SONIA MACPHERSON, PH.D.
Centre Alumna

Sonia in her Own Words

As a seasoned traveller, I continue to be astounded by the difference a thousand kilometres can make to one’s cultural and natural horizons. As one of the Centre’s newest graduates, I find myself daily reflecting on my new home at the University of Alberta’s International Forum on Education and Society (part of Secondary Ed. Dept.), and comparing it to my experiences at UBC where I lived and learned for the last five years. It is peaceful here-Spartan, even austere at times-with a certain monastic ambience. My doctoral research examined the monastic curriculum and pedagogy of a Tibetan Buddhist nunnery in India, so it is a topic I can discuss with some confidence. Yes, there is a monastic air here-peaceful, open, clear, but cool, like the prairie skies. It has helped me to distil my life into meditating, working, working out, and quilting in the late evenings to my favourite television show.

This is in stark contrast to the fertile landscapes of Vancouver and the creative mindscapes I found at the Centre, where a particular combination of creativity and community combined to make a most stimulating and engaging, albeit demanding, environment. If life here mirrors the expansive prairie sky, then in Vancouver it mirrored the temperate rainforest floor, full of life, nurtured-weaving and leaning-on one another, and nowhere more than at the Centre. In the intensity of our encounters, I learned to negotiate the intellectual, cultural and political complexities of the academe and of our [globalizing] times. It offered the camaraderie and creativity the academe yearns for as it aspires to assume a meaningful role in the 21st century. No two people better exemplify these qualities than the Directors of the Centre, Dr. Karen Meyer and Dr. Carl Leggo-Karen for understanding the pedagogical and alchemical value of community, and Carl for embodying what it means to be a creative intellectual, writer, and teacher in our time.

I am now working on a post-doctoral research project to develop a more cross-cultural appreciation of creativity, and its role in learning; in particular, I am looking at the role of creativity in the encounter between traditional and modern cultures. This research will be taking me to China and Tibet in the autumn. I am here on a Killam post-doctoral fellowship. I am delighted to have this opportunity as it means that I can focus on research before being swept up with the teaching and administrative responsibilities that accompany a tenure-track position. It has given me the opportunity to ease into the role of scholar and professor. In the field of Education, too often research is neglected in favour of keeping the Teacher Education treadmill in motion; so, it is heartening to see that more and more post-doctoral positions are being awarded to Education graduates.

Love and cheers to all my friends back home! Don’t be apprehensive of finishing; it is a big and beautiful world out here on the other side of a Ph.D