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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Previous research

Participation and persistence: An analysis of immigrant visible-minority students at UOIT

UOIT Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Small Research Grant Program: $2,908, 2014 to 2015

  • Principal Investigator (PI) with Dr. Allyson Eamer and Dr. Nawal Ammar on research that aims to understand the prevailing facilitative factors (both structural and individual) that help immigrant visible minority university students succeed.

Academic integrity project

Teaching Innovation Fund Grant: $17,222, 2014 to 2015

  • PI on applied research project to develop new resources and tools for UOIT’s academic integrity website; created learning modules, quizzes, teaching assignments and activities, and case studies to assist in teaching the fundamentals of academic integrity.

Supported literacy education for persons living with mental illness: Exploring economic and social implications

SSHRC Insight Development Grant: $50,926, 2013 to 2015

  • Co-investigator and member of team with UOIT researchers Dr. Shanti Fernando (PI), Dr. Allyson Eamer and Dr. Wendy Stanyon, as wel as Wanda Huntington, Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences.
  • Case study of the Supported Education Program at Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences, in Whitby, Ontario, to understand the social, economic and political implications of low literacy skills for people living with mental illness.

Voices of UOIT oral history project

Funded through UOIT's Office of the Provost, 2010 to 2013

  • Co-PI with Dr. Shirley Van Nuland.
  • Oral history interviews will be deposited into the university archives. Three undergraduate research assistants (through the Student Training Assistantships in Research (STAR) awards and University Works programs) in each year of the project assisted in conducting, transcribing and recording interviews, and organizing the project.

Literacy in the knowledge economy 

2012 to present

  • Currently working with Dr. Shanti Fernando to develop a research project examining the impact of the knowledge-based economy on people with low literacy skills and the programs designed to help them.

Minority student retention 

2012 to 2013

  • Working with Dr. Wesley Crichlow to develop a research project investigating ways in which to improve the retention of minority university students.

Exploring non‐fiction graphic texts for children, adolescents and young adults

  • SSHRC Standard Research Grant Application submitted October 2008 and 2009 (received a 4A ranking in 2008). PI: Dr. Alyson E. King (Faculty of Social Science and Humanities (FSSH)); Co‐investigator: Dr. Janette Hughes (Faculty of Education (FEd)).

Graphic novels: Reading, writing and representing adolescence

  • Co-investigators: Dr. Janette Hughes (FEd) and Dr. Alyson King (FSSH).
  • REB approval received October 2008.

Living and learning in WebKinz World 

2008 to 2011

  • PIs: Dr. Roberta Hammett and Dr. Anne Burke, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Co-investigators: Dr. Janette Hughes, FEd, and Dr. Alyson King, FSSH, UOIT. REB approval received November 2008.

Teaching undergraduate students to write: An online writing lab for undergraduate students at UOIT

Teaching Innovation Fund Grant, 2009 to 2010

  • Co-applicants: Dr. Alyson King and Dr. Sharon Lauricella (FSSH).

NOOL.ca

Co-ordinating and researching the writing component of the NOOL website for the Associate Provost, Teaching and Learning Centre

  • PI: Dr. Alyson King; co-investigators: Dr. Bill Muirhead, Ilona Kletskin, Dr. Wendy Hardman, Dr. Sharon Lauricella. REB approval received July 2009.