Heather Krepski
Title: Assistant Professor
Phone: 204-786-9967
Email: h.krepski@uwinnipeg.ca
Biography:
Heather Krepski (she/her) is a certified teacher and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Winnipeg on Treaty 1 territory. She grew up in London Ontario on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Attawandaron. Her scholarship focuses on educational equity, children’s autonomy, and student well-being/becoming within K-12 public school education. Through philosophical, historical, and sociological perspectives, she examines critical discourses on how we understand children as well as the aims and purposes for school education in Canadian society. She is a member of the Well-Being and Well-Becoming in Schools in Canada research initiative. Previously, Heather taught high school in the Toronto District School Board and worked as an Instructor at Toronto Metropolitan University in the Learning Success Centre.
Teaching Areas:
- Sociology of Education
- Philosophy of Education
- Critical discourses and research methodologies
- Assessment and evaluation
- Program evaluation
- Children’s well-being
- Children’s rights
- Anti-oppression and equity
- Distributive justice
- Children’s autonomy
- Paternalism in schools
Courses:
- EDUC3400: Educational Settings and the Sociology of Learning
- EDUC4000/DEV3600: Children’s Well-being in Educational Settings (Special Topics)
- EDUC4000/DEV3600: Human Rights, Equity, and Anti-Oppression (Special Topics)
- EDUC4401: Just and Effective Schooling
- EDUC5445: Educational Assessment
- EDUC5446: Poverty and Potential
- DEV2004: Observation and Assessment in Early Child Care Settings
Research Interests:
Heather’s broad interests include philosophy of education, children’s well-being/becoming, educational equity and social stratification, children’s autonomy, children’s rights, research methodologies, and educational assessment processes. Her scholarship explores questions about the role of schooling in children’s lives, the competing purposes and aims within k-12 schooling and impacts of schooling on different groups of students. Heather is interested in principles of distributive justice and how our understandings of equity translate into unequal opportunities for students to access educational goods for well-being in schools. Heather has a particular curiosity about the ways adults paternalize children in schools and how we understand and promote student autonomy. Through a philosophical-sociological lens, Heather argues that students are entitled to greater participation in the curricular, pedagogical, and social decisions about their own well-being. She is currently working on projects related to student autonomy and well-being, how teacher’s prioritize different aspects of well-being in schools, and pedagogies that support student well-being.