Professors Fleuret and Smith were honored with Excellence in Education prizes from the Office of the Provost and Vice-President, Academic Affairs, in recognition of their outstanding teaching, contributions to the University, pedagogical initiatives, and testimonials from students and colleagues. Professor Kane was selected by the Association of the Professors of the University of Ottawa (APUO) as a recipient of the University of Ottawa Award for Excellence in Research in the Humanities stream (arts, social sciences, management, education, law). This award recognizes members of teaching staff who “have earned distinction for themselves and for the University as a result of the importance and exceptional characteristics of their research work.”
Our professors will be honoured during a February, 2023 reception hosted by Jacques Frémont, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ottawa.
“We applaud our laureates for their remarkable accomplishments and contributions to their domains of expertise,” said Dean Richard Barwell. “As thought leaders in educational research, as well as passionate innovators in classroom teaching, their work impacts both the advancement of knowledge as well as student learning and well-being."
Carole Fleuret, PhD, is a full professor in the Faculty of Education and her research focuses on second language didactics, plurilingual repertoires and multilingualism. She conducts studies on the appropriation of the writing, on orthographic development and on the socio-cognitive and cultural components involved in written socialization among minority populations, all from an intercultural perspective. She is also interested in the different models of reception services for newcomers. Professor Fleuret shares her expertise in education trends and research as a regular guest on the francophone radio station UniqueFM.
Award for Excellence in Research, 2021-22 | APUO
Ruth Kane, PhD, originally from New Zealand, is a full professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on equity in teaching and teacher education in Canada and internationally. She leads annual international practicums to Uganda through which Canadian teachers engage with a different education context. Before entering teacher education, she was a secondary teacher in New Zealand and Australia, including teaching on indigenous communities in the far north of Queensland, Australia. She is currently co-lead in a three-year ArcticNet-funded study of sustainable, Inuit-centered teacher education for Inuit Nunangat, a collaborative project bringing together researchers from five universities (uOttawa, UPEI, Memorial, Winnipeg, and Queens) and the four Inuit Nunangat jurisdictions. In 2022 she was awarded a three-year, SSHRC-funded research project on online community building, entitled ‘Social media communities for health and wellness.'
J. David Smith, PhD, is professor of Counselling Psychology at the Faculty of Education. He researches bullying prevention programs and the links between mental health and bullying. He is interested in the role of student-teacher relationships, a key aspect of school climate, and their potential to mitigate bullying, as well as helping teachers to build social-emotional capacities in the service of building strong, positive relationships with students. He is a founding member of PREVNet and BRNet, both of which are devoted to finding sustainable solutions to bullying and promoting positive development in children and youth.