Dr. Debra Harwood

Professor (PhD), Department of Educational Studies

Available for Graduate Advisement

Dr. Debra Harwood, Faculty of Education, Brock University

St. Catharines, ON
905 688 5550 x5873
dharwood@brocku.ca

Debra has been involved in the area of Early Childhood Education for more than 20 years. As a practitioner and researcher, Debra has worked directly with educators, families and young children in Ontario, British Columbia, and internationally. Her teaching and research expertise are focused on early child development and curriculum, nature pedagogies, professionalism, community capacity building, and ethical research practices with young children and their families.

Research Interests

  • Curriculum and instruction in the early years 
  • Digital & mobile technologies within ECE 
  • Nature based programs and learning for sustainability 
  • Educator professionalism 

Recent Publications

Harwood, D., Whitty, P., Green, C., & Elliot, E. (2020). Unsettling settlers’ ideas of land and honoring Indigenous Ways of Knowing in ECEfS. In S. Elliott, E. Arlemalm– Hagser, & J. Davis (Eds.), Researching early childhood education for sustainability: Challenging Assumptions and Orthodoxies (pp. 25-37). London: Routledge.  

Harwood, D., & Collier, D. (2019). Talk into my GoPro, I’m making a movie!” Using digital ethnographic methods to explore children’s sociomaterial experiences in the woods (pp. 49-61). In Kucirkova, N., Rowsell, J., & Fallon, G.  (Eds.), The Routledge International Handbook of Learning with Technology in Early Childhood. London, UK: Routledge. 

Harwood, D., Barratt, J., & Collier, D. (2019). Entanglements in the forest: Children’s embodiment of the orange GoPro camera. International Journal of Early Childhood Environmental Education – Special issue- Living within Precarious Times: Posthumanist Possibilities for Early Childhood Environmental Education, 7(1), 57-72.  

Harwood, D. (2019). The blue car in the forest-Exploring sustainable pedagogies in a Canadian nature school. Sageidet, B. M. (special issue editor), NorDiNa – Nordic Studies in Science Education special issue sustainability and science education in kindergarten, 15(4), 403-417. 

Harwood, D., Julien, K., & DiCesare, D. M. (2019). Teachers digital practices in the classroom (pp. 165-180). In Palaiologou, I. & Gray, C. (Eds)., Early Learning in the Digital Age.  London, UK: Sage.  

Harwood, D. (Ed.) (2017). Crayons and iPads: Learning and Teaching of Young Children in the Digital World. London, UK: Sage Publishing. 

Research and Project Funding

  • SSHRC Explore Grant -Reimagining and Reframing Teaching Practice Towards Inclusion: Using reflective practice with Montessori Educators (2019-2020)
  • SSHRC Partnership Engagement Grant Reimagining Educator Training: Using technology to foster Early Childhood Educators capacities in remote communities (2018-2019)
  • Community Living Grant – Exploring inclusive practices within Montessori Education Model
  • SSHRC Insight – Crayons and iPads: Understanding young children’s meaning-making processes in learning to be literate

Courses Taught

  • EDUC 3P51 Early childhood education for sustainability 
  • EDUC 3P85 Internship I 
  • EDUC 4P85 Internship II 
  • EDUC 4D50 Thesis in ECE