Yvonne seated

Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt

PhD
Pronouns: she/her

Positions

Full Professor

Werklund School of Education, Specialization, Adult Learning

Affiliations

UCalgary Research Excellence Chair

University of Calgary

Rupertsland Centre for Metis Research Research Affiliate

University of Alberta

Contact information

Email

yppratt@ucalgary.ca
yvonne.poitras@gmail.com

Web presence

Metis Voices

Métis Memories of Residential Schools: A Testament to the Strength of the Métis

Phone number

Office: 403.220.6116

Location

Office: EDT614

For media enquiries, contact

Clayton MacGillivray
Content and Media Specialist

Email: clmacgil@ucalgary.ca
Twitter: @UCalgaryEduc

I'm looking for...

Learning opportunities

Transdisciplinary research with a specific focus on how education can work with others on questions of decolonizing and Indigenizing is where together we can work to create a better world.

Background

Educational Background

Doctor of Philosophy Communications, University of Calgary, 2011

M.A. Communications, University of Calgary, 2005

B.A. Canadian Studies; minor Education, University of Calgary, 2002

Curriculum Vitae 2024

Biography

Dr. Yvonne Poitras Pratt is a card-holding citizen of Otipemisiwak Metis Government (formerly Metis Nation of Alberta). Her paternal family lines trace back to 1640, then onto the historic Red River Settlement and, more recently, to the Fishing Lake Métis Settlement in northeastern Alberta. Her maternal family lineage traces through the Fayant and Lemire family lines with deep roots in southern Alberta. After earning her PhD in 2011, she worked as Associate Director, Métis Education for one year then joined the Werklund School of Education in 2013. Dr. Poitras Pratt was promoted to Full Professor in July 2024. Yvonne teaches at  the graduate and undergraduate level and has earned multiple awards for her teaching, research, and community engagement activities. In 2023, she was awarded the University of Calgary Faculty Association Community Service Award and was appointed a UCalgary Research Excellence Chair in 2023.

Her 2020 book Digital Storytelling in Indigenous Education: A Decolonizing Journey for a Métis Community has sold over 270 copies around the world and her most recent publication, Truth and reconciliation through education: Stories of decolonizing practices,  co-edited with Sulyn Bodnaresko, features alumni and instructor stories from the “Indigenous education: A Call to Action” graduate program. This book made the Alberta bestseller lists three times in 2023 and was short-listed for Alberta's Best Education Book of the year in 2024.

Professional & Community Affiliations

Dr. Poitras Pratt sits on the Calgary Catholic School District's Indigenous Elders Advisory Council as a Metis knowledge-keeper. Additionally, she offers her expertise within Indigenous education to a variety of stakeholders, including teachers, educational leaders and community organizations; importantly, a large component of her efforts are dedicated to supporting fellow Metis in achieving their educational aspirations.

Research

Areas of Research

Scholarly Activity

Dr. Poitras Pratt’s research concentrates on the multiple ways in which transformative learning can be invoked within classrooms and at the community level through experiential learning and creative imaginings. In her 2019 Routledge Press publication, Digital Storytelling in Indigenous Education: A Decolonizing Journey for a Métis Community, Yvonne ethnographically explores the process and potential of digital storytelling to revitalize oral traditions and foster intergenerational learning within Métis communities. Her scholarship builds on the use of media, and other aesthetic expressions, as catalysts for transformative learning within difficult learning environments. Dr. Poitras Pratt publishes in the area of reconciliatory pedagogy, critical service-learning, Indigenous education, anti-racism and social justice studies, with a special interest in the integration of arts in a variety of learning environments.

Interests:
  • Indigenous education
  • Reconciliation (Indigenous/Non-Indigenous Relations in Canada) 
  • Transformative education
  • Métis education
  • Métis research and ethics
  • Integrating technology in education
  • Adult learning and community development
  • Integration of arts in education
  • Scholarship of teaching and learning
  • Critical service-learning
  • Social justice and equity in education

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Human dynamics in a changing world

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
EDUC 530 Indigenous Education Fall 2024
EDER 655.16 Decolonizing through Arts and Media Summer 2024
EDER 655.15 Decolonizing Theory Summer 2024

Projects

Past projects
  • Tea, bannock, and a narrative tradition (Werklund Community Engagement grant to explore the use of Metis digital stories within the Alberta K-12 curriculum)
  • Teaching Scholars (2016-19) Program: Building stronger connections between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, schools, and communities through praxis-based learning opportunities (PI, with Dr. Patricia Danyluk)
  • Moving toward critical service-learning as a signature pedagogy in Aboriginal communities: Why good intentions are not enough (PI, with Dr. Patricia Danyluk)
  • Exploring power and privilege within responses to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit education: Improving our teaching practice through ‘difficult learning’ (PI, with Dr. Aubrey Hanson)

Kokum Calls You Sept 30 Event

UCalgary Research Excellence Chair - Indigenizing Transdisciplinary

I am a Full Professor at the Werklund School of Education recognized for scholastic excellence, positive impact on practitioners and leaders in education, and authentic community engagement in some of the most marginalized and underserved communities in Alberta. With degrees spanning Canadian (Indigenous) Studies, Education, and Communication Studies, I have earned multiple provincial and national awards for my research activities alongside Indigenous community support and recognition such as the Esquao Award. I am a respected Indigenous scholar who holds deep and enduring ties to my Indigenous community and my responsibility to “give back” to my own Métis community means I am implicated in multiple responsibilities far beyond the demands of the typical academic role. I am committed to addressing urgent community needs - including that of advocating for long ignored inherent Indigenous rights - as well as action-based, creative and arts- based approaches.

This type of deep scholarship takes years, if not decades, to establish. My varied research background means I hold the requisite skills and ethical positioning, and open-mindedness to facilitate transdisciplinary and community-based research activities mentoring students in transdisciplinary and participatory ways.

My research embodies what respected Gitxsan First Nation rights activist Cindy Blackstock calls others to do:

“Let’s do something and express ourselves in ways people can actually understand…listen to the lived experience, get behind the community” (University Affairs, 2023, para. 7).

Awards

  • Lifetime Achievement Award, Metis Nation of Alberta - Region 3. 2023
  • Faculty Association (TUCFA) Community Service Award, University of Calgary. 2023
  • Alan Blizzard Award for Collaborative Teaching, Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 2021
  • Werklund Community Engagement Award, 2021
  • Students Union Teaching Excellence Award, 2017
  • Confederation of Alberta Faculty Associations (CAFA) Distinguished Academic Early Career Award , 2018
  • Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Canada Graduate Scholarship (2005-2008), 2006
  • Werklund Teaching Excellence Award, 2016
  • Social Science and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Masters Scholarship (2003), 2005

Publications

In the News