Best wishes for your retirement, Dr. Linda Laidlaw!
Carmen Rojas - 23 June 2025
The Faculty of Education sends sincere thanks and best wishes to Dr. Linda Laidlaw as she begins her retirement at the end of June.
Laidlaw joined the Department of Elementary Education in 2001 after earning her PhD from York University. Her contributions as a teacher and researcher over the last 24 years have profoundly influenced the field of early literacy.
In particular, her research on the emerging area of digital and mobile technologies in primary education and the relationship between children’s digital practices at home and their experiences at school has advanced an increasingly important area of study.
Laidlaw’s scholarly contributions to the field include numerous SSHRC-funded projects, such as the recent international collaborative studies “Reimagining Literacy Education: Being Literate in the Twenty First Century” and “Making Literacy Through Maker Literacies: Building Learning Opportunities in Early Childhood.”
Her 2023 publication Secret Lives of Children in the Digital Age: Disruptive Devices and Resourceful Learners, co-authored with Joanne O’Mara and Suzanna Wong, won an SPE Outstanding Book Award and a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award.
Laidlaw also took on administrative roles within the former Department of Elementary Education, serving as associate chair of the graduate program from 2014-15 and as faculty director of the Child Study Centre from 2015-16.
Colleague Dr. Suzanna Wong notes that Laidlaw’s dedication to both undergraduate and graduate studies shaped many lives, including her own.
“Dr. Linda Laidlaw has been a remarkable mentor, colleague and scholar whose work in language and literacy education has made a lasting impact. As my former PhD supervisor and long-time collaborator, I’ve truly appreciated her thoughtful guidance, generosity, and steady support over the years,” she says.
“More than anything, Linda has been a kind and caring mentor, always attentive to the growth and well-being of those around her. As she steps into retirement, I wish her all the best in this exciting new chapter.”