Dr. Townsend has a dual professional and academic background in adult education and occupational therapy. With an M.Ad.Ed. from St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and a PhD in education (adult) from Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia, she looks at the world broadly, with teaching and learning interests focused on the social organization of knowledge. Her main concerns are with the reproduction of disempowerment and exclusion from meaningful 'occupation' (very broadly defined as everything people do to occupy life) of those with mental health issues. Drawing particularly on the theory and method of institutional ethnography, she specializes in critical analysis of the regulatory structures that govern what people do everyday, and strategic action for social change. She came to PEI in the mid-1960's and lived here on and off until the 1980s when she left to found and become the Director of the only School of Occupational Therapy in Atlantic Canada at Dalhousie University. She is happy to be back in her farm home in Belfast, PEI.
Teaching and Research Interests
My interests are in adult education as a foundation for professional practices, particularly in the health professions. Currently I teach graduate students online on Knowledge Translation for Social Inclusion (in everyday life at home, work, community, etc.). My research is theoretically based in qualitative methods, particularly institutional ethnography; research questions explore the inter-relatedness of knowledge, occupational justice and social inclusion. An active project is examining how community, policy, funding and other forces enable or restrict people who experience disabling health issues in low resource communities to make transitions in what they 'do' in everyday life (their 'occupations' of life) with help through a primary health care centre.
Centre For Education Research
