Saccucci, Brent
Instructor (Term)
- Phone
- (403) 329-2185
- brent.saccucci@uleth.ca
Office Hours
By appointment (virtual or in-person)
About Me
I am first and foremost a teacher, and love that I keep learning what it means to teach and teach well. I believe whole-heartedly in the transformative power of education for a better social world, and crucial to that is developing classrooms that centre on belonging, care, and relationality. I’ve taught students from elementary to graduate school, and am now a faculty member in the Faculty of Education here at the University of Lethbridge where I get to teach our awesome education students in the social contexts of education, literacy, and leading change in schools. Beginning in September 2025, I will lead the Leading Social Change in Schools Cohort, the first of it's kind at the UofL to prepare new teachers with leadership skills to enact change in their schools and communities across southern Alberta.
Before coming to UofL, I worked as an Adjunct Professor of Social Justice Education at the University of British Columbia, and taught literacy education to student-teachers at the University of Alberta. In K-12, I have been a teacher in all divisions -- elementary, middle, and high school -- and have also worked as a school guidance counsellor, learning interventionist, and district-wide equity consultant. One of my career highlights was working as a high school English teacher at LCI and equity and belonging consultant with Lethbridge School Division.
My passion has always been and will always be teaching, bringing to life the magic of learning to life by bringing together people to ask difficult questions about the human experience. Time spent learning with me interactive, reflective, and has a good amount of tough (but meaningful) questions. More than anything, my classroom is a community -- we tend to laugh a lot, share stories, and make some pretty special relationships along the way.
I’ve always got time to connect with students, staff, and faculty across our amazing
campus to see how together we can transform education. My classroom door is always open -- I have had dozens of faculty, staff, and students across the university (and from local K-12 schools) join my classes at UofL to observe and contribute to our learning community!
campus to see how together we can transform education. My classroom door is always open -- I have had dozens of faculty, staff, and students across the university (and from local K-12 schools) join my classes at UofL to observe and contribute to our learning community!
As a transdisciplinary education scholar-practitioner, my teaching and research expertise fall into two related domains:
Social Contexts of Education:
Belonging, psychological safety, and social change in education; Two-Spirit, queer, & trans belonging (particularly in rural, religious, and 'conservative' spaces); teacher-as-activist and praxis pedagogy; intersectional queer theory and queer pedagogy; social-emotional learning, student mental health and mad studies in education; pedagogies of discomfort, affect theory and the cultural study of emotion in education
Critical/Transformative Learning Approaches:
Critical curriculum studies and the sociology of knowledge; confusion, disagreement, and discomfort in learning; marginalized and at-promise ('at-risk') learners; student-centred learning and democratic classroom culture; ‘ungrading’ as decolonial-wellness praxis; the social values of 'academic form' incl. creative multi-literacies and research-creation in education
Current Research
Publications
Select Publications
• Saccucci, B. F. (In review). Crazy teacher sketchbook: Psychoanalysis and difficult teacher knowledge-making. International Mad Studies Journal (3)1.
• Saccucci, B. F. (2024). ‘What knowledge is of most worth?’: A sociopolitical analysis of creative literacies & research-creation in education. English Language Arts Journal, 4 (1).
• Saccucci, B. F. (2023). The teacher’s tomatoes: The mess of queer pedagogy in the classroom. English Language Arts Journal 3 (1).
• de Oliviera Jayme, B., & Saccucci, B.F. (2020). High heels, empty bottles and other interesting pedagogical artefacts mediating social movement learning. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies 18 (1). 99-100.
• Scalzo, M., Fillion, J., Kerr, D., Rude, D., Skinner, D., Saccucci, B. F., … & Wickstrom, M (2016). The PRISM Toolkit for safe & caring discussions about sexual and gender minorities. Alberta Teachers’ Association. Retrieved from https://teachers.ab.ca/sites/default/files/2023-05/PD-80-15e_PRISM.pdf
• Saccucci, B. F., & Ayache, M. (2013). On being (un)popular, pedagogical, and in the Prairies: The educative capacity of participatory social justice theatre in Canada. alt.theatre: cultural diversity and the stage,11 (3). Teesri Duniya Theatre Publishing.
Select Presentations
• Saccucci, B. F. (2025, April 29–30). Ungrading: Is it really possible? An equity approach to resisting the ranking, rating, and sorting of students. Annual SPARK Teaching Symposium, University of Lethbridge.
• Saccucci, B. F. (2025, April 12). From political division to personal dignity: How schools can prioritize Two-Spirit, Queer, & Trans thriving. Mental Health in Schools Summit, Headwater Learning Foundation, Banff, AB.
• Saccucci, B. F. (2025, March 28). Pedagogy of the Oppressor: Trans pedagogies in Alberta’s Bible Belt. Moving Trans History Forward Conference, University of Victoria.
• Saccucci, B. F. (2025). De/grading: Rejecting the tyranny and oppression of ranking, rating, and failing our students. South Western Alberta Teachers’ Convention Association (SWATCA).
• Saccucci, F., & Saccucci, B. F. (2025). Educational short (nano) videos’ preferred length, content, pace, platforms & voiceovers for micro-learning. Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE), Congress 2025.
• Callaghan, T., Shabtay, A., Lee, I., & Saccucci, B. F. (2019, April 9). Fighting for Catholic School Gay-Straight Alliances: Youth influencing education policy in Ontario, Canada. AERA Annual Meeting, Division G: Social Contexts of Education, Toronto, ON.
• Saccucci, B. F. (2018, November 23). Poetic interventions in queer youth mental health. Arts in Education Conference, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto.
• Shabtay, A., Chang, E., Brendel Horn, E., Nelson, B., McKenna, M., Rhoades, R., Ayache, M., & Saccucci, B. F. (2018, October 13). Theatre-based activism: Theories and methods in action [Panel presentation]. Art as an Agent of Social Change Conference, McGill University.
• Saccucci, B. F. (2017, November 15). 1 in 10: Queer teachers in multi-religious and multicultural schools. Touchy Subject: Gender and Sexuality in Schools Conference, OISE, University of Toronto.
• Saccucci, B. F. (2017, June 4). Queer educational activism in the province of the “Lake of Fire”. Youth, Theatre, & Resistance Conference, Young People’s Theatre, Toronto, ON.
Degrees
• BEd in Secondary English Education, University of Alberta
• MEd in Secondary Education / Curriculum Studies, University of Alberta
• MA in Curriculum & Pedagogy / Sexual Diversity Studies, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto
funded by SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship
• EdD in Equity, Diversity, & Social Justice Education, Western University (in progress)
Personal Website
In The Media
• Vandela, K. (2025, April 20). Pride’s grungy younger sister ft. Brent Saccucci (YQL). Queer in Alberta: A Telus StoryHive Show.
• Alarcon, N. (2025, January 28). Anti-racist zine pages from Lethbridge. John Humphrey Centre for Peace and Human Rights Newsletter.
• Francine, B. (2022, April 13). Have you met… Brent? YouAlberta Community Blog. https://www.ualberta.ca/youalberta/2021/04/have-you-met-brent.html
• Vardabasso, N. (2021, October 21). What is the literacy of our lives? EduCrush Podcast. https://teachbetter.com/educrush-podcast/brentsaccucci/
• French, J. (2016, April 12). Alberta’s sexual health education doesn’t make the grade, critics say. Edmonton Journal. http://edmontonjournal.com/health/sexual- health/albertas-sexual-health-education-doesnt-make-the-grade-critics-say
• Varela, I. (2015, May 8). Meet Mr. Saccucci. Illuminate – Faculty of Education Magazine. http://www.illuminate.ualberta.ca/content/meet-mr-saccucci