Donna H. Swapp
Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies
My research into the school principalship, and the work of school leaders more broadly, spans 14 years and local/national, regional, and international contexts. My doctoral study explores school principals’ work in Grenada; how incumbents understand their work, the contested ways in which they undertake such work, and the characteristics, challenges and opportunities such work presents. I am currently writing the PhD thesis.
Throughout my postgraduate journey at Western, I have worked in several roles: Instructor, B.Ed. program; Teaching Mentor, Teaching Support Center; Chair and member of several Society of Graduate Students (SOGS) committees; Education councillor for Faculty of Education at SOGS; and, Research Consultant, Research Assistant, and Teaching Assistant in the MPEd and EdD programs. My RA work at Western involved collaboration with lead investigators including Drs. Faubert and Pollock on projects funded by SSHRC, Ontario Principals Council, and the Ontario Ministry of Education among others.
Other noteworthy academic positions at Western include:
- Instructor, B.Ed program: I taught two sections of the course, Social Foundations: Teacher Professionalism and Schooling in the BEd. Program. Among other duties, I prepared and facilitated weekly, 90-minute face-to-face tutorials, monitored the online component of the course, and graded all course evaluations (2015-2016).
- Teaching Assistant (TA): I held several positions in the MPEd and EdD programs (9721B-650 & 651 Aims of Educational Leadership; 9770A-650 Contemporary Issues in Higher Education; 9688A-650: Special Topics in Educational Policy Study: Theoretical Foundation of Inquiry; 9688B-651: Approaches to Research). Among other duties, I created the OWL online course site, and assisted with lectures, online forum facilitation, and grading (2013-2014; 2016-2017).
My postgraduate journey is supervised by Dr. Katina E. Pollock.
Katina Pollock, PhD
Supervisor
