Kunnas, M., Boreland, T., Prasad, G., & Brisset-Foster, S. (2024)

Building French-as-a-second-language teacher candidates’ linguistic confidence through drama-based activities. Canadian Modern Languages Review, 80(3), 224-247. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr-2023-0068

Kunnas, M., Bell, N. (2024)

Special Issue – Introduction. Reckoning with our past, interrogating our present, and reimagining our future. Language and Literacy: A Canadian e-Journal, 26(2), 1-2. https://doi.org/10.20360/langandlit29728

Marika Kunnas

Dr. Marika Kunnas

Assistant Professor

marika.kunnas@ubc.ca 604-827-2818 PCN 3121 English, French http://www.who-is-immersion-for.com | https://mkunnas.wixsite.com/race-in-fi

Research and teaching areas:

Arts-based Research

Bilingual/multilingual education

Critical intercultural studies

Critical literacies/pedagogies

Decolonizing pedagogies and knowledges

Drama/Theater education

French language education

Identity

Language ideologies

Race and antiracism

Teacher education

Storytelling/narrative inquiry

Biography

Marika is currently accepting master’s and doctoral level students.

Marika Kunnas (she/her/elle) is an Assistant Professor in the department of Language and Literacy Education. She is a former secondary school French teacher in Ontario.

Her research specializes in French immersion programs and antiracism. Marika’s Master’s thesis (Inequities in black et blanc: Textual constructions of the French immersion student) investigated inequities in French immersion policies in Toronto and Ontario. Her dissertation focuses on racially minoritized students’ experiences in French immersion programs. Marika’s dissertation project (Monologues from the margins: Voices and experiences of racially minoritized French immersion students) received the Joseph-Armand Bombardier CGS Doctoral Scholarship. Marika’s participants used counter-stories and monologues to communicate their experiences as racially minoritized students in French immersion in Ontario. The stories and monologues can be found on this website: https://mkunnas.wixsite.com/race-in-fi.

Through her research and as a teacher, Marika seeks to disrupt the status quo and make education more inclusive, equitable, antiracist, and anticolonial. Her research aims to explore the realities of being a racialized minority in French immersion, to give voice to POC students, and to engage in antiracist pedagogy with FSL teachers.

Broadly, Marika’s research interests lie within French, second/additional language acquisition, race, culture, decolonization, and equity.

Projects

Transforming FSL education: A partnership study of critical educator identity and professional learning pathways
2025 (current)
Narrative inquiry into critical educators of French as an additional language in Canada

Racialized experiences, stories, and needs in French as a second language education
2025 (current)
Qualitative and arts-based inquiry into racialized students, teachers, and parents’ experiences in French as an additional language programs in Canada

Racialized experiences in French immersion programs
2020-2024
Arts-based inquiry into racialized students’ experiences in French immersion programs in Ontario, Canada

Media

Selected Publications

Kunnas, M. (2025)

Monologues from the minoritized: Racialized students’ experiences in French immersion. Canadian Modern Language Review, 81(1), 1-24. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr-2024-0001

Kunnas, M., Masson, M., & Carroll, S. (2025)

Conceptualizing culture critically: Examining perspectives from additional language teachers. Foreign Language Annals, 58(1), 182-205. https://doi.org/10.1111/flan.12792

Wernicke, M., Masson, M., Kunnas, M., & Adatia, S. (2024)

Chapter 5: Moving beyond erasure of race in French as a second language education. In R. Kubota & S. Motha (Eds.), Race, Racism, and Antiracism in Language Education (pp. 125-146). Routledge.

Kunnas, M. (2024)

Book review: Developing translanguaging repertoires in critical teacher education. TESL Canada, 41(1), 153-154. https://doi.org/10.18806/tesl.v41i1/1406

Kunnas, M. (2024)

Monologues from the margins: Voices and experiences of racially minoritized French immersion students [Dissertation, York University]. YorkSpace. https://hdl.handle.net/10315/42213

Kunnas, M., Boreland, T., Prasad, G., & Brisset-Foster, S. (2024)

Kunnas, M., Bell, N. (2024)

Kunnas, M. (2023)

Who is immersion for?: A critical analysis of French immersion policies. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 26(1), 46–68. https://doi.org/10.37213/cjal.2023.32817

Kunnas, M., Masson, M., & Wernicke, M. (2023)

Stories and counter-stories from French second language researchers. Glottopol, 39, 212-230. https://doi.org/10.4000/glottopol.4039

Masson, M., Kunnas, M., Boreland, T., Prasad, G. (2022)

Developing an anti-biased anti-racist stance in second language teacher education programs. Canadian Modern Language Review (Special Issue), 78(4), 385-414. https://doi.org/10.3138/cmlr.2021-0100

Kunnas, M. (2019)

Inequities in Black et Blanc: Textual Constructions of the French Immersion Student [Thesis, University of Toronto]. TSpace. https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/98071

Congratulations to Dr. Patsy Duff who has been named as a new Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Patsy Duff who has been named as a new Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (RSC)! Patsy will be joined by six other UBC faculty members who were elected by their peers for their outstanding scholarly achievements. They are distinguished individuals from all branches of learning who have made remarkable contributions in the arts, the humanities and the sciences, as well as in Canadian public life.

Congratulations Patsy! We are so proud to have you in the department!

A total of fifteen UBC faculty members have been announced by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) as new Fellows and as Members of the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists. The 2024 Fellows and Members will be welcomed into the RSC in November, at the RSC Celebration of Excellence and Engagement.

Congratulations to Youngeun Jee on successfully defending her dissertation

Please join us in congratulating Youngeun Jee on the successful defence of her doctoral dissertation on August 26, 2024!

Title of Dissertation: Beliefs and Practices in Teaching English as an International Language: A Multiple Case Study of Secondary English Teachers in South Korea

The examination committee included:
Supervisor: Dr. Guofang Li (LLED)
Committee Members: Dr. Jim Anderson and Dr. Ryuko Kubota (LLED)
University Examiners: Dr. Margaret M Early (LLED) and Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur (ECPS)
External Examiner: Dr. Yongyan Zheng (Fudan University, China)
Chair: Dr. Anthony Clarke (EDCP)

Well done, Dr. Jee!

Opelo Badubi’s PhD proposal presentation

Opelo Badubi will be presenting her dissertation research proposal, “Africans in the diaspora: Negotiating transnational identities online” on Thursday, August 29^th, 2024 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM in PCN 2012. All are welcome.

Supervisors: Dr. Ron Darvin & Dr. Bonny Norton
Committee Member: Dr. Maureen Kendrick

ABSTRACT: This study explores the ways in which African immigrants in Canada negotiate their transnational identities online, particularly as they participate in a social media platform like X/Twitter. Systemic racism in Canadian society presents significant barriers to the integration of racialized individuals, leading to complex challenges for African immigrants in negotiating their transnational identities (Creese, 2020). As the third-largest visible minority in Canada, their journeys of identity, assimilation, and belonging in Canada are further complicated by their diverse ethnicities and cultures, as well as the lingering effects of White colonial legacies in their home countries. As the African diaspora in Canada continues to grow, understanding how these individuals navigate their identities online, particularly on platforms like X/Twitter, becomes increasingly important. The real-time communication and broad visibility offered by X/Twitter provide a unique opportunity to explore how these identities are performed, contested, and maintained in a digital context, as well as how these individuals negotiate their place within Canadian society while maintaining connections to their countries of origin. Drawing on theories of identity (Norton, 2013; 2019), investment (Darvin & Norton, 2015; 2023), and transnationalism (Glick-Schiller et al., 2013; Vertovec, 2009), this case study will use multimodal discourse analysis to examine digital artifacts from six verified X/Twitter profiles of members of the African diaspora in Canada. The study aims to contribute to a broader understanding of how African immigrants in Canada navigate online spaces as they position themselves and are positioned by others, focusing on how they assert ethnic and racial identities, resist systemic racism, and foster a sense of belonging within Canada. This research also speaks to the role of digital literacies in the negotiation of identity and belonging in a transnational context.

Mayer, Y., Hershler, L. D., Bulk, L. Y., Cook, C., Belliveau, G., Xie, K., & Jarus, T. (2024)

Promoting Inclusion for Disabled Students in Healthcare Education: Using Research-based Theatre to Enhance Knowledge and Empathy. Nurse Education in Practice, Volume 79, 104085. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2024.104085

Youngeun Jee’s Dissertation Defence

Youngeun Jee will have her dissertation defence on Monday, August 26, 2024 at 9:00 AM via Zoom.

Supervisory Committee:
Supervisor: Dr. Guofang Li
Committee Members: Dr. Jim Anderson and Dr. Ryuko Kubota

University Examiners:
University Examiner: Dr. Margaret M Early and Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur
External Examiner: Dr. Yongyan Zheng

Chair: Dr. Anthony Clarke

Dissertation Title: Beliefs and Practices in Teaching English as an International Language: A Multiple Case Study of Secondary English Teachers in South Korea

Abstract:

Despite an accumulated body of research arguing for the legitimacy of English as an international language (EIL) or varieties of English used in international and multilingual contexts, American standardized English has remained popular and is prioritized in comparison to other English varieties within Korean society. Little research has investigated how educational policies associated with teacher recruitment and teacher education have responded to these research findings regarding EIL and how secondary school English teachers have taken up on the EIL influence in their teaching in Korea. Against the backdrop of a critical analysis of the current English educational policies concerning English as EIL in Korean at the macro level, this multiple case study focused on factors (e.g., teachers’ schooling, teacher personal experiences, coursework in teacher education, and work contexts) influencing five Korean secondary English teachers’ beliefs and teaching practices in incorporating EIL at the micro level, utilizing multiple data sources (e.g., semi-structured interviews, class observations, survey, and documents collection). Drawing upon the theoretical frameworks of language ideology and teacher cognition, analyses of data suggested that the teachers’ level of acceptance of EIL varied according to their exposure to different English varieties and contact with English users from diverse contexts; however, all teachers assigned a higher status to standardized English in English-speaking countries over other English varieties in their teaching in Korea. Their decision to incorporate EIL in their teaching was also influenced by social disparity among students and their disparate access to educational resources at home and in schools. Further, findings revealed that the focal teachers’ awareness of EIL did not automatically translate into their teaching practices due to practical challenges such as a lack of guidelines for teaching EIL, insufficient instructional resources, and high-stakes college entrance examinations, as well as the need to comply with the national curriculum. The findings have the potential to inform policy changes and English teachers’ education and professional development in Korea and beyond.

Uysal, H., Kim, H. J., & Norton, B. (2024)

Exploring Language Teacher Identity and Investment: In Discussion with Bonny Norton. RELC Journal, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00336882241262532

Congratulations to Monica Shank Lauwo on successfully defending her dissertation

Please join us in congratulating Monica Shank Lauwo on the successful defence of her doctoral dissertation!

Dissertation title: Linguistic diversity, antiracism, and raciolinguicized subjectivities in teacher education

Supervisory Committee:
Supervisors: Dr. Bonny Norton and Dr. Marlene Asselin
Committee Member: Dr. Maureen Kendrick

University Examiners:
University Examiners: Dr. Jennifer Vadeboncoeur (EPSE) and Dr. Ryuko Kubota (LLED)
External Examiner: Dr. Jeff Bale (OISE/University of Toronto)

Congratulations, Monica!