Lee Beavington
BSc (UBC), PhD (SFU)
Lee Beavington is an interdisciplinary instructor and learning strategist. He believes in learner-centered and inquiry-based approaches that honour the whole student. Lee is a TEDx speaker, award-winning author, and has taught and worked in five faculties at Kwantlen Polytechnic University, including being a faculty leader for the Amazon Field School. He also served as co-curator for the award-winning exhition, Wild Things: The Power of Nature in Our Lives, at the Museum of Vancouver, recipient of the Award of Merit for Excellence in Exhibitions. His interdisciplinary research explores holistic science education, environmental ethics, and arts-based learning across the curriculum. He has published his work in such diverse places as Cultural Studies of Science Education, Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, Ecopsychology, Animals and Science Education, Wild Berries of British Columbia, Langscape, Clarkesworld Magazine, and Writers of the Future. Find Lee reflecting in the forest, mesmerized by ferns, and always following the river.
Lee also works as a Learning Strategist at KPU, and teaches the Amazon Interdisciplinary Field School, Interdisciplinary Expressive Arts (IDEA), and Academic & Career Preparation.
Courses taught
- BIOL 1110 - Introductory Biology I
- BIOL 1112 - Biology Today
- BIOL 1210 - Introductory Biology 2
- BIOL 2320 - Genetics
- BIOL 2321 - Cell Biology
- BIOL 2322 - Ecology
- BIOL 3110 - Animal Behaviour
- BIOL 3225 - Biology of Plants
- BIOL 3321 - Advanced Cell and Molecular Biology
- BIOQ 1099 - Introduction to Human Biology
- ARTS 3000 - Amazon Interdisciplinary Field School
- IDEA 3100 - Interdisciplinary Expressive Arts 1 (The Creativity Course)
- IDEA 1100 - Interdisciplinary Foundations
- KPU 100 - Introduction to University
- KPU 101 - Thriving in Action
Areas of Interest
Ecology, education, environment.
Holistic, arts-based, experiential learning.
Transformative learning, contemplative practice, nature as teacher.
Indigenizing the curriculum, place-based learning, science education.
Scholarly Work
- Beavington, L. (2021). Hard-rooted to nature: Rediscovering the forgotten forest in science education. Cultural Studies of Science Education, 16(3).
- Beavington, L., Huestis, A., & Carson, K. (2021). Ecology and colour in 1m2: A contemplative, place-based study. Cultural Studies of Science Education.
- Beavington, L. (2021). An octopus’s dream: Dissolving boundaries in an interspecies friendship. Mise-en-scène - The Journal of Film & Visual Narration.
- Beavington, L., Beeman, C., Blenkinsop, S., Heggen, M. P., & Kazi, E. (in press). The paradox of wild pedagogies: Loss and hope next to a Norwegian glacier. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education.
- Beavington, L. (2021). Walking pedagogy for science education and more-than-human connection. Journal of the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies, 18(2), 163–178.
- Beavington, L. (2021). Bird language and contemplative education in the Anthropocene. Fusion Journal, 19, 53-63.
- Chang, D., & Beavington, L. (2020). The life of blossom: Living poetically in the Anthropocene. Art/Research International: A Transdisciplinary Journal, 5(2), 257–277.
- Beavington, L. (2020). Curating a future Earth. SFU Educational Review, 13(1), 87–89.
- Beavington, L. (2019). Ecopoetics of the Amazon. In S. Faulkner & A. Cloud (Eds.), Poetic Inquiry as Social Justice and Political Response (pp. 78–88). Vernon Press.
- Beavington, L. (2019). Kidnapping children and calves (of a tender age). In S. Faulkner & A. England (Eds.), Scientists and poets #RESIST (pp. 35–42). Brill in the Personal/Public Scholarship series.
- Beavington, L., & Jewell, J. (2018). GPS ecocache: Connecting learners to experience and place. American Association of Philosophy Teachers Studies in Pedagogy, 4.
- Beavington, L. (2018). Riversong. Ecopsychology (special issue: Children and Nature), 10(4), 328–329.
- Beavington, L., & Bai, H. (2018). Science education in the key of gentle empiricism. In L. Bryan & K. Tobin (Eds.), 13 questions: Reframing education’s conversation – Science (pp. 473–484). New York: Peter Lang.
- Beavington, L. (2018). The jaguar walk: Reflections from the Amazon Field School. Transformative Dialogues (special issue: Transforming Global Partnerships), 11(3).
- Beavington, L. (2018). Romanticism and science education: Nature as a poem. European Journal of Philosophy in Arts Education, 2(2), 6–46. ISSN 2002-4665.
- Beavington, L., Bai, H., & Romanycia, S. (2017). Ethical-ecological holism in science pedagogy: In honor of sea urchins. In M. P. Mueller, D. J. Tippins, & A. J. Stewart (Eds.), Animals and science education (pp. 85–95). Springer International Publishing.
- Beavington, L. (2017). Poetic pedagogy in science education. In P. Sameshima, A. Fidyk, K. James, & C. Leggo (Eds.), Poetic inquiry: Enchantments of place (pp. 355–363). Vernon Press.
- Beavington, L. (2016). A creative approach: Teaching biology labs through arts-based learning. Article 26 in Tested Studies for Laboratory Teaching, Volume 37 (K. McMahon, Editor). Proceedings of the 37th Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE).
- Beavington, L. (2016). Curriculum hidden: Contemplating more-than-human ethics. SFU Educational Review, 9.
- Beavington, L. (2015). An interdisciplinary study in fluvial geomorphology. Transformative Dialogues, 8(2).
- Beavington, L. (2015). All is water, and the world is full of gods. SFU Educational Review, 8.