Assistant Professor
Accepting MA and PhD student beginning with academic year 2025/26
Dr. Erika Fundelius has been in and around education for over twenty-five years, including working as a paraprofessional (educational assistant), substitute teacher, preschool teacher, general education teacher, and teacher of students with visual disabilities. She also works(ed) as an orientation and mobility specialist in an adult rehabilitation setting. After completing her doctoral studies at Florida State University (Tallahassee FL), she joined UBC as an assistant professor in July of 2023. Her primary teaching focus is in the visual disabilities program.
Her interests lie in improving teacher preparation for pre-service teachers of students with visual disabilities and developing effective professional development opportunities using various methodologies. Additionally, she has a strong commitment to consent education, specifically in relation to personal and professional interactions among individuals and how cultural considerations can influence perspectives on physical touch and the concept of consent.
Scholarly Interests:
Self-determination within and beyond the Expanded core curriculum.
Professional development including pre-service and in-service teacher preparation.
- Methodologies: single-case design, mixed methods, survey.
- Theoretical orientation: Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory; Social Constructivism; Cognitivism
US Department of Education; Federal Review Panel of the American Printing House for the Blind; Member Shared Vision; Collaboration Network of BC Visual Impairment and Deafblind organizations; Member Council for Exceptional Children-Division on Autism and Developmental Disabilities [DADD]; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion [DEI] Committee; Member
EPSE 536 Foundations of Education for Students with Visual Impairments
EPSE 545 Teaching the Expanded Core Curriculum
EPSE 590 Graduating Seminar
EPSE 598A Practicum/Internship- TSVI
Florida State University, 2023, Ph.D. (Curriculum & Instruction; Special Education)
San Francisco State University, 2019; M.A. (Special Education)
- Teacher of students with visual impairments (TSVI)
- Certified and Credentialed orientation and mobility specialist (COMS)
San Francisco State University, 2016; B.A. (School-age Child and Family)
SNAAP: Preserving self and personal autonomy to support long term quality of life outcomes for people with disabilities.
Personnel Prep: Book club: Using lived experiences of individuals with visual impairments to build anti-ableist foundations of master’s students preparing to be teachers of students with visual impairments.
Personnel Prep: Barriers and enablers to balancing the expanded core curriculum.
Perceptions, understanding, and practices of self-determination among TSVIs.
Fundelius, E., (2023) The glue that holds it all together: Self-determination. Visual Impairment and Deafblind Education Quarterly, 68(2), 17-28. Spring Convention Issue. http://dvi.uberflip.com/i/1498153-vidbeq-68-2-spring-2023/0?
Fundelius, E., (2023). Supporting students with visual impairments when language might be a barrier. Visual Impairment and Deafblind Education Quarterly, 68(1), 14 22. http://dvi.uberflip.com/i/1491874-vidbeq-68-1-winter-2023/13?
Fundelius, E., (2023). Wade, T., Robbins, A., Wang. S., McConomy, M. A., & Fumero, K. (2022). Universal design principles for multimodal representation in shared book reading for preschoolers, Inclusive Practices, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/2732474522114038.