Dr. Lisa Starr

Dr. Lisa Starr proudly joined the University of Lethbridge in 2023 as the Dean for the Faculty of Education. Originally born on Treaty 7 territory in Lethbridge AB, she was raised in Treaty 4 territory in Moose Jaw, SK. Her education career spanned 14 years in the field as a secondary school teacher. The first seven years working on the unceded territory of the Musqueum First Nation with the Richmond School Board then moving on to teach internationally in Pakistan, Kuwait and Mongolia. Following the completion of her doctoral degree at the University of Victoria in 2014, Lisa joined McGill University’s Department of Integrated Studies in Education where she served as Chair of the department from 2021-23.

Teaching Interests

Of critical importance to Lisa’s practice is the facilitation of opportunities for teacher candidates and educational leaders to challenge their own thinking about teaching, leading and learning. Her role is to provide experiences that will not simply show teacher candidates and educational leaders how to approach their roles in educational settings but to create a transformative environment so that those future teachers and leaders enter into schools and classrooms confident, prepared and ready to inspire. Central to this is an understanding of identity and experience, often through the use of autoethnography and self-study, as methodological tools to help teacher candidates and educational leaders understand their identity and its relationship to those they will teach, lead and learn with. Experiential learning in student-centered classrooms, critical, compassionate reflexivity as well as spaces to interrogate the emerging identity of the teacher and leader are featured in the theoretical and practical development and design of her courses.

Research Interests

Lisa’s approach to research mirrors her approach to teaching and service in that she has four commitments: (1) work collaboratively in teams, because doing so creates the greatest potential for research impact; (2) embody relationality and reflexivity, both conceptually and methodologically, because doing so fosters connection and community; (3) model creative and critical approaches to complex problems, because both are needed and valued; and (4) create narratives of experience, because doing so maximizes engagement with the process and product of research. Absolutely fundamental to all four of these commitments is a simple adage, walk your talk; Lisa leads, mentors, researches, supervises, and teaches with these commitments guiding her actions and values.