Call for Contributions: Special JCIE Issue in Honour & Memory of Professor Michael Marker (1951-2021)

Please join us in congratulating Soyoo Yoo who successfully defended her M.A. Thesis on April 28 of 2026.

Title:
Negotiating Silence and Resistance: The Political Agency of Korean Primary Teachers

Abstract:
This thesis explores how South Korean primary school teachers exercise political agency when they are not allowed to express political opinions or participate in collective actions. Drawing on Foucauldian perspectives as interpreted by Stephen Ball and Doris Santoro’s work on teachers’ demoralization, this study constructs a theoretical framework that interprets teachers’ inner conflicts as an early manifestation of resistance and the emergence of political subjectivity.

This study employs a qualitative design, using semi-structured interviews with six Korean primary teachers to examine how discourses shape teachers’ experiences and how teachers recount practices of negotiating and resisting dominant discourses. Findings demonstrate that teachers’ political agency becomes visible through tensions between discourse and practice. All participants reiterated the prevailing discourse that teachers have excessive responsibility, but are positioned as powerless because their opinions are often blocked by parents’ demands or school administrators’ opinions. In contrast, all participants also articulated practices that demonstrate their agency in four ways. First, political subjectivity emerged through collective action, particularly in response to the criminalization of teachers’ responsibilities and perceived ethical violations. Second, teachers illustrated their role as democratic actors by teaching democratic values to students, by creating spaces for students to share their opinions through classroom meetings or the students’ council. Third, several participants refused a politically neutral position and expressed their determination to speak out or sometimes participate in political actions. Fourth, teachers enacted micropolitical engagement through small and strategic actions, even when such actions involved fear and risk.

This thesis argues that teachers are not merely policy implementers; rather, they are political subjects with agency and who resist circulating discourses in various forms. This study contributes to scholarship by illustrating how micropolitical engagement is enacted when macropolitical engagement is restricted by strict educational policy, specifically focusing on teachers’ private conflicts between institutional demands and professional ethical values. Finally, it advocates protective mechanisms for teachers and broader spaces for teachers to speak out to establish a more democratic education system.

Supervisory Committee:

Dr. Claudia Ruitenberg, Supervisor
Dr. Sooyeon Kim, Member

We are thankful for the University Examiner’s contribution and expertise.

Dr. Anne Phelan, Department of Curriculum and Pedagogy, University Examiner

Congratulations Soyoo!

https://edst.educ.ubc.ca/events/event/a-class-by-themselves-audiobook-launch/

You are invited…

To: Jelana Bighorn’s MA defence on Wednesday, April 29^th at 12:30pm

Title: Transgressing white supremacy in education: A Lakota Baha’i approach

Via Zoom:  Please join the link between 12:15-12:30pm

Co-supervisors: Drs. Hartej Gill and chuutsqua Rorick

University examiner: Dr. Lee Brown   

Join Zoom Meeting for Jelana Bighorn’s MA defence:

https://ubc.zoom.us/j/63919275639?pwd=Yz2oFwvarvhrxrzlqNGNbMaEjNiBm8.1

Meeting ID: 639 1927 5639
Passcode: 858550

All welcome!

Shukria,
Hartej

Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to examine the behaviors, attitudes, and actions of white students and staff members towards decolonization and anti-racism praxis in public schools located in British Columbia. This thesis employs a spiritually based, Indigenous decolonizing methodological approach that emerges from a theoretical framework based on Lakota principles, Baha’i teachings and critical pedagogy. These three distinct paradigms comprise three separate tipi poles under which the sacred moments method is implemented. Sacred moments method creates a defined space for action, reflection and consultation with a cherished relative who has passed on. The imagined conversations examine personal experiences with white students and white teachers within educational settings to learn what understanding and/or awareness of systemic oppression is present. The intention of this research is to maintain a focus on the behaviors, attitudes, and actions of the oppressor rather than the oppressed.  Decolonizing and anti-racism public educational praxis in British Columbia is largely delivered by white teachers yet there is limited research on the effectiveness of their engagement or their commitment to its goals. The four key themes in the findings include: (1) the centrality of truth telling, (2) the desire to dream, (3) from fragility to hostility, and (4) the specter of forgiveness. This research aims to contribute new insights into white teacher resistance towards decolonization and anti-racism suggesting that as long as white relatives refuse to meaningfully engage in their own spiritual healing, anti-racism and decolonization initiatives within educational settings will continue to fail. As such this study issues a call for relational accountability. It remains to be seen who will respond to this call and when…

Please join us in congratulating Xinyue (Harriet) Dai who successfully defended her M.A. Thesis on April 16 of 2026.

Title:
Studying Up: Researching Contemporary Academics of Chinese Heritage at Canadian Research Universities

Abstract:
This thesis researches Chinese professors’ experience and identity in Canadian universities. Taking theoretical insights from the scholarship on “patterns of adaptation” from Philip Kuhn’s work on overseas Chinese marginal experience in North America, as well as Hannah Arendt’s concept of the “conscious pariah”, I structure the cultural analysis of interviews with four Chinese professors with a life history narrative approach. My main research questions are: To what extent and how do Chinese diasporic academics see their circumstances as “conscious pariahs” in Canadian society and the Chinese community respectively? And how do their cultural identities change over time? Drawing on interview data and participants’ published writings, this study synthesizes participants’ perspectives on their cultural identity, and their experiences of marginalization. These four professors can be categorized as conscious pariahs (self-critical outsiders), and parvenus (submissive social climbers) to a different extent. This research provides insight into the experiences of Chinese professors, and makes an original contribution to research on Canadian universities. The study also provides an example of “elite interviews,” in which research interviews become vibrant scholarly dialogues.

Supervisory Committee:

Dr. Claudia Ruitenberg, Educational Studies
Dr. Qiang Fu, Sociology

We are thankful for the University Examiner‘s contribution and expertise.

Dr. Amy Metcalfe, Educational Studies, University Examiner

With special thanks to Dr. Tim Cheek for all his support in the earlier phases of the research.

Congratulations Xinyue (Harriet)!