Faculty
Professor, Head of CERLL
Dr. Enrica Piccardo is a Professor in the Language and Literacy in Education program (LLE) in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE and cross-appointed with the Department of Italian Studies. She has been the head of CERLL since 2016.
Dr. Piccardo’s research includes language teaching approaches and curricula, multi/plurilingualism, creativity and complexity in language education, and assessment. She has extensive international experience in second/foreign language education research, teacher development and teaching of multiple languages. As a collaborator with the Council of Europe (CoE) since 2008 and co-author of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) Companion Volume (2020), she has coordinated various international research projects both in Canada and in Europe. She is herself plurilingual (with publications and presentations in English, French, Italian and German, and ongoing learning of Spanish).
Currently, Dr. Piccardo is leading the SSHRC-funded project Advancing Agency in Language Education, which investigates language teachers’ beliefs and situated language education practices in relation to plurilingual, action-oriented, and technology-mediated approaches across Ontario, Quebec and Alberta. Click here to find out more.
Professor
Dr. Normand Labrie is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
In his research, Dr. Labrie is interested in linguistic pluralism, language politics, linguistics minorities, and discourse analysis. A member of the Royal Society of Canada, Prof. Labrie is the author of more than 150 publications in French, English, German, Spanish, Catalan, and Basque, including 30 articles in refereed journals. After having served for ten years as Centre Head of the Centre for Franco-Ontarian Studies (CREFO), he has been appointed from 2004 on Associate Dean with various portfolios (Research, Graduate Studies, Programs), Scientific Director of the Quebec Funding Agency in the Social Sciences and Humanities, Interim President of the Université de l’Ontario français, and Interim Dean at OISE.
Professor
Dr. Levine’s research interests include Shakespeare and Cultural Literacy, Historical Literacy and Popular Culture, Film/Cinematic Literacy, history of education with special reference to social modernization and economic change, the history of schooling in relation to demographic analysis and family history, the history of literacy, the social history of education in relation to popular culture, educational history in England, historiography of the history of education.
Professor
Dr. Katherine Rehner is a Professor in the Department of Language Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga with a graduate appointment in the Language and Literacy in Education (LLE) program in the Department of Curriculum Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
Her research expertise is in the areas of sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, French as a first and second language, French immersion, and second language education. Dr. Rehner is currently leading the research project Reorienting FSL programming to the CEFR, which examines the role of the CEFR in reorienting the priorities, scope, sequence, and resources of a private school’s French-as-a-second-language programming. In collaboration with Dr. John Ippolitio, she is working on a research project titled Adult language learning in a transnational context: Towards a migrant-centric view of translingual agency and social integration, which explores the language learning experiences of migrants in Canada, Italy, and the United States of America from the perspective of migrants, of service providers, and of local academics working in migrant-related fields.
Professor
Dr. Shelley Stagg Peterson is a Professor in the Language and Literacy in Education program (LLE) in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
Her research interests include young children’s language and literacy, play-based learning, collaborative action research, northern rural and Indigenous education, children’s Indigenous language learning, feedback on writing, writing assessment and instruction, and children’s literature. One of her SSHRC-funded research projects is the Northern Oral language and Writing Project through Play (NOW Play) which includes early childhood educators, teachers, parents/caregivers, and community members from Indigenous communities, as well as university researchers in Canada, New Zealand, and Sweden. Find out more about the NOW Play project here. Recently, she has co-edited the book Roles of place and play in young children’s oral and written language which was published by the University of Toronto Press.
Associate Professor
Prof. Jeff Bale is an Associate Professor in the Language and Literacy in Education program (LLE) in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
In his research, Dr. Bale focuses on language policy and teacher education in Canada and Germany. Together with Prof. Eve Haque (co-PI) from York University, he is currently PI on the SSHRC-funded research project “Language, Race, and Regulating Difference: The Heritage Languages Program in Ontario, 1977–1987” In this archival and oral-history research project, Prof. Bale is investigating linguistic dimensions of systemic racism in Ontario’s publicly funded schools and how past experiences can inform current efforts to expand linguistic justice in Ontario schools. From 2017-2021 he was PI on another SSHRC-funded project with Prof. Antoinette Gagné (co-PI) and Prof. Julie Kerekes (co-PI) on teacher preparation for working with multilingual learners. The book from this project, More Than “Just Good Teaching”: Centering Multilingual Learners and Challenging Racism in Teacher Education will appear in July 2023 with Multilingual Matters. Prof. Bale also serves as Vice President, University and External Affairs for the University of Toronto Faculty Association (2022–2024).
Associate Professor
Dr. Simone Casini is an Associate Professor and Senior Research Associate at the Department of Language Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga with graduate appointments at the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (ISUP) and OISE.
His research interests include Semiotics, Second-Language Teaching and Learning, Languages in Contact, Educational Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Sociolinguistics, Italian Linguistics, Language Creativity, Language Science, Plurilingualism / Multilingualism. Dr. Casini has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in foreign language teaching in learning as well as the role of Italian in Canada. Most recently, he has collaborated on a research project entitled The Spread of Italian Language in Canada: From Nostos to the Market Job. He is co-investigator of the SSHRC project Italiese and its new developments: from endangered to a global language (2022-2025).
Associate Professor
Dr. Antoinette Gagné is Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Language and Literacy in Education program (LLE) in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
From 2016 to 2022, she also served as the Associate Chair, Student Experience in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE. In her research, Dr. Gagné focuses on teacher education for diversity and inclusion in various contexts. She has also explored the experiences of newcomers and their families in Canadian schools as well as plurilingual students in post-secondary education. Much of her research has involved collaboration with teachers and English learners and has culminated in multimedia products which can be found on the DiT – Diversity in Teaching and the Refugee Education and Refugee Education websites. Currently, she is collaborating with Dr. Emmanuelle Le Pichon and Alexandre Cavalcante as well as colleagues from other parts of Canada and France on the SHHRC-funded research project Plurilingual pedagogies and digital technologies to support learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics which explores how digital technologies can support newcomers’ English language learning in STEM subjects. Together with Dr. Amir Kalan (McGill University) and Dr. Sreemali Herath (University of Manitoba), she co-edited the book Critical Action Research Challenging Neoliberal Languages and Literacies in Education.
Associate Professor
Dr. Rosa Junghwa Hong is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, in the Department of Language Studies, UTM.
Her research focuses on finding ways to integrate novel pedagogical approaches in FSL curriculum design and teaching. Her interest in online teaching and learning sparked one of her latest research projects, Audiost@t, an application for French pronunciation practice and automated correction. In addition to her research projects on Francophone diaspora writers in Canada, Dr. Hong is actively engaged in experiential education and narrative-based empathy pedagogy initiatives in second language learning.
Associate Professor
Dr. Julie Kerekes is an Associate Professor in the Language and Literacies Education program (LLE) in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
In her research and teaching, she focuses on language and power in conversational and institutional settings; interlanguage pragmatics; discourse analysis; sociolinguistics; second language acquisition; linguistics for language educators; intercultural workplace communication; and supporting English learners. Currently, Dr. Kerekes is completing a co-edited volume, Migrants in working life, which critically examines language use and perceptions in migrant workers’ trajectories. She is collaborating on the On-board@OISE research project, which investigates the experiences of international students at OISE. She has also been part of the SSHRC-funded research project More than just good teaching: Mainstream teacher education for supporting English language learners and teacher education policy in Ontario.
Associate Professor
Her main research interests focus on linguistic representation among language learners and on inclusion of linguistic and cultural diversity in teaching practice in primary and secondary school.
Associate Professor
Academic Director of the Centre for Urban Schooling at OISE
Drawing on insights from practitioner research, critical literacy, and New Literacy Studies, Dr. Simon’s scholarship explores how educators develop understandings, curriculum, and pedagogy from students’ diverse cultures, languages, and literacy practices. The aim is to re-imagine schools and classrooms as places oriented to increased equity and educational opportunity for all students.
In 2015, Dr. Simon received the Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation for a project called “Addressing Injustices: Teachers and Adolescents Coauthoring Social Justice-Oriented Literacy Curriculum”. He is the principal investigator of The Minecraft Project, a recently completed SSHRC-funded study of youths’ perspectives on the educational affordances of the online game Minecraft for urban classrooms.
Associate Professor
Dr. Jeffrey Steele is an Associate Professor in French Studies at the Department of Language studies at the University of Toronto with graduate appointments in the Language and Literacy Program (LLE) at OISE and the tri-campus French program.
Dr. Steele’s research interests include bilingualism and second language learning, phonetics, assessment, and evaluation. His latest SSHRC-funded research project is called Reading Comprehension among Majority and Minority Language Children in French Immersion: The Contribution of Oral Language Skills and Reading Strategies and investigates English-French cross-language transfer as well as the effects of the majority/minority status on language and literacy learning.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Cassie J. Brownell (she/her) is an Assistant Professor in the Curriculum & Pedagogy program (C&P) in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Brownell’s early work used qualitative modes of inquiry to critically consider how education might become more inclusive of children’s cultural and modal ways of knowing while her more recent research considers children’s political socialization. In 2022, Dr. Brownell was awarded nearly $250,000 from the Canadian government for an international collaborative project entitled “Sensory stories of environmental stewardship: A cross–coastal constellation of children, cultivating, crafting, and communicating nature narratives” which focuses on innovative research methods for working with young children in the time of COVID-19. She has also been collaborating on the NOW Play project. Visit Dr. Brownell’s website to find out more.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Emmanuelle Le Pichon-Vorstman is an Assistant Professor in the Language and Literacy in Education program (LLE) in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
Her research interests include educational linguistics, linguistic diversity, education rights of linguistic minorities, metacognition, migration, and mobilities as well as inclusive education. Her keen interest in migration policy has led her to conduct research studies on issues related to multilingual education, particularly on the education of newly arrived migrant students in Europe (TRAM project, Taalschool project, EDINA) and indigenous pupils in Suriname (Meertaligheid in Suriname in collaboration with the Rutu Foundation). At the moment, Dr. Le Pichon-Vorstman is working on the SSHRC and MITACS funded research projects Plurilingual pedagogies and digital technologies to support learning in Science,Technology, Engineering and Mathematics.
You can learn more about her projects here www.languagefriendlyschool.org and www.escapeprojects.ca.
Soudeh Oladi
Assistant Professor
Dr. Soudeh Oladi is an Assistant Professor in the Social Justice Department at OISE.
Her research interests include immigrant students’ schooling experiences in Canada, decolonial education, Eastern spirituality in education and Rumi. At OISE, she is teaching courses on critical pedagogy and linguistic and cultural diversity, anti-Islamophobia education, sociology of race and ethnicity, migration and globalization, marginality and the politics of resistance, and reading Rumi as ethical resistance. Currently, she is the lead researcher on a Jackman Humanities Institute funded Working Group entitled Mapping Immigrant Students’ Stories: Mothers and the Burden of Knowledge. Dr. Oladi’s research brings to voice narratives of students’ perceptions of belonging, social inclusion, identity, displacement, home, invisibility, as well as experiences of pain and joy in educational settings.
Assistant Professor
Pablo Robles-García is an Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the University of Toronto, Mississauga with a graduate appointment at OISE.
His research expertise is in Second Language Acquisition, Vocabulary Acquisition and Testing, Vocabulary Assessment, and Spanish Language Teaching and Learning. In 2022, Prof. Robles-García developed O-LSVLT, a software that allows teachers and research practitioners to create written meaning-recall vocabulary tests that measure knowledge of the 8,000 most frequent words in Spanish. Through this platform, students are able to track their language learning process. At the University of Toronto Mississauga, Prof. Robles-García has taught various courses on topics related to theoretical issues in second language learning and Spanish.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Shawna-Kaye Tucker is an Assistant Professor in the Language and Literacy in Education program (LLE) in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at OISE.
Her research interests include the development of oral language and literacy skills among learners with English as an additional language. As a Caribbean native, she has also a strong interest in language and literacy development of children in Creole-speaking contexts as well as in the role of home and community literacy practices in learner outcomes. At the University of Oxford, Dr. Tucker has been part of the research project From the page to the stage: A feasibility study on using theatre to improve EAL children’s communicative skills in which she explored connections between theater practice and language production.
Assistant Professor
Dr. Zhaozhe Wang is an Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric Studies in the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy, with a graduate appointment in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at OISE.
His research expertise is in rhetoric and writing studies, particularly in multilingual writing and literacy, transnational rhethorics and rhetorical/cultural studies of digital media. Dr. Wang is also working on the SSHRC- funded research project Literacy as Nation-Building in a Foreign Land: Chinese International Students’ Embodied Transnational Identity Negotiation, which investigates Chinese international students’ transnational identity negotiation embodied in everyday literacy practices and raciolinguistic experiences in North American institutions of higher education, especially during a time characterized by heightened geopolitical tension between China and North America.
Stephen Bahry
Sessional Lecturer
Dr. Stephen Bahry is a Sessional Lecturer and researcher in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Department at OISE with graduate appointment at Zhubanov University in 2022 teaching 4th year diploma students and supporting them with their research projects on second language teaching in English. He also had a graduate appointment at Nazarbayev University teaching MA students in the Multilingual Education program.
Dr. Bahry’s research interests include second language learning, multilingualism, and plurilingualism as well as comparative and cross-cultural perspectives. Currently, he is collaborating on a SSHRC-funded research project entitled Education Experiences of Canadian High School Students of Post-Soviet Backgrounds, where he investigates the educational experiences, challenges, and opportunities of the diverse population of students whose families originate in the former Soviet Union. Dr. Bahry is also working with former students from Tajikistan and Kazakhstan on a comparative review of language-in-education policy and practice in Central Asia the region’s language ecology, with a forthcoming chapter in the Encyclopedia of World Englishes.
Amy Fullerton
Sessional Lecturer
Dr. Amy Fullerton is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto who has extensive experience as a Spanish, linguistics, and education technology Professor.
In her research, she focuses on multi-user virtual environments and their implications on language learning, effective development of language learning applications, and creating authentic and immersive language experiences in online learning and through augmented and virtual reality simulations. Dr. Fullerton has been teaching courses at OISE that include Curriculum and Pedagogy in the Foreign Language Classroom, Language Awareness for Language Educators, and Sociolinguistics.
Jonathan Luke
Sessional Lecturer
Dr. Jonathan Luke is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto.
His research interests include language policy specifically in higher education, English language learning and academic writing. Recently, Dr. Luke has worked on the research project How states promote global English: Shifting priorities in education policy, which involved the creation of a global database of English language education policies. Most recently, Dr. Luke has published on ESL teachers’ L2 writing assessment practices as acts of language policy.
June Starkey
Sessional Lecturer
Dr. June Starkey is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto.
Since 2006 she has been the clinic director and principal researcher at a private bilingual learning clinic she founded, which focuses on diagnostic evidence-based teaching and formative assessment. In this capacity, Dr. Starkey has developed advanced protocols for students’ long-term success at learning to learn by drawing on the cognitive aspects of brain plasticity. At the University of Toronto, she has been teaching courses about empirical research for language learning, motivation, and feedback.
Brenda Stein Dzaldov
Sessional Lecturer
Dr. Brenda Stein Dzaldov is a sessional lecturer at OISE.
In her research, she focuses on early literacy, family literacy, and inclusive pedagogies. At the University of Toronto, Dr. Stein Dzaldov has taught courses in psychological foundations of learning, curriculum and teaching in literacy, fundamentals, and special education and mental health. Her roles at the University of Toronto currently also include OISE/UT Faculty Advisor, Cohort Coordinator, Curriculum Development Lead, and Lead Instructor for the YRDSB/OISE Partnership.
Yasuyo Tomita
Sessional Lecturer
Dr. Yasuyo Tomita is a Sessional Lecturer at OISE.
In her research and teaching, she is interested in instructed second language acquisition (e.g., form-focused instruction, corrective feedback), teaching methodologies, and learner identity and investment. Her research interest also includes creativity and technology use in action-oriented language learning. Currently, Dr. Tomita is collaborating on several research projects, including meta-analysis of native/non-native speaking teachers and classroom research on learner perceptions towards online and in-person language learning. Her latest publication focuses on second-language acquisition theory and practice in Japanese and Korean classrooms.
Yollanda Zhang
Sessional Lecturer
Yollanda Zhang is a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto.
In her research, she is interested in bilingualism (English and Mandarin). As an entrepreneur, she has founded various projects, including the Panda Mandarin Language Program, a school program that makes learning fun and engaging through technology and research-based language teaching methodology. As founder and Executive Director, she has also founded the non-profit, Girl. Strong., which is a program that empowers girls through speaking, entrepreneurship, STEM, and positive habits.