Patricia
Liu Baergen
Ph.D
Dr. Patricia Liu Baergen holds her Ph.D. in Curriculum Studies from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Presently she is an Assistant Professor at Thompson Rivers University. Firmly rooted in the field of curriculum theory/izing and informed by the continental philosophy of Martin Heidegger, Dr. Liu Baergen employs an existential-phenomenological-hermeneutic approach to understand and investigate historical and contemporary perspectives on ​
some critical curriculum discourses in the field of curriculum studies nationally and internationally. Her research interests include curriculum studies, life history, auto/biographical study, life writing, phenomenological inquiry and educational philosophy.
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Selected Research Projects
Tracing Ted Tetsuo Aoki's Intellectual Formation: Historical, Societal and Phenomenological Influences
This research draws a unique comparison between Canadian curriculum theorist Ted Testuo Aoki’s writings and Continental philosopher Martin Heidegger’s concept of “being-in-the-world.” In exploring Aoki’s narratives on momentous life events, this research attends to the interwoven, dynamic and poetic essence of the scholar’s intellectual formation and identifies a critically reflective style of theorizing. By contextualizing Aoki’s narrations of his momentous life events, the research and book publication engages with Aoki’s critical reflective and unique style of theorizing and foregrounds the prominent influence of Heidegger’s phenomenology and writings on Aoki’s thinking.
Through careful examination of Aoki's life and work within its historical, societal and intellectual context, this text advances a new appreciation of the national distinctiveness of Canadian curriculum studies.
Life and Works of
Max van Manen
This research anchors Max van Manen’s intellectual life history and his works specifically within Canadian history and culture, and the field of Canadian curriculum studies in the phenomenological tradition. Phenomenological inquiries have become a prominent domain of Canadian curriculum scholarship since the 1980s. Most of the phenomenological research in the Canadian field of curriculum studies has occurred at the University of Alberta. Max van Manen and others (e.g., Ted Tetsuo Aoki, Kenneth Jacknicke and Terrence Carson) have contributed greatly to “institutionalizing" this European intellectual tradition in the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta. Given its influence, the field of phenomenological curriculum studies warrants greater attention.
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Illuminating a Canadian Curriculum Topography:
Intellectual Auto/Biography and the Epistemology of Place
This research aims to create an anthology of Canadian curriculum scholars' intellectual journey in relation to their place stories to illuminate a Canadian curriculum topography. Canada is a vast, multi-national state with many regions and various Indigenous peoples. Historically, it is a country born of colonialism, accommodating Asian immigrants on the West Coast and African American refugees in the Eastern and Central provinces. There is a significance of place and its relationship to curriculum, education, identity and life, especially within a Canadian context. By examining the curriculum scholars' life stories, intellectual biographies, and their relation to curriculum theory/izing, this research explores the place in a regional context that highlights the significance of place to curriculum theory/izing. Place becomes an important means to link particularity to the sociocultural and political concerns of curriculum theory/izing.
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Featured Publications
Tracing Ted Tetsuo Aoki's Intellectual Formation: Historical, Societal and Phenomenological Influences