Dr. Jennifer J. MacDonald is an accomplished language and international education specialist. Her background combines over a decade of educational leadership, strategy, and international business development work with experience carrying out applied, “real-world” research in the education space, as well as 20+ years creating transformative learning environments in the classroom.
She researches, publishes, and presents in English, French and Spanish on topics at the intersection between critical applied linguistics and the internationalization of higher education. Her latest research tackles the challenges of language policies, politics and pedagogy in the linguistically-diverse context of internationalized Canadian higher education; in other words, how can we ensure an equitable and fruitful academic experience for all students, staff and faculty, no matter what language(s) they speak?
Her books include Academic Inquiry 1, Sentences and Paragraphs (with Marcia Kim, Oxford University Press, 2017) and Pedagogies in English for Academic Purposes: Teaching and Learning in International Contexts (with Carole MacDiarmid, Bloomsbury, 2021).
Dr. MacDonald has been an adjunct faculty member in the Faculty of Education at Saint Mary’s University, and the Faculty of Education at Mount Saint Vincent University, both in Halifax, Canada. She sits on the board of EduNova and is a past board member of Languages Canada and TESL Nova Scotia.
As Director and Associate Director/Head Teacher of English Language Studies and University Access at Dalhousie University from 2012-2023, she led a dynamic, multi-million-dollar portfolio of language education and university access programs, as well as faculty development programs in English-medium instruction (EMI) and internationalization of the curriculum (Ioc). Under her leadership, dozens of international institutional partnerships were forged, and thousands of students, teachers, faculty and professionals gained admission to university, developed as educators, and tapped into the power of language ed to open personal and professional horizons.
Dr. Jennifer J. MacDonald 