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Janette Hughes
PhD

Professor

Canada Research Chair (Tier 2), Technology & Pedagogy

Faculty of Education

LinkedIn STEAM-3D Maker Lab Website

Contact information

Charles Hall - Room 352B
Downtown Oshawa
61 Charles Street
Oshawa, ON L1H 4X8

905.721.8668 ext. 2875

janette.hughes@ontariotechu.ca

Dr. Janette Hughes - Digital literacies, transforming literacy practices through new digital media

Dr. Janette Hughes' research interests include digital literacies, maker pedagogies, STEAM education, women in STEM, social media and identity construction, technology, and pedagogy. She also investigates the ways students read and engage with online material and digital technologies, how teacher professional development with technologies disrupts their practice, and how makers develop global competencies and digital literacies through design thinking.

Bio

Janette Hughes is Professor and Canada Research Chair, Technology and Pedagogy, in the Faculty of Education at Ontario Tech. Dr. Hughes specializes in the transformation of literacy practices through making and new digital media. Her research and teaching interests include critical making, critical digital literacies, digital making, adolescent literacies and identity, writing and digital media, new literacies and conceptualizations of learning, and digital citizenship. She is particularly interested in how critical making and digital media enable users to teach, learn, connect, collaborate, communicate critique, create, and promote social change. She is the recipient of the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation’s Early Researcher Award and the Ontario Research Fund—Research Excellence Award.

For more information:

Courses taught

Bachelor of Arts (Educational Studies)

  • Information Literacy

Bachelor of Education

  • PJ Language Arts Methods
  • IS English Methods 

Master of Education

  • Critical Making 
  • Digital Literacy: Theory, Practice and Research
  • Technology and the Curriculum
  • Social Media and Education

Doctor of Education

  • Research Perspectives & Methods
  • Thesis Proposal

Research and expertise

  • Critical digital literacies
  • Language and literacy
  • Maker pedagogies
  • STEAM education
  • Secondary school English pedagogy
  • Women and non-dominant groups in STEM/STEAM education
  • Hughes, J., Morrison, L., Robb, J. A., & Schira-Hagerman, M. (2023). "It feels like I have a camera in my eye": New methods for literacies research in maker-oriented classrooms. Frontiers in Education, 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2023.1098410 
  • Morrison, L. & Hughes, J. (2022). Making the shift to virtual professional learning. Technology, Pedagogy & Education, 32(1), 105-116. https://doi.org/10.1080/1475939X.2022.2156918 
  • Hughes, J., Morrison, L., & Robb, J. A. (2021). Making STEAM-based professional learning: A four-year DBR study. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, 47(3). https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1336587.pdf 
  • Hughes, J. & Morrison, L. (2020). Innovative learning spaces in the making. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/feduc.2020.00089 
  • Hughes, J., Robb, J., Lam, M. (2019). Making future-ready students with design and the internet of things. EAI Endorsed Transactions on Creative Technologies, 6(21), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.4108/eai.13-7-2018.163096 
  • Hughes, J. & Morrison, L., Mamolo, A., Laffier, J. & de Castell (2019). Full STEAM Ahead: Transforming Learning in Ontario One Makerspace at a Time. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50(1), 309-325.
  • Hughes, J. & Morrison, L. (2018). The Use of E-Textiles in Ontario Education. Canadian Journal of Education, 41(1), 543-571.
  • Hughes, J. & Maas, M. (2018). Developing 21st Century Competencies of Marginalized Students through the Use of Augmented Reality (AR). Learning Landscapes Special Issue, 11(1), 153-170.
  • Hughes, J. (2017). Meaningful Making: Establishing a Makerspace in your school or classroom. What Works? Research into Practice. Literacy Numeracy Secretariat. Ontario Ministry of Education, Toronto: Queen’s Printer.
  • Hughes, J. (2017). Digital Making with “At-Risk” Youth. The International Journal of Information and Learning Technology, 34(2), 102-113. DOI 10.1108/IJILT-08-2016-0037 
  • Hughes, J. & Laffier, J. (2016).  Portrayals of the Bully, Bullied and Bystander in YA Fiction: Considerations for Schools. Canadian Journal of Education, 39(3), 1-24.
  • Hughes, J. & Morrison, L. (2014).  The Impact of Social Networking and a Multiliteracies Pedagogy on English Language Learners’ Writer Identities. In S. Taylor (Ed.) Writing & Pedagogy Special Issue: Children’s Writing: Perspectives on Teaching and Learning, 6(3), 607-631.  
  • Hughes, J. & Dymoke, S. (2011).  Wiki-Ed Poetry”: Transforming Preservice Teachers’ Preconceptions About Poetry and Poetry Teaching. Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, 55(1), 45-56.
  • Hughes, J., King, A., Perkins, P. & Fuke, V. (2011). Adolescents & “Autographics”: Reading and Writing Coming-of-Age Graphic Novels. Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy, 54(8), 601-612.  
  • Hughes, J. & Tolley, S. (2010). Engaging students through new literacies:  the good, bad & curriculum of visual essays. English in Education, 44 (1), 5-16.