Dr. Paul Tarc, PhD

Associate Professor - Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies

B.Sc. (University of Waterloo), B.Ed. (Queens University), M.Ed. (Queens University), Ph.D (York University)

Dr. Paul Tarc, PhD

Associate Professor - Critical Policy, Equity and Leadership Studies

B.Sc. (University of Waterloo), B.Ed. (Queens University), M.Ed. (Queens University), Ph.D (York University)

My main research interests in progressive and critical modes of education are articulated through 'post'-informed theories of representation, ethics, subjectivity and pedagogy. I have taught for nine years in K-12 schools in South America, South-East Asia and Ontario.

My first book, Global dreams, enduring tensions: International Baccalaureate (IB) in a changing world, uses the IB as the focal point to historicize the 'international' of international education under globalization. My recently published book, International education in global times: Engaging the pedagogic, focuses on the complex processes of learning and subject formation in and from one’s international experience.

My particular domains of inquiry include: globalization and education, international education (including international school teachers and the International Baccalaureate), theories of knowing, politics of schooling, progressive pedagogies, critical literacies, teacher education, reflective practice, teachers' work and learning, and interpretive research methods in Education.

Research

  • Translating and Mobilizing 'A New Social Contract for Education:' Illuminating and supporting teachers' worldly and critical pedagogies [with Nicholas Ng-A-Fook and Aparna Mishra Tarc]

    • Read Summary

    • Looking for a PhD student/applicant (with full-time K-12 teaching experience) to join project beginning September, 2024

  • Opening Portals into Classrooms: School-university Collaboration on ‘Learning to Teach’ for Global Citizenship [with Melody Viczko, Julie Byrd Clark, Karen Pashby]

  • Revisiting the ‘Enduring Tensions’ of IB in the 2020s

In The News

Recent Publications

Books

Tarc, P. (2013). International education in global times: Engaging the pedagogic. New York: Peter Lang.

Tarc, P. (2009). Global dreams, enduring tensions: International Baccalaureate in a changing world. New York: Peter Lang.

Papers in refereed journals:

Tarc, P. (forthcoming). Encyclopedia entry – K-12 Global / International Education (Volume: Diversity, democracy, and social justice in education). In R. Tierney, F. Rizvi, K. Ercikan, & G. Smith. International Encyclopaedia of Education (4th Edition).

Tarc, P., & Budrow, J. (2022). Seeking the cosmopolitan teacher: Internationalising curricula in a Canadian preservice teacher education program. Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice DOI: 10.1080/13540602.2022.2062744

Tarc, P. (in press). Encyclopedia entry - International Baccalaureate: Meanings and uses in a globalizing world (Volume: Globalization and the geopolitics of education). In R. Tierney, F. Rizvi, K. Ercikan, & G. Smith. International Encyclopaedia of Education (4th Edition). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Tarc, P. (2021). Transnational governing for the pedagogical ideals of K-12 international education: Contrasting PISA and IB. Educational Review. DOI: 10.1080/00131911.2021.1965095

Wu, X., & Tarc, P. (2021). Challenges and possibilities in English language learning of rural lower-class Chinese college students: The Effect of capital, habitus, and fields. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2021.1931249

Wu, X., & Tarc, P. (2021). Chinese international secondary school students as flexible citizens: Toward cosmopolitan learning. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education.

Tarc, P., & Mishra Tarc, A. (2020). Think globally, act…  towards influencing United States’s possible futures?! Extrapolating global citizenship education beyond ‘roots and routes’ and in the wake of a global hegemon. In F. Rizvi & M. Peters (eds.), The long read: On the relevance of the US elections. Educational Philosophy and Theory.

Tarc, P. (2020). Education post ‘Covid-19’: Re-visioning the face-to-face classroom. Current Issues in Comparative Education 22(1).

Wu, X., & Tarc, P. (2019). Chinese international students in a Canadian private secondary school: becoming flexible citizens? Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, DOI: 10.1080/03057925.2019.1684242

Tarc, P. (2019). Internationalization of Education as an Emerging Field of Study? A Conceptualization of International Education for Cross-domain Analyses. Policy Futures in Education, 17(6), 732-744.

Tarc, P., Mishra Tarc, A., & Wu, X (2019). Anglo-Western international school teachers as global middle class: Portraits of three families. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 40(5), 666-681. DOI: 10.1080/01596306.2019.1570635.

Tarc, P. (2018). ‘Walking the talk:’ A conceptualization of international mindedness to inform leadership in international schools. Peabody Journal of Education, 93(5), 486-499.

Budrow, J., & Tarc, P. (2018). What Teacher Capacities do International School Recruiters Look For? Canadian Journal of Education, 41(3), 860-889.

Wu, X. & Tarc, P. (2016). Translations and paradoxes of ‘Western’ pedagogy: Perspectives of English language teachers in one Chinese college. L2 Journal, 8(4), 55-75.

Tarc, P. & Mishra Tarc, A. (2015). Elite international schools in the global South: Transnational space, class relationalities and the ‘middling’ international school teacher. British Journal of the Sociology of Education 36(1), 34-52.

Chapters in Books:

Tarc, P. (in press). Elusive criticality, radical equality and pedagogy as provocation for thinking: Encountering Professor Lynn Mario de Souza.

Tarc, P. (2022). The capture of international education by progressive neoliberalism: Illuminations, qualifications and educating beyond. In A. Sharma, E. Wurzburg, & M. Schmeichel. New York: Routledge.

Tarc, P. (in press). Final reflections on family travel in the 21st century. In. C. Maxwell, M. Yemini, & K. Bach, Nurturing mobilities: Family travel in the 21st century.

Tarc, P. (2020). Foreword. In. K. M. Magro, L. Kornelsen, & G. Balzar (Eds.), Teaching global citizenship education. Toronto: Canadian Scholars Press.

Tarc, P. (2015). What is the ‘active’ in 21st century calls to develop ‘active global citizens’? Justice-oriented desires, active learning, neoliberal times. In J. Harshman, T. Augustine & M. Merryfield (Eds.), Research in global citizenship education (pp. 35-58). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Teaching and Supervision

Doctoral Supervision Completed

2022, Georges Wakim, Syrian Refugee Education in Lebanese Secondary Schooling: A Vertical Case Study

2021, Vanessa Sperduti, Seeking the Perspectives of a Host Community in a US-based Service Learning Program: A Case Study  [co-supervised with Marianne Larsen]

2020, James Budrow, Becoming a Cosmopolitan Teacher: Empirical and Theoretical Inquiries

2019, Abbey Duggal, Teaching for Equity:  A Case Study of Teachers,’ Vice Principals,’ and Principals’ Perspectives in Three High-Poverty Elementary Schools in Ontario, Canada [co-supervised with Pam Bishop]

2019, Qinghua Zhao, Routes to a Western Undergraduate Degree: Chinese Families’ Mobilization of Capital and Flexible Citizenship [co-supervised with Melody Viczko]

2019, Eva Jaberi, Seeking the Global Generation: A Comparative Case Study of Youth from Canada, Georgia and Saudi Arabia [co-supervised with Marianne Larsen]

2018, Farrukh Chishtie, The ‘Meaning’ and ‘Enactments’ of Natural Sciences: ANT-Mobilities [co-supervised with Allan Pitman]

2018, Xi Wu, Examining Chinese International Secondary School Students in Transnational Spaces: Becoming Flexible Citizens?

2017, Desire Yamutaule, The Doubleness of International Double Degree Programs at Ontario Universities: Challenges and Prospects for Global Citizenship Education

2017, Clara Tascon de Arcila, Knowledge production in international research collaboration: A comparative study of Canadian and Colombian Research Networks [co-supervised with Marianne Larsen]

2012, Elida Sanchez Cruz, Women in Science and Engineering: The Impact of Gender Equity Policy in Mexican Higher Education

Doctoral supervision in progress

Polin Sankar-Persad, Developing Understandings of and Commitments to International Mindedness: Portraits of Five International Baccalaureate Teachers

Haoming Tang, Re-grounding Processes of Transformative Learning for Global Mindedness: Empirical and Meta Inquiries

Aisha Haque, Educational Programmers ‘Doing Diversity’: Toward a Critical Praxis

Shamiga Arumuhathas, Is there Adversity in Diversity? Racialized International Students’ Experiences at Southwestern Ontario Universities

Noordin Abdulaziz Omar, Re-examining Ontario’s Parental Policy (2010-2022): Analyzing Marginalized Parental Inclusion and Exclusion through a Policy Discourse Lens