LHAE :: Roxana Ng :: Leadership Higher and Adult Education at OISE

Estate of Roxana Ng

phone: (416) 978-0797
email: rng@oise.utoronto.ca
website: http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/depts/aecdcp/faculty/ng.html

Academic History

Roxana Ng was a Professor of Adult Education and Community Development at OISE, and the Director of the Center for Women’s Studies in Education. Her unexpected death on January 12th 2013 has been a shock to many of us, although her courage and grace will be remembered forever. Read more...

Research Overview

Immigrant women" is a field of inquiry that underpins my research interests and activism in the last 25 years. Concerns about the situation of immigrant women in Canada has led me to other theoretical and empirical undertakings including: theorizing the interrelationship of gender, race and class; exploring the relationship between the community and the state; theorizing how sexism and racism are reproduced in higher education. Since 1997, I have been investigating how globalization and work restructuring are transforming the lives of garment workers, many of whom are migrant women from Asia. In this connection, I work with groups and individuals concerned with improving the working conditions of migrant workers.

At present, I am the principal researcher of a studyentitled, “Professional immigrant women navigating the Canadian labour market: A study in adult learning.” This study looks at how highly trained women from China and India navigate the Canadian labour market, and touches on issues of race, gender, class and transnational relations, as Canada positions itself in a global economy. Our interdisciplinary research team consists of faculty and graduate students from sociology and adult education. Our core analytical tool is “institutional ethnography” (IE), a feminist research method that begins from the standpoint of marginalized groups and seeks to understand how their experiences are shaped by intersecting social, political and economy processes.

Another strand of my teaching and research interest, stemming from my standpoint as a minority woman, concerns the mind and body-spirit split characteristic of higher education. Here, I am interested in exploring, through eastern philosophy and practice, how to develop modes of learning and knowledge construction that take the body-spirit into account. I call this "embodied learning," and through interrogating my own pedagogical practice I am encouraging a more integrative and multi-dimensional learning environment that honours the body, mind, and spirit.

Teaching Overview

AEC1145H Participatory Research in the Workplace and in the Community
AEC1181H Embodied Learning and Qi Gong
AEC3131H Applications of Embodied Learning
AEC3140H Post-colonial Relations and Transformative Education
AEC 3183H Mapping Social and Organizational Relations in Education
TPS1820H Toward an Integrative Equity Approach in Higher Education

Professional Activities

In addition to being active in the professional organizations to which Dr. Ng belongs, she works with a number of groups including: a group of garment sewers, the Chinese Canadian National Council - Toronto Chapter (CCNC Toronto - a social justice organization led by Chinese Canadians), the Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women (CRIAW - a NGO aimed at bridging academic and community-based feminist research), and Inter Pares (a feminist and social justice oriented international development agency working with grassroots groups and coalitions in the economic south).

Representative Publications

BOOKS

1995 Ng, R., P. Staton & J. Scane (Eds.), Anti-Racism, Feminism, and Critical Approaches to Education. Westport: Greenwood Publishers.

1990 Ng, R., G. Walker & J. Muller (Eds.), Community Organization and the Canadian State. Toronto: Garamond Press.

1989 Vorst, J.,T. Das Gupta, C. Gonick, R. Leah, A. Lennon, A. Muszynski, R. Ng, E. Silva, M. Steedman, S. Transken, D. Wilkinson (Eds.), Race, Class, Gender: Bonds and Barriers. Toronto: Between The Lines with Society for Socialist Studies. (2nd edition by Garamond Press, Toronto, 1991.)

1988 Ng, R. The Politics of Community Services: Immigrant Women, Class and State. Toronto: Garamond Press.( 2nd edition by Fernwood Books, Halifax, 1996.)

1981 Ng, R. & J. Ramirez. Immigrant Housewives in Canada. Toronto: Immigrant Women's Centre.

SELECTED ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS

2008 Mathews, A.,R.Ng, M. Patton, L. Waschuk & J. Wong. Learning, difference, embodiment: Personal and collective transformations. New Horizons in Education, 56(1): 45-63, May.

Church, K., E. Shragge, J.M. Fontan & R.Ng. While no one is watching: Learning in social action among people who are excluded from the labour market. In K. Church, N. Bascia & E. Shragge (Eds.), Learning Through Community: Exploring Participatory Practices, pp. 97-116. Holland: Springer.