NG-A-FOOK, Nicholas
Assistant Professor
LMX 428
Tel: 613 562-5800 2239
email: nngafook@uOttawa.ca
Research interests and scholarly activities
• Engaging an Interdisciplinary Study and Theorization of Curriculum-as-Planned, -Implemented, and -Evaluated ;
• Mapping A Topography of the Distinctive Field of Canadian Curriculum Studies;
• Studying An Internationalization of Curriculum Studies ;
• Developing and Critiquing a Global Perspective for Educators ;
• Studying Indigenous, Postcolonial, Cultural Studies, and Women and Gender Studies;
• Experimenting with Ethnographic, Oral History, and Autobiographical Research Methodologies;
• Developing Critical Pedagogies and Culturally Responsive Curricular Classroom Strategies with Pre-Service Teachers;
• Integrating Emergent Technologies within Curriculum Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation.
Past Research Projects:
An Indigenous Curriculum of Place
The longest desegregation lawsuit in American history, involving Louisiana 's political, judicial and educational institutions, was recently settled. Like many African-American communities in the south, members of the United Houma Nation did not have access to "White" systems of public education, or to African-American schools, until the mid-1960s. Nicholas Ng-A-Fook's last research project was a critical ethnographic and oral history study of how the Louisiana state apparatus historically dictated educational exclusion through its infamous Jim Crow policies of racial segregation. Utilizing participatory and collaborative research methodologies he examined the life histories of United Houma Nation elders who in turn experienced firsthand the complexities and difficulties of institutional racism.
Current Research Projects:
Project 1:
Nicholas Ng-A-Fook is currently working collaboratively with Sharon Cook, Tracy Crowe, Lorna McLean, Richard Maclure, and Annie Malo on a well established and ongoing social justice project between the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa and the Canadian International Development Agency/ Agence canadienne de développement international (CIDA) entitled the Global Classroom Initiative/ L'initiative le monde en classe. His specific research interests for this project seek to study how students are able to integrate a global perspective throughout their curriculum planning, implementation, and assessment while also addressing the Ontario Ministry of Education's mandated curricular expectations in a course called Curriculum Design and Evaluation (see http://www.developingaglobalperspective.ca/homepage.html). Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, Nicholas Ng-A-Fook is interested in how students develop critical perspectives of, as well as negotiate socio-culturally responsive strategies toward addressing such curricular absences within their present and future course programming.
Part of this project also involves the development of a permanent pre-service teacher candidate online newsletter and radio show for the website. The content for both the newsletter and radio show are developed in a foundations course called Schooling and Society. As a result, Nicholas Ng-A-Fook is currently researching how students are developing various curricular and pedagogical resources for this organization's website, and in turn how their engagement with these projects then informs their curriculum planning, implementation, and evaluation with regards to developing a global perspective as well as working toward integrating social justice issues within their future teaching.
This website now features all of the Developing a Global Perspective for Educator's activities over the course of the academic year, as well as pre-service candidates' curriculum contributions on themes of development and peace making. In addition, the constructive critiques of NGO resources, along with the resources themselves are posted on the website. As part of his course requirements pre-service teacher candidates are required to create a newsletter for the website which in turn addresses issues of child poverty, human rights, environmental sustainability, peace-making curricula, etc. Students are also required to engage in various Community Service Learning projects.
Project 2:
Nicholas Ng-A-Fook is also mapping an intellectual history of Canadian Curriculum Studies with a specific focus on Environmental Education. In order to do so, he is in the process of creating a digital archive at the University of Ottawa, which will house oral history interviews with various self-identified curriculum theorists from across Canada. With the help of different graduate students, they are in the processes of creating a website called www.curriculumtheoryproject.ca in order to support this specific project entitled A Canadian Curriculum Theory Project. The site will eventually host digital copies of the interviews conducted with such scholars on a program called Inside the Curriculum Theorist's Studio. The site will also serve as a pedagogical resource for professors to teach courses on Canadian Curriculum Theory.
Project 3:
Nicholas Ng-A-Fook is currently working with an interdisciplinary research team called the Network for Emerging Technologies and Interdisciplinary Education (NETIE). This specific research team is attempting to build our Faculty of Education's capacity to develop critical research perspectives in two important and connected areas: emerging technologies and interdisciplinary education. In turn, NETIE will provide faculty members, graduate students and community members with an opportunity to collaborate—in English, French and bilingually—on emerging technology and interdisciplinary research projects.
Emerging technologies and interdisciplinary research projects have both practical and theoretical connections. From a theoretical perspective, emerging technologies such as wikies, blogs, simulations and learning objects have been recognized as important ways to enable and support collective knowledge construction in interdisciplinary contexts. From a practical perspective, interdisciplinary education at universities and continuing education contexts typically involves students and professionals who are very difficult to bring together in one time or place. Emerging technologies and its study, afford such possibilities.
Nicholas Ng-A-Fook's research focuses on the impact and implications for developing online courses, creative writing blogs, online newsletters, and radio programming with professional learning communities, such as (but not limited to) pre-service teacher candidates. Furthermore, Nicholas Ng-A-Fook provides professional development opportunities for professional learning communities to engage and integrate emerging technologies within their curriculum planning and pedagogical strategies. Moreover, he encourages students to utilize such emerging technologies in order to integrate environmental education across the academic disciplines taught within our provincial education system.
Scholarly Activities
• 2007-2008 Member of the Developing A Global Perspective for Educators Research Group
• 2007-2008 Member of Network for Emerging Technologies and Interdisciplinary Education (NETIE)
• 2006-2008 Chair of the Transition to Practice Professional Development Conference at the Faculty of Education
• 2006-2008 Member of The Canadian Society for the Study of Education
• 2003-2008 Member of the American Educational Research Association.
• 2006-2008 On the advisory board for the Centre for the Study of the Internationalization of Curriculum Studies at the
University of British Columbia.
• 2003-2008 Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies.
• 2006-2008 Member of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies.
• 2003-2008 Member of the International Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies.
• 2002-2008 Member, Editorial Board, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing.
Teaching fields:
Graduate Studies:
• EDU 5260 Curriculum Theory and Organizational Practice
• EDU 5221 Historical Narratives and Education
Bachelor of Education Program:
• PED 3103 Curriculum Design and Evaluation
• PED 3102 Schooling and Society
• PED 3131 General Science at the Intermediate Level
• PED 3132 Learning Theories Applied to Science Education
Native Teacher Education Program
• PED 3103 Curriculum Design and Evaluation
Recent publications
Books:
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2007). An Indigenous Curriculum of Place: The United Houma Nation's Contentious Relationship with Louisiana's Educational Institutions. New York, New York: Peter Lang.
Papers in refereed journals:
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2005). A Curriculum of Mother-Son Plots on Education's Center Stage, Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 21 (4), pp. 43-58.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2003). A Curriculum Behind the Boys' Locker Room Doors: Bodies, Desires, and Perpetuating Patriarchy. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 19 (4), pp. 65-72.
Papers under review:
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2007). Toward Understanding A Curriculum of Being Inhabited by the Language of the Other. (in press)
Book Reviews:
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2004). Tough Fronts: The Impacts of Street Culture on Schooling. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36 (6), pp. 747-752.
Professional Conference Presentations:
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2008, March). Decolonizing Curricular Designs within Environmental Education: What are the Autobiographical Implications? Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS). New York, New York, pp. 10.
Ng-A-Fook, N. & Robayo-Sheridan (2008, March). (De)Nurturing Historical Contexts of A “Moral” Curriculum within Wiseman's 1968 Film High School. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS). New York, New York, pp. 10.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2008, March). Deconstructing a Curricular Philosophy of Dominance: Assimilation, Appropriation, and Indigenous Communities. Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. New York, New York, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N., Donald, D., Stewart, S., Pinar, B. (2007, February). Curricular Absence: Indigenous Concepts of Citizenship and Community in the Context of Trans-National Inquiry. Paper presented at the 3 rd Biennial Provoking Curriculum Conference. Banff, Alberta, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2006, October). Understanding an Indigenous Curriculum in Louisiana through Listening to Houma Oral Histories. Paper presented at the 14 th Biannual Canadian History of Education Association conference. Ottawa, ON, pp. 20.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2006, October). Curricular Misfits: Understanding a Post-Reconceptualization of Curriculum Studies. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (Bergamo). Dayton, OH, pp. 20.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2006, May). Understanding an Inter-national Indigenous Curriculum. Paper to be presented at the second Curriculum World Studies Conference. Tampere, Finland, pp. 20.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2004, October). Re-Membering 25 Years of Bergamo. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (Bergamo). Dayton, OH, pp. 20.
Howard, A. & Ng-A-Fook, N. (2004, October). Curriculum as an Autobiographical Text: Understanding 25 Years Later through a Rear-view Mirror. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (Bergamo). Dayton, OH, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2004, April) Post-Colonial Gatekeepers and Crawfish Warriors: Teaching Indian Education from Louisiana 's Bayous Margins. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N., & Munro, & P., Dimitriatis G, B., & Pinar, W. (2004, April). Situating Local and Cultural Contexts of the Civil Rights Movement: A Curriculum of Gendered and Racialized Politics in American History. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. San Diego, CA, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N., & Smitherman, S. (2004, April). Curricular Conversations that Migrate Between Bateson and Derrida. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS). San Diego, CA., pp. 20.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2004, February). A Practice of Reading Feminist Autobiography: Deconstructing Masculinities. Paper presented at the Louisiana State University Women and Gender Studies Conference. Baton Rouge, LA, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2003, November). Teaching Houma Culture and History from The Bayous Margins. Paper presented at the annual meeting of National Indian Education Association. Greensboro, NC, pp. 20.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2003, October). Autobiography from the Margins of Currere. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (Bergamo). Dayton, OH, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2003, June). Women of the 1953 Baton Rouge Bus Boycott. Paper presented at the 50 th anniversary of the Baton Rouge Bus Boycott at the University of Southern. Baton Rouge, LA, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N., & Jewett, L., & Casemore, B., Pinar, W. (2003, April). Locating Autobiography in Social and Cultural Critique. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association. Chicago, IL, pp. 20.
Ng-A-Fook, N., & Whitlock, U., & Smitherman, S. (2003, February). A Practice of Reading Feminist Autobiography: Deconstructing Masculinities. Paper presented at the Louisiana State University Women and Gender Studies Conference. Baton Rouge, LA, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N. & Brian Casemore (2003, April). Margins and Intersections: Surfing Hyphens of Migrancy, Hybridity, and Masculinity. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS). Chicago, IL, pp. 20.
Ng-A-Fook, N., & Jewett L. (2002, February). Understanding Curriculum as a Feminist Man: Re-Situating Educational Texts. Paper presented at the Sixth Annual Louisiana State University Women and Gender Studies Conference. Baton Rouge, LA, pp. 20.
Jewett, L., & Ng-A-Fook, N., & Smitherman, S. (2002, October). Desiring Otherness: An Embodied Curriculum of Ethnographic Research. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (Bergamo). Dayton, OH, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2002, October). Displacement and Inhabitation within Houma Culture. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Curriculum and Pedagogy Conference. Atlanta, GA. pp. 20.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2002, October). Behind the Boys Locker Room Doors: Bodies, Desires, and Perpetuating Patriarchy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (Bergamo). Dayton, OH, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2002, April). Behind the Boys Locker Room Doors: Bodies, Desires, and Perpetuating Patriarchy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies (AAACS). New Orleans, LA, pp. 15.
Ng-A-Fook, N. (2001, October). Towards a Vulnerable Education. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Journal of Curriculum Theorizing (Bergamo). Dayton, OH, pp. 15.