Sandra Chang-Kredl joined the Department of Education in 2012, after completing her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction at McGill University. Dr. Chang-Kredl’s research program intersects the areas of teacher education, curriculum studies, media literacy, children’s popular culture, and early childhood education. She has been awarded funding from FRQSC (Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture) and SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) to examine issues related to teacher identity, including cultural representations of childhood and childcare, and teachers' uses of memory to construct beliefs about childhood. She examines children’s media experiences from a cultural studies perspective and the impact of technological changes on children’s symbolic and social play. As collaborator and co-investigator in two Public Safety Canada grants, she evaluates curricular strategies to support non-discriminatory practices online. Her professional experience as a certified teacher and administrator in early years education informs her research, teaching and pre-service field supervision in the department.
Education
Ph.D. Curriculum & Instruction, Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University.
M.A. Education (Child Study), Concordia University.
B.Ed. Elementary Education, McGill University.
Courses taught
Undergraduate courses:
EDUC 295 Internship I: Pre-Kindergarten Teaching
EDUC 296 Pre-Kindergarten Teaching Seminar
EDUC 302 Administration in Childhood Settings
EDUC 374 Child Studies Field Experience
EDUC 395 Internship III: Kindergarten Teaching
EDUC 396 Kindergarten Teaching Seminar
EDUC 411 Toys, Media and Children’s Popular Culture
Graduate courses:
CHST 606 Qualitative Methods of Inquiry
CHST 620 Theories of Play
CHST 624 Curriculum Models in Childhood Settings
CHST 640 Special Topics: Images and Constructions of Childhood
Other courses
Undergraduate courses taught at McGill:
EDEC 203 Communication in Education
EDEC 262 Media and Technology in Education, Elementary
EDEC 325 Children’s Literature
EDEC 402 Media and Technology in Education, Secondary
Teacher Conceptualizations of Childhood: Memories and Cultural Tropes
This comparative study explores practical and theoretical links between teachers' conceptualizations of childhood, autoethnographic memories, and the social contexts that frame their articulation in four sites across North America. This study is funded by SSHRC. Co-Investigators: Lisa Farley, York; Debbie Sonu, CUNY; Julie Garlen, Carleton (formerly Georgia Southern).
Caring as a Feminist Issue
This project interrogates the structures that maintain the societal devaluation of childcare educators through focusing on educators’ subjective experiences of their profession, or their ‘ways of knowing’, and considers the alternative perspectives that early childhood educators bring to the broader field of education as well as to normative views of childhood. This project is funded by SSHRC.
Children's Construction of Self and Other: Engaging with Media and Cultural Artifacts
In light of how technology expands the channels through which children are informed about everyday reality and through which they internalize social categories, this project explores how children construct their perceptions of the self and other in relation to their engagements with media and cultural artifacts. This project is funded by the School of Graduate Studies' Horizon Fellows program and Project Someone. Co-investigators: Dan Mamlok (Horizon Postdoctoral Fellow) and Vivek Venkatesh (Department of Art Education).
Chang-Kredl, S., Farley, L., & Sonu, D. (in-press). “Learning twice”: Overlapping memories and places of childhood. In I. Berger (ed.) Activating Place-Based Pedagogies in Early Childhood Education: Intimately Situated Stories of Place. Critical Cultural Studies of Childhood book series.
Chang-Kredl, S., Farley, L., Sonu, D. & Garlen, J. (2024). Ongoing attachments with stuffed toys: Conceptualizing childhood and teaching through transitional objects. Early Years: An International Research Journal.
Chang-Kredl, S., Mamlok, D., & Venkatesh, V. (2023). Dark play and children’s dyadic constructions of self and other. American Journal of Play, 15(2), 158-178.
Lalonde, M., Venkatesh, V., Castro, J. C., Chapman, O., Brault, A., Chang-Kredl, S., Montgomery, A. & Huebner, E.J. (2023). Médias de haine, messages d’espoir : Contrer le phénomène de la cyberviolence chez les jeunes par des performances médiatiques collaboratives. Dans M. Morel, Éduquer aux enjeux sociétaux en arts et littérature. Éditions JFD.
Chang-Kredl, S., & Colannino, D. (2022). A relational-psychoanalytic reading of Grimms’ The Fisherman and his Wife: A narrative of recognition and domination. Canadian Journal of Psychoanalysis, 30(2), 215-231.
Garlen, J., Sonu, D., Farley, L., & Chang-Kredl, S. (2022). Agency as assemblage: Using childhood artefacts to examine children’s relations with schooling. Journal of Childhood, Education & Society.
Farley, L., Garlen, J.C., Chang-Kredl, S., & Sonu, D. (2022). The critical work of memory and the nostalgic return of innocence: How emergent teachers represent childhood. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. DOI: 10.1080/14681366.2022.2063930
Sonu, D., Farley, L., Chang-Kredl, S., & Garlen, J. (2022). Sick at school: Teachers’ memories and the affective challenges that bodies present to constructions of childhood innocence, normalcy, and ignorance. Review of Education, Pedagogy & Cultural Studies, 44(2), 147-165. DOI: 10.1080/10714413.2022.2031693
Chang-Kredl, S., Sonu, D., Garlen, J., & Farley, L. (2021). Models of possible selves: Prospective teachers’ reflections on their childhood memories of parents. Teaching Education. DOI: 10.1080/10476210.2021.1948989
Garlen, J.C., Chang-Kredl, S., Farley, L., & Sonu, D. (2021). Childhood innocence and experience: Memory, discourse and practice. Children & Society. DOI: 10.1111/chso.12428
Sonu, D., Farley, L., Chang-Kredl, S., & Garlen, J. (2020). The dreamwork of childhood memory: The futures teachers make from the schooling past. JCT: Journal of Curriculum Theorizing, 35(4), 15-27.
Farley, L., Sonu, D., Garlen J.C., & Chang-Kredl. S. (2020). Childhood memories of playful antics and punishable acts: Risking an imperfect future of teaching and learning. The New Educator, 16(2): 106-121.
Chang-Kredl, S., Pauls, K., & Foster, K. (2019). Exploring meanings of feminist success in media representations of the early years educator. Gender and Education. DOI:10.1080/09540253.2019.1632805
Strong-Wilson, T., Ehret, C., Lewkowich, D., & Chang-Kredl, S. (co-editors) (2019). Making/Unmaking Curriculum through Provoking Curriculum Encounters. New York: Routledge.
Kukkonen, T., Chang-Kredl, S., & Bolden, B. (2019). Creative collaboration in young children's group drawing. The Journal of Creative Behavior. DOI: 10.1002/jocb.418
Duponsel, N. & Chang-Kredl, S. (2019). Mind with matter: A conversation about math education and new materialism. P. Sameshima, A. Sinner, & B. White (Eds.), MA: Materiality in teaching and learning. New York: Peter Lang.
Strong-Wilson, T., Yoder, A., Chang-Kredl, S., Aitken, A., & Radford, L. (2019). Introduction. Making/Unmaking Curriculum through Provoking Curriculum Encounters. New York: Routledge.
Chang-Kredl, S. & Kozak, S. (2018). Children using Facebook: Teachers’ discursive constructions of childhood. Learning, Media and Technology, 43(2): 211-215.
Chang-Kredl, S.(2018). Challenging public perceptions of childcare teachers through Cixous’s 'écriture feminine’. Gender and Education, 30(2): 259-272.
Kukkonen, T. and Chang-Kredl, S. (2018). Drawing as social play: Shared meaning making in young children’s collective drawing activities. The International Journal of Art & Design Education, 37(1): 74-87.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2018). Transitional spaces and displaced truths of the early years teacher. In E. Hasebe-Ludt & C. Leggo (Eds.), Canadian Curriculum Studies: A metissage of inspiration/imagination/interconnection. Toronto, ON: Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Chang-Kredl, S. & Colannino, D. (2017). Constructing the image of the teacher on Reddit: Best and worst teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 64: 43-51.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2017). A 'politics against social submission': Of early years teachers’ accessibility and work with children in Québec. Early Years: An International Research Journal, 37(2): 202-216.
Chang-Kredl, S. and Wilkie, G. (2016). What is it like to be a child? Childhood subjectivity and teacher memories as heterotopia. Curriculum Inquiry, 46(3): 308-320.
Chang-Kredl, S., Wilkie. G., & Ghaznavi, S. (2016). Circling a memory: a layered reflective method for generating subjective knowledge about childhood and teacher identity. Reflective Practice: International and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, 17(3): 270-283.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2015). Constructing childcare in three American comedic films. Child Care in Practice, 21(4): 324-339.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2015). Coraline’s split mothers: The maternal abject and the childcare educator. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, 29(3): 354-364.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2014). Teachers conceptualizing childhood: Conversations around fictional childhood texts. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 21(2): 203-220.
Chang-Kredl, S. & Kingsley, S. (2014). Identity expectations in early childhood teacher education: Pre-service teachers' memories of prior experiences and reasons for entry into the profession. Teaching and Teacher Education, 43: 27-36.
Howe, N., Abuhatoum, S., & Chang-Kredl, S. (2013). 'Everything's upside down. We'll call it upside down valley!': Siblings' creative play themes, object use, and language during pretend play. Early Education and Development, 25(3): 381-398.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2013). Voicing the early childhood teacher’s subjective experiences through Maurice Sendak’s Outside over there. Children’s Literature in Education, 44(2): 174-190.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2013). Childhood and the maternal in Jane Campion’s The Piano. In T. Strong-Wilson, C. Mitchell, K. Pithouse, & S. Allnutt (Eds.), Back to the future: Productive remembering and narrative. New Brunswick, NJ:Transaction.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2019, June). Automated child figures and the uncanny adult-child relationship. Paper presented at The Canadian Association for Research in Early Childhood (CAREC), Post-CSSE Conference and Knowledge Mobilization Day. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Farley, L., Sonu, D., Chang-Kredl, S., & Garlen, J. (2019, June). The teacher's childhood: autoethnographies and cultural tropes of childhood in the classroom. Paper presented at CSSE (Canadian Society for the Study of Education). University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Chang-Kredl, S., Farley, L., Garlen, J., & Sonu, D. (2019, May). Little histories: teacher memories and cultural tropes of childhood across four university sites. Paper presented at Youngsters 2. Ryerson University, Toronto.
Chang-Kredl, S., Kozak, S. , & Pauls, K. (2017, December). Project Someone: The role of education in hate speech. Paper for 8th International Conference on Human Rights Education. Concordia University, Montreal, QC.
Garlen, J., Farley, L., & Chang-Kredl, S., (2017, November). Adult memories and mythic childhoods: Envisioning socially (un)just childhood through a psychoanalytic lens. Paper for AESA (American Educational Studies Association). Pittsburgh, PA
Garlen, J., Chang-Kredl, S., & Farley, L. (2017, October). Displaced Childhood: Studies of Trauma, Innocence, and Ancestral Ghosts. Paper for RECE (Reconceputalizing Early Childhood Education). Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario.
Garlen, J., Chang-Kredl, S., & Farley, L. (2017, May). Encountering childhood: Texts, cultures, and curricula. Paper presented at AERA (American Educational Research Association). San Antonio, TX.
Chang-Kredl, S. & Colannino, D. (2017, May). 'She was evil, fat, short and wore giant rainbow sweaters': Memories of teachers on Reddit. Paper presented at CSSE (Canadian Society for the Study of Education). Ryerson University, Toronto, Ontario.
Chang-Kredl, S., Wilkie, G., Pauls, K., & Foster, K. (2017, February). Life stories of the underpaid and unrecognized: Tapping into the plural voices of childcare educators. Paper presented at the 8th Biennial Provoking Curriculum Conference. McGill University, Montreal, QC.
Chang-Kredl, S. & Pauls, K. (2016, November). “We don’t use words like that here”: Representing the childcare educator in popular television. Paper presented at MAPACA Mid-Atlantic Popular & American Culture Association). Atlantic City, NJ.
Chang-Kredl, S. & Wilkie, G. (2016, June). What is it like to be a child? Childhood subjectivity and teacher memories as heterotopia. Paper presented at CSSC (Currriculum Studies Summer Collaborative Conference). Georgia Southern University. Savannah, Georgia.
Chang-Kredl, S. & Wilkie, G. (2016, May). Understanding the early years teacher’s professional image through the ‘subjective apparatus’. Paper presented at CSSE (Canadian Society for the Study of Education). University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2015, May). Le programme de formation à l’ enseignement au préscolaire et au primaire: la place de la petite enfance. Paper presented at l’Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS). Universite de Quebec at Rimouski, Rimouski, Quebec.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2015, May). Remembering childhood as teachers’ identity work. Paper presented at the Mapping the Landscapes of Childhood II Conference, University of Lethbridge, Alberta.
Strong-Wilson, T., Yoder, A., Chang-Kredl, S., Aitken, A., & Radford, L. (2015, February). Currere, Ghosts and Double Consciousness: Our Unresolved Subjects. Paper presented at the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies Conference, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.
Chang-Kredl, S. (2014, May). Pre-service teachers' ideations of childhood in early years education. Paper presented at CSSE (Canadian Society for the Study of Education). Brock University. St. Catharines, Ontario.
Strong-Wilson, T., Chang-Kredl, S., Radford, L. Yoder, A. & Aitken, A., (2014, May). Currere tales: Returning to the archive. Paper presented at CSSE (Canadian Society for the Study of Education). Brock University. St. Catharines, Ontario.
Opinion pieces
Chang-Kredl, S. (December 21, 2017). Devrait-on craindre les poupees ‘intelligentes'? La Presse.
Chang-Kredl, S. (December 13, 2017). Should you get your child an AI doll this holiday? The Conversation.
Chang-Kredl, S. (December 16, 2016). Parents desperate to find a Hatchimal for Christmas should chill out, The Montreal Gazette. Translated and printed as “Pour survivre a la saison des jouets tendance” in La Presse. Reprised by Windsor Star. Reprised as “Christmas won’t be ruined if you can’t find this year’s ‘it’ toy” in Calgary Herald.
Chang-Kredl, S. (September 12, 2016). 100 years on, Roald Dahl isn’t just for kiddles and chiddlers. Concordia News.
Television interviews
December 9, 2017. “Artificial Intelligence Toys.” CTV Montreal News, with Tara Schwarz.
April 11, 2017. “Avenie d’Enfants (Changon Foundation) Recommendations.”CBC Montreal News, with Alison Northcott. 21, 2017.
March 9, 2017. “Diversification of Barbie.” Global News TV, interview with Matthew Grillo.
Radio interviews
January 5, 2017. “The Rise of AI Toys.” Daybreak Montreal, CBC Radio, with Mike Finnerty.
December 21, 2017. “Artificial Intelligence Toys.” Ontario Morning, CBC Radio, with Wei Chen.
December 20, 2017. “Robot Toys.” Aaron Rand Show, CJAD Radio, with Aaron Rand.
April 13, 2017, “Roughhousing benefits kids, suggests Quebec daycare guide”. The Current. CBC Radio, with Anna Maria Tremonti.
December 19, 2016. “The holiday ‘it’ toy”. Radio Noon, CBC.
October 20, 2015. “Childcare effects”. Andrew Carter's Morning Show, CJAD.
January 4, 2014. “Politically-Correct Toys?” Maritime Noon CBC Radio, CBC.
Text interviews
November 12, 2018. "Ces jouets indémodables", Protegez-vous, by Melanie Roy.
January 18, 2016. “Pourquoi les éducatrices sont-elles sous-estimées?”, La Presse Montreal, by Marie Allard.
September 15, 2015. “Are early childhood educators undervalued? A Concordia researcher wants to change our view of their role”, Concordia News, by Clea Desjardins.
