Dr. Dennis Sumara
Affiliations
Professor
Werklund School of Education
Contact information
For media enquiries, contact
Clayton MacGillivray
Content and Media Specialist
Email: clmacgil@ucalgary.ca
Twitter: @UCalgaryEduc
Background
Credentials
Alberta Permanent Professional Teaching Certificate, Alberta Ministry of Education, 1982
Educational Background
BA English Literature, University of Lethbridge, 1980
BEd Drama Education, University of Lethbridge, 1980
MEd English Language Arts Teaching, University of Lethbridge, 1990
PhD Education , University of Alberta, 1994
Biography
Since commencing my academic career in 1994 I have focused my research, teaching, service, and academic leadership on what it means for educators to work in and through what I consider to be the repressive effects of narrowly defined expressions of the category and idea “normal.” Using critical arts-based research methods informed by narrative hermeneutics and phenomenology I am interested in better understanding the experience of self-identity across school and non-school contexts. My academic work has critiqued problematics associated with normativity in teaching and teacher education and it also has informed creating productive ways to make teaching and teacher education more inviting to the many individuals and groups who have in the past found themselves excluded. In so doing, I have been able to demonstrate how critically analyzing conceptions of normal and normativity in teaching and teacher education can create more inclusive and productive situations for everyone. I am an interdisciplinary scholar whose work is informed by curriculum theory, queer theory, literary theory, reader response theory and narrative hermeneutics.
Research
Areas of Research
Participation in university strategic initiatives
Awards
- Ed Fry Book Award, National Reading Conference (USA) for Why Reading Literature in School Still Matters: Imagination, Interpretation, Insight. 2001
- The Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies Dissertation of the Year Award, 1994
- The James Macdonald Prize in Curriculum Theory, Awarded by the Board of Trustees of JCT: Journal of Curriculum Theorizing.
- The Ed Fry Book Award, National Reading Conference (USA). 2002
- Lifetime Achievement Award for Research Contributions in Teacher Education, Canadian Association of Teacher Education. 2019
- Outstanding Book Award, Association of Professors of Education. 2022
- University of Lethbridge 2022 Distinguished Alumnus Award, University of Lethbridge. 2022
- Governor General's Gold Medal, University of Lethbridge. 1990
Publications
- On becoming what the story needs. Journal of Applied Hermeneutics. 1-9. (2021)
- On the power of not passing: A queer narrartive hermeneutics of higher education leadership. Sumara, D. Journal of Educational Administration and History. (2020)
- In memory of all the broken ones: Catalytic validity through critical arts research for social change. Robson, C. & Sumara, D. International Journal of Qualitative Studies Education. (2016)
- Silence, death and D/discourse: Critcal literary practices with lesbian seniors. Robson, C., & Sumara, D. Journal of Lesbian Studies. 19(1). (2015)
- Fishing for difference: A case study of singularity and sensibility in critical life writing. Robson, C. & Sumara, D. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies. 11(1), 23-40. (2013)
- Understanding school districts as learning systems: some lessons from three cases of complex transformation. Davis, B., Sumara, D., & D’Amour, L. Journal of Educational Change. 13: 373-399. (2012)
- Learning to count what counts: Narrative hermeneutics for teachers and teaching (in press). Sumara, D., Friesen, S., Takasugi, C., & Doucette, J. In R. Tierney, F. Rizvi, K. Ercikan & G. Smith (Eds.) Elsevier International Encyclopedia of Education.
- Ideas that changed literacy practices: First person accounts from leading voices. Sumara, D. & Alvermann, D. (Eds.). Myers Education Press. (2022)
- Restorying my archive of deferrals. Sumara, D. In Sumara, D. & Alverman, G. Ideas that changed literacy practices: First person accounts from leading voice. Myers Educational Press. pp. 297-306. (2022)
- Challenging the “I” that we are. Sumara, D. & Alverman, D. In Sumara, D. & Alverman, G. Ideas that changed literacy practices: First person accounts from leading voice. Myers Educational Press. pp. 1-5. (2022)
- Critical life writing for social change. Robson, C. & Sumara, D. In S. Steinberg & B. Down (Eds), Sage Handbook of Critical Pedagogies. New York: Sage Press. pp. 1255-1268. (2020)
- Changing subjects of action research. Sumara,, D. In Klausen, K. & Black, G. (Eds), The Future of Action Research in Education: A Canadian Perspective. McGill-Queens University Press. pp. xi-xvi. (2020)
- The gradual instant: Forward in Lenters, K. & McDermott, M (Eds) Affect, embodiment and place in critical literacy: Assembling theory and practice . Sumara, D. New York: Routledge. (2019)
- Normativity. Robson, C. & Sumara, D . In Wearing, J., Ingersoll, M., DeLuca, C., Bolden, B., Ogden, H., and Christou, T. (Eds), Key concepts in Curriculum: Perspectives on the Fundamentals. New York: Routledge. pp. 282-287. (2019)
- Scrimmage play: Writing and reading short fiction with incarcerated men. Lockett, M, Luce-Kapler, R., & Sumara, D. In J. Joseph & W. Crichlow (Eds.), Alternative offender rehabilitation and social justice: Arts and physical engagement in criminal justice and community settings. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY. pp. 165-180. (2015)
- Engaging Minds: Changing teaching for complex times. Davis, B., Sumara, D., & Luce-Kapler, R. 3nd edition. Routledge. (2015)
- Why reading literature in school still matters: Imagination, Interpretation, Insight. Sumara, D. Routledge. (2002)
- Private readings in public: Schooling the literary imagination. Sumara, D. Peter Lang. (1996)
- Educating consciousness through literary experiences. Sumara, D., Luce-Kapler, R., & Iftody, T. In M. Mason (Ed.) Complexity Theory and the Philosophy of Education. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. (2008)
- Normalizing literary responses in the teacher education classroom. Sumara, D., Davis, B., & Iftody, T. Changing English: Studies in Reading and Culture. 13(1), 55-68. (2006)
- Why reading literature in school still matters: Imagination, Interpretation, Insight. Sumara, D. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. (2002)
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