Dr. Gillian Judson is an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. She teaches within Educational Leadership and Curriculum and Instruction programs at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Her research examines the role of imagination in leadership, imagination’s role in learning (K-post-secondary), imaginative and ecological teaching practices (PreK through post-secondary), and imaginative assessment in the post-secondary context. Her recent book publications include A Walking Curriculum: Evoking Wonder & Developing Sense of Place K-12 (2018), Engaging Imagination in Ecological Education: Practical Strategies For Teaching (2015), and Imagination and the Engaged Learner: Cognitive Tools for the Classroom (Egan & Judson; 2015).
View her Simon Fraser University Faculty Profile here.
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AREAS OF EXPERTISE & RESEARCH
The Imagination’s Role in Teaching & Learning (PreK-Higher Education)
The Imagination’s Role in Educational Leadership
The Power of Story: Increasing Engagement & Effectiveness with Cognitive Tools
Imaginative Education (circe-sfu.ca): A Cognitive Tools Approach to Teaching (PreK-Higher Education)
Imaginative Ecological Education/Imagination’s Role in Place-Based Education (on circe-sfu.ca)
Pedagogy for Place-Making & Activeness: Engaging The Body in Local Natural/Cultural Contexts
Inquiry-Based Learning: The Learning in Depth Program
Program Design & OnLine Learning
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
>160 conference presentations/workshops worldwide
Georgia Leadership Institute For School Improvement (Atlanta, Georgia)
Centre for Imagination in Research, Culture and Education (CIRCE), Executive Director (B.C., Canada)
Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University (B.C., Canada)
Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University (B.C., Canada)
Yorkville University (Fredericton, N.B., Canada)
Bank Street College of Education (New York, New York, USA)
University Gabriel Minstrel & University Finis Terrae (Santiago, Chile)
University of Victoria (Victoria, B.C., Canada)
K-12 Teaching, BC College of Teachers: Social Studies 8-10, Core French 8-12, Sciences Humaines 8-10
UPCOMING TALKS & WORKSHOPS
Specialist Association of Gifted Educators (SAGE) Professional Learning Conference, October 2024. Keynote: The Power of Imaginative Education: Cultivating Imagination with Cognitive Tools.
Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Conference, November 2024. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Paper Session: Imaginative Learning in Leadership Education: Community Collaboration as Pedagogy (with Meaghan Dougherty).
Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Conference, November 2024. Minneapolis, Minnesota. Paper Session: Becoming scholars with data: Exploring imaginative methodological practices (with Meaghan Dougherty and Sarah Pazur).
WestCast Conference, February 2025. Keynote: TBD.
WHAT IS IMAGINATIVE EDUCATION?
*By artist Corrina Keeling (lovelettersforeverybody.ca)
Dr. Gillian Judson
Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership, Simon Fraser University
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A Walking Curriculum: Evoking Wonder And Developing A Sense of Place (K-12)
By Gillian Judson
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TESTIMONIALS
I always look forward to listening to Gillian’s great and inspirational presentations about Imaginative Education. Gillian’s presentations always make her audience fall in love with IE!
Gillian Judson possesses two enduring qualities that any great educator aspires to: passion and knowledge. Under her tutelage throughout my graduate degree, I learned to ask of myself the “right” questions, and Gillian’s unwavering support in my search for answers encouraged me to pursue my own intellectual passions. Not only have I lived it as her student, I have witnessed Gillian’s ability to challenge and inspire through her work as our Faculty Member for our Imaginative Education module in SFU’s Professional Programs. Gillian’s tenacious spirit and commitment to the betterment of education is infectious, and our student teachers learned deeply from her. Like me, they too aspire to become the kind of educator Gillian Judson is–respected and admired.
Since 2006 Gillian Judson has been teaching Museum Educational Leadership students at Bank Street College of Education about Imaginative Education. She is an intuitive and passionate educator who has fully absorbed Imaginative Education into her teaching; students can immediately make connections between the theory and their own practice even though they are working not in classrooms, Gillian’s usual environment, but museums and cultural institutions.
