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Assistant Professorlauhill@trentu.ca |
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About
I am an assistant professor of arts education in the School of Education. My teaching philosophy employs critical pedagogy and post-colonial theory as frameworks to guide practice. I believe that to be effective and inspiring educators, we must challenge our students to work as a community to question the realities that they find objectionable. Whether through thoughtful engagement with current academic research, action-oriented projects, or anti-oppressive instructional design, I hope to guide my students towards equitable and justice-oriented practice. Within the Canadian context, I believe that a post-colonial theoretical lens is necessary to further the national project of reconciliation and to counter neo-imperial ideology. Throughout my career as a primary, junior, intermediate, senior, and post-secondary educator, I have observed that arts-based inquiry and decolonizing methodologies can motivate and challenge diverse groups of students. As a non-Indigenous person, I also recognize the necessity of personal practices of decolonization, professional collaboration with Indigenous community members, and reciprocity with Indigenous writers, philosophers and elders.
My research uses arts-based methodologies, post-colonial theory, and critical pedagogy to further goals of reconciliation, social and ecological learning, and embodied reflexivity. I am interested in the intersections between theoretical exploration, performance, relationship, identity, and transformation within education studies, and my research explores these topics in three main ways. First, I ask questions regarding reconciliation in the classroom and the landscape around Indigenous/non-Indigenous teacher collaboration. Secondly, I am interested in the scholarship of teaching and learning, particularly in relation to the gamification of learning and the significance of the body in the experience of artistic creation. Thirdly, my current research involves collaborative work that engages arts-related inquiry, community partnerships, and issues related to equity, diversity, and inclusion. The specificity of my research is informed by the technical subject skills I acquired as a professional musician and through my experience as a K – 12 arts teacher.
Outside of the classroom, I enjoy rock climbing, table-top role-playing games (D & D), and caring for my dogs, reptiles, shrimp, and fish!