Ruth Kane, PhD, originally from New Zealand, is a full professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. At the University since 2006, Professor Kane has served as Director of Graduate Studies (Anglophone) 2015-2021, and Director of Teacher Education from 2006 to 2012. 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. She has directed three national research projects in New Zealand: Initial teacher Education; The Preparation and Induction of Beginning Secondary Teachers; and The Status of Teachers and Teaching. Since coming to Canada, she has been principal investigator on province-wide evaluations for the Ontario Ministry of Education including the evaluation of the New Teacher Induction Program (NTIP), evaluations of the Early Primary Collaborative Inquiry (EPCI) and the Student Work Study (SWST) initiatives. She was co-lead on the Equity Knowledge Network (RSEKN) originally funded by the Ministry of Education and now a Faculty of Education Research Unit (ERU).
Professor Kane supports graduate students whose fields of inquiry include equity in teacher education, beginning teacher induction, preparing teachers for urban high schools and teacher professional learning. 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. Ruth 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.’This mixed method study has potential to advance our understandings about equitable, accessible ways to address social issues for isolated or otherwise marginalized populations..