Patrick Howard attained his PhD degree from the University of Alberta. His dissertation explored the intersections between language arts theory and practice and ecological literacy. Patrick spent over twenty years in middle and high school English Language Arts classrooms in rural Newfoundland and Labrador. His research interests include phenomenological inquiry, English education, education for sustainable development, literacy theory and practice in the K-12 school, assessment theory, eco-criticism, place-based learning, and reader response literary theory.