Research Team
Tara GoldsteinPrincipal Investigator
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Tara Goldstein is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto (UofT). She currently teaches undergraduate students in the Equity Studies program housed in New College at UofT and graduate students at OISE. Tara has been trained as a critical ethnographer and her current program of research makes use of performed ethnography to raise critical consciousness about equity and social justice issues both inside and outside of schools. Performed ethnography involves turning ethnographic research findings into play scripts that can be read aloud and performed by a variety of different readers and performers. Tara’s ethnographic research and play scripts have taken up issues around multilingualism, language choice and racism in schools (Hong Kong, Canada); homophobia and heterosexism in schools (Snakes and Ladders); anti-Semitism and xenophobia (Lost Daughter) and issues facing transnationally adopted LGBTQ families (Harriet’s House and Ana’s Shadow). Tara’s plays Harriet’s House and Ana’s Shadow have been professionally digitally recorded and are available for download along with discussion guides at www.gaileyroad.com. Harriet’s House has been translated into Spanish and performed for teachers, students and activists in Bogotá, Colombia, in August 2013 and 2014.
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Pamela BaerResearch Manager (on leave)
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Pamela Baer is a theatre and media artist with a focus on community engaged work. Drawn from a young age to storytelling as a way of connecting people and building community, her work revolves around personal narratives, oral histories, and life stories. Pamela has facilitated community arts projects with diverse groups, and wide reaching themes, in England, Ghana, and Canada. Her current work focuses on LGBTQ families, stories, and representations, and explores the role of collective community creation in the the production of participatory media. Pamela has a B.F.A in Theatre and Development from Concordia University, a M.A. in Theatre and Media for Development from the University of Winchester, and a M.A. in Education from The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. Pamela is currently working on a series of short films that depict LGBTQ experiences of fertility clinics, she is the Research Manager on the LGBTQ Families Speak Out project, a PhD Student in Education at the University of Toronto and the Program Coordinator at Charles Street Video, an artist-run video production facility in Toronto.
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Austen KoecherResearch Manager
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Austen Koecher is a PhD student in the department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE/UT. Austen is currently working in the area of LGBTQ family and student school experiences and possible implications for teacher education. Austen's past research has included a life history analysis of the ways that student experiences of homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in schooling intersect with contact with mental health systems.
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benjamin lee hicks
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benjamin lee hicks is a visual artist, elementary school teacher and graduate student. They taught JK-grade 6 classrooms in the Toronto District School Board for 8 years prior to beginning graduate work in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto in September 2015. benjamin has written and designed curriculum materials for elementary schools on topics of sustainable community building, queer/trans inclusion and arts-based activism. They are interested in how we might better support teachers to expect queerness and prepare for multi-dimensional gender identity in elementary school classrooms. benjamin’s current research focuses on how faculties of education can teach pre-service teacher candidates to learn about queer identities with direct permission and support to discuss their own feelings, fears and reservations about this topic. They are interested in slowing down the pace at which social justice education is addressed in early teacher training – making room for heart-based processing alongside social and political theory.
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Tarra Joshi
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Tarra Joshi is originally from Vancouver, BC but is currently in her fourth year of undergraduate studies at the University of Toronto, undertaking a double major in Equity Studies and Ethics, Society and Law. She has a strong passion for social justice and world issues and hopes to pursue a career in the area diversity and inclusion after the completion of her undergraduate degree. She draws her passion for social justice and equity from her involvement in CISV (Children's International Summer Villages), an international non-profit youth organization that promotes and inspires action for a just and peaceful world. Tarra has experience facilitating workshops focusing on conflict and resolution, sustainable development, diversity and human rights.
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Jenny Salisbury
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Jenny Salisbury is a SHRCC funded PhD candidate at the Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Toronto. Her teaching and research interests include contemporary Canadian play creation and devising processes, with a focus on audience, community-engaged theatre, and the role of the artist as researcher. She is a co-founder and associate director of The Centre for Spectatorship and Audience Research. Recent publications include “When Qualitative Research meets Theater: the complexities of performed ethnography and research-informed theater project design” which she co-authored with Tara Goldstein, Julia Gray, and Pamela Snell for qualitative inquiry, and “Political Acts and Public Voices: Paying Time and Attention to The Public Servant” in vol. 166 Canadian Theatre Review. Her professional work involves project-based arts management, play development, directing, and community engagement, especially for Common Boots Theatre (formerly Theatre Columbus). She has enjoyed sessional work at Huron University College, Western University, as well as serving as the program coordinator for Ask & Imagine, a leadership program for youth and youth leaders.
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Preliminary Consultations
The Research Team has consulted with the following people and would like to thank them for their guidance:
Lee Maracle, Traditional Teacher, First Nations House, University of Toronto
Jean-Paul Restoule, Professor, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Maya Chacaby, PhD student, Department of Social Justice, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Acknowledgments
The Research Team would like to acknowledge the following people and organizations for their support in helping us find LGBTQ families to participate in this study:
LGBTQ Parenting Network, Toronto
Ten Oaks Project, Ottawa
LGBTQ Parenting Network, Toronto
Ten Oaks Project, Ottawa
