Excellence in Education Prize for Professor Marie-Hélène Brunet

From her beginnings as an emerging researcher to her current work as an award-winning professor, Professor Brunet has always linked feminist struggles of the past to gender issues of the present. Her focus on “what’s missing” in history education — such as women’s voices and the experiences of Franco-Ontarians — has animated a vibrant career of teaching future teachers and moving the gender conversation forward.

“Brunet is unequivocally an exemplary and exceptional teacher,” says Professor Richard Barwell, former dean of the Faculty of Education.

“This is evident by the quality of her teaching evaluations, her innovative and interactive teaching practices at the cutting edge of technology, and her collaborative research program on the pedagogy of women’s history and the professional practices of history teachers in Francophone minority settings,” he adds.

“This award is a great source of motivation for me: it’s a recognition of my deep commitment to teacher education. I’m passionate about research on the science of teaching and learning because I know how much can be accomplished in the classroom,” Brunet says. 

“It’s vital to reflect on our practices and how they can improve our understanding of the complex world in which we live. I believe we must prioritize the development of critical thinking and encourage students to be open to diverse perspectives,” she explains. 

Empowering educators with the knowledge and practical tools to dig deeply into difficult topics in the classroom, and strengthening Francophone education in minority language settings, are among Brunet’s main goals.

“I’m proud to contribute to the pre-service and in-service training of teachers and to promote the contributions and strength of Ontario’s Francophone communities,” she adds. “I dedicate this award to my undergrad and grad students, who continually inspire me to become a better teacher.”  

Agency, equality, feminism, Francophones, gender, inclusion, power, women: these key words, which appear most frequently in Brunet’s long list of academic publications, are telling. What’s on her (feminist) agenda? A robust research program that aims to make a positive difference in equity and inclusion in education.

Brunet initiated the creation of a new graduate course on “Gender and Education” and participated in the development of a master’s concentration in education and inclusion in minority language environments at the Faculty of Education.

She is the principal investigator of a research project titled Framing our past: Teaching and learning about Canadian women’s history that is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. In this collaboration with Canada’s History Society, Brunet and her team seek to address inequities in school curriculums by creating resources that support the teaching and learning of the history of gender and women’s experiences. 
 
She is also a co-investigator and lead for Francophone research on a SSHRC-funded $2.5 million project entitled Thinking Historically for Canada’s Future.

Described by the publisher as “a long overdue conversation about women and gender in how we teach and learn about the past,” her forthcoming co-edited collection, Women, Gender, and History Education: Perspectives from Ontario and Quebec, Canada, will be published in the fall of 2024.

“Marie-Hélène Brunet is a professor who desires to make a difference by educating the public about the ways in which her work can help improve our attention to historical and ongoing gender inequities, both inside and outside the contexts of Francophone and Anglophone public education systems,” says former vice-dean of graduate studies Nicholas Ng-A-Fook.

Marie Hélène Brunet is an associate professor of social studies and history education at the Faculty of Education. Her research focuses on the issue of gender inequities in school curriculums and the marginalization of women’s experiences in history education. She has been a co-editor and French language editor of Historical Studies in Education, is the creator of the podcast 'Histoire d’enseigner : un balado sur l'enseignement de l'histoire' and former director of the educational research unit Faire de l’histoire/Making History.

Learn more about Professor Brunet’s research.