Background
My research is grounded in traditions of critical and community-based adult education. I am interested in how learning occurs through everyday experiences of migration, work, and participation in community life. By focusing on learning, my work examines how people make sense of social change through relationships and engagement with their communities.
Much of my research is conducted in collaboration with community partners and incorporates participatory approaches that create opportunities for reflection and shared knowledge production.
Across several projects, I have focused on rural and peripherally economic regions, where demographic shifts, migration, and economic restructuring are reshaping community life in significant ways.
My research is organized around three interconnected areas.
Adult Learning in Rural Communities
A central focus of my work examines how learning occurs through participation in community life. In rural regions experiencing demographic change, questions of belonging, participation, and collective futures are often negotiated through informal spaces of dialogue and collaboration.
Through community-based research projects, I explore how adult education practices can support social connection and civic participation. This work often involves collaboration with community organizations and incorporates participatory approaches that allow residents to reflect collectively on shared challenges and possibilities.
Migration and Rural Settlement
Another strand of my research examines how newcomers navigate settlement and integration in rural communities. While immigration to smaller regions has increased in recent years, settlement infrastructures and support systems often remain limited.
My work in this area explores how newcomers learn to navigate employment systems, language learning programs, and community networks in regions with historically low levels of immigration. This research also examines how local organizations and communities develop strategies to support immigrant inclusion and integration.
This image was created by Melanie Skene at Many Hands Art.
This image was created by Melanie Skene at Many Hands Art.
Mobility and Informal Learning
A third area of my research explores how mobility itself becomes a site of learning. Migration and labour mobility require individuals to develop new social networks and navigate complex institutional systems.
My earlier research examined how migrant workers learn to navigate immigration policies, workplace relations, and everyday life within Canada’s labour migration system. Subsequent projects have explored how young people learn to negotiate mobility aspirations and life transitions in Atlantic Canada.
Together, these projects examine how mobility experiences shape learning processes and relationships to place.