معرفی
Sandra Chang-Kredl is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education at Concordia University's Faculty of Arts and Science, where she has been teaching since 2012. Her research and teaching focus on children's popular culture, play, and early childhood education, with a particular emphasis on teacher identity, cultural representations of childhood, and the impact of technological changes on children's symbolic and social play. She brings practical experience from her background as a certified teacher and administrator in early years education to her academic work.
Her educational background includes:
- PhD in Education (Curriculum & Instruction), McGill University (2010)
- MA in Education (Child Study), Concordia University
- BEd in Elementary Education, McGill University
Chang-Kredl's research program intersects teacher education, curriculum studies, media literacy, children's popular culture, and early childhood education. She examines teachers' conceptualizations of childhood through their memories and cultural tropes, investigates how children construct their perceptions of self and other through media engagement, and explores the societal devaluation of childcare educators. Her work takes a cultural studies perspective on children's media experiences and technological impacts on play. She has developed a strong focus on how teachers use childhood memories to construct beliefs about childhood and how these shape educational practices.
Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent trajectory examining the intersections of memory, childhood representations, and teacher identity. Her work increasingly focuses on how technological changes impact children's play and social interactions, while maintaining a strong foundation in cultural studies and critical pedagogy. A significant portion of her recent work involves collaborative research examining how teachers' conceptualizations of childhood influence their educational practices and how childhood is socially constructed through cultural artifacts and media.
Her research has been supported by significant funding including:
- SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council) grants
- FRQSC (Fonds de recherche du Québec - Société et culture) funding
- Public Safety Canada grants (as collaborator and co-investigator)
- School of Graduate Studies' Horizon Fellows program
- Project Someone initiative
Chang-Kredl actively supervises graduate students and has been involved in multiple collaborative research projects examining teacher identity, childhood representations, and media literacy. Her research activities include the comparative study 'Teacher Conceptualizations of Childhood: Memories and Cultural Tropes,' the project 'Caring as a Feminist Issue' which interrogates societal devaluation of childcare educators, and 'Children's Construction of Self and Other' which explores how children construct perceptions of self through media engagement. She has been particularly active in public engagement, translating her research for broader audiences through media appearances and opinion pieces.
