Qian Wu

Dr. Qian Wu (PhD in Applied Linguistics, Pennsylvania State University) is a social scientist and an educational researcher/practitioner. Her research program finds intellectual roots in social constructivist learning theories, primarily Vygotskian sociocultural theory, Activity Theory, and identity and learning. She advances research on the ways social contexts, such as social interaction, program and curriculum, and the broader social and cultural environments, and personal histories mediate the practices of learning and teaching.

Dr. Wu is currently leading several research projects. In a grant-awarded study, she investigates what shape patient and family partners’ stories and the ways they choose to tell them, or the discourses that underlie their perceptions of what is possible to say and do. In a study funded through AMEE (Association for Medical Education in Europe), she is examining the underlying pedagogical paradigms and values in the design and implementation of anti-oppressive faculty development programs. Most recently, she is leading a line of inquiry that explores the complexities and tensions arise in faculty development interventions (e.g., coaching) that serve clinical educators who need teaching performance improvement, with a scoping review and a multi-case study.

Other Appointments & Affiliations

• Centre for Faculty Development, Unity Health Toronto and University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine