Education runs deep in Michelle Scranton’s, MEd, family. Her great-grandmother taught in a one-room schoolhouse (a building she visited just last summer!). Both her grandmother and her mother were teachers.

“Education is very much in my blood,” she says with a smile. However, Michelle decided to pursue a different career path and became a nurse — but it didn’t take long to find her way back to education. In 2021, Michelle began teaching with UBCO’s School of Nursing, leading labs, seminars, and clinicals.

“Education has always been my passion,” says Michelle. “I’ve always loved learning, and this was a natural next step for me.”

Eager to learn more about teaching, and how she could be a better teacher for her students, Michelle decided to pursue her Master of Education. For her capstone project, she decided to dive deeper into something she’d experienced firsthand, incivility and bullying in nursing. The statistics, she found, were staggering — up to 95% of new graduate nurses would experience incivility.

She wanted to know why it happens and how students can be better prepared to face it. She worked through roughly ten literature reviews across her coursework before it all came together in a final capstone. From her research, one finding reframed how she understood her own experience.

“I always thought that a lot of the behaviours were really targeted. I felt like when I was being bullied, it was about me,” she explains. “The literature showed that often it’s systemic pressures and it may be unintentional. I found it reassuring that it wasn’t necessarily about me, and I hope it’ll help our students if it comes up in their practice.”

Working with her supervisor, Dr. Peter Arthur, Michelle has now built a three-hour workshop grounded in a technique called cognitive rehearsal — practicing specific responses to specific forms of incivility. In one of the studies she reviewed, students who used the method saw incidents nearly stop. She’s now collaborating with her nursing team to fold the training into third-year curriculum, with dry-run sessions planned for students in the coming weeks. Interior Health’s new graduate team at Kelowna General Hospital has also expressed interest in adopting it for practicing nurses.

Throughout the program, every professor she had, she says, encouraged her to shape her own path and follow her passions within the learning outcomes of each course. She singles out a sustainability course that was a particular stretch — and became a rewarding project.

“Healthcare is not really sustainable,” she says. “We throw everything out because infection costs more than the supplies, so I really had to reflect on how I could try to implement a sustainability project.”

Her idea led her to collaborating with a Grade 1 teacher, where they were able to turn clean medical supply waste, like colourful vial tops and syringes, into a loose-parts art station that’s now grown to more than a thousand pieces.

“The teacher sent me videos of her students playing and building all of these things, like animals, and she said they love that station because of real world items combined with the ability to be creative and work with those loose parts.”

She also recently brought a colleague’s idea to her own classroom, “tea time,” an approachable twist on office hours. Rather than simply implementing the idea, she turned it into a project for one of her ed-tech courses, researching the literature on student belongingness before putting it into practice.

“I work with first year students, and having someone they can chat with, and having that sense of belonging is really important,” she says. “Some of our students experience challenging moments in nursing early on in their education, like working in palliative care units and having patients pass away, in addition to having a heavy course load. It makes these opportunities for connection that much more important.”

Michelle recently became a permanent clinical instructor, and now with a Master of Education degree behind her, she’s setting her sights on becoming a professor within the School of Nursing.

Her advice to future graduate students is simple: “Follow your passions… you never want to just do something to check it off a box.” It’s advice she’s clearly taken to heart — and one that’s already shaping how the next generation of nursing students will be taught.

***

In recognition of her dedication and passion for education and student engagement, Michelle received the Master-Level Graduate Student Award.

The award will be formally celebrated at the School’s Welcome and Awards Night in November.

Rob Johnson traces his own love of physical activity back to a restless childhood.

“I always had more energy than was welcome,” he says with a laugh.

He grew up on an orchard, where there wasn’t much time to sit still, and that early restlessness combined with a passion for sports and an influential basketball coach turned into a career. After receiving his masters, Rob started teaching Selkirk College in Castlegar. It wasn’t long until he transitioned to UBC Okanagan — previously the Okanagan University College — as the Director of Athletics and Recreation.

Rob’s impact as the Director can still be seen around campus. He helped design the gymnasium when the campus was first being built. He co-wrote the funding application that eventually became the proposal for what is now the Bachelor of Health and Exercise Sciences program, and led the naming process that resulted in the “Heat” being selected for the Okanagan campus athletics teams.

He also built community around sport. Modeled after a UBC Vancouver tradition, he launched the Millennium Breakfast, an annual scholarship fundraiser that ran for 13 years and, during its run, brought in close to a million dollars for student athlete awards. He started the Okanagan campuses version of the UBC Big Block Club. Based on the university ring traditions, and to distinguish it from the Vancouver campus’ sweater, he created a ring awarded to varsity athletes who competed for two years. He secured federal funding for a team rooms addition, pushed to get the gymnasium’s indoor track completed, and, with groups of enthusiastic volunteers, successfully bid to host a number of provincial, regional, and national post-secondary championships in volleyball, basketball, and soccer.

In 2025, in recognition of his career and contributions to collegiate sport, he was inducted into the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association Hall of Fame.

That passion and dedication for physical activity and sport also shaped how he teaches. Ask Rob what he wants students to take away from his classroom, and he doesn’t talk about drills or grades. He talks about capability and confidence building.

“All of us have no idea what we’re actually capable of doing unless we try,” he says.

When teaching physical education, rather than defaulting to the team sports most students grew up with, he built his courses around variety, so students could find out what they’re actually drawn to rather than what they’re used to. He’s especially focused on the basics too many students didn’t properly learn — how to throw, run, catch, kick, or hold a bat – fundamental movement skills. Over the years, he’s seen students with wildly different relationships to movement, some are passionate, some more neutral, and some have some residual embarrassment from years of being singled out.

“If you and I are doing math problems and I can’t figure them out, who knows? Maybe the teacher,” he says. “But if we’re outside throwing a ball, and I can’t throw a ball, everybody who’s outside can see I can’t throw that ball.”

That visibility, he explains, is exactly what often drives kids away from activity and keeps them away. It turns into a cycle that starts with one embarrassing moment and hardens into ‘I’m no good at it, so I don’t want to do it.’

“My approach has always been to try to spend the first little while getting people over their dislike of it,” he says, “I encourage them to just give it a chance.”

The goal is never mastery, it’s exposure.

“It’s not important to me that they be really good at any sport,” he says. “I want them to experience a variety of activities so they can find out what they enjoy doing. Being active is the key.”

Even within a sport, he pushed for formats that kept more students moving. For example, instead of full-sided soccer he’d have smaller teams and multiple games going to provide everyone an opportunity to get active — and touch the ball. One of his prouder accomplishments in teaching skills and persistence was teaching his class each year how to juggle. It’s simple enough that everyone can pick it up, he notes, and its often what sticks with people longer than anything else he taught.

“I get more comments about that than anything else,” he says. “People still come up to me, ‘You taught me to juggle and I still can!’”

He also emphasizes to his students that physical education in schools is an important matter of access. Community and club sports participation costs have raised exponentially, and attitudes toward girls’ participation can vary widely. This means that, for a lot of children, school may be the only chance they’ll get. That’s part of why he tells his students, that as future teachers they have a responsibility to bring energy to the subject even if it’s not their favourite to teach.

“Fake it till you make it,” he tells them, as students will often pick up on a teacher’s attitude fast.

After 39 years, Rob retired on July 1, 2026. As he looks to his retirement, his dedication for physical activity still stands strong, with plans to stay involved in getting kids active through refereeing or coaching — or perhaps another opportunity.

“I think there’s an opportunity for me to help out somehow there,” he says. “I haven’t exactly figured out how yet.”

Looking back on his career though, one thing is clear for Rob, it never felt like work.

Christine Abbot in Old Crow

Christine Abbot’s, EdD student, research began with an inquiry shaped by years of navigating classrooms from every angle. Having worked as a teacher, vice principal, and principal in K-12 education, she has spent a number of years considering assessment in classrooms.

“I really wanted to look at the difference between what we were seeing in policy, and then what that looked like when it was actually enacted in classrooms,” she says.

Specifically, her doctoral research focuses on how teachers make sense of new assessment practices through their existing assessment beliefs and professional identities, and through relational practice.

“My research is trying to see how we can find ways to make meaning from policy changes, and then how we can support other people to find ways to improve the learning situations for students and the working conditions for teachers.”

That same drive, to support others and improve the learning situations for students, has carried Christine to three conference presentations in the last year. The first, at the Centre for Leadership and Diversity’s annual conference, examined a multi-year community-of-inquiry project at a northern Canadian secondary school, where youth were treated as equitable members  within the community of inquiry.

“Often times when we think about student voice, it is used as more of a provocation or a talking point,  the youth come and do their piece and then they leave,” she says. “In this project, the youth were actively involved in the decision making. My presentation reflected on how their voices were heard, how those relationships were nurtured and how they impacted the system change that happened at their school.”

A second collaboration grew directly out of previous conference connections. After presenting at UBC’s Critical Social Justice in Psychology Conference, Christine began a year-long collaboration with colleagues she met there, exploring story as a form of knowledge, being, and doing, which resulted in a joint presentation at the CSSE conference in Winnipeg.

“It’s been interesting to think about how using story is really impacting how I teach teacher candidates, and how I’m thinking about research,” she says.

The third took her to Old Crow, in Vuntut Gwitchin territory, to co-present her research-assistant work on how building communities of inquiry can open decolonizing and inclusive possibilities — an experience she described as deeply meaningful and transformative.

“I really enjoyed being able to talk and learn with the Elders and  folks that live there, and to also be able to share some of the work that we were doing within the territory,” she says. “I was able hear from them about what is important and what pieces of our research story resonated for them. And also about what they are wanting to engage with and continue, and where they see their part of the story going forward.

Reflecting on her work as a research assistant, she says “That opportunity to actually see firsthand research in the real world, and the projects they’re working on, and to work alongside them and learn from them as I’m doing the program has been really enriching,”

Her doctoral coursework also offered her an opportunity to study directly with a scholar whose work she’d long read. For her elective, Christine took a course through the University of Alberta with Dr Trudy Cardinal.

Her advice to future graduate students centers on patience with uncertainty.

“Give yourself permission to grow,” she says. “The research question might change. The context might change. Your life experience is going to change, and you need to give yourself grace that you don’t need to have it all figured out when you start.”

She points equally to relationships as a lifeline through a program that’s often experienced at a distance.

“It can feel isolating, but there are always people that you can reach out to. Build relationships, nurture those relationships and connect with mentors. Take advantage of opportunities as they arise.”

***

In recognition of her impactful efforts in sharing knowledge, she received the 2026 Doctoral Studies Outstanding Conference Presentation Award

“It’s an honour to receive the award, and it’s also encouragement,” says Christine. “It affirms the pieces that I’ve been working on, and it motivates me to continue pursuing research and having these meaningful conversations. There are a lot of people that have contributed so that I am able to go off and do presentations, my mentors and my family, so the support and encouragement of those people has been really important. It’s a nice affirmation of what they’ve invested in me, and what I’m able to invest forward into others.”

Jason Andrews

Before Jason Andrews, EdD student, discovered his passion for language, he was training in theatre in Toronto, and building towards a career in acting, stand-up and improv. Along the way, the pull toward telling his own stories won out over performing other people’s, which led him into creative writing at Capilano University in Vancouver, producing plays and staying active in the city’s comedy scene. It was while studying linguistics and English at UBC that a new interest emerged — language itself, and how people learn it.

A family need brought Jason back home to Calgary, where a chance job posting at Bow Valley College turned into a decade as a language educator.

“It was a really beautiful teaching community,” he said. “I learned a lot about what it is to be a teacher.”

That decade sparked a deeper interest in educational leadership, that inspired Jason to pursue a master’s degree at Thompson Rivers University. Knowing that Jason was interested in continuing into a doctoral program, his supervisor pointed him towards UBC Okanagan’s Doctor of Education, and specifically towards Dr. Scott Douglas as a supervisor.

“It was a very community-based path,” he says with a laugh. “I hadn’t met Scott, but a lot of people in my department did and knew I would love working with him. It was serendipitous that he was part of the first cohort of supervisors for the new program.”

For his elective last summer, Jason chose to take Indigenizing leadership taught by Dr. Bill Cohen — a course he refers to as being one of the most profound learning experiences of his academic life.

“I had wanted to learn other theories of leadership and other approaches and things I hadn’t ever heard before,” he said. “I find a lot of the work that Indigenous scholars do in leadership and education very humanizing and grounding.”

As part of an assignment in the course, working alongside classmates, Jason helped build a leadership framework grounded in Syilx Okanagan teachings. After the class had ended, Jason learned about the City University of Seattle’s Global Nexus conference, and thought the event would be an excellent opportunity to share the framework.

“I thought it would be a good opportunity to share the work on a global stage, and I sent out a request to the group, and Leona Prince and Jody Billingsley were interested and able to participate.”

The strong reception led conference organizers to invite the group to turn the presentation into a full article, Weaving our Truths: Community Building for Creative Transformation–Lessons from Spic’n, for the university’s newly launched journal, published in April 2026.

Jason hopes readers come away with a broader view of what leadership can look like.

“In the course, we explored matriarchal forms of leadership, which is not the norm,” he said. “I resonated with that because I don’t actually have a lot of male or patriarchal role models in my life. I grew up with a single mom, and I was looking to a lot of women in my life as role models.”

In recognition of their outstanding efforts on the publication, Jason and his coauthors Jody and Leona received the Outstanding Doctoral Publication Award. Jason was quick to credit Drs. Bill Cohen, Scott Douglas, Karen Densky, Katie Crossman, Natalie Cohen, Lynn Bosetti, Sabre Cherkowski and Chris Martin, for their mentorship and inspiration. 

“I feel very humbled and honoured,” says Jason. “I feel the award doesn’t just belong to us. There is a deep acknowledgement that needs to be made toward that entire community of that class. It’s that community and moment that led to everything. And I’d like to thank my classmates, Leona Prince and Jody Billingsley, for their collaboration, inspiration and hard work.”

When asked what advice he’d give future graduate students, Jason shared that students should hold on to whatever “little flame” first drew you to education. Grad school combined with working bring long nights and moments of doubt, he said, and that underlying sense of purpose is what carries you through.

Jason also pointed to a talk by education researcher Ron Berger, who described educators as a kind of rebel alliance — schools as small outposts working, in ways large and small, to make things better for their students and communities. It’s a metaphor he returns to often.

“I have no idea what the impact of my work will be,” says Jason. “It’s like throwing a pebble in the ocean. But as Bill McKibben once said, just because you’re up against something so big doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. Because if no one tries, then nothing will happen, we’ll never change. I’m trying my best to create change. And if you get enough people trying their best, that’s what matters.”

Jason’s doctoral work examines the closure of federally funded language instruction programs for newcomers and immigrants across Canadian community colleges and what disappears along with them. The research looks closely at community colleges as a distinct kind of learning space, one that offers newcomers pathways and connections other service providers often can’t match, and considers the policy environment driving these closures.

For experienced educators and leaders considering a doctoral degree, the choice between a Doctor of Education (EdD) and a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) is one worth understanding clearly. Both are rigorous, doctoral-level credentials, but they are designed with different purposes, different learners, and different outcomes in mind.

At their core, the EdD and the PhD represent two distinct orientations toward knowledge. A PhD is an academic research degree, preparing graduates to generate new theoretical knowledge and contribute to scholarly literature in their discipline. PhD students immerse themselves in research and theory. They often take on teaching or teaching assistant roles in higher education. The expectation is that they fully dedicate themselves to their program.

An EdD is a professional doctorate. It is designed for people who are working fulltime in a meaningful career who have noticed a persistent question, inequity, or puzzle in their field that they cannot stop thinking about. Rather than stepping away from that work, they choose the EdD to develop an inquiry that helps them address the problem more strategically and with greater impact.

A PhD student may ask what do we know? What more can we know?, while the EdD student may ask what can we do with what we know? How do we lead change from where we stand?

Not All EdDs Are the Same

EdD programs vary considerably across institutions, provinces, and countries — in structure, delivery, expectations, and philosophy. Some are offered primarily on campus. Some are research-heavy in ways that blur the line with a PhD. Others are cohort-based professional programs with a clear applied focus. Before comparing degrees, it is worth comparing programs.

The OSE EdD: Designed Around Your Life

The Doctor of Education at UBC’s Okanagan School of Education is designed to inform, empower, and engage current and aspiring leaders in education. The program has been deliberately built around the realities of working professionals.

The flexible delivery format allows students to stay in their community and continue working full-time*. Coursework is delivered online, with students expected to be available one weekday evening per week throughout each semester. Students have the opportunity to come to campus for one two-week summer intensive. The program does not ask you to put your career or your life on hold — it asks you to bring both into the room.

The three-year program requires the completion of seven courses and is structured around a Practice-Based Dissertation — a rigorous, field-grounded inquiry into a problem or puzzle within your own professional context. It requires students to dedicate 15-20 hours per week on their doctoral studies. Through the Practice-Based Dissertation, students inquire into a problem or puzzle of practice in their professional context, developing a theory of change to lead research-informed improvements and transformations.

Learning Alongside People Like You

The program’s collaborative and interdisciplinary approach brings together students from diverse educational backgrounds to share their experiences and perspectives, creating a rich and dynamic learning experience. Your cohort is not incidental to your learning — it is central to it. The people you study alongside become a professional network you carry forward.

The Okanagan School of Education normally requires that applicants have at least five years of work experience — which means everyone in the room has lived the complexity of educational leadership. The program builds on that collective expertise rather than setting it aside.

Where It Can Take You

The EdD offers credentialing that may provide career options for those seeking senior-level leadership or consulting positions, roles within government sectors, as well as community organizations. Graduates are equipped to lead not just within their institutions but across systems as superintendents, post-secondary administrators, policy analysts, curriculum developers, and education consultants.

If your goal is to contribute to academic research and build a career in scholarly inquiry, a PhD is likely the right path. If you are a working professional seeking to deepen your practice, lead organizational change, and apply research where it matters most, without stepping away from the work you are already doing, our EdD was designed for you.

* As this degree is designed to be online and for working professionals who are intending on staying in their home community, international students are not eligible for a post-graduation work permit in Canada. 

Join us for an information session to learn more about UBCO’s 11-month Bachelor of Education (BEd) program. This session is designed to provide you with insights into the admissions requirements, application process, program highlights and more! The session will be comprised of a brief presentation and an opportunity to ask questions.

Thursday, September 24, 2026
3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Online via Zoom

REGISTER

Can’t make the session? Reach out to us at education.ubco@ubc.ca if you have any program questions! We will also email the highlights of the presentation and the questions asked following the session if you join our Interested BEd Applicant Email list.

Noah Arney

Noah Arney, PhD student, traces his interest in education back to a university professor he had during his undergraduate degree.

“The way that she taught was so engaging and so caring, and it made me want to be able to do that same thing to help other people,” he says. “I’ve always tried to remember the way that she made people feel in her classes and the way that she made people want to learn, grow and develop.”

For the last two decades, Noah has moved through education from almost every angle — as a high school teacher, an academic and career advisor and a career development faculty member, before working in policy and administration.

It was while working in student affairs Noah decided to further his education and pursue his master’s degree. His research focused on Indigenous students’ perspectives on work-integrated learning and on educational policy development.

“Since completing my masters, I hadn’t stopped thinking about the different questions I had left over from my master’s research,” he says. “I was thinking a lot about the purpose of philosophy of education. How is it useful? How is it applied? How is it taught? It eventually led me to my research question, why do we teach philosophy of education to educators in the first place?”

He reached out to Dr. Chris Martin to explore the idea further, and began the doctoral program in September 2025. Much of Noah’s research is reframing the conversation around philosophy of education.

“Philosophical thinking and the work of philosophy is something that makes you a better educator. It helps you to think critically about the things that you were doing, to change them in response to things that are changing, to consider them differently, and to try new things and then to assess those things.”

While still early into his research, one finding has surprised him.

“Our understandings of these things have changed significantly over a relatively short period of time. A lot of people think about philosophy of education as a noun, as a thing you have, or that you follow somebody’s philosophy of education, but what I’m trying to push towards is thinking of it as a verb, a thing that you do. What’s been really surprising is that the term ‘philosophy of education’ only starts showing up in English in the 1840s, so it’s only about 200 years old. And the idea of universal education, even at the elementary level, was new then and was one of the earliest things advocated for by philosophers of education, so it’s relatively new yet   often taken for granted, but it was a massive, hard-won change.”

His hope is that his research will reach the people who design teacher education programs — to help them understand why space for theory and philosophical thinking matters, especially as governments in Ontario, and even internationally in the UK and Australia, increasingly question its place in the curriculum.

Alongside his doctoral work, Noah runs a research group through the Centre for Mindful Engagement, bringing together K–12 and university educators from BC and abroad to discuss questions about educational purpose and ethics.

“We come together and we talk about our research, but also discuss important and difficult questions within education today,” he says. “What is the purpose of education? What are good educational outcomes? Questions around philosophical and theoretical ideas and questions within education.”

For those considering pursuing their doctoral degree, Noah says be prepared to read.

“You’re going to read a lot,” he says with a laugh. “I’m someone who reads about 50 books a year, and thought I knew how much reading to expect, and no matter how much reading you think it’s going to be, it’s going to be a lot more. I’d also suggest start reading now. Read broadly, read in the field that you’re interested in, and really learn how to read academic articles.”

***

In recognition of his dedication and passion for education, Noah received the 2026 Outstanding Doctoral-Level Graduate Student Award.

“I’m very thankful to receive this award,” says Noah. “I’m thankful for the work that my supervisor, Dr. Martin, has done and to everyone in the faculty, including Lindsay Cox, the graduate coordinator. Everyone’s support has helped inspired me to write, and go to conferences and present.”

The award will be formally celebrated at the School’s Welcome and Awards Night in November.

Courtnay Boateng

When Courtnay Boateng entered the Master of Education program, her initial research question was broad: how can AI make equitable education more accessible? Course by course, her question began to narrow first into accessibility generally, then into how AI might support neurodivergent students, including those with autism and ADHD — a focus inspired in part by her own ADHD diagnosis as an adult.

“After the diagnosis, it started making sense when I had struggles in school,” says Courtnay. “When I thought about a future career path, I started thinking more about how can we help teachers reach more students without adding to their workload. I knew AI was a vehicle for it, but I didn’t quite know how.”

In one of her courses as part of a student engagement assignment, Courtnay designed a concept for an online RPG-style education platform. In the platform, school subjects became maps and assignments became quests, alongside a collaborative library where teachers could build and share AI-assisted lesson plans. The response from her teacher peers was overwhelmingly positive — they wanted something like that library to actually exist.

“There is no province-wide repository for lesson plans that is interactive, or that includes AI supports,” says Courtnay. “That, to me, seemed like a massive gap.”

Courtnay originally decided to build a guide to help teachers prompt AI tools effectively. It grew to more than 60 pages.

“I was looking at this guide that I was putting together, and I thought this is really not helpful,” says Courtnay. “It looked quite overwhelming.”

In order to make her research project a reality, Courtnay had to rethink her approach. Fortunately, that guide became the foundation for what Courtnay and her husband, a software developer, started building together, a platform called CARL (hicarl.ai). Rather than relying on pre-loaded prompts, CARL’s backend draws on hundreds of lines of instructions developed from Courtnay’s research — covering frameworks like the 5E instructional model, guardrails against assuming students’ family structures or socioeconomic backgrounds, and guidance for representing diverse cultures and worldviews accurately in AI-generated content and images.

“With my own children in schools, I want them to see themselves in their lessons. I want all students to see themselves represented in the content,” says Courtnay.

Artwork by Courtnay Boateng

CARL has grown well beyond its original scope as a capstone concept. Courtnay estimates that she and her husband each spend 60 to 70 hours a week building the platform

“We don’t know how to do anything half-baked,” she says with a laugh.

CARL also incorporates research into social-emotional learning, including guidance for teachers on introducing trauma-informed practices sensitively and encouraging productive failure as part of the learning process.

“We really want teacher wellness and sustainable education practices to be more accessible,” says Courtnay, adding that many teachers are working significant overtime just to keep up.

Building a Canadian-based option mattered too. Most comparable AI tools for educators are American, Courtnay noted, raising questions around privacy law and data hosting that a Canadian platform.

More than a degree, Courtnay notes that the program gave her direct access to the practical realities of teachers’ classrooms and helped to influence her new career path.

“The program gave me the opportunity to really dig in to make sure that every single tool that we are offering, or that we have built in, is based on research and what is going to be practically helpful to teachers,” she says. “Getting to take all this theory and apply it to something that is so practical and so useful — it was exciting to actually see a direct connection between the education I did and the job I’m currently building for myself.”

For those considering pursuing a master’s degree, Courtnay recommends following genuine interest, staying flexible when plans shift, and not being afraid of any detours.

“You cannot learn from success the way you can from failure,” she said. “Even the failures along the way are beneficial in the long run.”

***

In recognition of her research and extensive work, Courtnay received the 2026 Outstanding Project Award. Having built CARL alongside her husband late into so many nights, Courtnay says the award isn’t just personal recognition.

“Receiving the award is affirmation that what we have created has value. We made something here that is worthy of recognition,” she says.

The award will be formally celebrated at the School’s Welcome and Awards Night in November.

What is social citizenship? Join Dr. Catherine Broom and her team for an upcoming workshop to learn about recent research on Canadian citizenship, identity and belonging, and how these findings can be used in your classrooms.

Thursday, August 27, 2026
11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
In-person at UBCO or online via Zoom

Register

The in-person workshop will include lunch and parking on campus for the duration of the event.

Participants will advance their knowledge of citizenship scholarship and receive teaching resources including lesson ideas and plans. The materials are suitable for Kindergarten to Grade 12 classes, with broad and adaptable resources.

The research findings are based Dr. Broom’s recently completed study on Canadian Citizenship, Identity and Belonging.

In-person participation is limited to 20 attendees, please register by July 31, 2026.

Open to current School of Education students, alumni, and practicing educators. 

Congratulations to Mack Irwin, one of our two Madeline Korfman Memorial Scholarship recipients!

As noted by his nominator: “His passion and joy for teaching was evident in our co-planning and co-teaching in-situ experiences. Mack is extraordinarily kind, hard-working, and humble. He is open to new ideas and always keen to learn more. He worked collaboratively with his teaching team, bringing a positive energy that was described by his team as contagious.”

For Mack, the recognition is really about the cohort.

“I feel really honoured to be recognized,” he says. “There’s so much love for teaching in that room, I think there are 130 people who could get the award and be completely deserving. I’m constantly learning things from my peers.”

***

Mack Irwin, BEd ’27, has spent much of the last decade chasing a variety of pursuits while living in Scotland, Whistler, and New Zealand — including ski instructor, restaurant work, and careers as both a brewer and a distiller, before settling in Kelowna and beginning his journey toward teaching.

“All of those opportunities have really left me with different things,” Mack says, “I think they do make a part of who I am, and there are things from all of those experiences that I can really connect to as an educator.”

Reflecting on his own childhood school experiences, Mack says that some of his strongest memories come from sports and outdoor education programs.

“That’s where I learned to love being in the outdoors and appreciate the place we live, the ground under our feet, the plants and animals around us.”

It’s a passion that he hopes to continue to share with his future classes — and one that he has already begun to share during his practicum experience. During his field experience at KLO Middle School, Mack picked up mountain bike coaching, and spent time working with the school’s student-run hydroponic growing facility — a custom-built shipping container that students manage from planting through harvest and distribution.

“I tried to spend an hour a day in the farm, as they call it,” he says. “It was a real eye-opener for me in terms of educational structures and curriculum where you can make some really big experiences.”

One of the most meaningful parts of the program, Mack notes, has been its deliberate, sustained focus on Indigenous pedagogies and Syilx ways of knowing and being, including opportunities to learn directly from Elders.

“The exposure we have to Syilx ways of knowing and being has been really rich. I think there’s just been such a focus from every single step of this journey on helping us become teachers who can teach in a way that honours truth and reconciliation,” he says. “Over the course of the program, my comfort, my familiarity, and my confidence as an educator who wants to teach in ways that empower Indigenous peoples and ways of being here has grown. I think that’s a real strength of this program.”

For incoming teacher candidates, Mack’s advice is simple: stay open-minded.

“You’re going to do lots of art activities, you’re going to be asked to be part of things that might make you feel a little shy,” he says. “But by being open to these, you deepen your experience so much.”

Mack points to one assignment in particular where he allowed himself to be more open. Rather than writing a traditional research essay for a course, he mapped out his learning journey as a drawing instead, and came away with insights a written essay wouldn’t have offered.

“This program is a really fun launch pad for all sorts of personal interests and things you might want to learn more about,” he says. “It’s a great opportunity to try something you’re interested in or are wondering about in a safe environment.”

About the Madeline Betty Korfman Scholarship

This scholarship has been endowed through a bequest by Madeline Betty Korfman to honour her love for teaching. Madeline Korfman taught school in southwestern Saskatchewan before relocating to the Okanagan in the mid-1900s. This scholarship is awarded to two teacher candidates who significantly demonstrate a “love for teaching” based on the recommendation of Okanagan School of Education faculty.