Research

The Faculty of Education and Social Work is committed to research as a form of service to others. Our faculty specialize in education, English for academic purposes, university and employment preparation, social work and human services.

The goal of research in our faculty is to address questions of local, national, and international importance, particularly in the strategic areas of education, health, and diversity; Indigenous understanding; and community and culture. Our research is interwoven with core academic themes: power, politics, and social justice; sustainability (environmental, economic, social, and cultural); and science, technology, and applied skills in society.

Our research mission is knowledge creation to move debates forward in ways that improve student success, enhance social and human opportunity, enable equity, advance reconciliation, and support well-being. In short, our research is in service to realizing potential — in education, language acquisition, and social and human development. Our priorities include research that contributes to Indigenous advancement and to reconciliation.

Thompson Rivers University campuses are on the ancestral lands of the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc (Kamloops campus) and the T’exelc (Williams Lake campus) within Secwepemcúl̓ecw, the traditional and unceded territory of the Secwépemc. The region TRU serves also extends into the territories of the St’át’imc, Nlaka’pamux, Nuxalk, Tŝilhqot'in, Dakelh, and Syilx peoples.