Active Members | Past Contributors

Jordana Garbati

jordanagarbati@gmail.com

Jordana Garbati is currently teaching Grade 1/2 French Immersion in Toronto, Canada. She recently completed a Master of Education degree at Queen's University. Her Master's thesis focussed on the experiences of a language-minority student in an Ontario core French classroom. Jordana's main research interest is in the area of second language acquisition. She also has an interest in the role of rhythm in the primary classroom and the involvement of the arts in language learning and teaching.

Janice Finkle

finklej@educ.queensu.ca

Janice began working on the LTTA project in February 2001 as Administrative Assistant. She coordinated the data collection throughout the country, serving as the liaison for over 50 researchers involved in LTTA. Janice has also played a role in data analysis and paper preparation, and co-presented the results of the national LTTA research at the conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education in Halifax in May of 2003. Janice completed her Master's degree at the Faculty of Education, Queen's University.

Eileen Harris

eileenharris@rogers.com

Eileen was a post-doctoral fellow at the Faculty of Education at Queen's University during the 2003-2004 academic year. She completed her PhD at the University of Ottawa. Her varied teaching experiences include elementary school, graduate courses in education and psychology and creativity training workshops for corporate clients. Her research interests are research methodology, strategies to enhance creativity, arts education and professional development for teachers and other professionals.

Jun Qian

Jun has been involved with Learning Through the Arts since 1999. She is presently completing her PhD in Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Education at Queen's. Jun is the lead student for data entry, serving as a mentor and trainer for other students we have hired over the years. Her precision and accuracy in data entry is unmatched.

Jane MacDonald

Jane joined the LTTA team in the fall of 2002. She is an elementary school teacher with the Limestone District School Board and returned to Queen's for two years to complete a Master's of Education degree focusing on primary education. Jane was involved with quantitative data analysis as well as report and paper preparation, and co-presented the results of the national LTTA research at the conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education in Halifax in May of 2003.

Margaret Meban

4mm24@qlink.queensu.ca

Margaret Meban has recently earned a PhD in arts education from the Faculty of Education at Queen's University, Kingston Ontario. She completed her MEd at Queen's University in 1999. A visual artist and an educator, Margaret is a graduate of the Ontario College of Art (Toronto) four year diploma program (that included a year study in Florence, Italy), the University of Guelph's fine arts program, and the Bachelor of Education degree from Queen's University. Her varied teaching experiences include elementary teaching, teaching professional development workshops in the arts for teachers, and, most recently, working as an artist-in-residence at St. Patrick School. As a visual artist, Margaret enjoys painting, sculpture, photography and mixed media work that explore less traditional media such as earth, sand and other natural materials. Her research interests include creating authentic arts learning environments for students and teachers, and the development of aesthetic practice.

Jan LeClair

Jan LeClair is a certified music therapist, artist, and teacher. Jan is engaged in numerous community-based music activities, which include jazz and classical piano engagements, singing in a women's chamber choir, and playing the accordion in a Klezmer ensemble. Jan is a sessional instructor at Trent University, and works as a vice-principal for the Limestone District School Board. Jan served as the first Administrative Assistant for LTTA when she was a Master's student at Queen's University. She helped create the data collection procedures for the national research project, which began in July, 1999.

Bev Coles

Bev served as the second Administrative Assistant for LTTA, working at first with Jan LeClair, and then taking over the position for several years. Bev played a key role in establishing contacts with sites and organizing the data coding and collection systems. Her superior knowledge of data collection instruments and her work to ease the burden of the site coordinators were essential to the success of the research. Bev retired in August 2002.

Rebecca Stroud

Rebecca Stroud, a Queen's B.A., B.Ed., who is currently completing her Master of Education at the Faculty of Education, has just been awarded the Ethics in Education Award ($10,000) by the state of Minnesota. Rebecca teaches language and theatre arts, speech and debate at Mahtomedi High School. She was cited by a blue ribbon judging panel for her work embedding the teaching of ethics in her curriculum through guest speakers from other cultures, student analysis of writings by global authors, input from students, and incorporating personal education and research into her classroom work. The judges also applauded her successful efforts to create a summer social theater program for students from suburban and urban schools that writes and performs on local and international issues related to social awareness; her advocacy and modeling of multiculturalism and the celebration of diversity; and her incorporation of personal experience, interests and research regarding a variety of countries, cultures, student populations and instructional disciplines into classroom and community learning opportunities.

Jane Zigman

Jane was in working on her PhD in Education when she joined the LTTA research team in the fall of 2001. During the term that she spent with us, she developed a website for data collection from students called the "Kids' Page".

Data Entry Students

A number of high school, undergraduate, and graduate students assisted with data entry for the national LTTA research, the expansion research, and the French LTTA research. Beth Egnatoff, David Murphy Haglund, Marriam Kaleemuddin, Kwang-Hyuk Lee, Olivia Oxlade, Amanda Pulling, Chen Shi, Yu-Hsiang Tseng, Xiaoyan Wang, Allison Wardlaw, and Stephen Whitehead were involved with this aspect of the LTTA research.

Site Research Coordinators

Various people were involved with the coordination of data collection at the national sites including Sandra Falconer Pace, Eric Favaro, Kit Grauer, Marg Guillet, Rita Irwin, Catherine Jordan, Cathy MacNeil, Lisa Panayotidis, Alison Pryer, and Hayden Trenholm.

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