White woman with long grey hair and glasses.

Dr. Marie-Claire Shanahan

Positions

Full Professor

Werklund School of Education, Specialization, Learning Sciences

Associate Dean (Teaching and Learning)

Werklund School of Education, Academic Support Offices

Contact information

Email

mcshanah@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

Website

Phone number

Office: 403.220.2606

Background

Educational Background

Doctor of Philosophy Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, University of Toronto, 2007

Master of Arts Science Education, University of Toronto, 2003

Bachelor of Education Physics and Mathematics Education, Queen's University at Kingston, 2000

Bachelor of Science Mechanical Engineering, Queen's University at Kingston, 1999

CV Feb 2022

Biography

Dr. Shanahan has devoted her career to expanding the boundaries of science and engineering education. Her research focuses on belonging and identities in science and technology among youth and adults. She is especially interested in how non-conventional spaces and communities change our relationships to science and technology practices. Her current research covers a variety of topics including engaging with code through digital arts (for which she, Dr. Pratim Sengupta and Dylan Pare were awarded a Paul D. Fleck Award from the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity) and the complexity and multimodality of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) practices in science education (for which she holds a SSHRC Insight Development Grant with Dr. Sengupta). Dr. Shanahan previously served as the Research Chair in Science Education and Public Engagement and is currently Professor of Learning Sciences in the Werklund School of Education. She is also a former middle school and high school science and mathematics teacher.

Professional & Community Affiliations

Dr. Shanahan is active in both science education and science communication communities. She is subject editor for Science Education and Science Communication at FACETS: the official journal of the Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the editorial board of the journals Science Education and Studies in Science Education. 

Research

Areas of Research

Interests:
  • Science education
  • Computing Education
  • STEM Education
  • Identities and Belonging
  • Conversation and discourse analysis
  • Theory/philosophy of science
  • Sociology of science
  • Science communication studies

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Democracy, Justice, and Sustainability

Digital Worlds

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
EDUC 460 Splecialization I Secondary/Elementary Science
EDUC 546 Design Thinking for Education
EDUC 427 STEM Education
EDUC 535 Specialization II Secondary/Elementary Science

Projects

Current:

Project title: Disability, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and Science Education (Principal Investigator) Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Co-investigator: Dr. Pratim Sengupta, Werklund School of Education                             

Project title: Measuring Cross-Curricular Competencies using Digitally Simulated Science Laboratories Funded by: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Principal Investigator: Dr. Man-Wai Chu, Werklund School of Education

Awards

  • International Committee Early Career Scholar , National Association for Research in Science Teaching. 2010
  • Best paper, 4th International STEM in Education Conference, Beijing, China. 2016
  • Teaching Excellence Award, University of Calgary Students’ Union . 2016
  • Distinguished Research Lecture Award, Werklund School of Education. 2017
  • Paul D. Fleck Fellowship for unique achievements and innovation in the arts community, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. 2019

Publications

  • Critical, Transdisciplinary and Embodied Approaches in STEM Education and Embodied Approaches. Pratim Sengupta, Beaumie Kim, Marie-Claire Shanahan (Eds.). Springer International Publishing. (2019)
  • The Learning Sciences in Conversation: Theories, Methodologies and Boundary Spaces. Marie-Claire Shanahan, Beaumie Kim, Miwa Aoki Takeuchi, Kim Koh, A. Paulino Preciado-Babb, Pratim Sengupta. Routledge. (2022)
  • Language and symbolic violence in computational models of ethnocentrism: A critical phenomenology and Southern re-orientations. Sengupta, P., *Chokshi, A., *Helvaci Ozacar, B., *Dutta, S., *Sanyal, M., & Shanahan, M.-C.. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education. (2022)
  • “We're taking their brilliant minds”: Science teacher expertize, meta‐discourse, and the challenges of teacher–scientist collaboration. Shanahan, M. C., & *Bechtel, R. . Science Education. (2020)
  • Using reflection to support environmental identity development in the classroom context. Simms, W., & Shanahan, M.-C. . Environment Education Research . (2019)
  • Voicing with Code in Public. Pratim Sengupta & Marie-Claire Shanahan. Canadian Theatre Review. (2024)
  • Qualitatively recognizing the dimensions of student environmental identity development within the classroom context. Wendy Simms & Marie-Claire Shanahan. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. (2024)
  • Museum facilitator practice as infrastructure design work for public computing. Cognition & Instruction. (2023)

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