Diane Collier is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Brock University. She conducts research in the areas of multimodalities and literacies with a special interest in connections across home and school. Using qualitative and interdisciplinary methodologies her work focuses on the processes of making and literacies, how children use everyday resources (particularly, popular culture), and what can be learned from children about their consumption and production of multimodal, cultural, and digital texts. Her research interests also include ethical considerations of children’s participation in research and considerations of creativity in literacies. She currently serves as the President of Language and Literacy Researchers of Canada / L’Association canadienne des chercheurs en langue et littératie: http://www.llrc-accll.ca/doku.php.

Mia Perry is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow in the School of Education and works at the intersection of arts and cultural production, public and community pedagogies, and literacy studies. She is interested in how the arts can mediate and materialise collective inter-disciplinary research, learning and action, particularly in relation to literacies, socio-ecological sustainability, and Global North-South collaborations. Mia is a Research Fellow with the Arts Education Research Group at Trinity College Dublin, and the Coordinator of the Sustainable Futures in Africa Network (www.sustainablefuturesinafrica.com).

Blaine E. Hatt (PhD & ADL E-Learning) is an Associate Professor (Intermediate/Senior Division) in the Schulich School of Education at Nipissing University. He is a former Secondary School Administrator (Vice-principal and Principal) and an elementary and secondary classroom teacher. His post-secondary teaching includes undergraduate courses in Imagination Creativity Education (ICE), Curriculum Development and Evaluation, English for I/S Learners; and graduate courses in Creativity and Learning, Adult Learning, Educational Leadership, and various Literacy-based courses. His research interests focus on Imagination Creativity Education (ICE), teacher-hiring processes, communities of learnership, the principal as instructional and system leader, and, online learning experiences of instructors and adult learners. He is an inaugural recipient of NU’s Schulich Fellowship Award for Teaching and a past recipient of the Secretary of State Award for Excellence in Teaching Canadian Literature, and of a Provincial and  National Hilroy Award. Contact: blaineh@nipissingu.ca.

Kathleen Gallagher is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Toronto. Dr. Gallagher’s books include, Why Theatre Matters: Urban Youth, Engagement, and a Pedagogy of the real (University of Toronto Press, 2014); The Theatre of Urban: Youth and Schooling in Dangerous Times (University of Toronto Press, 2007) Drama Education in the Lives of Girls: Imagining Possibilities (University of Toronto Press, 2000). Her edited collections include: The Methodological Dilemma Revisted: Creative, Critical and Collaborative Approaches to Qualitative Research for a New Era (Routledge 2018); In Defence of Theatre: Aesthetic Practices and Social Interventions. (with Barry Freeman, University of Toronto Press 2016); Drama and Theatre in Urban Contexts (with Jonothan Neelands, Routledge 2013); The Methodological Dilemma: Creative, Critical and Collaborative Approaches to Qualitative Research (Routledge, 2008); and How Theatre Educates: Convergences and Counterpoints with Artists, Scholars, and Advocates (with David Booth, University of Toronto Press, 2003). Dr. Gallagher has published many articles on theatre, youth, pedagogy, methodology and gender and travels widely giving international addresses and workshops for practitioners. Her research continues to focus on questions of youth civic engagement and artistic practice, and the pedagogical and methodological possibilities of theatre.

Dr. Carl Leggo is a poet and professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education at the University of British Columbia. His books include: Growing Up Perpendicular on the Side of a Hill; View from My Mother’s House; Come-By-Chance; Teaching to Wonder: Responding to Poetry in the Secondary Classroom; Lifewriting as Literary Métissage and an Ethos for Our Times (co-authored with Erika Hasebe-Ludt and Cynthia Chambers); Being with A/r/tography (co-edited with Stephanie Springgay, Rita L. Irwin, and Peter Gouzouasis); Creative Expression, Creative Education (co-edited with Robert Kelly); Poetic Inquiry: Vibrant Voices in the Social Sciences (co-edited with Monica Prendergast and Pauline Sameshima); Speaking of Teaching (co-authored with Avraham Cohen, Marion Porath, Anthony Clarke, Heesoon Bai, and Karen Meyer); English in Middle and Secondary Classrooms (co-edited with Kedrick James and Teresa M. Dobson); A heart of wisdom: Life writing as empathetic inquiry (co-edited with Cynthia Chambers, Erika Hasebe-Ludt, and Anita Sinner); Sailing in a Concrete Boat: A Teacher’s Journey; Arresting Hope: Prisons That Heal (co-edited with Ruth Martin, Mo Korchinski, and Lynn Fels); Arts-based and Contemplative Practices in Research and Teaching: Honoring Presence (co-edited with Susan Walsh and Barbara Bickel); Hearing Echoes (co-authored with Renee Norman); and Poetic inquiry: Enchantment of Place (co-edited with Pauline Sameshima, Alexandra Fidyk, and Kedrick James).

In addition to publishing many books, articles, poems, and stories, Carl has been an educator in school and university classrooms for over 37 years. He is known among his students and colleagues as a poet-teacher with a passion for poetic knowing and poetic living. No day is complete without reading and writing poetry.

Integral to his current creative and academic life, Carl Leggo is a happy grandfather to four darling granddaughters with the magical names: Madeleine, Mirabelle, Gwenoviere, and Alexandria.

An award-winning teacher, Laura Sokal has published over 50 peer-reviewed research articles and 3 edited books on the psycho-social needs of today’s students. Her SSHRC-funded research program includes studies ranging from adjustment in pre-school children to mental health issues in post-secondary students. Laura’s extensive community service includes service on boards and committees concerned with social justice and creating meaningful and fair opportunities for vulnerable children, youth, and adults. Laura also currently serves as a co-editor on the Oxford Encyclopedia of Inclusive and Special Education, to be released in 2019. Aside from working in schools in Canada and teaching in Australia, Turkey, Germany, and Nicaragua, Laura has served as the University of Winnipeg’s Associate Dean of Education, and as a Child Life Therapist at Children’s hospital. In her current roles as Director of Developmental Studies and Professor of Education at the University of Winnipeg, she enjoys learning with and from her students.

Umesh Sharma is Professor in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, Australia where he is the Academic Head of the Educational Psychology and Inclusive Education Community. He is the chief co-editor of the Australasian Journal of Special Education and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Inclusive and Special Education.  He has authored over 100 academic articles, book chapters and edited books that focus on various aspects of inclusive education. His recently co-authored book “A Guide to Promoting a Positive Classroom Environment” was the recipient of the International Book Prize Award from the Exceptionality Education International.  He has also received several awards for his contribution to academia including the Dean’s award for Excellence in Innovation and External Collaboration in 2012; the Dean’s Award for Research Impact (Economic and Social) in 2016; and, the Dean’s Award for Research Enterprise in 2017. His project on the development of the Pacific Indicators for Inclusive Education received the Zero award for outstanding policy development from the United Nations in Vienna, 2016. His main areas of research are: positive behaviour support, inclusive education for disadvantaged children and policy and practice in special and inclusive education.

Carla L. Peck is Associate Professor of Social Studies Education in the Department of Elementary Education at the University of Alberta. Her research interests include students’ understandings of democratic concepts, diversity, identity, citizenship and the relationship between students’ ethnic identities and their understandings of history. She has held several major research grants and has authored and co-authored numerous journal articles, book chapters, and books related to this work, including Education, Globalization and the Nation (PalgraveMacmillan, 2016) and a co-edited volume, with Terrie Epstein, Teaching and Learning Difficult Histories in International Contexts (Routledge, 2018).

Vanessa Gulayets graduated from The Kings’ University in May, 2017 and is now working for the Edmonton Catholic school district, teaching high school science and math. She coaches senior girls’ basketball and junior girls’ volleyball, and is just as passionate about coaching as she is about teaching. Her choice to pursue education was heavily influenced by her participation in athletics throughout her educational career, and she hopes to be able to lead students to have similar experiences.

Margaretta Patrick is an Associate Professor in the faculty of education at The King’s University in Edmonton, Alberta. The broad theme of her research is religion in the public sphere, including the study of religion in public education and how to equip new teachers to address religion in their classrooms. She has published several articles on some of these themes.