OISE faculty Alexandre Cavalcante wins early-career supervisor award

Alexandre Cavalcante, Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) has won the 2026 SGS Early-Career Supervision Award.

The award, bestowed to tenure-stream or status-only graduate faculty members at the University of Toronto who, within the first six years of their graduate faculty appointment, demonstrate outstanding performance in the multiple roles associated with graduate student supervision. 

The award was announced as part of a number of recipients of U of T School of Graduate Studies Supervision Awards. Cavalcante is the first OISE faculty recognized with this specific early-career award.

“Receiving this recognition is deeply meaningful because it celebrates one of the most rewarding aspects of academic life: growing alongside graduate students,” says Cavalcante, who joined OISE in 2020. “To me, supervision is not simply about guiding research, it is about helping students discover the many pathways available to them while learning from their perspectives and experiences.” 

Cavalcante, whose research focuses on financial education, numeracy, citizenship, STEM and entrepreneurship, is based in CTL at OISE. He teaches courses in curriculum and teaching mathematics, integrating science, mathematics and technology curricula. 

For him, his work as a graduate supervisor supports his broader goal to “reimagine mathematics education so that it responds to the contemporary challenges facing our society,” he says.

“Graduate supervision is central to that vision. Together, we question assumptions, explore new ideas, and develop research that has the potential to shape more meaningful and responsive futures for mathematics education. This award recognizes those shared journeys and the collaborative relationships that make them possible.”