Public Education in a Changing World:
School Yards and playgrounds
Looking at school yards from two perspectives – safety and fun. How could or should policies change to make sure school yards are high quality across Ontario?
Speakers:
Research Manager at People for Education
She is a former teacher from Edmonton, Alberta and earned her Master’s at OISE at the University of Toronto, where her research focused on assessment in K-12 education. She is currently working towards her PhD in Educational Leadership and Policy Program at OISE/UT. Christine’s research interests include policy, knowledge mobilization, and assessment and motivation in the K-12 school system.
Teacher/ JHSC Inspector, Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario
Eric Tanguay is currently an elementary teacher in a small community in Eastern Ontario. From 2014 to 2019, he was the lead inspector in health and safety for the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’est de l’Ontario. He has participated in numerous investigations concerning school yard accidents. His recommendations have helped instill safety procedures in elementary schools with natural play areas and the use of unconventional playing objects such as tires.
Director of Research and Evaluation, Future Skills Centre
Kelly Gallagher-Mackay is the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Future Skills. She has previous experience as an Assistant Professor of Law and Society at Wilfrid Laurier University (during which time she was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council to conduct this research) and as Research Director of People for Education.
Master’s Candidate, Wilfrid Laurier University
Taylor Benoit is a Master’s Candidate in Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier. Her background is in lifespan psychology. At heart, she is a methodologist and an advocate for knowledge synthesis and mobilization, and she maintains a line of research on public health and education. Overall, her research focuses on understanding and promoting the well-being of different populations through implementation studies, qualitative and quantitative methods, environmental scans, survey data, and secondary data analysis.