Catherine
Adams
Assistant Professor
Secondary Education
440 Education South
cathy.adams@ualberta.ca
Research Interests
Dr. Adams’ primary research interest concerns the pervasive integration of digital technologies in education; her main approach to inquiry is hermeneneutic phenomenology. There are strong historical links between phenomenology, philosophy of technology, and media scholarship, and these convergences of understandings and insights form the basis of her approach to a pedagogy of technology. Her dissertation research investigated students’ and teachers’ lived experiences of digital media technology in the classroom. Using PowerPoint as a touchstone, she explored how software selectively extends but also constrains what a student sees, experiences and has access to, and how it enhances but also shapes a teacher’s representation and presentation of his or her knowledge in the classroom. Dr. Adams continues to ground her investigations of educational technologies (e.g. virtual learning environments, surveillance software, ePortfolios, Interactive Whiteboards) in phenomenology, sometimes augmenting her inquiries with complementary qualitative research approaches such as human environmental aesthetics, McLuhans’ Laws of Media, and Actor-Network-Theory.
Dr. Adams’ other research interests extend into the following areas: Ethical and pedagogical issues provoked by ICT integration in schools; Philosophy of technology and curriculum studies; Critical media studies, media ecology; Human-Computer Interaction (HCI); Aesthetics of human environments, particularly educational software architectures; The Slow School movement and Waldorf education; and Computer Science education. She is affiliated with the MEd Technology in Education Specialization Program and is the Director of Curriculum and Pedagogy Interchange (CPIn). As part of the University of Alberta’s Marshall McLuhan Centenary celebrations, she is co-convening the 2011 Media Ecology Association Convention with Dr. Marco Adria. Her phenomenological research has won several international awards including the ECT (Educational Communications and Technology) Foundation Qualitative Inquiry Award 2009, the Harold A. Innis Award for Outstanding Dissertation in the Field of Media Ecology 2009, and an ED-MEDIA 2007 Outstanding Paper Award.
If you are interested in pursuing graduate studies in education related to the pedagogy of technology, media ecology, computer science education, or topics based in hermeneutic phenomenology or related qualitative research approaches, please contact Dr. Adams at cathy.adams@ualberta.ca
Refereed Articles
Adams, C., & Thompson, T. L. (2011). Interviewing objects: Including educational technologies as qualitative research participants. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, iFirst article, 1-18.
Adams, C. (2010). Teachers building dwelling thinking with slideware. The Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 10(2). 1-12.
Adams, C. (2010). “The materiality of learning: technology and knowledge in educational practice”: Book review. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 56(4).
Pente, P. & Adams, C. (2010). The slow breath to tenure: Unwinding the university. Journal of Educational Thought, 44(1), 117 –130.
Van Manen, M., & Adams, C. (2009). The phenomenology of space in writing online. Educational Philosophy and Theory, 41(1), 10-21.
Adams, C. (2008). The poetics of PowerPoint. Explorations in Media Ecology 7(4), 283 – 298.
Adams, C. (2008). PowerPoint’s pedagogy. Phenomenology and Practice, 2(1), 63-79.
Adams, C. (2008). PowerPoint, Denkgewohnheiten, Unterrichskultur (trans. E. Terhart). Erziehungswissenschaft: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft, 36(19), 8 – 32.
Adams, C. (2007). On the ‘informed’ use of PowerPoint: rejoining Vallance and Towndrow. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 39(2), 229 - 233.
Adams, C. & van Manen, M. (2006). Embodiment, virtual space, temporality and interpersonal relations in online writing. The College Quarterly, 9(3).
Adams, C. (2006). PowerPoint, habits of mind, and classroom culture. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 38(4), 389 - 411.
Book Chapters
Adams, C. (2010). iCyborg: Shifting out of neutral and the pedagogical road ahead. In M. Ebner & M. Schiefner (Eds.), Looking Toward the Future of Technology Enhanced Education: Ubiquitous Learning and the Digital Native, pp. 145 – 157. Hershey, PA: IGI Global.
Van Manen, M., & Adams, C. (2010). Qualitative research: Phenomenology. In E. Baker, P. Peterson and B. McGaw (Eds.), International Encyclopedia of Education, Volume 6, pp. 449 –455. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
Van Manen, M., & Adams, C. (2010). Phenomenological research. In C. Kridel (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Curriculum Studies (vol. 2, pp. 641-645). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Van Manen, M., &Adams, C. (2009). The phenomenology of space in writing online. In G. Dall’Alba (Ed.), Exploring Education Through Phenomenology: Diverse Approaches, pp. 4 –15. Toronto, ON: Wiley-Blackwell.
Adams, C., & van Manen, M. (2008). Phenomenology. In L. Givens (Ed.), The SAGE Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods, pp. 614 – 619. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Professional Publications
Adams, C. (2010). PowerPointing with class, or learning to duck our own bullets. ATA Magazine, 91(1), 28 – 31.
Selected Conference Presentations and Proceedings
Adams, C. (2010). Teaching and learning at the interface: Tending to our fledgling cyborgs (keynote). Second International Conference on Phenomenological Pedagogy, Beijing, China.
Adams, C. (2010). Avatars, bladerunners, and cyborgs: Teachers as digital migrants in the new media landscape. Canadian eLearning Conference, Edmonton, AB.
Adams, C., Coles, D., Jubien, P., & McDiarmid, B. (2010). Cyborgian dreams: Of iPods, ePortfolios and SmartBoards. Canadian eLearning Conference, Edmonton, AB.
Pente, P., Adams, C., Barker, C., & Lozeau, J. (2010). The art of Interactive WhiteBoarding: A review of the literature. Canadian eLearning Conference, Edmonton, AB.
Adams, C., & Pente, P. (2010). Teachers teaching in the new mediascape: Natural born cyborgs or digital immigrants? Media Transatlantic Conference 2010, Vancouver, BC.
Adams, C. (2010). Learning Management Systems as sites of surveillance, control, and corporatization: A review of the critical literature. In C. Crawford et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference 2010, 252-257. Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Adams, C. (2009). iPowerPoint: Teachers teaching with digital media technologies. The Tenth Annual Convention of the Media Ecology Association. Saint Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri.
Adams, C. (2008). Deconstructing PowerPoint. International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning 2008. Edmonton.
Adams, C., (2008). Educational technologies and the invitational character of things. In Hermeneutic phenomenology research: writing technique and technology (symposium with N. Friesen, T. Saevi & R. Skogen). Canadian Society for the Study of Education 2008. Vancouver.
Adams, C., (2008). Experiencing PowerPoint in college classrooms. In PowerPoint unplugged: toward a new conversation (an interactive symposium with J. O’Neil, & E. Rose). AERA Annual Meeting 2008, New York.
Adams, C., & Thompson, T. L. (2007). Interviewing objects as qualitative research participants. Advanced Qualitative Methods 2007 Conference, Banff.
Adams, C., (2007). Privacy vs. supervision: on surveillance software in the classroom. In Innocuous tools, or double-edged swords? Philosophical and practical tensions of digital technologies (Interactive symposium with G. H. Buck, P. McRae, & T. L. Thompson). AERA Annual Meeting 2007, Chicago.
Adams, C. (2006). The tools we use: shifting teacher education out of technology neutral. International Conference on Teacher Education, Calgary, AB.
Adams, C., & van Manen, M. (2006). The phenomenology of space in writing online. European Conference on Educational Research 2006, Geneva.
Adams, C. (2005). Straw into gold: transforming curriculum through myth and metaphor. CACS “Provoking Curriculum Trans/forming Narrative(s)” Conference. Victoria, B.C.
Courses Taught
EDSE 611 Phenomenological Research and Writing (with Dr. Max van Manen)
EDSE 577 Pedagogy of Technology: Teachers and Students as Cyborgs
EDU 526/MES 597 Philosophical and Ethical Issues in Technology Integration
EDSE 451 Integrating Theory and Classroom Practice in the Advanced Professional Term
EDSE 417 Curriculum and Teaching in Secondary School Career and Technology Studies II (Business and Information Technology)
EDSE 317 Curriculum and Teaching in Secondary School Career and Technology Studies I