Dr. David Scott

Dr. David Scott, PhD

Pronouns: he/him/his

Positions

Associate Professor

Werklund School of Education, Specialization, Curriculum and Learning

Contact information

Web presence

Phone number

Office: 403.220.8808

Background

Educational Background

Ph.D. Curriculum and Learning , University of Calgary , 2016

M.Ed. Curriculum Specialization, University of Alberta, 2009

B.A. Political Science, University of Victoria, 1999

Teaching Certification K-12 , Simon Fraser University , 2001

Biography

Dr. Scott grew up in Williams Lake in the interior of British Columbia. Completing his Bachelor of Arts in history and political science at the University of Victoria in 1997, David gained his teacher certification at Simon Fraser University in 2001. After teaching English for a year in Japan and high school English and social studies for three years in his hometown, David completed a Master’s of Education at the University of Alberta in 2009. David then relocated to Calgary where he taught Humanities 8 and 9 at Connect Charter School for four years. In 2012 David was awared the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Joseph-Armand Bombardier Doctoral Scholarship totalling $105,000. He went on to complete his doctoral dissertation within the Werklund School of Education in the Spring of 2016. He is now an Associate Professor in the Werklund School of Education in the area of curriculum and learning. 

Professional & Community Affiliations

  • Thinking Historically for Canada's Future Executive Committee Member 
  • Program Chair, 2017-2020, Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies
  • Associate Editor, 2012–2020, Canadian Social Studies
  • Scholarship Reviewer, 2019-2020, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada graduate scholarships, Mitacs research awards
  • Editor, 2015-2018, Alberta Teachers’ Association Social Studies Council Newsletter

Research

Areas of Research

Scholarly Activity

Dr. Scott’s (PI) research has focussed on how educators interpret and pedagogically respond to new policy and curricular mandates particularly within the area of social studies and history education. This work included a $105,000 Bombardier SSHRC funded doctoral study (2012-2015) examining how non-Indigenous educators are negotiating recent curricular directives in Alberta to engage Indigenous perspectives and historical experiences (Scott, 2013; Scott & Gani, 2018; Shergill & Scott, 2020). This research program has also involved analyzing how mandates to engage students in inquiry-based learning are conceptualized in the popular media and could be more productively understood and enacted (Scott et al., 2018; Scott, 2018; Scott & Bailey, 2020). Dr. Scott is currently a co-applicant on a $2,500,000 SSHRC Partnership Grant led by Dr. Carla Peck entitled Thinking Historically for Canada's Future. As part of this work, he is involved in research examining the links between history education and citizenship formation in teacher education programs both here in Canada, and across the world.  

Taken as a whole, this research program has highlighted the challenges of initiating systemic curricular and pedagogical change exclusively from the top down. Accordingly, his scholarship is now focused on how insights from design fields and curriculum studies offer ways to engage with stakeholders to transform educational practices from the bottom up. Along these lines, through a $50,000 grant from Alberta Education, Dr. Scott has worked with First Nation’s community members to examine how the educational experience of Indigenous students can be improved in northern, rural contexts (Scott & Louie, 2020). He is currently involved in research with Dr. Douglas Clark seeking to help educators move beyond technical rational approaches to conceptualizing and addressing challenges and issues in education related to equity, inclusion, and diversity, towards, what design fields term, more designerly stances to inquiry.

Interests:
  • Aboriginal/Non-Aboriginal Relations in Canada
  • Curriculum theory and design
  • History education
  • Inquiry in education
  • Social studies education

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
EDUC 46019 SEC 01 S01 Splz'n I Sec Social Studies 2021
EDUC 54603 SEC 03 S03 Design-based Secondary Route 2021

Awards

  • Werklund Teaching Excellence Award, Werklund School of Education. 2018
  • Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship–Doctoral Award, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. 2012
  • Award for the Study of Canadian Human Rights & Multiculturalism, Government of Alberta. 2008

Publications

Media:

  • CBC Radio (2020, October 22). Proposed curriculum changes in Alberta. Alberta at noon with Judy Aldous. https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-1-alberta-at-noon?fbclid=IwAR3Ukye8JLlv_gWtb2rfCNiRmxYDgVKw3z_KG6aSQGt1LxvXZYFt-A1EI88
  • Scott, D. (2018, June 18). Why your child will benefit from inquiry-based learning. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/why-your-child-will-benefit-from-inquiry-based-learning-97245
  • Lequitte, H. (2018, June 14). Ou l’introduction d’une nouvelle donne les curriculums? Le Franco. https://www.pressreader.com/canada/le-franco/20180614/281543701631383
  • PUC Noticias. (2016). Fruto de parceria, simpósio debate educação e diversidade. http://noticias.pucgoias.edu.br/?p=10560
  • Universidade Federal do Goiás. (2016). Simpósio discute inclusão e diversidade na educação. https://www.ufg.br/n/92842-simposio-discute-inclusao-e-diversidade-na-educacao
  • Partner Research Schools (WSE). (2016). Towards a new approach for teaching 'other' perspectives: Examining the teaching of Francophone perspectives in Alberta. http://werklund.ucalgary.ca/prs/project/towards-new-approach-teaching-other-perspectives-examining-teaching-francophone-perspectives
  • Research @Werklund. (2017). Teaching “Other” perspectives. http://werklundresearch.ucalgaryblogs.ca/teaching-others-perspectives/
  • University of Calgary (2015, July 8). PhD student finds connections across classrooms in Canada and Brazil. UToday https://www.ucalgary.ca/utoday/issue/2015-07-08/phd-student-finds-connections-across-classrooms-canada-and-brazil
  • The History Education Network/Histoire et Éducation en Réseau. (2013, May 5). Visiting doctoral program report. http://thenhier.ca/sites/default/files/Scott-report.pdf