The School of Education, TCD, and the Arts in Education Research Group (AERG) present

Rehearsals for Change: Stories of Self, Stories of Teaching
Prof. Mindy Carter, McGill University, Canada                      

Friday 23/10/2026, 3pm (Irish Standard Time)

This seminar presents findings from the Rehearsals for Change project, which investigates how arts-based educational research (ABER) and auto-phenomenological inquiry can support professional learning in teacher education. Working with undergraduate and master's students, instructors, and field supervisors in a Canadian Faculty of Education, the project explored how engagement with Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Decolonization (EDID) themes can deepen understandings of positionality, belonging, and professional identity. Through arts-based methods, including the creation and sharing of Where I Am From poems, participants reflected on the cultural, linguistic, social, and experiential dimensions of their identities. Findings suggest that attending to positionality through collaborative artistic inquiry can foster critical self-reflection, reveal gaps in understanding, and support anti-oppressive educational practice. The seminar will discuss the methodological contributions of ABER and auto-phenomenology to teacher education research, highlighting how creative, reflective approaches can generate nuanced insights into identity formation, belonging, and professional learning.

About the speaker:

Mindy R. Carter is an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University, Canada. Her research focuses on teacher identity, and on using the arts to foster culturally responsible and socially just pedagogies. Carter’s “CREATE: Creativity Research in Education using Artful inquiry for societal Transformation and intercultural Exchange” research program has received Fonds de recherche du Quebec (2015–2018) and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council funding (2017–2023). She is the recent recipient of the American Association for Theatre Education's (AATE) Johnny Saldana Outstanding Professor of Theatre (2023) award and the AATE honourable mention publication award (2023) for her latest book "Smallest Circles First: Exploring Teacher Reconciliatory Praxis through Drama Education".