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Her research interests include the role of imagination in leadership, imagination’s role in learning (K-post-secondary), and imaginative and ecological teaching practices (PreK through post-secondary). Her latest books are entitled Imagination and the Engaged Learner: Cognitive Tools for the Classroom. (Egan & Judson, 2016), Engaging Imagination in Ecological Education: Practical Strategies For Teaching (Judson, 2015), and A Walking Curriculum (Judson, 2018/2019).

Dr. Kym Stewart

Dr. Kym Stewart‘s early graduate work in the Media Analysis Lab at SFU focused on the study of media in the lives of children.  This experience led to a yearlong study of online gaming in South Korea and her MA thesis: Informatization of a Nation: A Case Study of South Korea’s Computer Gaming and PC-Bang Culture. Upon returning to Canada she helped develop media education programming for elementary schools and transitioned into the field of education for her PhD. Kym worked closely with the Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG) at SFU which inspired her foray into Metissage as a praxis to write my PhD thesis: Teaching the Media with Mouse Woman: Adventures in Imaginative Education.

Dr. Annabella Cant

Dr. Annabella Cant’s dream is to continue the conversation she started in her research around Somatic Understanding and how by acknowledging it we might erase the disconnect that exists between ECE and further schooling. She would also love to amplify the foundational role of educators in nurturing children’s imaginative qualities by not restricting creativity in the name of false “academic” purposes. She also plans to advocate for the importance of a fluid and organic transition between the Somatic, Mythic Kinds of Understanding and following ones described in Imaginative Education.

Kavita Hoonjan

Kavita Hoonjan is a passionate, imperfect teacher always striving to make the teaching/learning dynamic meaningful, engaging and authentic, and a proud believer and practitioner of Imaginative Education pedagogy. Kavita has been a K-7 French Immersion Teacher, a Faculty Associate at SFU and is currently a Program Coordinator in the Professional Development Program at SFU.  Her passions include Learning in Depth as a form of inquiry, but also to further develop and enhance language acquisition in additional language learning settings.  Currently in teacher education and unable to actively implement IE pedagogy in her role, her hope is to spread the work of CIRCE and to engage the teacher education community in innovative practice with adults.

Dr. Michael D. Datura

Dr. Michael Dé Danann Datura (MA, PhD, Simon Fraser University) is a humanities teacher, an educational researcher, and occasionally a poet. His research draws on lyric philosophy and the hermeneutic tradition to examine place-based education, Indigenous ways of knowing, and radical politics in the context of settler colonialism and ecological emergency. His work aims to cultivate an ecosophic disposition to recognize the experience of wisdom traditions, contemplative practices, and critical reflexivity in a more-than-human world. He also likes long walks in the forest.

Dr. Tim Waddington

Dr. Tim Waddington possesses over 25 years of experience as a public school educator and advocate for children and youth. With advanced degrees in Education Leadership and the Philosophy of Education, Tim infuses a rich and creative understanding of Imaginative Education into both his teaching and research. In addition to his work with CIRCE and imaginED, Tim currently holds a position of Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at UBC. For CIRCE he leads work on Imaginative Historical Inquiry, with particular interest in Philosophic and Ironic Understandings. His ongoing research is centered upon theories of imagination, irony, ethics in curriculum, and possible existential outcomes for both teachers and learners alike.

Dr. Anne Chodakowski

Dr. Anne Chodakowski is a former high school English and drama teacher. Since 2004, she has been involved in numerous aspects of imaginative education, including research, writing, and teaching. She is currently a sessional instructor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. She also delivers workshops on various aspects of imaginative education. Her areas of interest are imaginative teacher education, literacy, drama education, assessment and orality. Anne lives in Squamish, British Columbia.

Judy Dabideen-Sonachansingh

Retired High School Chemistry Teacher–35 year career–Writer, MEd in IE,  IE Mentor at SFU

James Johnson

James Johnson has served as a school teacher in the Surrey School District for thirty years, has worked as a Faculty Associate in the Professional Development Program and is currently a Ph.D. candidate at Simon Fraser University. He is working with youth who have left mainstream schooling and have chosen to pursue graduation in an alternate school setting. His current focus is the integration of hermeneutical enquiry and Imaginative Education with trauma-informed theory and practice.

Dr. Jailson Lima

Dr Jailson Lima has a background in both Chemistry (B.S., M.S., Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry) and Education (high-school teaching certificate, M.Ed. in College Teaching). Before joining the Chemistry Department of CEGEP Vanier College in 2000, he taught in Brazilian high schools and universities for ten years. Since 2009, he has been involved with curriculum development with the aim of exploring the visual arts to enhance the learning of scientific concepts while promoting disciplinary integration. Jailson is leading CIRCE’s STEAM initiative.

Dr. Carolina López

Carolina López teaches English as a Second/Foreign Language and is a lecturer in education and pedagogy for undergraduate programs at the National Pedagogic University in México. She mentors pre-service teachers at the Teachers College of Sonora, where IE is offered as a line of research. She supports students with their understanding and initial implementation of IE within their selected topics for their thesis projects.Carolina graduated from the MEd in IE program in 2015 and has been actively involved in sharing about IE in Mexico since then. She is also part of the IE Mentor program and is always interested in learning more about giving imagination and emotion their place in classrooms. In 2023 she completed her PhD in imaginative teacher education at the Universidad de Sonora.

Adriana Grimaldo

Adriana Grimaldo is co-founder Educación imaginativa Mexico, instructor at Elena Garro Cultural Center, and an MEd student in Creativity and Imaginative Education. She has been actively involved in sharing about Imaginative Education in Mexico. She has put Imaginative Education into practice by teaching ethics to teenagers, through the novels she has written: Valles y Alturas, Editorial Progreso (2009); De Noche, Editorial Progreso (2011) and Viento Austral, Editorial Progreso (2012).  She is also coauthor of Imaginative Education An Approach By Kieran Egan (Educación imaginativa: Una aproximación a Kieran Egan); Morata (2017), a book published in Spanish to spread IE in Spanish speaking countries.

Kate Charette

Kate Charette is an East-coaster, educator, mom, and military spouse. Her research interests include historical thinking in the K-2 grades, ways Imaginative Education can strengthen Social Studies and History teaching, educator professional learning, and online learning. She is particularly interested in how teachers use the elements of story to do Social Studies with orally literate students, and how the story forms we use in the classroom shape how we understand ourselves and others. The next research question she would like to pursue is: What elements of the imagination are elementary Social Studies teachers already engaging in the classroom, and what would they like to do more of?  

Alessandro Gelmi

Alessandro Gelmi is an Italian educator with a passion for philosophy and poetry. After earning his master’s degree in philosophical sciences from the University of Milan, he began working with educational movements focused on philosophical practices with children. Following seven years of teaching at a primary school in Northern Italy, he obtained a master’s degree in Primary Education Sciences from the University of Urbino, where he explored the connection between memory, imagination, and language learning. Currently, he is pursuing a Ph.D. at the University of Bolzano, where his research focuses on the applications of Imaginative Education in teacher professional development.

Zuzana Vasko

Dr. Zuzana Vasko is a Lecturer with SFU’s Faculty of Education.  Her research delves into arts-based environmental learning, exploring how aesthetic engagement and creative practice can bring us closer to local ecologies.  She has taught across diverse areas including Arts Education, Academic Writing and Ethical Issues in Education and a common thread woven through all her teaching explores how reflective, narrative and creative expression can engender a sense of personal meaning and connection with self, others, and the more-than-human world.  Zuzana’s visual art practice explores relationships, connections, and communication with our ecological relations. zuzanavasko.com

Yi Chien Jade Ho

Yi Chien Jade Ho 何宜謙 (she/they) is currently an Education PhD candidate at Simon Fraser University. In her time as a grad student at SFU, Jade has been a community-based researcher at the Environmental School Project, which is a public outdoor elementary school where learning happens entirely outdoors. Jade also teaches various courses including social and educational issues, curriculum theories and implementation, philosophy of education, and issues related to Asian and Asian diaspora communities. Outside of academia, Jade has been a housing-justice organizer for the past 8 years working primarily in Vancouver’s Chinatown fighting against gentrification and racism and with the Vancouver Tenants Union. She is also a labour organizer with the Teaching Support Staff Union and Contract Worker Justice @SFU, a coalition of workers, students and larger SFU community members fighting to end outsourcing practice at the University. Her doctoral work centres on developing a radical pedagogy of place and discussing decolonization responsibility and accountability specifically focusing on immigrant settlers and their connection to place, land and identity. Growing up in both coastal Taiwan and the Caribbeans, Jade finds home in water and loves to dance her heart out.

Dr. Christine Ho Younghusband

Dr. Christine Younghusband is a Lecturer at UNBC in the School of Education. She is a former secondary math teacher and taught in BC public schools for 16 years. Christine completed her doctorate in Educational Leadership at SFU and during this time she served as a school trustee, educational consultant, curriculum developer, and sessional instructor at SFU and St. Mark’s College. She is an Affiliated Scholar at CSELP at SFU, #bcedchat co-moderator on Twitter, and BCAMT committee member. Christine’s research interests include mathematics education, professional learning experiences, subject matter acquisition, policy and practice, formative assessment, and teacher mentorship.

Tannis Calder

Tannis Calder is a practicing teacher and has an MEd from SFU in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Learning for Understanding through Culturally-Inclusive Imaginative Development (LUCID). Her most recent interests have involved looking at how mathematics can be taught through an imaginative lens from an Indigenous, place-based perspective. Tannis is currently working as a Learning Coordinator teacher in the Nanaimo-Ladysmith Public Schools in . Prior to her work in Nanaimo, Tannis taught in Prince Rupert, Bc and has also worked as a Curriculum Developer and Research Assistant with Simon Fraser University as part of the Imaginative Education Research Group (IERG) and LUCID.

David Futter

David Futter is a retired middle school teacher, settled on the unceded territories of the Songees and Esquimalt Nations (Lekwungen). He has an MEd in Imaginative Education and began one of the original Learning in Depth programs. David’s research interests include: Imaginative Literacy teaching, Imaginative History teaching, Imaginative Ecological Education, Learning in Depth, and the power of story. He has been a consultant and workshop presenter on IE since 2008. David is passionate about educational change that aligns with Vygotsky’s educational ideas in general and Imaginative Education in particular.

James Denby & Robyn Ulster

After 20+ years living and teaching in 5 countries, Robin Ulster and James Denby returned to Canada and decided to work on all those ideas that came to them over the years (“Hey, we should write a book about…”) but never had the time to complete. They create educational experiences designed to immerse students in the large questions that shape their past, present, and future and ask them to imagine new paths. And they work with teachers, students, and schools to tie technology and design learning to students’ ability to imagine a better future.

Nina Pak Lui

Nina Pak Lui is an Assistant Professor (Teaching Track) in the School of Education at TWU. She is a former middle school teacher, high school guidance counselor, and career education department head. She currently teaches undergraduate education courses (curriculum design and assessment) and oversees the initial classroom experiences. Nina is interested in exploring how Imaginative Education (IE) can inform the design of assessment strategies and ways to increase the value of Assessment for Learning (AfL) in higher education. She also wonders about the ways experiencing AfL and IE in teacher education shape pedagogical beliefs and commitments of future teachers.

Elke Kleinert

Elke Kleinert is a Mexican-German living in Barcelona. She holds a PhD in Education supported by Conacyt’s Scholarship at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. She did her undergraduate studies in Preschool Education at Normal Berta von Glümer (Mexico City) and completed a Master of Education degree at the UAB. At the present time she works as a German teacher, as an educational consultant specialized in the transfer of trainings, and, through her accounts @mitosmenstruales on different social networks and using the cognitive tools that IE proposes, as a professional disseminator of the functioning of the menstrual cycle, with the aim of eradicating the taboos that exist on/about this natural and physiological process.

Dr. Catherine Chua

Dr. Catherine Chua is an Associate Professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.  She was born in Singapore and received her education and teacher training qualification in Singapore. She moved to Australia in 2000 to complete her MA in English at the University of New South Wales, and PhD in Educational Studies at the University of Queensland. Catherine’s research interests include educational policy, leadership studies, language planning and policy, globalisation and educational reforms, 21st century skills and competencies, language and culture, as well as postcolonialism. She hopes to encourage more innovative practices and ‘playful’ learning in all aspects of teaching and learning.

Dr. Petra Mikulan

Dr. Petra Mikulan currently holds a SSHRC-funded and a Killam funded postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Educational studies at UBC, and her aim is to develop concepts for educational governance and policy that emanate from new modes of knowing life, and specifically, the advancements in neuroscience. Her research is focused on concept development and its relationships to ideas of vitalism and life as they pertain to curriculum theory. The objectives of her research are to a) examine the policy and governance effects of the life sciences on school operation; and b) facilitate new partnerships (e.g., neurologists, geneticists, educators, teacher educators) in order to develop new modes of interdisciplinary research to better understand the augmentations and optimizations of life, genes, and neurological functioning when applied in school settings.

Victor Elderton

Victor Elderton is a PhD student and graduate Mentor at SFU, Faculty Advisor at UBC and a retired principal/outdoor educator. His questions: How does nature inform who I am? How does nature influence my practice? How can I bring the more-than-human into who and what I embody as a person and an educator? These are the key questions, central to the research that he is most intrigued by. In practical way he also wants to grapple with ideas inherent in “praxis”. What might be the processes and potential learning structures I engage in to enhance heuristic transformational learning possibilities? These are ingredients that have brought him into the mycelial net of Imaginative Education.

Andrea Leveille

Andrea Leveille is a lifelong learner, mother, educator, performer, and enthusiastic researcher. Her current research focuses on offering collaborative meaning-making opportunities to audiences and artists by integrating digital technologies into talkback sessions at arts events. On a larger scale, she wants to understand why so many Canadians value the arts and yet so few regularly attend arts events. She believes that the answer to this question will be as complex, imaginative, varied, and exciting as our Canadian community. Her hope is that facilitating unexpected and diverse collaborations will lead to strategies that increase opportunities for all Canadians to have meaningful arts experiences.

Nick McIvor

Nick McIvor teaches Mathematics at an 11-18 school in Central London (UK).  He was born Scotland and completed a Maths degree at York  before going to drama school and spending the next 10 years working as a writer, actor, and occasional stand-up comic in theatre, TV, and radio. In 1995 he undertook teacher training at the Institute of Education (IoE) in London and has taught secondary maths ever since. He has been extensively involved in the mentoring and training of teachers since 2006 and in 2017 completed a Masters in Research Methods, also at the IoE.  He has recently embarked on a PhD at that same institution, investigating the practice of secondary maths teachers by considering them as semi-improvised scripts. Central to this study is the question of whether early career teachers could be better supported in the their classroom practice by re-imagining their own practice through this lens.

Nadia Chaney

Nadia Chaney is a first generation Indian settler living in Tio’Tia:ke (Montreal). She is an arts-based facilitator, trainer and interaction design consultant.  She completed a Master of Art at SFU with Imaginative Education and then an advanced diploma in art therapy for groups at the European Graduate School. She is hoping to start a PhD study on the ethico-aesthetics of Time in group processes. She is currently serving as Director of Training at Partners for Youth Empowerment, an organization dedicated to providing capacity-building creative facilitation training for frontline youth workers. Her most recent creative works include an interdisciplinary (dance-animation-live poetry) show Indivisible for Festival Acces Asie, and a mixed-genre (poetry-sci fi-essay) chapbook Reading Practice for Rust and Holograms with House House Press. nadiachaney.com

Cecily Heras

Cecily Heras is a current MEd student, researcher, and educator. She draws upon narrative and Storywork principles in her work to blend children’s and young adult literature with popular culture to encourage critical literacy, social justice, and activism. Current projects include CIRCE and an upcoming ecological education school on the North Shore.

Sandeep Kaur Glover

Sandeep Kaur Glover is a passionate educator and PhD Student in the Arts Education program at Simon Fraser University. An educator since 2001 with the majority of her experience in B.C. high schools, she has taught a range of subjects such as English, ELL, social studies, leadership and health education. The fostering of the whole student is at the heart of her pedagogical practice. Sandeep’s scholarship spans various disciplines including psychology, contemplative inquiry, Indigenous epistemologies and art education. Her current research explores the potentialities of listening to and from the body as a site of inquiry which facilitates wholistic identity development and interconnectedness.

Taís & Roberta Bento

Mother and daughter, Taís and Roberta Bento, are founders of SOS Educação, a project that helps teachers and parents find out which adjustments in the family routine have the highest impact on students’ learning. They are columnists for Brazilian Parents Magazine and Estadão Newspaper. Roberta studied education with a specialization in language arts at International House, England. Her graduate study includes marketing and human resources from Fundação Getúlio Vargas. She also studied cognitive neuroscience at Duke University and cooperative learning at the University of Minnesota. Taís has a degree in education from Universidade de SãoPaulo and did graduate study in marketing at Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado. She studied cognitive neuroscience at the University of California and cooperative learning at the University of Minnesota.