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Ontario Tech acknowledges the lands and people of the Mississaugas of Scugog Island First Nation.

We are thankful to be welcome on these lands in friendship. The lands we are situated on are covered by the Williams Treaties and are the traditional territory of the Mississaugas, a branch of the greater Anishinaabeg Nation, including Algonquin, Ojibway, Odawa and Pottawatomi. These lands remain home to many Indigenous nations and peoples.

We acknowledge this land out of respect for the Indigenous nations who have cared for Turtle Island, also called North America, from before the arrival of settler peoples until this day. Most importantly, we acknowledge that the history of these lands has been tainted by poor treatment and a lack of friendship with the First Nations who call them home.

This history is something we are all affected by because we are all treaty people in Canada. We all have a shared history to reflect on, and each of us is affected by this history in different ways. Our past defines our present, but if we move forward as friends and allies, then it does not have to define our future.

Learn more about Indigenous Education and Cultural Services

Diana Petrarca
EdD

Associate Professor

Faculty of Education

Contact information

Education Building - Room 537
Downtown Oshawa
11 Simcoe Street North
Oshawa, ON

905.721.8668 ext. 2839

diana.petrarca@ontariotechu.ca



Bio

Dr. Diana Petrarca is an Associate Professor and a founding member of the Faculty of Education at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. She helped redevelop and implement a new Bachelor of Education program by serving as Program Director for two years. Her research interests include web-based learning tools to support the practicum and mindfulness, and preservice teacher education program enhancement. She is currently exploring the conceptions of teacher candidates as they progress through a pre-service program via a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)-funded research documentary film project entitled The (Un)Making of the Teacher

For more information:

Courses taught

Bachelor of Arts (ESTD)

  • Models of Teaching - EDUC 4700
  • Teaching and Learning: Evaluation and Assessment - EDUC 4702

Bachelor of Education

  • Primary/Junior Core Curriculum I - CURS 4200
  • Primary/Junior Core Curriculum II - CURS 4201
  • PJ Science & Technology Camp - CURS 3511
  • Classroom Communications - EDUC 2000 
  • Teaching for Individual Needs and Diversity - EDUC 3800: 
  • Field Experience I - EDUC 4900
  • Field Experience II - EDUC 4901
  • Analysis and Management of Classroom Behaviour - EDUC 4380

Master of Education

  • Learning Tools - EDUC 5104
  • Foundations of Leadership - EDUC 5201
  • OrganizationalTheory, Culture and Decision Making - EDUC 5202

Research and expertise

  • Documentary filmmaking as a form of knowledge mobilization
  • Field experience/practicum
  • Leadership
  • Pre-service teacher candidate identity and development
  • Pre-service teacher education programs
  • Visual ethnography
  • Web-based learning tools
  • Petrarca, D., & Kitchen, J. (2017). Initial teacher education in Ontario: The first year of four-semester teacher education programs. Ottawa, ON: Canadian Association for Teacher Education.
  • Kitchen, J., & Petrarca, D. (2016). Approaches to teacher education. In International handbook of teacher education (pp. 137-186). Springer, Singapore.
  • Kitchen, J., & Petrarca, D. (2015). Initial teacher education in Ontario: On the cusp of change. Handbook of Canadian Research in Initial Teacher Education, 61.
  • Petrarca, D., & Hughes, J. (2014). Mobilizing Knowledge via Documentary Filmmaking—Is the Academy Ready?. McGill Journal of Education/Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill, 49(3), 561-582.
  • Kitchen, J., & Petrarca, D. (2014). Teacher preparation in Ontario: A history. Teaching & Learning, 8(1), 56-71.
  • Petrarca, D., & Bullock, S. M. (2014). Tensions between theory and practice: Interrogating our pedagogy through collaborative self-study. Professional Development in Education, 40(2), 265-281.
  • Kay, R., Knaack, L., & Petrarca, D. (2009). Exploring teachers' perceptions of web-based learning tools. Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects, 5(1), 27-50