Faculty & Staff

Jodi Nickel, PhD

Academic Title: Professor 

Education
PhD, University of Western Ontario
MEd., University of Regina
BEd., University Regina

Contact Information 
Phone: 403.440.7227
Email: jnickel@mtroyal.ca

 

While teaching in the K-12 education system, Jodi completed her Masters of Education researching student-teacher interaction in writing conferences. Her PhD focused on the emerging autonomy of young children. Her research interests include Scholarship of Teaching and Learning focused upon teacher reflection and learning through literacy tutoring, the emergence of professional identity during preservice education and early career teaching, teacher leadership, and the experiences of academic chairs. She is responsible for the development of MRU Reads, an open access website that helps teacher candidates teach foundational literacy skills as part of their weekly field experience in schools.

Areas of Instruction

  • Language Development and Literacy
  • Teaching Elementary Language Arts
  • Practicum Supervision

Areas of Scholarship

  • Teaching reading and literacy tutoring
  • Professional identity and teacher reflection
  • Teacher leadership
  • Academic chairs

MRU Distinguished Faculty Award, 2025

Selected publications

Nickel, J., Cuillerier, J., Dreyer, C., Minish, E., Coughlin, E., & Chadwick, J. (in press).  Building teacher candidate capacity for code-related reading instruction: The evolution of a tutoring program. Canadian Journal of Action Research.

Georgiou, G., Peyton, A., Nickel, J., Cusack, T., & Miner, S. (in press). Pre-service teachers’ knowledge of phonological awareness, phonics, and morphology in Alberta: Implications for teacher preparation programs. McGill Journal of Education.

Sinclair, J., Nickel, J., Fraser, A., Critch, T., Hope, L., McCallum, D., Norris, M., St. Croix, N., Viera, A., Worden, J. (2025). Teaching reading in Canada: Curriculum and assessment policy updates from the provinces and Territories. Journal of Teaching and Learning, 19(5), 106-154. https://jtl.uwindsor.ca/index.php/jtl/article/view/10423/6158

Nickel, J. & Webber, C. F. (2025). Enabling teacher leadership through educational entrepreneurship. International Journal of Education Policy & Leadership 21(3). doi:10.22230/ijepl.2025v21n3a1525. https://journals.sfu.ca/ijepl/index.php/ijepl/article/view/1613/415

Georgiou, G., Peyton A., Antoniuk, A., Beach, P., Fraser A., Kirby, J. R., Klein, P., Li, G., Metsala, J., Mousavi, A., Nickel, J., Savage, R., & Joshi, R. M. (2025). Pre-service teachers’ knowledge of language and literacy concepts: The skeleton in Canada’s closet? Annals of Dyslexia 76, 50-66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11881-025-00351-0

Nickel, J., & Chadwick, J. (2022). Tutoring to build teacher candidates' competence as reading teachers. Mentoring and Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, 30(3), 312-332. https://doi.org/10.1080/13611267.2022.2070990

Nickel, J. & Crosby, S. (2021). Professional identity values and tensions for early career teachers. Teaching Education, volume pending, DOI: 10.1080/10476210.2021.1895107.

Nickel, J. & Zimmer, J. (2019). Professional identity in graduating teacher candidates, Teaching Education, 30(2), 145-159. DOI: 10.1080/10476210.2018.1454898

Relevant Community Service

  • Trustee, Kids Literacy Collective
  • Literacy Lab Counsel, MRU Institute for Community Prosperity
  • Program Chair, ResearchED Calgary Conference
  • Coordinator, MRUReads After-school Literacy Program