Sharon Friesen

Dr. Sharon Friesen

PhD
Pronouns: she/her

Positions

Professor

Werklund School of Education, Specialization, Leadership

Contact information

Email

sfriesen@ucalgary.ca

Web presence

Twitter

Galileo

Phone number

Office: 403.220.2488

Location

Office: EDT936

Background

Credentials

Permanent Professional Teaching Certificate, Alberta Education, 1989

Permanent ECS Diploma, Alberta Education, 1986

Educational Background

Doctor of Philosophy Curriculum Theory, University of Calgary, 2000

M.Ed. Curriculum, University of Calgary, 1991

Bach of Education University of Calgary, 1986

Biography

Dr. Sharon Friesen is a professor at the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.  She was the co-founder and President of the Galileo Educational Network from 1999-2021. She served as the Vice Dean of the Werklund School of Education for 8 years, as well as the Associate Dean Graduate Programs in Education, and the Associate Dean of Professional and Community Engagement. Her research interests include the ways in which K-12 educational structures, leadership, teaching, and learning need to be redesigned. This redesign involves reframing the current standardized system into one that acknowledges the strengths and needs of an increasingly diverse society and one that honours and respects First Nations, Metis, and Inuit ways of being and knowing. She draws upon and contributes to the fields of the learning sciences and educational leadership to study: (i) design-based professional learning, (ii) school and district leadership, (iii) educational reform, and (iv) research-practice partnerships. She has co-authored six books. From the outset, she has systematically created, studied and published first from within her own classrooms (K – graduate students) and for more than 20 years from within the work of the Galileo Educational Network. 

Professional & Community Affiliations

Service and leadership are a significant part of Dr. Friesen's academic life. While service and leadership are part of the obligations all academics must provide to sustain a research culture within a research university, the lines between research and scholarship, teaching and learning, and service and leadership tend to blur in her research and writing.

In 1999, Dr. Friesen co-founded Galileo Educational Network (http://www.galileo.org) in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary.  This provincial, national, and international network was built with the understanding that changes in education needed to be systemic and sustained, and that all educational stakeholders needed to be involved in growing the changes that were required for contemporary learning environments.

Dr. Friesen is honoured to have served the Werklund School of Education as Vice Dean, Associate Dean Graduate Programs in Education, and Associate Dean Professional and Community Engagement.  

Dr. Friesen continues to offers her expertise to a variety of government and non-government organizations across Canada and internationally. 

Research

Areas of Research

Contemporary Learning Environments, Design-based Professional Learning, Educational Leadership, Research-Practice Partnerships, Educational Reform
  1. PI. Mapping a Community Response Model to Mental Health, Community Safety, and Wellbeing (with Sharon Friesen (PI), Stephen MacGregor (Co-PI), Jennifer Turner (Co-PI), Kate Storey (Co-Applicant), Joelle Rodway (Co-Applicant), Kevin Cameron (Collaborator), Lori Prediger (Collaborator), Stephanie Mills (Collaborator), George Alvarez (Collaborator). Funded by Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation – One Child. 
  2. PI. Development of a Mental Health Implementation and Evaluation Framework for Schools and School Authorities (with Sharon Friesen (PI), Stephen McGregor (Co-PI), Dennis Sumara (Co-Investigator), Carly McMorris (Collaborator), and José Domene (Collaborator). Funded by Alberta Education. 
  3. PI. Change Can’t Wait (with Sharon Friesen (PI), Paul Arnold (Co-PI, Jennifer Turner, Co-PI, Gena Rotstein, Collaborator). Funded by Converge Mental Health Coalition Inc.
  4. CO-PI. Online supervision of doctoral students. This case study focuses on professors’ and doctoral students’ experiences with online supervision relationships in the context of field-focused, doctoral research as part of a blended education doctorate (EdD) program in the Werklund School of Education.
  5. Collaborator. An exploration of the Systems and Societal Norms that Contribute to the Marginalization of Youth. SSHRC

Many of the studies Dr. Friesen undertakes are longitudinal, employing design-based research methodologies. Currently she is focused on the role that students' mental health and well-being play in students' overall success in schools. Students' social-emotional health and well-being have traditionally been treated as an add-on to students' academic achievement. As surfaced in her 2009 What Did You Do in School Today study with Doug Willms and Penny Milton, student well-being played a signifant role in students' overall success in schools. Students' mental health, particularly anxiety and depression surfaced as requiring attention in Canadian schools as early as 2009 in that research. Today, it is a pressing issue needing teachers, school and district leaders, and provincial leaders attention and action. 

Since 1989, her primary research interest consists of investigating the ways contemporary learning environments might be designed and led to sponsor deep intellectual engagement in students, with a particular focus on teaching and leadership practices. This focus emerged from a close attunement and attentiveness to the lived experience of teachers and students; an attunement that understands intellectual growth as more than an interior, private, individual matter of unfolding development; that situates teaching, learning, and leading within the contexts of an educative community; and that asks hard questions about both the traditional and progressive legacies, a legacy that scholar Larry Cuban calls the "grammar of schooling."

Participation in university strategic initiatives

Child health and wellness

Human dynamics in a changing world

Courses

Course number Course title Semester
EDUC 556.02 SEC 02 S02 Professional Development and Lifelong Learning Winter 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
EDER 619.22 Leading Student Learning Summer 2021
EDER 719.14 Advanced Studies in Educational Leadership Summer 2021, 2023
EDER 708 Collaboratory of Practice II Winter 2021, 2022, 2023
EDUC 521 Designs for Learning Fall 2023
EDER 678.21 Design-Based Professional Learning Spring 2024
EDER 678.70 Leading Citizenry in a Digital Age Spring 2024
EDER 705 Doctoral Seminar in Educational Leadership Summer 2022
EDER 719.14 Advanced Studies in Educational Leadership Summer 2021, 2023

Awards

  • Leadership in Education Award, 2013
  • Distinguished Lecturer, 2011
  • Distinguished Research Lecture Award, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. 2011
  • U Make a Difference Award, 2011
  • Nominated: Student's Union Teaching Excellence Award, 2010
  • Calgary Educational Partnership Foundation Special Settings Award, 2009
  • The Calgary Stampede Western Legacy Award for Innovation, 2009
  • Teaching Excellence Nomination, 2008
  • Teaching Excellence Nomination - Graduate Students, 2008
  • Calgary Stampede Innovation Award, 2007
  • Mathematics Educator Award for activism in improving mathematics education across western Canada., University of British Columbia. 2007
  • Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences Education prize, 2007
  • 2006 AERA Division B Outstanding Book Award for Back to the Basics of Teaching and Learning, 2006
  • AERA Division B Outstanding Book award, 2005
  • Canadian E-Content Award for Education, 2004
  • Conference Board of Canada Partnership National Partnerships Award, 2000
  • Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, 1999
  • Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence, 1999
  • The Alberta Teachers' Association Research Award, 1999
  • Aoki Award for research work in the area of curriculum that most embraced the work and vision of Dr. Ted Aoki, 1997
  • ASCD - Celebrating Educational Success in Alberta, 1996
  • Awarded, Teacher Explorer Centre in Robotics, 1995
  • National Institute Award - Nortel, 1995
  • Nomination, Alberta Excellence in Teaching Award, 1992
  • ARCH Award Career Achievement University of Calgary Alumni, University of Calgary. 2021
  • Outstanding Graduate Supervision Award, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. 2021
  • ARCH Award Career Achievement , University of Calgary Alumni. 2021
  • Research on Teacher Education, Canadian Association for Teacher Education. 2023

Publications

Google Scholar

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