College of Education Curriculum & Instruction http://education.illinois.edu/CI/frp/brenda

Faculty Research Profiles: Brenda Trofanenko

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Assistant Professor

Curriculum & Instruction
301 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
Champaign, IL 61820USA
business217 265-0756
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Research Biography

My research focuses on the public museum as an educational institution, the nationalist purpose of education (specifically history education), and, the development of students' historical consciousness. There exists a need to examine how students learn about the past in various public institutions, and how this is framed as advancing a national identity and feelings of nationalism. Much of my work is situated in public museums (history, ethnology, and natural history museums) that allows for examining how students gain an understanding of historical knowledge by engaging in historical inquiry. I then examine how students can distinguish how various interpretations of the past serve particular purposes in the present. I am interested in how students develop a critical understanding of the various purposes served by the museums, one of which is advancing their own learning. I show in my research how students learn to distinguish between the taken-for-granted factual accounts of an event to consider how an historical narrative is a vehicle for further understanding issues of race, identity, and nation. Most recently, I have been awarded a Canada Research Chair that will allow dedicated research time to investigate these areas of interest.

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Curriculum & Instruction, University of British Columbia, 2001
  • M.Ed., Curriculum Studies, University of New Brunswick, 1995
  • B.Ed., Social Studies Education, University of Alberta, 1991
  • M.A., History, University of Alberta, 1988
  • B.A., History/Geography, University of Alberta, 1982

Key Professional Appointments

  • Canada Research Chair Tier 2 ($500K), Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Toronto/Acadia University, 2009-2014
  • Affiliated Faculty, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2009-2011
  • Visiting Assistant Professor, Curriculum & Instruction, University of Illinois, 2000-2001
  • Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, 2001----

Activities & Honors

  • Faculty Fellow, Bureau of Educational Research, College of Education, 2002-2003
  • National Center for Supercomputing Applications Fellow, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2002-2003

Selected Publications

  • Trofanenko, B. (2008). On cultural identity and difference. In P. Trifonas (Ed.), World of difference: Rethinking the ethics of global education in the 21st century. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
  • Trofanenko, B. (2008). More than a single best narrative: Collective history and the transformation of historical consciousness. Curriculum Inquiry, 38(5), 579-603. 
  • Trofanenko, B. (2008). Dare we know the nation? Considering the nexus of discursive leveraging and identity. Discourse, 29(3), 259-274.
  • Trofanenko, B. (2006). A world of knowledge: Digital technology and social education. In E. W. Ross (Ed.), The social studies curriculum: Purposes, problems, and possibilities (3rd ed., pp. 241-253). New York: SUNY Press.
  • Trofanenko, B. (2006). Displayed objects, indigenous identities, and public pedagogies. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 3(4), 309-327.

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