Contact Information
Email: catherine.vanner@uwindsor.ca
Phone: (519)-253-3000 ext. ****
Office: Room 3334, Leonard & Dorothy Neal Education Building
Profile
Assistant Professor of Educational Foundations
Catherine Vanner uses qualitative and participatory visual methods to study gender and education in diverse country contexts including Canada, Kenya, and Mali, with a concentration on the ways in which education can transform and/or perpetuate norms and behaviours related to gender-based violence. Her work emphasizes feminist, critical, and decolonizing theories and perspectives. Prior to joining the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. She previously worked as an Education Advisor or Consultant for organizations including Plan International, UNESCO, and the Canadian International Development Agency (now Global Affairs Canada).
Research Interests
- Gender and education
- School-related gender-based violence
- Feminist pedagogy
- Children’s participation rights
- Girls’ activism
- Education in conflict
- Textbooks and learning materials
Courses Taught
- Philosophical Orientations to Education
- Classroom Practice
- Participatory Research Methodologies
- Communication In Education
- Learning in the Educational Setting
Publications
Vanner, C., Akseer, S., & Kovinthan Levi, T. (Eds.) (2022). Teaching peace and conflict: The multiple roles of school textbooks in peacebuilding. Springer.
Vanner, C., Shahzadeh, Y., Holloway, A., Mitchell, C. & Altenberg, J. (2022). “Round and round the carousel: A visual method for facilitating youth dialogue.” In C. Burkholder, F. Aladejebi & J. Schwab Cartas (Eds.), Leading and listening to community: Facilitating qualitative, arts-based & visual research for social change. Routledge.
Vanner, C., & Almanssori, S. (2021). “‘The whole truth’: Student perspectives on how Canadian teachers should teach about gender-based violence. Pedagogy, Culture & Society. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681366.2021.2007987
Anderson, E., Vanner, C., Wotipka, C. M., & Kelly, K. (2021). “‘Participation does not equal voice:’ Gendered experiences in an academic and professional society.” Comparative Education Review 65, 3: 534–554.
Young Indigenous Women’s Utopia, Moccasin, C., McNabb, J., Vanner, C., Flicker, S., Altenberg, J., & Wuttunee, K.. (2021). Where are all the girls and Indigenous people at IGSA? Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 14(2), 97–113. doi: 10.3167/ghs.2021.140208.
Vanner, C. (2021). Education about gender-based violence: Opportunities and obstacles in the Ontario secondary school curriculum. Gender and Education. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/09540253.2021.1884193
Kimani, M.N. & Vanner, C. (2021). “When my hands were tied, you were able to continue”: A collaborative ethnography of insider-outsider partnerships when managing child protection in research. Journal of Autoethnography, 2(2): 161-176. https://doi.org/10.1525/joae.2021.2.2.161
Kelly, K.; Yiu, L. & Vanner, C. (2020). Toward a feminist framework for virtual conferencing. Comparative Education Review, 64(4). https://doi.org/10.1086/710770
Vanner, C. & Dugal, A. (2020) Powerful, personal, political: Activist Networks by, for, and with Girls and Young Women. Girlhood Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.1086/710770
Gonick, M., Vanner, C., Mitchell, C & Dugal, A. (2020). We want to be free: Girlfesto as a method of participatory policymaking with girls and young women. Young, 29(2):101–118. https://doi.org/10.1177/1103308820937598
Lamb, P. Vanner, C., Raissadat, H., Nyariro, M., & Sadati, H. (2020). Experiencing multiple embodiments in a cross-cultural, inter-generational event to support girls challenging gender-based violence. Global Education Review, 7(2), 58–74. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1262733.pdf
Vanner, C. (2020). Writing in my little red book: The process of taking fieldnotes in primary school case study research in Kirinyaga, Kenya. In C. Burkholder and J. Thompson (Eds.), What about fieldnotes? Approaches, practices and ethical considerations in educational research and teaching. Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: Routledge.
Vanner, C. (2019). Toward a definition of transnational girlhood. Girlhood Studies, 12(2), 115-132. doi:10.3167/ghs.2019.120209
Vanner, C., Kovinthan Levi, T. & Akseer, S. (2019). South Sudanese primary school textbooks: Transforming and reinforcing conflict. Prospects: Comparative Journal of Curriculum, Learning, and Assessment. doi:10.1007/s11125-019-09452-2
Vanner, C. (2019). Examining gender safety in schools: Teacher agency and resistance in two primary schools in Kirinyaga, Kenya. Education Sciences, 9(1), 63-77. doi:10.3390/educsci9010063
Vanner, C. (2018). “This is a competition”: The relationship between examination pressure and gender violence in primary schools in Kenya. International Journal of Educational Development, 62: 35-46. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2018.02.001
Vanner, C. & Kimani, M. (2017). The role of triangulation in sensitive art-based research with children. Qualitative Research Journal, 17(2): 77-88. doi:10.1108/QRJ-12-2016-0073
Vanner, C., Akseer, S., & Kovinthan, T. (2016). Learning peace (and conflict): The role of primary learning materials in peacebuilding in post-war Afghanistan, South Sudan and Sri Lanka. Journal of Peace Education, 14(1): 32-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/17400201.2016.1213710
Vanner, C. (2015). Positionality at the centre: Constructing an epistemological and methodological approach for a Western feminist researcher working in the postcolonial. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 14(4), 1-12. doi:10.1177/1609406915618094
Vanner, C. (2013). “We are the assets of the school”: An analysis of children’s participation rights in a school health and nutrition project in El Salvador. The International Journal of Children’s Rights, 22(2), 339-360. doi:10.1163/15718182-02202005
Education
Ph.D. in Education, University of Ottawa
M.A. in International Affairs, Carleton University
B.A. (Honours) in Political Science, McMaster University
Research Grants
2023 Insight Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
2022 Connection Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
2019 Evidence for Education in Emergencies Research Grant, Dubai Cares
2019 Insight Development Grant, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
2018 Innovation Research Grant, Comparative International Education Society