Papers by Cristina Guerrero Banyai, OCT, Ph.D.
Journal of Innovation in Polytechnic Education , 2025
Working and providing cancer support services is both challenging and rewarding, yet the lived ex... more Working and providing cancer support services is both challenging and rewarding, yet the lived experiences of the personnel providing such services remain overlooked. It is vital to address the experiences of service providers to better understand the nature of their work and how it may impact their well-being. This paper explores the lived experiences of cancer support service providers, focusing on how they conceptualize and practice self-compassion in their workplace. A qualitative approach centred on phenomenological hermeneutics was utilized to collect in-depth interview data from service providers working in cancer support centres across southwestern Ontario, Canada. The research team used descriptive and narrative analysis to analyze the interview data and produced the following four themes: 1) acknowledging personal limits as a form of self-compassion; 2) organizational support; 3) emotional environment; and 4) prioritized self-care. Recommendations include more comprehensive support systems for service providers, especially if they may be experiencing secondary trauma or compassion fatigue. The findings gleaned from the service providers contribute valuable considerations for both the cancer care workplace and post-secondary institutions. While the findings provide real-life examples of effective support for service providers in the workplace, they also provide important considerations for post-secondary programming that include strategies for balancing empathetic service delivery with exercising self-compassion.
This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 ... more This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) *Original Research Papers are papers that report on original empirical research with a focus on teaching and learning. Papers may be qualitative or quantitative and include an Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, and Reference section, as well as any tables and/or figures.
, input, and insights regarding the content of this review, and the entire team at Canadian Schol... more , input, and insights regarding the content of this review, and the entire team at Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation for their support throughout the development of this report. The CST Foundation recognizes the importance of bringing together scholars, the community sector, and funders to work collaboratively towards improving equitable access to post-secondary education. We believe in the power of strategic collaborations to build a better future for Canadian families. We want to thank Humber College for supporting Dr. Cristina Guerrero, from the Bachelor of Child and Youth Care program, to contribute to this report. Her expertise as a high school teacher and a PSE professor provided valuable insights for understanding the experiences and process of PSE navigation. We would also like to extend our appreciation to the Wordswell Association for Community Learning and their staff for sharing their approach to community and youth engagement. Their contributions to this report reflect the importance of community support systems for students in communities from lower socioeconomic status, and the value of meaningful community collaborations. Finally, we would like to thank Sharma Queiser for her contributions editing this report.
Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, 2022
In this paper, we document a three-year initiative aimed at supporting the well-being and academi... more In this paper, we document a three-year initiative aimed at supporting the well-being and academic success of Filipino youth attending a Toronto public high school. Drawing from our commitments to culturally sustaining pedagogy and relational practice as well as multiple data sources like student focus groups, we share how various layers of school, family, and community support can positively impact the academic success, well-being, and leadership potential of Filipino students. We also share the insights gleaned from the youth and our work with them and provide a series of recommendations for educators and other child and youth care practitioners to consider when designing interventions with this group of young people.
The International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, Feb 18, 2013
* We would like to acknowledge each and every one of the youth researchers who participated in Pr... more * We would like to acknowledge each and every one of the youth researchers who participated in Proyecto Latin@. While we cannot name every single youth here, the contributions from each of them taught us many lessons that form the basis of this article and the reflections within. We would also like to thank Jim Spyropoulos and Sheryl Freeman at the TDSB for their continued and unwavering support for Proyecto Latin@. The ideas in this article also evolved through numerous discussions at several conferences and were also informed by the reviews from three anonymous reviewers.
Crisis and Opportunity: How Canadian Bachelor of Education Programs Responded to the Pandemic , 2022
The in-school practicum experience is a significant component of teacher education programs in pr... more The in-school practicum experience is a significant component of teacher education programs in preparing candidates for classroom teaching. In the fall of 2020, due to the global effects of COVID-19 and the resulting shortage of available practicum placements in schools (both face-toface
and virtual), it was necessary for the Master of Teaching (MT) program at the University of Toronto to transition to a modified practicum program for approximately 400 first-year teacher candidates. In response to these challenges, and in consultation with provincial practicum guidelines, the MT program pivoted to a 4-week adapted practicum comprising pods of 15 to 30 teacher candidates, each led by one or two instructors (all Ontario-certified teachers) serving as practicum advisors. Unified by common elements and goals, each practicum advisor had autonomy to design and deliver a unique adapted practicum program, without access to school classrooms and students. In this chapter, five teacher educators utilize self-study (Kitchen at al., 2020) to reflect and share their individual narratives as practicum advisors working with intermediate/senior (Grades 7–12) teacher candidates. Within these individual narratives are key moments and takeaways related to creating nonschool-based, virtual practicum experiences for teacher candidates during the pandemic. Self-study of teacher education practices within practicum contexts is an underrepresented area of research (Petrarca & Van Nuland, 2020;
Thomas, 2017). This study will be of interest to Bachelor of Education programs (and other professional programs that include a practical component such as social work) for exploring an alternative approach to experience practicum and the “learning-to-teach” process (Crocker &
Dibbon, 2008).
In this article we document our experiences as facilitators for the “Engaging All Students” profe... more In this article we document our experiences as facilitators for the “Engaging All Students” professional learning community (PLC), which was implemented to help Toronto public school teachers re-engage underachieving students. These students, who are known as “marker students,” are members of the school system’s most marginalized groups and are identified by their schools based on cultural aspects like race, place of origin, and language(s) spoken. Along with our problematization of the naming and concept of “marker students,” we also propose a queer(y)ing of the notion of culture to re-imagine how we engage students with culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy.
In this article we document our experiences as facilitators for the “Engaging All Students” profe... more In this article we document our experiences as facilitators for the “Engaging All Students” professional learning community (PLC), which was implemented to help Toronto public school teachers re-engage underachieving students. These students, who are known as “marker students,” are members of the school system’s most marginalized groups and are identified by their schools based on cultural aspects like race, place of origin, and language(s) spoken. Along with our problematization of the naming and concept of “marker students,” we also propose a queer(y)ing of the notion of culture to re-imagine how we engage students with culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy.
My dissertation explores the ways in which youth participatory action research (YPAR) can provide... more My dissertation explores the ways in which youth participatory action research (YPAR) can provide students with the affective and the socio-educational experiences to become agents of personal, social, as well as educational change. My analysis is centred on a YPAR pilot study at Urban High School (pseudonym), a central Toronto secondary school with large numbers of students who self-identified as Latin@. This YPAR program, which was implemented as a Saturday senior social science credit course, involved 20 Latin@ students from diverse national, ethnic and academic backgrounds. Through a transnational Latin@ feminist lens and a methodological framework of YPAR, I examine how the students describe the processes of self-identification, community engagement, and transformative learning. While exploring the students’ perspectives on their engagement and learning throughout the course, this dissertation problematizes conventional forms of schooling and argues for the necessity of shifting schooling towards more culturally relevant and student-centred pedagogies such as YPAR. The findings of this dissertation present YPAR as an alternative pedagogy that provides students with the opportunities to participate in collaborative learning environments through which they can develop knowledge as well as critically engage with issues that are relevant to them. In turn, this youth-centred pedagogy provides students with various forms of resources that
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create vast possibilities for transformative learning on individual and collective levels. Included in these possibilities is the building of relationships as well as critical dialogue on a variety of topics like power relations, gender, race, immigration, and schooling. The opportunities for such critical conversations cultivate a relevant context through which students can develop their research and inquiry skills and acquire a foundation through which to learn more about themselves and their social context. The dissertation concludes with an account of how this YPAR work has been expanded beyond the course and into further work with Latin@ and other groups of youth. This account points not only to the necessity of rethinking conventional forms of schooling, but also to the possibilities that YPAR yields for empowering youth to shift how they see themselves and engage with the world around them.
We would like to acknowledge each and every one of the youth researchers who participated in Proy... more We would like to acknowledge each and every one of the youth researchers who participated in Proyecto Latin@. While we cannot name every single youth here, the contributions from each of them taught us many lessons that form the basis of this article and the reflections within. We would also like to thank Jim Spyropoulos and Sheryl Freeman at the TDSB for their continued and unwavering support for Proyecto Latin@. The ideas in this article also evolved through numerous discussions at several conferences and were also informed by the reviews from three anonymous reviewers.
Books by Cristina Guerrero Banyai, OCT, Ph.D.
Upcoming Conference Paper Presentations by Cristina Guerrero Banyai, OCT, Ph.D.
Youth participatory action research (yPAR) reconfigures researchers’ position of expertise and po... more Youth participatory action research (yPAR) reconfigures researchers’ position of expertise and power for the purpose of shifting research subjects into new positions as co-investigators (Frisby, Maguire, & Reid, 2009). yPAR positions youth in an active role where they share in designing and implementing the research questions, methods, and action plans. However, when pursued at the site of schools, doing yPAR requires researchers to negotiate hierarchies that are deeply entrenched in classroom cultures and school practices (Irizarry and Brown, 2014). How do we negotiate the tensions that arise when doing yPAR in schools? This panel explores participant experiences from two school-based yPAR projects in Toronto. In the first pair of papers, an adult researcher and two youth researchers discuss their project with Latino youth in TDSB schools over the past five years, implemented as a senior social sciences course. In the second pair of papers, an adult researcher and several youth researchers discuss their yPAR project at University of Toronto Schools (UTS) that studies socioeconomic diversity and bursary students’ experiences. These four papers offer insights into the conditions of possibility and effects of doing yPAR in the multicultural and urban context of Toronto public and private schools.
This 90-minute session comprises four papers, two authored by adult researchers, and two authored by small groups of youth researchers. The first pair of papers comprises adult and youth perspectives about a yPAR project in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in which a senior social sciences course has been implemented for Latino youth to theorize their schooling experiences and make an action research intervention into their social worlds. The second pair of papers comprises adult and youth perspectives about a yPAR project in University of Toronto Schools (UTS), an elite private school, that enables students to theorize and make an intervention into the inequities relating to socioeconomic diversity at their school and the barriers and difficulties that bursary students encounter.
Teaching Documents by Cristina Guerrero Banyai, OCT, Ph.D.
These two courses provide teacher candidates with the opportunities to develop an understanding o... more These two courses provide teacher candidates with the opportunities to develop an understanding of the processes and issues involved teaching youth in the Intermediate and Secondary grades. A fundamental theme across both courses is educating for social justice.
These two co-requisite courses complement each other through the integration of theory and practice. Through a variety of means like lectures, academic and professional readings, online fora, and experiential activities, teacher candidates will develop the skills to not only developing a deeper understanding of the pressing issues affecting middle and secondary school students, but also the development of strategies to address these issues in classroom, school-wide, and community-wide contexts.
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Papers by Cristina Guerrero Banyai, OCT, Ph.D.
and virtual), it was necessary for the Master of Teaching (MT) program at the University of Toronto to transition to a modified practicum program for approximately 400 first-year teacher candidates. In response to these challenges, and in consultation with provincial practicum guidelines, the MT program pivoted to a 4-week adapted practicum comprising pods of 15 to 30 teacher candidates, each led by one or two instructors (all Ontario-certified teachers) serving as practicum advisors. Unified by common elements and goals, each practicum advisor had autonomy to design and deliver a unique adapted practicum program, without access to school classrooms and students. In this chapter, five teacher educators utilize self-study (Kitchen at al., 2020) to reflect and share their individual narratives as practicum advisors working with intermediate/senior (Grades 7–12) teacher candidates. Within these individual narratives are key moments and takeaways related to creating nonschool-based, virtual practicum experiences for teacher candidates during the pandemic. Self-study of teacher education practices within practicum contexts is an underrepresented area of research (Petrarca & Van Nuland, 2020;
Thomas, 2017). This study will be of interest to Bachelor of Education programs (and other professional programs that include a practical component such as social work) for exploring an alternative approach to experience practicum and the “learning-to-teach” process (Crocker &
Dibbon, 2008).
iii
create vast possibilities for transformative learning on individual and collective levels. Included in these possibilities is the building of relationships as well as critical dialogue on a variety of topics like power relations, gender, race, immigration, and schooling. The opportunities for such critical conversations cultivate a relevant context through which students can develop their research and inquiry skills and acquire a foundation through which to learn more about themselves and their social context. The dissertation concludes with an account of how this YPAR work has been expanded beyond the course and into further work with Latin@ and other groups of youth. This account points not only to the necessity of rethinking conventional forms of schooling, but also to the possibilities that YPAR yields for empowering youth to shift how they see themselves and engage with the world around them.
Books by Cristina Guerrero Banyai, OCT, Ph.D.
Upcoming Conference Paper Presentations by Cristina Guerrero Banyai, OCT, Ph.D.
This 90-minute session comprises four papers, two authored by adult researchers, and two authored by small groups of youth researchers. The first pair of papers comprises adult and youth perspectives about a yPAR project in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in which a senior social sciences course has been implemented for Latino youth to theorize their schooling experiences and make an action research intervention into their social worlds. The second pair of papers comprises adult and youth perspectives about a yPAR project in University of Toronto Schools (UTS), an elite private school, that enables students to theorize and make an intervention into the inequities relating to socioeconomic diversity at their school and the barriers and difficulties that bursary students encounter.
Teaching Documents by Cristina Guerrero Banyai, OCT, Ph.D.
These two co-requisite courses complement each other through the integration of theory and practice. Through a variety of means like lectures, academic and professional readings, online fora, and experiential activities, teacher candidates will develop the skills to not only developing a deeper understanding of the pressing issues affecting middle and secondary school students, but also the development of strategies to address these issues in classroom, school-wide, and community-wide contexts.
and virtual), it was necessary for the Master of Teaching (MT) program at the University of Toronto to transition to a modified practicum program for approximately 400 first-year teacher candidates. In response to these challenges, and in consultation with provincial practicum guidelines, the MT program pivoted to a 4-week adapted practicum comprising pods of 15 to 30 teacher candidates, each led by one or two instructors (all Ontario-certified teachers) serving as practicum advisors. Unified by common elements and goals, each practicum advisor had autonomy to design and deliver a unique adapted practicum program, without access to school classrooms and students. In this chapter, five teacher educators utilize self-study (Kitchen at al., 2020) to reflect and share their individual narratives as practicum advisors working with intermediate/senior (Grades 7–12) teacher candidates. Within these individual narratives are key moments and takeaways related to creating nonschool-based, virtual practicum experiences for teacher candidates during the pandemic. Self-study of teacher education practices within practicum contexts is an underrepresented area of research (Petrarca & Van Nuland, 2020;
Thomas, 2017). This study will be of interest to Bachelor of Education programs (and other professional programs that include a practical component such as social work) for exploring an alternative approach to experience practicum and the “learning-to-teach” process (Crocker &
Dibbon, 2008).
iii
create vast possibilities for transformative learning on individual and collective levels. Included in these possibilities is the building of relationships as well as critical dialogue on a variety of topics like power relations, gender, race, immigration, and schooling. The opportunities for such critical conversations cultivate a relevant context through which students can develop their research and inquiry skills and acquire a foundation through which to learn more about themselves and their social context. The dissertation concludes with an account of how this YPAR work has been expanded beyond the course and into further work with Latin@ and other groups of youth. This account points not only to the necessity of rethinking conventional forms of schooling, but also to the possibilities that YPAR yields for empowering youth to shift how they see themselves and engage with the world around them.
This 90-minute session comprises four papers, two authored by adult researchers, and two authored by small groups of youth researchers. The first pair of papers comprises adult and youth perspectives about a yPAR project in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) in which a senior social sciences course has been implemented for Latino youth to theorize their schooling experiences and make an action research intervention into their social worlds. The second pair of papers comprises adult and youth perspectives about a yPAR project in University of Toronto Schools (UTS), an elite private school, that enables students to theorize and make an intervention into the inequities relating to socioeconomic diversity at their school and the barriers and difficulties that bursary students encounter.
These two co-requisite courses complement each other through the integration of theory and practice. Through a variety of means like lectures, academic and professional readings, online fora, and experiential activities, teacher candidates will develop the skills to not only developing a deeper understanding of the pressing issues affecting middle and secondary school students, but also the development of strategies to address these issues in classroom, school-wide, and community-wide contexts.