Nicholas Ng-A-Fook receives the 2024 Coutts Award

It’s easy to lose count of the roles Professor Nicholas Ng-A-Fook has held with the CSSE and its constituent associations during his academic career. 

He’s worn many hats — secretary-treasurer, president-elect, co-president, president, past-president, conference co-lead, award committee chair, journal editor—and these are just the official titles. Add to that list the unofficial positions such as mentor to graduate students and emerging researchers, and “gentle nudger” of established scholars towards service opportunities in the CSSE community. 

“Nicholas Ng-A-Fook is recognized by his colleagues as someone who has given consistent and distinguished service to CSSE across the past two decades,” says Ruth G. Kane, who is director of graduate studies (Anglophone) at the Faculty of Education. 

“Through his energy and commitment to CSSE, to equity, to truth and reconciliation, and to mentoring and supporting emerging scholars and researchers, he continues to serve and build the CSSE and further Dr. Coutts’ vision for a vibrant, engaged, and inclusive national organisation,” she adds. 
 

Nurturing networks is second nature for Ng-A-Fook.

Scholars who recommended him for the Coutts Award were unanimous in their praise of his ability to bring people together. Ng-A-Fook’s focus on creating opportunities for collaboration is directly linked to his professional and personal commitments to advancing equity and reconciliation.
 
His work to build relational bridges between and among Anglophone, Francophone, and Indigenous communities has helped the CSSE grow in new directions and has positioned it as an equity leader among academic associations. He has contributed to improving the Society’s yearly conference by purposefully promoting bilingualism and leading initiatives that address anti-Black racism. Among these positive changes was securing financial support for racialized graduate students to present their research at the annual gatherings.

During his tenure in various CSSE leadership roles, he ensured that responding to the 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was, and remains, a priority. For example, he put relationality into practice by first visiting with First Nations members on whose land the CSSE conferences were held, and  he co-created the first vice-president, Indigenous position on the executive council.

Professor Ng-A-Fook's contributions to the CSSE are ongoing. His engagement and expertise as an activist and curriculum theorist continue to influence research, policy, and connections within scholarly and partner communities.
 

“I’d like to offer my deepest sincere gratitude to all of the amazing colleagues who put forth my nomination to the CSSE board of directors and Coutts’ Distinguish Service Award Committee,” says Ng-A-Fook. 

“The letters, and the award, remind me of our deep commitment to serving different educational research communities and the public good across Turtle Island for almost two decades.”

“Co-serving our wider community continues to inspire my career at the University of Ottawa, as a father, brother, husband, as a curriculum scholar, and public servant with joy, laughter, love, and warmth. For me, the Coutts Award represents how our collective community values service and commitment, with compassion and empathy, to social justice, human rights, historical redress, and ethical relationality.”

“I am deeply indebted to the Anishinabe Kitigan Zibi, the CSSE, the University of Ottawa, and other communities here in the Kichi Zibi region for their ongoing support of both my and others’ desires to continue serving the public good,” he adds.
 

Nicholas Ng-A-Fook is a full professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. He is the former vice-dean of graduate studies and director of the Teacher Education and Indigenous Teacher Education programs. His teaching and research are situated within the wider international field of curriculum studies and life writing research. 

He is actively engaged in responding to the 94 Calls to Action put forth by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, in partnership with local Indigenous and school board communities. He is a curriculum theorist whose work aims to disrupt settler colonial patterns in educational theory and practice.  His Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council-funded article, titled “Unsettling Beneficiaries as Curriculum Inquiries: A Case of Senator Lynn Beyak and Anti-Indigenous Systemic Racisms in Canada” which he co-authored in 2022 with Lisa Howell, PhD, won the Canadian Journal of Education’s R.W.B Jackson award.

With over 50 episodes to date, his podcast FooknConversation features discussions with colleagues, community activists, artists, educational leaders, teachers, and politicians.  Ng-A-Fook is a co-director of the Equity Knowledge Network (RSEKN) and principal investigator of the Canadian Curriculum Theory Project.  
 

Learn more about the Herbert T. Coutts Distinguished Service Award.