Michelle Searle

Dr. Michelle Searle is an Associate Professor of Educational Evaluation at Queen’s University, where she serves as Special Advisor to the Principal on Community Engagement, and Co-Director of the Assessment and Evaluation Centre in Education (AECE). She holds a PhD in Curriculum Studies with a focus on assessment and evaluation, the Credentialed Evaluator (CE) designation from the Canadian Evaluation Society, and certification from the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT). 

Michelle’s research focuses on enhancing the usefulness of program evaluation through collaborative, community-engaged, and creative approaches to inquiry. Her scholarship advances theoretical and practical understandings of evaluation by examining how researchers, practitioners, students, and community members learn from evidence together. Drawing on qualitative, mixed, and arts-informed methodologies, she studies innovative approaches to evaluation, knowledge mobilization, and evaluation capacity building that support learning, decision-making, and social change. Her scholarship is grounded in reciprocal partnerships and emphasizes diverse ways of knowing, being, and engaging with evidence. 

Michelle’s research has been supported through more than $7 million in collaborative funding initiatives, and her work has been disseminated through publications, reports, presentations, workshops, and creative knowledge mobilization projects. She has received awards from the American Evaluation Association, the Canadian Evaluation Society, and Queen’s University, including the Chancellor Charles Baillie Award for Teaching, the Faculty of Education Award for Outstanding Research, and the Faculty of Education Award for Outstanding Teaching. 

As a researcher-practitioner, Michelle brings nearly three decades of experience in education to her scholarship. Prior to and alongside her academic career, she worked in K–12 educational settings across Canada and internationally, teaching and leading learning in diverse contexts. Her experience spans multiple curricular frameworks, including the Ontario Curriculum, Advanced Placement, International General Certificate of Secondary Education, and the International Baccalaureate. These experiences continue to inform her approach to evaluation, learning, assessment, and community-engaged scholarship. 

Michelle collaborates with educators, health professionals, community organizations, government partners, and interdisciplinary scholars across Canada and internationally. Her work spans diverse areas including neuroaffirming practice, autism, mental health, homelessness, gender and sexuality, professional learning, educational leadership, assessment policy, experiential learning, and technology-enabled innovation. Across these contexts, she brings an evaluation lens that bridges theory and practice while supporting organizations to address complex social challenges. At the heart of Michelle’s work is a commitment to community-engaged scholarship that connects research, evaluation, learning, and action in ways that contribute to more equitable, inclusive, and thriving communities.

Research Interests

• Community-Engaged Scholarship
• Program evaluation
• Evaluation use and influence
• Arts-informed inquiry
• Knowledge mobilization

Recent Publications (Since 2023)

Searle, M., *Carbone, K., Cooper, A., & Kukkonen, T. (In Press). Catalyzing change through the arts: Examining arts-informed experiences in partnership with educational leaders. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Arts-Based Educational Research. 

*Carbone, K., Searle, M., Hughes, J., *Portelance, F.-D., *Worthington, P., *Liu, J., & Gokiert, R. (In Press). Unveiling the power of experiential learning in higher education: Exploring student competency development in an evaluation course. Journal of Teaching and Learning. 

*Lee-Yow, C., *Jafarian-Oshtbin, A., *Gallimore, A., *Tremblay, M., Searle, M., Gokiert, R., (In Press). Widening Our Worldviews: Reflective Learning Towards Decolonial Practices in Evaluation. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation. 

*Ge. J., DeLuca, C., LaPointe-McEwan. D., *Carbone, K., & Searle, M. (In Press). Learning through tensions: Student teacher assessment identity development. Teachers and Teaching. 

Carbone, K., Searle, M., Cooper, A., & Kukkonen, T. (In Press). Visual and poetic pathways: A toolkit for integrating image elicitation and poetic inquiry in leadership learning and development. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Arts-Based Educational Research. 

Holden, M., Worthington, P., Searle, M., & Mak, C. (2024). Examining an interdisciplinary experiential education program for doctoral students. Experiential Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, 7(2), pp. 28-52.

Airton, L., Searle, M., *Melendez, S., *Carbone, K., Watt, B., *Martin, K., & *Lefebvre, N. (2024). Toward proactive support for transgender and/or gender non-conforming students in teacher education: Initial findings from interweaving evaluative inquiry and action research. Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies.

Searle, M., Cooper, A., *Worthington, P., *Hughes, J., *Poth, C., & *Gokiert, R. (2024). Mapping evaluation use: a scoping review of extant literature (2005-2022). American Journal of Evaluation.

Searle, M., Fierro, L., Pinarski, J., Dixon, L., Tremblay, M., Bourgeois, I. & Gokiert, R. (2024). Meeting the Challenge: How the City of Kingston is Working to Propel Evaluation Growth. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 38 (3). 

Searle, M., Hughes, J., Carbone, K., Fierro, L., Tremblay, M., Gokiert, R. & Bourgeois, I. (2024). Learning from Evaluation Data: Discoveries from the Inaugural Evaluation Capacity Case Challenge. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 38 (3).

Gokiert, R. J., Searle, M., Choquette, K., Zukiwsky, R., Bourgeois, I., Fierro, L., & Tremblay, M. (2024). Evaluation Capacity Building: Experiential Learning Through Community-University Collaboratives. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 38 (3).

Fierro, L., Bourgeois, I., Gokiert, R., Searle, M., & Tremblay, M. (2024). Strengthening Evaluation Capacity Building Practice Through Competition: The Max Bell School of Public Policy’s Evaluation Capacity Case Challenge. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation, 38 (3). 

Searle, M., *Carbone, K., *Chowdury, S., Cooper, A., Kukkonen, T. & *Chowdhury, A. (2023). Contributing to Social Change in Higher Education by Using Arts-Informed Inquiry to Expand Thinking about Assessment Identity. Research in Arts and Education.

*Drabensott, M., Smyth, R., Searle, M., Kirkpatrick, L., & *Labonté, C. (2023). A collaborative approach to social worker solutions of rising mental health concerns: Five school leader perspectives. Journal of School Leadership. 

*Worthington, P., C. *Mak, C., *Holden, M. & Searle, M. (2023). Behind the Virtual Curtain: Techniques to Bring the CAE Principles to Life. Canadian Journal of Program Evaluation 38(1): 115–127.

*Worthington, P., *Stroud, R., *Carbone, K., *Hughes, J., Searle, M. (2023). Learning by linking the Canadian Evaluation Society’s student case competition within a graduate evaluation course. New Directions in Evaluation. 177, 105-13.