The Educational Assistant's Guide to Supporting Inclusion in a Diverse Society

Carole Massing began her career as an elementary school teacher and developed a special interest in early learning when her own children were small. Since that time, she has taught in post-secondary programs at MacEwan University, the University of Alberta, and NorQuest College. She has also consulted, researched, and developed curriculum in early learning and child care, interculturalism, and human service administration. She earned her PhD in elementary education at the University of Alberta. Bonnie Anderson began her teaching career as an educational assistant and went on to work as a classroom teacher for three decades. She worked primarily with children with exceptionalities in inclusive and specialized programs. Her focus was integrating arts across the curriculum and differentiating instruction. Bonnie developed the curriculum for the program for educational assistants at NorQuest College and now teaches in the program. Carol Anderson is a retired educator with 39 years of teaching experience working with school-aged children in diverse classroom settings. She is trained both as a K-12 educator and as a specialist for children with communicative challenges, in particular children who are Deaf and hard of hearing. Originally from California, Carol completed her undergraduate degree in liberal arts from the University of the Pacific and achieved her Master's in Communicative Disorders: Education of the Deaf, at California State University, Fresno. Sarah Dewhurst has spent her career in education proving that the learning journey never ends. Beginning as a high school English teacher, Sarah has developed programs for Indigenous students, students with English as an additional language, students with complex learning needs, preschoolers, daycare programs for autistic children, and day programming for adults with developmental disabilities. Sarah now teaches at NorQuest College in the educational assistant and disability studies programs. She is also the founder and executive director of DiffabilitiesYEG, an organization aimed at providing vocational day programming for adults with developmental disabilities.