Alice Pitt

Professor, Interim Vice-President, Equity, People & Culture

Doctor of Philosophy in Education - University of Toronto, Toronto ON, Canada; Master of Education - Queen's University, London ON, Canada; Master of Arts in German - University of New Brunswick, Fredericton NB, Canada; Bachelor of Arts (Honours) - University of New Brunswick, Fredericton NB, Canada

Location(s) / Contact Info:

242, Winters College - WC
Keele Campus
Phone: 416-736-2100 Ext. 66301

Email: apitt@edu.yorku.ca

Scholarly Interests

In addition to investigting aspects of the emotional world in teaching and learning using the lens of psychoanalytic theory, Alice Pitt is increasingly interested in questions relating to education and the public good in times of cosmopolitanism and globalization. Increasingly, post-secondary education is understood as necesarry to individual success and economic propserity: what does this mean for teaching and learning at the university, and what new roles emerge for educators at all levels?

Research Areas

Faculty & School/Dept

  • Faculty of Education -

Selected Publications

  • Pitt, A. (2010). "On Having One's Chance: Autonomy as Education's Limit." . Educational Theory, 16 (1), 1-15.
  • Pitt, A. (Ed.) (2009). "Key Notes in Teacher Education". Canadian Association of Teacher Education
  • Pitt, A. & A. Phelan (2008). "Paradoxes of Autonomy: a Research Problem and Purpose.". Changing English: Studies in Reading and Culture, 15 (2), 189-198.
  • Pitt, A. & C. Brushwood-Rose (2007). "The Significance of Emotions in Teaching and Learning: On Making Emotional Significance.". International Journal of Leadership of Education, 10 (4), 327-337.
  • Britzman, D. & A. Pitt (2004). "Pedagogy and Clinical Experience: Psychoanalytic Observations on Losing and Refinding Significance in Learning. JAC: Journal of Advanced Composition, 24 (2), 353-374.
  • Pitt, A. (2004). "On Losing and Refinding the Mother: Reading Women's Autobiographies. Changing English: Studies in Reading and Culture, 11 (2), 267-277.
  • Pitt, A. (2003). "The Play of the Personal: Psychoanalytic Narratives of Feminist Education". New York: Peter Lang
  • Pitt, A. & D. Britzman (2003). "Speculations on Qualities of Difficult Knowledge in Teaching and Learning: An Experiment in Psychoanalytic Research.". International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 16 (6), 755-776.
  • Dippo, D., M. Duran, J. Gilbert & A. Pitt "Public Schooling, Public Knowledge, and the Education of Public School Teachers." In Canadian Perspectives on the Sociology of Education. In C. Levine-Rasky (Ed.),. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2008
  • Pitt, A. "Reproducing Authority: Revolts against Transmission." In Provoking Absences: Critical Readings in Teacher Education. In A. Phelan and J. Sumison (Eds.), (pp. 187-200). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers, 2008
  • Pitt, A. "Incalculable Precision: Psychoanalysis and the Measure of Emotion." In The Affective Dimensions of Cognition: Studies from Education in the Sciences. In Steve Alsop (Ed.), (pp. 27-36). Dordrecht,The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Press, 2005
  • Pitt, A. "Mother Love's Education." In Psychoanalytic Theory and Early Childhood Education: Love's Return. In G. Boldt and P. De Salvo (Eds.), (pp. 87-105). New York: Routledge, 2006

Selected Presentations

  • Phelan, A & A. Pitt (2009, March). "Women, Autonomy and the Teaching Profession". Presented at: 7th International Conference on Gender and Education, London, England
  • Pitt, A. (2009, March). "Regulation and Resistance in Teaching: A Case Study of Paradoxes of Autonomy.". Presented at: 7th International Conference on Gender and Education, London, England
  • Pitt, A. (2008, March). "On having One's Chance: Hannah Arendt and the impossible profession of teaching". Presented at: American Educational Research Association (AERA), New York
  • Pitt, A. (2007, October). "On Having One's Chance". Presented at: International Psychoanalysis and Education Conference, Toronto
  • Pitt, A. (2007, May). "CATE Invited Panel on Teacher Education Practice; The Practicum". Presented at: the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Studies in Education, Saskatoon
  • Ellingson, C & A. Pitt (2007, May). "Responsibility: Some Psychoanalytic Considerations". Presented at: the annual meeting of the Canadian Society for Studies in Education, Saskatoon
  • Dippo, D., M. Duran, J. Gilbert, & A. Pitt (2007, April). "Education of the City: Thinking Community in Teacher Education". Presented at: the National Inner City Conference 2007, Toronto
  • Pitt, A. (2007, April). "Emotional Obstacles to Freedom: Psychoanalytic Explorations of Professional Life.". Presented at: the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Chicago

Awards

  • Paradoxes of Autonomy in Professional Life, SSHRC Standard Research Grant - 2006-2009
  • Difficult Knowledge in Teaching and Learning: a Psychoanalytic Inquiry, SSHRC Standard Research Grant - 1998-2001