About Miwa

My name is Miwa (written as “身和” in kanji).

My beloved grandmother gave me this name. She grew up on a farm near a rural town facing Ise Bay, where her family cultivated a variety of plants and collected seaweed from the beach. As a teenager, she dreamed of becoming a nurse to help alleviate the suffering of people in her town. Growing up poor, without much resource to pursue her dream of becoming a nurse, she hopped onto a freight train going to Tokyo to work at a private doctor’s office. Shortly before World War II, she underwent nurse training with the Japanese Red Cross Society and served as a wartime nurse.

“Embodying peace” is what 身和 means. I was named with my grandmothers’ hopes for peace for future generations. My grandmother didn’t often share her lived experiences of war as a nurse – I can count the times she shared stories. But the few times she did share her stories were vivid, and my body remembers these stories in detail. I can still feel her treating and grieving for young wounded starving patients, as well as stepping over the bodies of the deceased after the bomb attack. While she didn’t share these stories too often, she always reminded me: “war and peace are separated by a thin line – it only takes an ordinary day for wars to begin.”

Peace is a constant effort. Although I can no longer converse with my grandmother in person, I often ask her what we do to build peace for future generations. My grandmother loved plants and flowers and she continued to grow them until the very end of her life. I believe that peace-building is not just our responsibility towards humanity, but also towards other species beyond humans.

My last name Takeuchi (竹内), meaning “living within the bamboo grove,” reflects the long-standing relationships between nature and humans in the context of Japan.

How to pronounce my name:

I am a Full-Professor and Werklund Research Professor (a research chair position) in the Learning Sciences at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary, which is located on the ancestral lands that have been stewarded by the Niitsitapi (Blackfoot Confederacy), the Îethka Nakoda, and the Tsuut’ina Nations, and more recently by the Otipemisiwak Métis. (For my personal land acknowledgement).

I currently serve on the Board of Directors as a President (2026-27) at the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS). I previously served as a co-chair of the Equity and Justice Committee at ISLS and a Co-President for the Network of the Learning Sciences in Canada (currently passed the torch to a wonderful leadership team). I firmly believe in the transformative power of collective action rooted in love –  specifically, “decolonial love” as Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s collection of short stories illustrate in Islands of Decolonial Love and as discussed by my colleague, Dr. Ananda Marin and myself in this article. Through our ongoing efforts to create a dynamic, equitable, and inclusive field, one that extends beyond disciplinary silos and academic institutions, I am hopeful that we can enrich our knowledge production and promote decolonial love.

Before coming to Calgary, I completed my PhD in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto.

Previously, I worked as a research fellow with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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