LLRC/ACCLL 2026 Masters Research Award Winners
English thesis winner is:
Mercedes Veselka
English winner: Mercedes Veselka, York University
Creating Community in Adult Literacy and Language Education: The Impact of Multiliteracies-Informed Curriculum Development
English Winner Abstract: This qualitative study involved the creation of a unit of materials for adult literacy learners informed by design-based research (Anderson & Shattuck, 2012), multiliteracies theory (New London Group, 1996), and task repetition pedagogies (Hanzawa & Suzuki, 2023). While design-based research offered opportunities for collaboration and iteration between myself, as the researcher, and two in-practice language and literacy educators, multiliteracies theory and task repetition opened up pedagogical opportunities to honour the demands being placed on these two educators. Through developing the materials collaboratively and listening to the educators’ experiences, I sought to understand how they were impacted by a multiliteracies-informed curriculum. These educators were creating communities of belonging for adult literacy learners in a system which focused on deficiency. Their roles required a tolerance for complexity and creative pedagogies to bridge gaps between theory and practice. While a skill-focused approach to literacy remains part of these educators’ teaching realities, this study points to a need for fluid definitions of literacy which respond to changes in context and learners. Through this fluidity, adult literacy and language educators are better supported in imagining new literacy futures for their learners.
English Winner Supervisor: Dr. John Ippolito,
English Winner Institution: York University
Thesis summaries and contact information should be sent to the LLRC Master’s Award chair Tara-Lynn Scheffel tlscheffel@wlu.ca
Shortlisted candidates for the award will be notified in January 2027 and asked to submit their full thesis for the next stage of the competition.
Veuillez faire parvenir le résumé du mémoire ainsi que vos coordonnées à Tara-Lynn Scheffel, codirectrice du prix de la maîtrise de l’ACCLL, à l’adresse suivante: tlscheffel@wlu.ca
Les finalistes recevront un courriel en janvier 2027 leur demandant de soumettre leur mémoire complet.
Please direct other inquiries to Co-Chairs of the 2026 Award
Veuillez poser vos questions
Tara-Lynn Scheffel (chair)
Wilfried Laurier University
tlscheffel@wlu.ca
Salmah Quadri
qsalmah@yahoo.com
Harini Rajagopal
University of British Columbia
Heather.Phipps@ureginharini.rajagopal@ubc.ca
Yina Liu
University of Alberta
yina@ualberta.ca
Tina Benevides
Nipissing University
tinab@nipissingu.ca
Sonya Sachar
University of Alberta
ssachar@ualberta.ca
Past Winners
2025
Master’s Award Winner: Karine Desrochers
Affiliation: Université de Montréal
Supervisor: Drs. Rachel Berthiaume & Christian Dumais
Title of work: Effets des coévaluations formatives élève – élève et enseignante – élève sur le développement de la compétence à communiquer oralement d’élèves du secondaire
Master’s Award Winner: Noah Cain
Affiliation: University of Manitoba
Name of Supervisor: Dr. Jennifer Watt
Title of Work: Un/Wind Un/Wound: Metaphor, Embodiment, and Meaning-Making in the Digital Age
2024
Master’s Award Winner: Chuan Liu
Affiliation: University of Ottawa
Supervisor: Dr. Douglas Fleming
Title of work: The influence of a group of Chinese EFL teachers: beliefs on lesson planning with video-based synchronous computer-mediated communication: A qualitative multiple case study
Master’s Award Winner: Qianhui Ma
Affiliation: Western University
Name of Supervisor: Dr. Zheng Zhang
Title of Work: The use of digital storytelling in bilingual/multilingual students’ meaning-making: A systematic literature review
2023
Master’s Award Winner: Teri Hartman
Affiliation: University of Lethbridge
Name of Supervisors: Dr. Robert LeBlanc and Dr. David Slomp
Title of work: Writing as a practice of freedom: Finding the courage to resist completion
Master’s Award Winner: Melissa McKinney-Lepp
Affiliation: Brock University
Name of Supervisor: Dr. Diane Collier
Title of work: Nurturing empathy through critical media literacy and design thinking: Partnering pedagogy to build community
2022
French Award Winner: Meredith Lachance
Affiliation: l’Université du Québec à Montréal.
Dans son projet, elle conjugue le ressourcement théorique avec une démarche de conception rigoureuse pour offrir un dispositif sur la ponctuation afin d’améliorer la fluidité en lecture chez les jeunes apprenants.
English award winner: Leysa Alexandra Granger
Affiliation: University of Ottawa
Name of supervisor: Dr. Stephanie Arnott.
Title of work: Perspectives of Ontario School Board Administrators on Fostering Plurilingualism in Secondary Level International Languages Classrooms.
2021
French Award Winner: Joanie Desgagné
Affiliation : Faculté d’éducation de l’Université Laval
Title of the work: Effets de l’insertion des traditions orales dans le cours de français au secondaire sur la subjectivité, l’intersubjectivité et l’agentivité d’élèves alloctones et autochtones
Name of supervisor : Dr. Alexandre Buysse
English Award Winner: Jonathan Ferreira
Affiliation: Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia
Title of the work: “Learning Language and Science at Play: Threads of Meaning-Making and Identities.”
Name of supervisor: Dr. Maureen Kendrick
2020
French Award Winner: Marie-Josée Morneau
Affiliation : Faculté d’éducation de l’Université de Saint-Boniface
Title of the work: Apprendre à communiquer et communiquer pour apprendre en mathématiques dans le programme d’immersion française
Name of supervisor : Dr. Daniel Bérubé
English Award Winner: Kelly Fewer
Affiliation: Faculty of Education, University of Manitoba
Title of the work: “An exploration of anti-oppressive education in the high school ELA classroom.”
Name of supervisor: Dr. Michelle Honeyford