Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Child/Youth Cultures and Transitions, UPEI

Kate Tilleczek is the current SSHRC-funded Canada Research Chair in Child/Youth Cultures and Transitions as well as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education with a cross appointment to Sociology at the University of Prince Edward Island.  She is the founder and director of the UPEI qualitative research lab.  She is also an Adjunct Health Systems Research Scientist in the Learning Institute’s Community Health Systems Resource Group at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. 

Dr. Tilleczek is engaged in a number of research and child/youth policy endeavors.  She is currently working on a SSHRC-funded project to examine the methodological and theoretical aspects of research about children and youth.  She is also working on a project relating to youth pathways to literacy on PEI and is writing a research synthesis on the intersections of poverty, mental health and school disengagement for youth.  This work is informing the Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services Youth Policy Framework for the province. Kate is also currently collaborating on a research project relating to the mental health of young people in Canada and will launch a site of study in PEI in 2011.  Her work reaches across sectors, disciplines and fields to attend to the well being of children, youth, families and communities.    
 

Representative Selected Publications:

• Tilleczek, K.  (2011). Approaching youth studies:  Being, becoming and belonging.   Toronto:  Oxford University Press.
• Tilleczek, K. (2011, October). Youth, schools and marginalization: Building rooms of ones’ own? Invited Keynote talk at Atlantic Educators Conference. Univeriste de Monton, Moncton, New Brunswick, October 27-29.
• Tilleczek, K. (with M. Ferguson and V. Campbell) (2011).  Youth transitions through schools: Intersections of poverty, mental health and engagement. Policy paper prepared for the Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services for A Youth Policy Framework. Toronto, Ontario.
• Tilleczek, K., Furlong, A., & Ferguson, B.  (2010). Marginalized youth in contemporary educational contexts:  A tranquil invitation to a rebellious celebration? Education Canada. 50(5), 6-10.
• Tilleczek, K. (2010). Growing up in Canadian divides: Political and educational dimensions of childhood marginalization. Paper presented at the International Child/Youth Research Network Research Conference, Growing Up in Divided Societies. Queen’s University, Belfast, Ireland. June 10th-11th, 2010.
  
• Tilleczek, K.  (2010).  Adjusting the rear view mirror:  An examination of youth driving culture.  Youth and Society, 20 (2), 1-22.
• Tilleczek, K.  (2010).  Young lives as edgework for educational practice.  Guest editorial.  Education Canada., 50(5),3.
• Tilleczek, K.  (Ed.)  (2008). Why do students drop out of high school?  Narrative studies and social critiques. New York:  Edwin Mellen Press
• Tillezek, K.  (2008)  The failing health of children and youth in Northern Ontario.  In D. Leadbeater (Ed.) Mining town crises:  Globalization, labour and resistance in Sudbury, Canada. Halifax:  Fernwood Press.
• Tilleczek, K.  & Cudney, D.  (2008).  Rural youth and school culture:  Rethinking “place” and disengagement.   In Tilleczek, K (Ed).  Why do students drop out of high school?  Narrative studies and social critiques.  New York: Edwin Mellen Press.

Dr. Tilleczek is a social scientist who teaches and studies methodological and epistemological approaches to research inquiry.  A former teacher, Dr. Tilleczek has been examining the transitions and cultures of children and youth for over 20 years. Her program of research demonstrates a commitment to work with and for children, young people, families and communities in many cultures and contexts. Her work focuses on the nexus of education and health to understand the ways in which social inequalities are organized in daily lives. Some of her research interests include: child/youth engagement and marginalization in schools, society and communities; early school leaving; child/youth mental health; school cultures; transitions/pathways to adulthood; child/youth studies; and “developmentally-attuned” research,
 

Her new book with Oxford University Press (Tilleczek, 2011) Approaching youth studies:  Being, becoming and belonging examines of the lives and experiences of young people from an historical and cultural perspective and ponders the links between how we study young people and how society treats them in their educational, leisure, labour, and digital cultures.  She is currently editing a new book on Marginalized Youth in Contemporary Educational Contexts.   It will be under peer review in 2011 with Wilfred Laurier University Press.  Her recent book Why do students drop out of high school?  Narrative studies and social critiques was published in 2008 (New York:  Edwin Mellen Press).   
 

Dr. Kate Tilleczek
Canada Research Chair
Child/Youth Cultures and Transitions
Associate Professor,
Faculty of Education & Sociology
Phone: (902) 620-5127
Fax: (902) 566-0416
Email: ktilleczek@upei.ca