Faculty Bio
Dr. Cory Wright-Maley
Professor, Education
Phone: 403-254-3129
Email: cory.wrightmaley@stmu.ca
I completed my undergraduate studies at the University of Calgary where I graduated with two B.A. honours degrees in History and Political Science. I then undertook my M.A. in Education at the internationally renowned Stanford Teacher Education Program and stayed to teach high school social studies at Woodside High School in California for the next six years. When my visa expired, I decided to travel around the world for a year before pursuing my Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Connecticut (UConn). My dissertation was a phenomenological multi-case study on the use of simulations in social studies classrooms. I interviewed and observed veteran teachers who had strong reputations for utilizing simulations as a signature pedagogy. Today I am considered a leading expert in the use of simulations in the context of history and social studies education and have, in addition to my scholarship, consulted with major organizations and museums on simulation pedagogy. My work has helped establish a common parlance to define simulations and differentiate them from other related approaches, articulated their benefits and limitations, and provided insight into effective teaching practices. At present I am developing the framework for a teacher-facing book on developing and implementing effective simulations-based teaching.
Although simulation remains the central focus of my teaching and scholarship, I have eclectic scholarly interests that include economics education (particularly related to inequality), preservice teacher perspectives, diversity in education, and recently, confronting the challenge of toxic populism.
I have been a member of the Faculty of Education since 2013 and am now a Full Professor of Education. I teach social studies curriculum methods and a course on diversity and the common good. In my time here, I helped the team grow the program from two to nine cohorts. I led the secondary education program design team and Indigenization initiative for the Education program, contributed to the development of our Master of Education in Catholic Leadership, and served as Department Chair between 2022-2025. I am proud to be part of a vibrant team and to contribute to the success of our highly regarded teacher education program.
Specialization/Research Interest
Social Studies and History Simulations, Economics Education, Inequality, Civics Education, Populism, Diversity, Qualitative Research Methods
Education
Ph.D. Education (Curriculum & Instruction), University of Connecticut
M.A. Education, Stanford University
B.A. (honours) History, University of Calgary
B.A. (honours) Political Sciences, University of Calgary
- Wright-Maley, C. (Accepted). “As Canadian as Possible Under the Circumstances”: An Historical Perspective on U.S. Annexation Threats Against Canada. Journal of International Social Studies.
- Wright-Maley, C. (In Press). For Whom Do People Work All Day? T. Lucey (Ed.). Holistic Financial Literacy Education: Laying the Groundwork. Routledge.
- Wright-Maley, C. (In Press). Forging Civic Armour Against Toxic Populism: An Affective Addition to Fostering Reflective and Resilient Citizens. One World in Dialogue.
- Hall, D., Wright-Maley, C., & Finley, S. Y. (2024). Evaluating, Deconstructing, And Re-Making Sticky Economic Metaphors: Welcoming the Death of Trickle-Down Economics. T. Lucey & Cooter, K. (Eds.). Critical Empathy as Teacher Education Reform: Dissecting the Principles that Constrain Socio-Historical and Moral Vision. 187-208. Information Age Publishing.
- Katz, L., Carlgren, D., Wright-Maley, C., Hallam, M., Forder, J., Milner, D., & Finestone, L. (2024). Student-Generated Multiple-Choice Questions: A Java and Web-Based Tool for Students to Create Multiple-Choice Tests. The Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 15(2).
- Wright-Maley, C. (2023). Taking American Partition Seriously: Using Historical and Futures Thinking to Address Growing Calls for Breaking up the Union. Canadian Social Studies, 54(1), 1-19.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2023). Teaching Black enslavement in Canada: A Necessary Step Toward a Maturing National Identity. ATA Magazine (ATA Social Studies Council)
- Wright-Maley, C., Hall, D., & Finley, S. Y. (2023). Evaporative Economics: A Truth-Telling Metaphor to Displace the Trickle-Down Lie that Just Won’t Die. Journal of Social Studies Education Research, 14(2), 1-20.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2022). “Glossed Over and Missing” Preservice Teachers Learn about Slavery in Canada. Theory & Research in Social Education, 50(4), 581-606.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2022). Time, Temporality, and Entanglement in the Face of Parallel Realities. Journal of Folklore and Education, 9, 8-24.
- Levine, T., Wright-Maley, C., and Harvel, S. (2021) Preparing “Guardians of Democracy”: How Elementary Social Studies Methods Courses Can Support Participatory Democracy. Education in a Democracy, 12(1), 109-133
- Colwell, R. & Wright-Maley, C. (2020). Nothing to fear: Teaching to Transcend Transphobia in Catholic Contexts. In S. Woolley & L. Airton, (Eds.). Teaching About Gender Diversity: Teacher-tested Lesson Plans for K-12 Classrooms. Canadian Scholars Press.
- Wright-Maley, C. (Ed.). (2019). More Like Life Itself: Simulations as Powerful and Purposeful Social Studies. Information Age.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2019). Thinking Through Simulation Design: Toward The Mediation Of Choice Architectures. In C. Wright-Maley (Ed.). More Like Life Itself: Simulations as Powerful and Purposeful Social Studies. Information Age.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2019). Two Paths to Successful Implementation of Simulations in the Social Studies Classroom. In C. Wright-Maley (Ed.). More Like Life Itself: Simulations as Powerful and Purposeful Social Studies. Information Age.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2019, June 6). Why Jason Kenney’s ‘common sense’ education platform gets it wrong. The Conversation.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2018). Soft Overcomes Hard: Simulation Leadership as Mediation of Choice Architectures, pp. 73-83. In A. Naweed, M. Wardaszko, E. Leigh, S. Meijer (Eds.). Intersections in Simulation and Gaming. ISAGA 2016, SimTecT 2016. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 10711. Springer
- Wright-Maley, C. & Green, J. D. (2018). Bitter Challenge; Swede Success: Simulating Language Learning Experiences in Social Studies Classrooms. In D. Oliveira & K. Obenchain, (Eds.). Teaching History and Social Studies to English Language Learners: Preparing Pre-Service and In-Service Teachers. Palgrave MacMillan.
- Wright-Maley, C., Lee, J., & Friedman, A.M. (2018). Digital Simulations, Games, And Other Emerging Technologies in Historical Learning. In S. A. Metzger & L.M. Harris (Eds.). International Handbook of History Teaching and Learning. Wiley-Blackwell.
- Wright-Maley, C. & Davis, T. (Eds.), (2017). Teaching for Democracy in an Age of Economic Disparity. New York, NY: Routledge.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2017). Yes, Children Should Know Where Meat Comes From: Preparing Teachers to Navigate the Delicate Nature of Interrogating the Sacrosanct. In S. Shear, Tschida, Bellows, L.B. Buchanan, E.E. Saylor (Eds.). (Re)Imagining Elementary Social Studies: A Controversial Issues Reader, pp. 177-198. Information Age Press.
- Wright-Maley, C. & Joshi, P. (2017). All Fall Down: Simulating the Spread of the Black Plague in the High School Classroom. The History Teacher, 50(4), 517-534.
- Levine, T. & Wright-Maley, C. (2017). Studying Teacher Preparation for Linguistic Diversity: Promoting Triangulation While Minimizing Cost. SAGE Research Methods Cases. DOI:
- Wright-Maley, C. & Joshi, P. (2016). Why OPEC is still Relevant—Especially to the Social Studies. Social Education, 80(3), 168-173.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2016). “Their Definition of Rigor is Different Than Ours”: The Promise and Challenge of Enactivist Pedagogies in the Social Studies. Cogent Education, 3(1), 1-14. DOI:
- Wright-Maley, C., Davis, C., Gonzales, E., Colwell, R. (2016). Considering Perspectives on Transgender Inclusion Ii Canadian Catholic Elementary Schools: Perspectives, Challenges, and Opportunities. Journal of Social Studies Research, 40(3), 187-200. DOI:
- Wright-Maley, C. (2015). What Every Social Studies Teacher Should Know About Simulations. Canadian Social Studies, 48(1), 8-23.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2015). On “stepping back and letting go”: The role of Control in the Cuccess or Failure of Social Studies Simulations. Theory and Research in Social Education, 43(2), 206-243 DOI
- Wright-Maley, C. (2015). Beyond the “Babel problem”: Defining simulations for the social studies. Journal of Social Studies Research, 39(2), 63-77
- Wright-Maley, C., & Green, J.D. (2015). Experiencing the Needs and Challenges of ELLs: Improving Knowledge and Efficacy of Preservice Teachers Through the Use of a Language Immersion Simulation. Cogent Education, 2(1), 1-17.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2014). In defense of simulating complex and tragic historical episodes: A measured response to the outcry over a New England slavery simulation. Canadian Social Studies, 47(1), 18-25.
- Wright-Maley, C., Levine, T., Gonzalez, E. (2014). Instruction in Progress: In Search of Effective Practices For Emergent Bilinguals. In Levine, T., Howard, L., Moss, D. (Eds.). Preparing Classroom Teachers to Succeed with Second Language Learners, pp. 154-173. Routledge.
- Wright-Maley, C., Grenier, R.S., Marcus, A.S. (2013). We need to talk: Improving Museum Visits Through Dialogue Between Social Studies Teachers and Museum Educators. The Social Studies, 104(5), 207-216.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2013). Deficit Crisis Simulation: Using Monopoly to teach about the deficit debate. Social Studies Research and Practice, 8(1), 89-101.
- Wright-Maley, C. (2011). Meet them at the plate: Reflections on the Eating of Animals And The Role of Education Therein. Critical Education, 2(5), pp. 1-20.
- Maley, C.D. (2010). Anarchism and Education in the Academy: An Essay Review. Education Review, 13(7), 1-20.
- Maley, C.D. (2009) Education through the cracks: Engaging in democratic alternatives to modern schooling. In A. Renner (Ed.). Rouge Forum News, 14, 26-29.