Dr. Meike Wernicke
Biography
I am a settler scholar and Assistant Professor in the Department of Language and Literacy Education. I am grateful to be able to work and learn on the ancestral, traditional and unceded lands of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓-speaking xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) people, on whose territory the Vancouver campus of the University of British Columbia is situated. As a white scholar and educator of European descent, I am mindful of the taken-for-granted understandings that I bring to my research and teaching, which are grounded in my experiences as a speaker of German as a first language, of French as an additional language, and as a dominant speaker of North American English.
My research in French-as-a-second language (FSL) teacher education includes teacher professional development and teacher identity, and builds on an extensive background in modern language teaching (German and French), German heritage language education, and French Linguistics. These research interests extend to English as an additional language teaching, bi-/multilingual language policy and pedagogies, and translingual practices in higher education. A related area of research focuses on critical intercultural learning and decolonial approaches in language education, with an emphasis on discourse analytic research methodologies.
Collaboration in international research includes projects that have focused on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages at the Centre for Modern Language in Graz, Austria, as well as an international project on “Multilingualism and Teacher Education” with the Coordination Office for Multilingualism and Language Education (KoMBi) at the Universität Hamburg, Germany.
Within the Canadian context, projects include initiatives supporting the integration of Indigenous knowledges and ways of learning in K-12 and postsecondary education, decolonizing approaches in French language curriculum implementation, second language teacher professional development, and intercultural learning among FSL teachers in British Columbia, Canada.
In my teaching, I see my students’ and my own expertise as always situated and connected to the experiences we bring to our learning. This allows us to create a space in which we can interrogate our ongoing participation in settler colonialism and the racialization of people, languages, and knowledges and reflect on our relational actions to land and environmental well-being.
For the past decade I have taught in the French Master of Education in Modern Languages and currently coordinate this program as well as the Institut de Français – UBC à Québec, a summer institute for French language teachers in Quebec City. Courses I teach in English and/or French include:
LLED 353: Teaching and Learning English as an Additional Language – Elementary | L’enseignement et l’apprentissage de l’anglais langue additionnelle à l’élémentaire
LLED 489: La linguistique appliquée dans l’enseignement du français
LLED 520: Théorie et recherche reliées à l’enseignement des langues secondes
LLED 521: Interculturality in Language Education : Theory, research and practice | Enseignement interculturel : théorie, recherche, et pratique
Projects
A study with pre-service and in-service FSL teachers in British Columbia that explores critical and decolonizing approaches to engaging with intercultural learning.
This two-year research project with researchers at the University of Ottawa and the University of New Brunswick aims to identify ways to better equip new FSL teachers for success in the early stages of their careers. The initiative is funded by the Department of Canadian Heritage as part of its FSL Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy.
This project is an ongoing conversation with an emerging network of educators and community practitioners involved in teacher education. Its focus is to collectively arrive at a richer understanding of multilingualism in Canada to better preparing new teachers to work with multilingual learners at school.
This study examines internationalization as it relates to linguistic diversity in the university context, specifically the documented constraints faced by linguistically and culturally diverse populations in English-medium higher education settings.
Selected Publications
