Nathalie Popa

My research examines how teachers, higher education institutions and educational systems can cultivate meaningful learning in a rapidly changing world. Across work in history education, the learning sciences, research–practice partnerships, and environmental and sustainability education (ESE), I pursue one central question: How can we design and support educational practices and structures that enable collaborative, continuous improvement? My scholarship combines conceptual synthesis, design-based inquiry, and attention to contextual factors.  Currently, I focus on two areas: how teaching and teacher education can be transformed in response to the planetary crisis of the Anthropocene, and how researchers and practitioners can collaborate on inquiry-driven innovation to create meaningful improvement to practice.

In addition to research, I design courses and teach graduate students and pre-service teachers, with a focus on facilitating reflection, inquiry, collaboration and real-world application.

Teaching appointments at Karlstad University:

Course designer and instructor

• HIA710 - Cultural Heritage: Transnational Perspectives, Fall 2025
• HIA200 - History as Social Therapy and Trauma recovery, Fall 2025

Course lecturer

• HIG650 - Det Mångfacetterade Kulturarvet (Winter 2025)
• HIA200 - History as Social Therapy and Trauma recovery (Fall 2024, 2023)
• HIGA01 - Historia I (Fall 2023, 2022)
• HIGL01 - Historia med didaktisk inriktning 1 (Fall 2024)

Student essay supervision

• LXAA05 - Examsarbete för ämneslärarare - Historia med didaktisk inriktning (Winter 2025, 2024, 2023)

Education and key qualifications

MicroMasters® Program Certificate in Leading Educational Innovation and Improvement, University of Michigan/EdX (2023)

PhD in Educational Studies, Integrated Studies in Education, McGill University (2021)

Master of Arts, History and Classical Studies, McGill University (2014)

Bachelor of Arts, Histoire, Université de Montréal (2013)

Popa, N., Anderson, E. R., Denner, J., McKenney, S., & Peurach, D. J. (2023). Belonging to a research-practice partnership: Lessons from 15 think-pieces about the COVID-19 pandemic and a call for action. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 32(4–5), 682–704. https://doi.org/10.1080/10508406.2023.2253529

Popa, N. (2022). Operationalizing historical consciousness: A review and synthesis of the literature on meaning making in historical learning. Review of Educational Research, 92(2), 171-208. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543211052333

Popa, N. (2022). How meaning making cultivates historical consciousness: Identifying a learning trajectory and pedagogical guidelines to promote it. The Social Studies, 114(4), 139–159. https://doi.org/10.1080/00377996.2022.2140641

Popa, N. (2017). La conscience historique en didactique de l’histoire au Canada. Canadian Journal of Education / Revue Canadienne de l’éducation, 40(1), 1–25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/90002343

Popa, N. (2021). Cultivating historical consciousness in the history classroom: Uncovering the subtleties of student meaning making with the help of found poetry. History Education Research Journal, 18(2) 224-246. https://doi.org/10.14324/HERJ.18.2.06