B.A. Mount Allison, B.Ed., M.Ed. Queen's, Ph.D. Memorial

Associate Professor

Darron Kelly, PhD
Educational Leadership Studies
Faculty of Education
Memorial University
Office: ED3041
Phone: (709) 864-8624
Email: p45dik@mun.ca

Academic Biography

Dr. Darron Kelly began teaching with the Faculty of Education at Memorial University in 2006 and was appointed Assistant Professor in May 2016. He began life in Yorkshire, England in the inaugural year of Generation X. After several years spent working in construction and operating a fishing charter at Granville Island, Vancouver, Darron returned to university where he completed a B.A. in Philosophy and Classical Studies at Mount Allison. He then earned a B.Ed. in Primary/Elementary and Outdoor Education and a M.Ed. in Cultural Studies at Queen’s University. While teaching at the Faculty of Education, University of Lethbridge, he completed a Ph.D. in Leadership Studies at Memorial in 2014 under the supervision of Dr. Jean Brown and Dr. Walter Okshevsky. Darron is an award-winning, SSHRC-funded scholar who examines applications of critical social theory in educational administration (including communicative rationality, transformative leadership, and moral policymaking) and explores the educational value of place-conscious pedagogy (including teacher identity, school-community partnerships, and transformative student agency).

Recent Peer-Reviewed Publications

Kelly, D., & Pelech, S. (in press). Exploring the value of place-conscious pedagogy in science education: The green crab project. In C. Tippett & T. Milford (Eds.), Science education in Canada. Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing [Book Chapter]

Kelly, D., & Pelech, S. (in press). Canadian contexts for exploring transformative student agency through place-conscious pedagogy. Education in the North, Special Issue: Participation, diversity, involvement and engagement in local and global contexts. [Journal Article]

Kelly, D., & Pelech, S. (in press). From port and prairie: Exploring the impact of place-conscious pedagogy on student agency. European Journal of Curriculum Studies. [Journal Article]

Pelech, S., & Kelly, D. (2020). Teacher identity and agency: Learning and becoming through place-conscious pedagogy. In E. Lyle (Ed.), Identity landscapes: Contemplating place and the construction of self. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill | Sense.

Kelly, D., & Pelech, S. (2019). A critical conceptualization of place-conscious pedagogy. European Journal of Curriculum Studies, 5(1), 732–741.

Kelly, D. (2018). Habermasian practical discourse for educational policymaking: Historical lacunae and the critical potential of ‘rational trust’. International Journal of Leadership in Education. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2018.1543805

Kelly, D., & Hancock, S. (2018). Alberta school principals’ use of professional portfolios in teacher hiring. Canadian Journal of Education, 41, 1050–1078.

Pelech, S., & Kelly, D. (2017). “Surrendering to curiosity”: Impacts of contemplation for resisting Rationalized experience in teacher education. European Journal of Curriculum Studies, 4(1), 570–583.

Smith, D., Kelly, D., & Allard, C. (2017). Dialogic spaces: A critical policy development perspective of education leadership qualifications. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 20(4), 393–415.