Patrick Howard
Professor Emeritus of Education
Cape Breton University
patrick_howard@cbu.ca
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Research Interests
Sustainability education
Phenomenological research methods in the human sciences
Profile
Patrick Howard is Professor Emeritus of Education at Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, Canada. His scholarship brings together phenomenology of practice, pedagogy, language and literature, and ecological understandings of education.
Before entering university teaching, he spent 26 years as a classroom teacher and educational leader in Newfoundland and Labrador. Teaching in coastal communities along the North Atlantic, he witnessed the profound relationship between people's lives, their language and culture, and the places they inhabit. These experiences, unfolding amid significant ecological and social change, continue to inform his questions about education, human experience, and our responsibilities toward the living world.
He completed his doctoral studies at the University of Alberta, where he studied under Max van Manen. This formative encounter with hermeneutic phenomenology shaped his approach to educational inquiry and his enduring interest in the lived meanings of pedagogical experience. His subsequent research and writing have explored the possibilities of language, literature, and the imagination for cultivating ecological sensibility, as well as the relational and ethical dimensions of teaching and learning.
His scholarly work includes journal articles, books, and edited collections addressing phenomenology, educational theory, ecological relations, and the more-than-human world. He is a longtime co-editor of Phenomenology & Practice and continues to contribute to international scholarly conversations through writing, editorial work, and doctoral teaching.
His current interests include the teaching and learning of phenomenological inquiry, particularly the challenges of attending to lived experience, developing phenomenological insight, and bringing meaning into language. Through the independent Phenomenology of Practice Project, he creates opportunities for graduate students and researchers to engage in sustained reading, reflection, conversation, and phenomenological writing.
Selected Scholarly Profile
For a fuller account of my academic background, research, selected publications, teaching, and scholarly contributions, a Selected Scholarly Profile is available below.
Continuing the Conversation
Patrick Howard shares ongoing reflections on phenomenology of practice, lived experience, education, and phenomenological writing through his Substack publication, Phenomenology of Practice.
Read and follow Phenomenology of Practice on Substack
