October 2022 Researcher Spotlight

Dr. Laura Lukes

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Laura Lukes

Provenance: Larry Collins, Longwood University
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What is the focus of your current geoscience education research?

I have a diverse portfolio of GER projects, which I think helps me stay open to new perspectives and approaches from other disciplines.My current projects include investigating communities of practice as a model for change in teaching beliefs and practices; developing a toolkit to assess student perceptions and learning about the relationship between Indigneous histories, contemporary perspectives, Knowledge, and/or ways of knowing and their major program of study (e.g., geology); characterizing how people make choices about their learning in informal spaces like museums and science centres; characterizing the student experience and professional identity development in field-based experiential learning opportunities in geoscience; and developing and testing tools to support students to develop self-regulated learning processes in learning geoscience.

What research methods/approaches do you prefer and why?

I prefer qualitative and mixed methods because you can gain richer, deeper insights into participant experiences, situational contexts, and phenomena.

What has been the best tool/resource you've found for developing as a geoscience education researcher (organization, conferences, webinar, person, online resource)? 

Obviously the NAGT/SERC communities and GER Division events and resources, but also the AERA and APA communities.  Anything from Johnny Saldana on Qualitative Methods and Coding!

Gaudry, A. and Lorenz, D. 2018. Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization: Navigating the different visions for indigenizing the Canadian Academy. AlterNative. 14 (3), 218-227. https://doi.org/10.1177/1177180118785382

Relocating to Canada from the US, has wonderfully allowed to me to see my work; the GER and DBER disciplines; and US-centered Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) approaches with fresh eyes. These new perspectives and approaches have been very energizing and inspiring, and also reiterated for me how important it is for all researchers to define any names they give identities, concepts, themes, or processes (e.g., active learning, community of practice, decolonization) when talking about their work. I first read this article in a workshop and overwhelmingly, the response from people in the workshop was that they felt this article gave them the words they needed to articulate what they have observed in order to have more productive conversations with others about their JEDI work. It made me wonder what other definitional frameworks are "missing" from how we talk about access, teaching and learning in geoscience that could advance our understanding.  (Also, if you haven't explored the journal AlterNative journal yet, check it out.)

What type of project would you like to collaborate with other researchers on?

I'm open to ideas, reach out and let's chat!  Also, recruiting graduate students (applications due in January for starting fall 2023).

What is your advice for an early career geoscience education researcher?

Be bold and reach out to others in the community and also explore outside of our community, in other disciplines (e.g. psychology, social science, organizational psychology, etc.).  There is so much interesting work happening in other fields that can inform GER. You should always have one project or professional activity that stretches you.  If you go to a conference, go to the sessions in your discipline or specialty, but go to at least one that you know little about or wouldn't normally pick.  You might be surprised!

What is your advice for someone who is interested in starting out in geoscience education research or scholarship of teaching and learning?

It's helpful to start with the basics across psychology, educational theory, learning theory/sciences, and sociology—this can help you to figure out where to dive deeper later and help you figure out the related history of your line of inquiry outside of GER, which will in turn inform your inquiry within GER.  Also, be sure to gain first-hand experience in teaching if you don't have that already, across settings.

What does GER look like at your institution, in your position? (ex. Are you in a geology department or college of ed? Do you work with other DBER folks? Do you have graduate students? Are you looking for graduate or undergraduate students? Etc.)

UBC has both teaching leadership and research streams for faculty positions. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is well established in Canada and faculty in the teaching leadership stream get recognized for SoTL-related work, but DBER as a research stream in the Faculty of Science is "new" and I'm the only research stream tenure-track DBER position at UBC. UBC, and Canada more broadly, is a great place to do GER.  At UBC, in the Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences Department, I've been able to set up a great lab space and have two large projects already funded.  I'm looking for both graduate (M.Sc. and Ph.D.) and undergraduate students (B.Sc.) interested in GER. I have funding for students looking to start a graduate program in Jan. 2023 or Sept. 2023.

Check out Dr. Lukes' most recent publications here:

Lukes, L. A. and Reid, E. S., 2021, "Rebuilding a Teaching Conference in a Pandemic: User-Centered Guiding Principles and Lessons Learned," To Improve the Academy, 39 (3), 65-83.

Lukes, L., Jones, J., and McConnell, D., 2020, "Self-Regulated Learning: An Overview and Potential Future Directions in Geoscience Education,"Journal of Geoscience Education , 69 (1), 14-26.

You can learn more about Dr. Lukes by visiting her faculty website located here.