Our team
Rob Simon is Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, and has been a teacher educator since 2003. At OISE, Rob teaches courses in critical literacy and practitioner research. He is also academic director of the Centre for Urban Schooling (https://cus.oise.utoronto.ca) and director of the Toronto Writing Project (https://www.torontowritingproject.com). Rob began his career in education in 1998 as a founding teacher of Life Learning Academy (http://www.lifelearningacademysf.org), a high school for youth who experienced struggles in traditional school settings. Rob’s current research explores how teachers and students inquire into and co-research issues of social justice, and how they use the arts, film, writing, and other creative mediums to share their findings with the world.
Will Edwards is Assistant Professor at George Brown College in Toronto, Canada. Will's community-based research explores the intersections between migration, race, power, identity, and schooling. His dissertation, “Some people get lost”: A Practitioner Inquiry into the Transnational, Diasporic, and Educative Experiences of Participants in an After School Reading and Writing Group uses critical literacy to teach and co-research with students who have struggled in traditional educational contexts and aspire to continue their education in post-secondary institutions. Will can be found on the diamond coaching his son's mosquito league baseball or in a local arena ardently cheering his daughter's Phins hockey team.
Ashleigh A. Allen is a writer, poet, educator, researcher, and doctoral candidate (ABD) in the department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE, University of Toronto. She has taught creative writing and literature in classroom and community settings for over 15 years, first in New York City and, more recently, in Toronto. In both cities, she has sought alternative ways of being together with others that centre the lives, desires, and futures of the people, communities, and land. Her research interests are – teacher education, curriculum studies, literacy, arts methods, queer theory, community research, and care. Her poetry has appeared in The Malahat Review, the minnesota review, The Dalhousie Review, PRISM international, Contemporary Verse 2 and elsewhere. She was longlisted for the 2023 CBC Poetry Prize and a finalist for the 2024 Bronwen Wallace Award for Emerging Writers.
Jessica Taylor Charland (she/her) is a PhD student in the department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE, University of Toronto, with an interest in how teachers’ cultural identities influence their pedagogy and classroom curricular practices. She has been a teacher educator for the last decade helping preservice teachers learn about 21st century literacy instruction, infusing her knowledge of multimodal literacies and social justice advocacy into her practice. She is the proud mom of two elementary-aged kids, active on the parent council at their school, a past graduate student representative on the Canadian Association for Social Justice Education council (CASJE-CSSE), a board member for the Art Gallery of Burlington, an avid reader of historical fiction, and art enthusiast.
Jennifer Chinenye Emelife is a PhD candidate and Research Assistant in the department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE, University of Toronto. She researches critical literacy education for youth with histories of violent conflict and displacement and works in the Addressing Injustices and the Constructive Conflict Pedagogies projects. She has written curriculum materials for critical teaching of literature in West African secondary schools and is a finalist for the British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in English Language Teaching. Jennifer is an Associate Researcher with the UNESCO Centre and recipient of the UK Chevening Scholarship, DKG World Fellowship, PEO International Peace Scholarship, and African Women Development Fund awards. In 2024, she was named a McCarthey Dressman Education Foundation Academic Enrichment Grant recipient for her project, 'Literacy amidst Violent Conflict', which equips Nigerian students and teachers in violent contexts with critical literacy skills to challenge and act upon the injustices in their communities.
Samara Rosenbaum (she/her) is a PhD student in the department of Social Justice Education at OISE, University of Toronto. With over a decade of experience as a documentary film producer, she has worked on both long and short-form projects. Samara has produced feature films for Participant Media, HBO, and Discovery+, covering topics such as access to abortion, education, and the foster care system in Los Angeles. In 2020, she won a Los Angeles Area Emmy for her work with Los Angeles County, creating short films on efforts to combat homelessness. She holds a degree in Arts and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she graduated in 2017. Samara is currently co-directing her first feature documentary, which explores the attack on public education in Detroit and the community's efforts to reclaim control of their school system.
Melissa Arasin is a PhD candidate in the department of Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning at OISE, University of Toronto. A career educator, she worked with immigrant and refugee youth in central Texas to develop their literacies through digital storytelling and multimodal productions, with colleagues to develop a school-wide social-emotional advisory curriculum focused on building community to challenge bias and bullying on campus, and with K-12 teachers in integrating digital literacies into their curricula. Her research with teacher candidates involves making sense of how teachers and learners might critically, ethically, and responsibly engage with digital technologies in an era of AI. Outside of academia, Melissa is an avid nature photographer and citizen scientist who finds great joy in observing and documenting flora and fauna and who is always chasing butterflies.