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Dr. Malins is Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Equity. She attended Laurier Brantford for her undergraduate work, and subsequently completed her B.Ed from Nipissing. She spent several years as a K-12 educator in Ontario, primarily teaching grade 5/6, where she developed an interest in how educators are supported to address diverse gender and sexual identities in the classroom. She obtained her PhD from Western, where she became increasingly familiar with curriculum, Critical Literacies, and teaching for social justice. She held a tenure-track role at the University of New Brunswick for three years prior to returning to Laurier Brantford, where her post-secondary educational journey had begun!
Dr. Malins' research program is grounded in Curriculum Studies and equitable practices, with a focus on supporting opportunities for youth to make meaning of diverse gender and sexual identities. Curriculum and policy are foundational to these conversations. She works with educators and community members alike to celebrate their role in young people’s lives to include and empower all identities. Her work centres Critical Literacy, as she is attuned to ensuring children and adolescents encounter a variety of voices and experiences in the texts to which they are exposed, as these texts shape understandings of self and others. In particular, she is passionate about how play and picture books, respectively, might be modes of possibility for exploration and education around gender and sexual diversity.
Prioletta, J., Herriot, L., Davies, A., & Malins, P. (2026) Sexual health education in early childhood: Examining early years frameworks across Canada. Journal of Childhood Studies, 51(3), 125-143. https://doi.org/10.18357/jcs513202621835
Malins, P. (2025). Chapter 18: 2sLGBTQ+ in the Early Years Classroom. In J. Prioletta, A. Davies, & K. Smith (Eds.), The Bloomsbury Handbook of Gender and Sexuality in Early Childhood. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Burkholder, C., Malins, P., Whitty, P., Razavi, Z. (2025). Centering Queer Joy in Early Childhood Classrooms by Co-constructing Invitations to Play. The Critical Social Educator, 3(2), 26-52. https://www.tcsejournal.com/issues/vol-3-no-2-articles/centering-queer-joy-in-early-childhood-classrooms
Burkholder, C., Whitty, P., Malins, P., Keehn, M. (2025). On Summoning Queer Joy in Early Childhood Education: Some Findings from New Brunswick, Canada. Journal of Early Childood Research, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X251318894
Malins, P. (2023). Children’s opportunities to make meaning of and engage in citizenship: A critical discourse analysis of Canadian kindergarten curricula. Book chapter in S. DeZutter (Ed), International Perspectives on Education for Democracy in Early Childhood: Recognizing Young Children as Citizens. New York: Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group.
Malins, P., & Whitty, P. (2022). Families’ comfort with LGBTQ2s+ picturebooks: Embracing children’s critical knowledges. Waikato Journal of Education, 27(1), 119-132.
- EU447: Queer Studies in Education
- EU482: Curriculum Foundations
- EU492: Equity and Diversity in Schools
- EU425: Foundations of Language and Literacy
- EU456: Assessment and Evaluation
- EU417: Social Studies and Indigenous Education
- EU481: Principles and Applications of Learning and Development