Dr. Douglas D. Karrow

Associate Professor (PhD, MEd, BEd, BSc), Department of Educational Studies

Available for Graduate Advisement

Office: Burlington Campus
905 547 3555 x3614
[email protected]

Curriculum Vitae

Douglas D. Karrow has been active in the field of environmental and sustainability education (ESE) throughout his career. Beginning his career as an middle-school teacher he now teaches in the Undergraduate, Graduate, and Teacher Education Programs of his post-secondary institute. Research interests include environmental and sustainability education (ESE), i.e., teacher education, curriculum, pedagogy, and policy, the applied philosophy of continental philosophers to education, e.g., Martin Heidegger, and alternative philosophies of education and education theory. He is a member of the EECOM Standing Committee on ESE-Teacher Education, has guest-edited and reviewed for several national and international peer-reviewed journals, and supervises M.Ed. and Ph.D. students.

Research Interests and Activities

  • Environmental and sustainability education (ESE) in Teacher Education and K-12 Education: curriculum, pedagogy, policy: local, national and international perspectives
    • analyzing and publishing findings of a national survey on the status of ESE in Teacher Education in Canadian Faculties of Education
    • conceptualizing the relationship between educational philosophy and environmental and  sustainability education
  • The applied philosophy of Martin Heidegger to Teacher Education
    • forthcoming book, An Ethos of Mystery for Education Theory and Practice, Routledge. An examination of ‘mystery’ as a foundation to philosophy of education and implications for education theory. 
    • application of poetism as a philosophy of education to education (e.g., teacher education, general education).

Professional Affiliations

  • General member of the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE)
  • General member of the Canadian Network of Environmental Education and Communication (EECOM)
  • Memberof the Canadian Network for Environmental Education and Communication, Standing Committee of Environmental and Sustainability Education in Teacher Education 
  • General member of the Canadian Association for Teacher Education (CATE) of the Canadian Society for Studies in Education (CSSE)
  • Conference coordinator for the Environmental and Sustainability Teacher Education (ESTE) SIG of CATE
  • General member of the Environmental Education Special Interest Group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 
  • General member of the Heidegger Circle: An Open Community Continuing the Thought of Martin Heidegger

Highlighted Recent Publications

(P) = Primary Authorship (S) = Secondary Authorship  

(a). Books 

(P) Karrow, D., & Harvey, S. H. (forthcoming). An ethos of mystery for education theory and practice. Routledge 

(b). Chapters in Books 

(P) Karrow, D., & Harvey, S. R. (2023). Meditative thinking and the naturalist current of environmental education: Principles informing a philosophy of reclaiming mystery. In M. Etherington (Ed.). Environmental Education: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Nature. (pp. 206-217). Wipf & Stock. 

(P) Karrow, D., Fazio, X., & Zandvliet, D. (2022). Environmental education nomenclature and discourse. In M. Peters (Ed.), Springer: Singapore: https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-981-13-1179-6_460-1 

(S) Khan, S., Karrow, D. Tran, H. T. T., & La France, S. (2022). Plantation logics and STEM economics: Making kin as education for multispecies flourishing after man. In S. Farrell, C. Skyhar & M. Lam (Eds.), Teaching in the Anthropocene: Education in the face of environmental crisis. Canadian Scholars. ISBN: 9781773382821  

(c). Refereed Journal Articles 

(P) Karrow, D., Harvey, S. R. (2026). Canadian forest imaginaries: The roots of poetism. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 1-19, doi:10.1017/aee.2025.10103 

(P) Karrow, D., & Harvey, S. R. (2025). Sojourn of the sylvan fringe: Receptivity to mystery and curricular ruminations. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies. 22(1), 12-29. 

(S) Harvey, S. R., Karrow, D. (2025). Mystery: Poetizing by way of Gelassenheit toward a pedagogy of awe. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies. 22(1), 89-101.  

(S) Krushelnycky, E., & Karrow, D. (2024). Science, technology, engineering, & mathematics, curricular integration, and the story form. Future in Educational Research, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1002/fer3.48 

(P) Karrow, D., & Harvey, S. R. (2024). The ‘thalweg’ of currents: Naturalist environmental education. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 26, 32-50.  

(S) Blom, R., & Karrow, D. (2024). Environmental and sustainability education in teacher education research: An international scoping review of the literature. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 25(5), pp. 903-926. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-07-2023-0288 

(S) da Silva, M. L., de Azambuja Elali, G. V. M., & Karrow, D. (2023). Environmental perception: A study with the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN)-SGA students. Environmental and Education Magazine, 28(2), 1-18. 

(S) Khan, S., Bowen, M., & Karrow, D. (2023). Abeing for multispecies flourishing. American Association for the Advancement of Curriculum Studies, 15(2), 1-35. 

(P) Karrow, D., Fazio, X., & Zandvliet, D. (2022). What’s in a name? The signifiers and empty-signifiers of environmental and sustainability education: Implications for teacher education. Brock Education Journal, 31(2), 109-130. 

Research and Project Funding

(a) internal grants 

2026 • GRAD Mentorship Award ~$1200.00 

2025 • GRAD Mentorship Award ~$1800.00 

2025 • GRAD Mentorship Award ~$1500.00 

2025 • GRAD Mentorship Award ~$1500.00 

2024 • Research Assistantship Grant $1000.00 

2024 • GRAD Grant $1000.00 

2023 • Special M.Ed. Research Assistantship Grant $2000.00 

2023 • Special M.Ed. Research Assistantship Grant.    $2000.00 

2022 • Research Assistantship Grant $750.00 

2022 • GRAD Grant $1700.00 

Courses Taught

  • Bachelor of Early Childhood Education Program: Early Childhood Education for Sustainability ECEC 5P51 
  • Teacher EducationProgram:Elementary Science Primary/Junior EDBE 8P37; Elementary Science Junior/Intermediate EDBE 8P27, Teacher as Inquirer EDBE 8Y43; Outdoor/Environmental Education EDBE 8N15 
  • Graduate EducationProgram:

–M.Ed.: History and Philosophy of Education EDUC 5P20; Introduction to Educational Research EDUC 5P92; Curriculum Design, Implementation and Evaluation EDUC 5P44; Curriculum Design to Develop Thinking Abilities EDUC 5P54; Culminating Seminar EDUC 5Q97, Independent Study EDUC 5P98; Major Research Paper EDUC 5D91; Thesis EDUC 5K95  

–Ph.D.: Social/Cultural/Political Contexts of Education EDUC 7P3; Research Colloquium EDUC 7P69; Specialization Elective EDUC 7P51; Comprehensive Portfolio EDUC 7D80; Ph.D. Dissertation EDUC 7Z90