Jane Gaskell, Champion of Public Education
May 12, 2011
Former OISE Dean Jane Gaskell was among a select few honoured by The Learning Partnership at its annual Toronto Tribute dinner on May 10. The gala event at the Toronto Convention Centre brought together more than 1,300 leaders in education, business, government and the community to pay tribute to some of Canada's greatest champions of public education. Jane's companions in honour included Darren Entwistle, President and Chief Executive Officer of Telus, Donald A. Stewart, Chief Executive Officer of Sun Life Financial Inc., and J. Robert S. Prichard, O.S., O. Ont., Chair, Torys LLP, President Emeritus, University of Toronto. These individuals were inducted into the Champions of Public Education Hall of Fame, which now includes 45 honourees from across Canada.
Jane Gaskell is a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. She received her doctorate in sociology of education at Harvard University, then taught at Queen's University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto. She served as dean of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) from 2003 to 2010. Over her career, she has combined educational leadership with teaching and writing about the changing landscape and challenging issues that face educators everywhere.
As dean at the University of Toronto, she put particular emphasis on enhancing the quality of teacher education and strengthening OISE’s international ties. She has championed the importance of educational research as president of the Canadian Society for Study of Education, the Canadian Association for Foundations of Education, the vice president of the Social Sciences Federation of Canada, and board member and committee chair for the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Her scholarship has examined the aspirations of young people for education and work, the impact of gender, class and ethnicity on educational attainment, the complex relationships between the workplace and public schooling, the practices of exemplary secondary schools across Canada, the history of school boards in Toronto and Winnipeg, the organization of teacher education and the debates around school choice. Her work has been recognized through the Whitworth award for research on Canadian education, a Critics award from the American Educational Studies Association, the R.B. Jackson award from the Canadian Educational Research Association and a Killam Memorial award. She is a fellow of Clare Hall at Cambridge University, and has been a visiting professor and external examiner at many universities around the world. Her graduate students work at universities across Canada.
Among the many friends and colleagues who came out to honour Jane were Carol Rolheiser, director of the University of Toronto's Office of Teaching Advancement and former associate dean, Teacher Education, Julia O'Sullivan, dean of OISE, Normand Labrie, associate dean, Research and Graduate Studies, Glen Jones, former associate dean, Academic, Dennis Thiessen, former acting associate dean, Academic and former chair of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, Mira Gambhir, a doctoral candidate in Curriculum, Teaching and Learning, and William Westfall, a York University professor.