Miwa Aoki Takeuchi
BSc, MA, PhD
Dr. Miwa Aoki Takeuchi (she/they) is an Associate Professor in the Learning Sciences at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Miwa’s research projects are centered around equity and social justice in mathematics and STEM education. Working collaboratively with learners, teachers, community activists, and “families”, I aim to co-design the learning environments that can leverage learners’ embodied and emplaced disciplinary experiences into a transdisciplinary imagination toward social and environmental justice. Miwa’s written works are available at her personal website.
To challenge the deficit perspectives imposed on historically marginalized learners, my research team and I employ and mobilize various research tools and public communication medium including arts to carefully listen to these learners’ silenced voices to shine light on subjugated and hidden ways of knowing in the colonial knowledge production.
In her spare time, Miwa draws a comic depicting a delight of living as a queer of color and also a delight of living with her beloved earthworms.
Shima Dadkhahfard
PhD Candidate
Shima Dadkhahfard is a PhD candidate in learning sciences, Werklund school of education, university of Calgary. She is a transdisciplinary researcher, artist, and graphic designer. Her research incorporates arts-based methods, STEM education, equity, and diversity. Previously, she illustrated and published 13 picture books for children and designed sets of public furniture or playground in Iran. As a transdisciplinary artist/researcher, she focuses on illustrating and visualizing the stories of marginalized students towards equity and social justice. She tries to highlight the role of art and visual art (in form of illustrated stories) in the field of learning sciences to centralize the voice of immigrants’ students who are historically marginalized.
Ehisann El-Branni
BSc, BEd
Ehisann Elbirani recently completed her Bachelors of Education, specializing in Secondary Education, Mathematics. She completed her first undergraduate degree in 2020, majoring in pure mathematics while minoring in visual arts. As a mathematician, artist, and educator, Ehisann’s key education passions lie in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics). From her work with immigrant children, helping them build confidence, make friends and improve their academic skills, Ehisann has focused her research on creating resources to help other immigrant children be seen and better included in the classroom. She strives to use her experiences and education to help children understand mathematics in different ways and help them fall in love with the foundations of mathematics and its importance to our society.
Nicole Langevin
BSc, BEd
Nicole Langevin obtained both her degrees from Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Nicole’s background is in pure mathematics, but she has taken an interest in integrating other disciplines into the math classroom and working to lift the voices of the students most marginalized in schools. Her current research focus is in exploring how we can bring Indigenous knowledges and pedagogies authentically into the math classroom. Along with teaching secondary math, Nicole also finds passion teaching in the arts, particularly in dance, and continuing her work in research.