PhD Student Profiles

Current Students

Michael Ampong

upei student michael ampongMichael is a doctoral student at the Faculty of Education. He is an international student from Ghana in West Africa. He has an MPhil in Educational Administration from the University of Cape Coast and a BEd in Information Technology from the University of Education in Ghana. Michael ​has worked as a teacher and an examiner in his home country. He is passionate about student achievement, higher-order thinking skills acquisition, teacher development, and online education. For his dissertation, he is using a mixed-method approach to investigate strategies that can help strengthen the formative assessment of higher-order thinking skills in online education.

Publications:

ePortfolio: 

Melissa Bishop

upei student melissa bishopMelissa is in the residency phase of the PhD program. She brings over 15 years of experience as a teacher, child and youth counsellor, and foster parent. She is particularly interested in the entanglements of the liv(ed)ing curriculum, environmental education, sustainability, and Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) in Indigenous early learning contexts. As a settler ally, Melissa is committed to engaging in research that is collaborative and grounded in the community's needs. Melissa is preparing to defend her comprehensive portfolio in the fall of 2022.

Selected publications:

  • Bishop, M. (2022). Language, citizenship, and Sámi education in the Nordic North, 1900-1940. [Review of the book Language, citizenship, and Sámi education in the Nordic North, 1900-1940, by Otto Kortekangas]. Canadian Journal of Education, 45(1). https://cje-rce.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/12/Book-Review-3-E-Bishop-9-11.pdf
  • Bishop, M. (2020). Elder perspectives: leveraging digital tools in language revival initiatives (Masters’ thesis, University of Ontario Institute of Technology (Canada)).

Presentations:

In progress

  • Canadian International Conference on Education (CICE): June 21–23, 2022
  • Atlantic Education Graduate Student Conference: June 4–5, 2022 
  • Open/Technology, Education, Scholarship and Society Association (OTESSA): May 16–19, 2022

Completed

  • Bishop, M. & Eamer, A. (October 27, 2018). Leveraging digital technologies for language revitalization: Elders’ perspectives. 50th Annual Algonquian Conference, Edmonton, AB. 

Elizabeth Blake

upei student elizabeth blakeElizabeth Blake began her PhD journey in January 2021 and has been exploring posthumanist educational theory as a means of recreating inclusive education. She graduated from the University of New Brunswick with a combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education in 2001. She moved to the Island shortly after graduation and started her teaching career at Tignish Elementary. Over the last 20 years, she has taught in Elementary, Intermediate and High schools across the island with the French and English school boards. During this time, she completed her Master’s in Education: Leadership and Learning at UPEI. Her Master's thesis “The emotional labour of critical pedagogy: An autoethnographic study of teacher identity” explores the need to elevate all voices in the classroom. 

Elizabeth is excited to work with the Faculty of Education as the BEd (fls) coordinator, assistant professor and as a PhD student. Her leave of absence as an administrator for the la Commission scolaire de langue française will allow her to consider various ways of being together in an inclusive classroom. Her research interests include inclusive education, assessment, diversity, actor-network theory, agential realism and posthumanist theory. 

Paulina Huayamave

upei student paulina huayamavePaulina is currently finishing her 2nd year in the program working on her dissertation proposal. She is Ecuadorian and holds a Master of Arts in Higher Education, Research and Innovation from Universidad Casa Grande in Ecuador. She has been a teacher for more than 20 years at K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions, in Ecuador and El Salvador, and worked for the Ecuadorian government in the Secretariat of Higher Education. She arrived in PEI in December 2020 to continue her PhD studies and has been a sessional instructor at UPEI since May 2021 until now. Her research interests are in critical pedagogy, global citizenship education, and teaching in vulnerable contexts.

Publications:

ePortfolio: 

Diane Montgomery

diane montgomeryDiane is in the second year of her PhD program. She also completed her Master of Education at UPEI with her thesis exploring the integration of technology, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Response to Intervention (RTI) frameworks in inclusive classrooms. Diane also holds post-graduate certificates in training and development and educational therapy. Her interests include inclusive education, educational leadership and alternative assessment methods. Diane has worked with students with diverse learning needs in private and public educational settings supporting them to learn how to learn. Her goal is to continue uncovering barriers that prevent all students from becoming successful learners and to identify potential solutions.

Selected publications:

Conference presentations:

  • UPEI Graduate Studies and Research Conference. Oct. 14, 2022
  • Open/Technology in Education, Society, and Scholarship Association conference. May 17, 2022
  • Canadian Study for the Society of Education conference. May 19, 2022.
  • The Rosa Bruno-Jofré Symposium in Education, Queen’s University. March 26, 2021

Janet Payne

upei student janet payneJanet Payne is a 3rd year PhD candidate hoping to graduate in 2023. She has attended UPEI for 28 of the past 32 years and has seen many changes on campus over that time. As an avid story listener and story teller, Janet is engaged in narrative inquiry into women’s embodied wisdom, ways of knowing, and search for life purpose and meaning. She and her husband, Neil, have 7 children and 4 grandchildren and reside between Kinkora, PEI and Jamesville, CB. Janet has worked as a fulltime site manager & counsellor at CDS since 2006, and a part-time sessional instructor at UPEI since 2009. In her spare time, Janet enjoys hiking, kayaking, cooking for her large family, and spending time in the woods.

Selected publications:

  • Payne, J. (2021) Therapeutic resonance across the miles: A PhD student’s quest to commit. Canadian Journal of Career Development, 20(2), 78-83. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7556-5813
  • Payne, J. (2020). Career Counselling, Gen Z and their sometimes very involved parents. CERIC. Career Counselling, Gen Z and Their Sometimes Very Involved Parents - CERIC
  • Payne, J. (2020). Career Counselling, Generation Z, and their sometimes very involved parents. Cognica, Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, (winter), 14-17.
  • Payne, J. (2021) Gen Z and helicopter parents: Finding balance in career counselling. Careerwise. https://careerwise.ceric.ca/2020/11/02/gen-z-and-helicopter-parents-fin…

ePortfolio: 

Christina Perry

upei student christina perryChristina is a 2nd year PhD student currently working on her comprehensive ePortfolio. She has almost twenty years’ experience working with international students as Instructor and Manager of English for Academic Purposes programming at the post-secondary level.

Her research interests include building inclusive learning environments, equity, diversity and inclusion, internationalization, and English as an Additional Language pedagogy.

Of particular interest is how to be an inclusive researcher. Her dissertation will be exploring how university classrooms can be inclusive spaces based on the tenets of community and a sense of belongingness. 


 

Kathryn Roberts

upei student kathryn robertsKate Roberts Bucca focuses on writing instruction, inclusive education, and arts-based research.

Her proposed dissertation uses the campus novel as a vehicle for exploring the intersections of invisible disability and gender dynamics in graduate creative writing education.

She holds an MEd from UPEI and a Master of Fine Arts in Writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Find out more about her and her work at katebucca.com.

 

 

PhD graduates

Suha Talea Alhothali (2021) 
Amanda Brazil (2019)
Olive Bryanton (2019)
Brittany Jakubiec (2019)
Tim McRoberts (2019)
Charlene VanLeeuwen (2019)
Mary MacPhee (2018)
Alaina Roach O’Keefe (2018)
Gabriela Sanchez (2018)
Selvi Roy (2017)
Janet MacIntyre (2016)

Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies

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