Recent news stories

Although dishonesty is understandably worrisome, scientists like OISE's Dr. Kang Lee emphasize that lying is a necessary part of normal development. In his research on 7- to 12-year-olds, Lee found that lying disturbs the connections between different regions of the brain. However, as kids age, their brains become better at handling cognitive tasks and this disruption decreases. Kids with poor executive function will have a harder time telling a good lie. Read more in the Washington Post.

Meet two of OISE's 2021 Vanier Scholars, Shanna Peltier and Sandra Osazuwa. These outstanding doctoral students are working to create safer, healthier, more joyful Black, Indigenous and marginalized communities through research and advocacy. In this Q&A, learn more about their achievements and plans for making an impact. Read more.

OISE alum Gary Pieters has been appointed to the Ontario Human Rights Commission for his commitment to community building, youth engagement, diversity, and social inclusion. Pieters brings over two decades of leadership roles in equity initiatives in the education sector. Read more.

As one of six Canadian educators chosen to be a Grosvenor Teacher Fellow with the National Geographic Society and Lindblad Expeditions, OISE alum Sarah Gallah was selected to expedition to the Arctic. But, the coronavirus pandemic postponed that trip. Read more.

Crispin Duenas got his acceptance letter to OISE just as he was walking into the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics. "It was a really fun day that became better, because now I had a little bit of a path for my future to take," says Duenas, an OISE alumni who will compete in his fourth Games. Since graduating, Duenas has been working as a supply teacher and long-term occasional teacher in math and physics, with the Toronto District School Board. It has stayed that way as he continued to compete nationally and internationally in his sport. Read more.

During its annual general meeting on July 15, the Canadian Teachers' Federation (CTF/FCE) celebrated the accomplishments Dr. Carol Campbell with their Public Education Advocacy Award. This award recognizes dedicated, long-standing service, as well as major contributions to publicly funded education. Read more.

As the first Indigenous health lead at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, OISE alum Angela Mashford-Pringle says her goals are simple: "I want to create a safe and welcoming environment for Indigenous students, faculty, Elders and Knowledge Keepers and their guests." Read more.

The late Professor Emeritus John Gilbert's scholarly knowledge of theatre was intimately tied to his life on stage, the many and diverse roles he played and, importantly, the generosity characteristic of actors who uphold the words and worlds of playwrights. To a room of students, his teaching proposed that the imagined world of theatre had everything to do with the real one we were inhabiting. OISE's Dr. Kathleen Gallagher reflects on the life of her remarkable colleague and friend, John. Read more.

Professor Alison Prentice will be remembered as a path-breaking feminist historian, a prolific researcher, writer and editor, an outstanding teacher, generous mentor and dear friend to many. Throughout Alison's impressive career, her interests in the history of education were closely linked to her focus on women and gender relations. Thus, she was the founding head of OISE's Centre for Women's Studies in Education. As her student, colleague and friend Elizabeth Smyth wrote: "Always humble, caring and thoughtful, Alison paired a brilliant mind with a compassionate personality. She was a legend. She was a star." Read more.

Many in the community will remember Professor Margrit Eichler, who sadly passed away on July 8, 2021, for her tremendous influence at OISE and beyond. Interim Dean Normand Labrie remembers the frequent interactions they had in the hallways of OISE, in meetings or at OISE Council at a time when her activism, energy, and scholarship were as always, so present. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Margrit was a professor emeritus in OISE's Department of Social Justice Education and over the years served in a number of important roles across the University of Toronto. Read more about Margrit's path-breaking career, her scholarship and remarkable character. Read more.

How can universities use their position to confront challenges posed by the digital revolution? In this episode of the Internationalist, OISE prof. Charles Pascal discusses the digital divide and creating equal access to higher education with digital technology. Listen here.

How can traditional knowledge be harnessed to help Indigenous people heal from the trauma of residential schools? This is one of the key questions being explored by the Land Education Design Project, a collaboration between Indigenous-led organizations and prof. Eve Tuck. Read more.

With concerns that the Tokyo Olympics could become a super-spreader event, why then are the Games taking places? The answer lies in the power that the International Olympic Committee - the self-proclaimed "supreme authority" for world sport - holds over the cities and countries that host the Games, writes OISE prof. Helen Jefferson Lenskyj. Read more.

Canada's term 'residential school' is deeply inadequate. These were not schools; they were prisons and forced labour camps, writes OISE alum Erica Violet Lee, a nêhiyaw poet and scholar. As unmarked graves of Indigenous students are uncovered across Canada, the outcome of this long-awaited reckoning involves "multiple Native nations across the land delving into their own soils, pursuing the stories we've all heard from our elders and knowledge-keepers," and building another world, writes Lee. Read more.

Writing about trauma can make us upset but also help us heal. OISE researcher Elizabeth Bolton Cartsonas explains how writing can guide a chaotic mind in ways that do not involve revisiting trauma. In the Conversation, she shares three evidence-based tips for therapeutic writing. Read more.

Professor Jennifer Brant says one reason for many Canadians' seeming inability to fully understand the horrific legacy of residential schools is the way the subject has traditionally been taught in school - if it has been taught at all. "Residential schools are referred to as a 'process of assimilation,' when, in reality, they intended to 'kill the Indian in the child.' This wasn't just an assimilation project - this was a project of genocide." Read more.

Rather than simply being a topic of a one-off workshop, explored only in an elective course or "something that you do if you want to," it's important for anti-Black racism to be highlighted amid wider conversations and discourse around racism and become "endemic and embedded" into everything educators are learning, says OISE prof. Ann Lopez. "Racism is systemic. Injustices are systemic. So you cannot change something that's systemic and structural with Band-Aids - and that's what we've been doing," she said. Read more.

#OISEGrad21: Shanna Peltier, who graduates with her master's today, has brought a collaborative approach to her research on mental health, wellness and life promotion among Indigenous communities. Learn about Shanna's journey-and her unapologetically Indigenous lens. Read more.

#OISEGrad21: Athena Tassis' work in OISE's Master of Teaching Program didn't just make her an adept educator who can expertly deploy ed tech in her classroom. It's made her a changemaker who is ready for the next chapter of her teaching journey. Read more.

OISE alumna and educational YouTubers Brittany Cohen and Shawn Matts celebrate Pride Month in a new video for children, parents and teachers. It includes a short lesson about Pride and what it means to be part of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as a fun art activity. Watch here.

COVID-19 school closures accelerate education inequities in Ontario, finds new study by Prof. Lance McCready and colleagues. Barriers such as not having access to high-speed internet or computers and devices to follow along at school means that some students have simply stopped learning altogether. And, the loss of access to school-based health care services as well as the social benefits of routine and structure have all impacted students' mental and physical health. Read more.

"Let us pray." As the virtual conference on Black boys in education began with prayer, it ended with takeaway points of action that scholars could take to their communities. The webinar, titled "Black Boys Education: Currency, Practices and Social Interventions," brought together scholars from OISE, the University of the Commonwealth Caribbean (UCC), Mico University College, as well as scholars from Kenya. Jamaica's Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Fayval Williams, was also in attendance. OISE Professor Njoki Wane also addressed the attendants. Read more.

"One course is not enough, especially when we consider the instructional time required to establish assurances for avoiding the harm of superficial reconciliation and safeguarding against cultural appropriation." Currently, Ontario teachers complete a 12-session course and are then expected to teach students about Indigenous histories in their own classrooms. This is ineffective, says Professor Jennifer Brant. Read more.

Despite the impressive list of honours and achievements under OISE professor Eve Tuck's belt, the first words she uses to describe being awarded Emily Carr University's 2021 honorary doctorate are "surprised" and "humbled." As a writer, teacher and researcher, her work centres Indigenous social thought and the ways it can be create more fair and just social policy, practice and approaches to decolonization. Read more about Dr. Tuck's scholarship and what this recognition means to her. Read more.

Meet OISE's 2021 Leaders and Legends Awards recipients. This year's winners - all OISE alumni - are making a difference in the social, economic, political and cultural wellbeing of individuals and communities in Canada and worldwide. Read more.

The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education is appalled and devastated to learn of the discovery of human remains from 215 Indigenous children at the Kamloops Indian Residential School. We share in the anger and grief felt by our Indigenous faculty, students, staff and alumni, and pledge to lend our care and support to all of our community members as we navigate the trauma and loss from this grim discovery. Please read the full statement. Read more.

"Write something where you don't care how people judge you or how people rate what you're writing about because that's your story. That's your reality." OISE prof. Njoki Wane sits down with Room Magazine to discuss her new memoir, From My Mother's Back. Read more.

OISE's Dr. Ann Lopez joins Stephen Hurley at voicEd Radio to discuss what degree our notions of equity and diversity are "uncritical and laminated." In this conversation, Lopez shares about her early life and what influenced her work as a young student, educator, administrator and now, a scholar in the area of equity, decolonization and antiracist education. Listen here.

PhD candidate Lucy El-Sherif writes about the high cost of advocating for Palestine. Drawing from her research which examines when Muslim Canadians challenge Canada's social order, El-Sherif discusses issues of racial profiling and censorship as she asks the question, when will Canadians stop punishing those who call for justice for Palestine? Read more.

As a world leader in transforming lives through teaching, education research and evidence-based advocacy, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education believes that the most promising pathway to mental-health system reform starts with education - reinventing the way our schools and educators prevent, identify, support and alleviate child, youth and young adult mental health concerns. Powered by philanthropy, we will begin our Mental Health and Well-Being Initiative by recruiting a globally-respected expert in youth mental health and then attracting key partners across the education, health and social service sectors to help jumpstart research and demonstration projects aimed at exploring innovative new practices and approaches. Read more.

Include the excluded and marginalized-this is the guiding principle behind Professor Heather Sykes' innovative research. Learn how Dr. Sykes is bringing together anti-colonial, queer and feminist theories to inquire into sports and physical education. Read more.

Alum Rumeet Billan discusses the impact of the pandemic on youth mental health, signs parents should look out for, how to approach the topic of mental health with children and teens, and supports that are available in Ontario. Watch here.

Karen Edge and her son Isaac's talk about racism on the OISE Stay At Home Club has been watched 11,000 times -- and caught the attention of the Scottish government. The government's education arm added their viral conversation as a learning resource to support anti-racism education in the Scotland. Read more.

Ken McNeilly, a gay father of two and a lecturer at OISE, applauds Canada's support of the LGBTQ2 community, but says it's time the government changed discriminatory laws that create barriers to Canadians who want to start a family. The recent federal budget included $7.1 million over three years for the continued development of the LGBTQ2 Action Plan, but that fairness did not include some parental benefits, says Ken, who's fighting a discriminatory section of Canadian tax law that disallows him from having a tax credit because the surrogate who carried his child is not his spouse. Read more.

Prof. Michal Perlman and team's latest research highlights the challenges in understanding parents' perspectives of early childhood education and care services, with traditional survey methods being ill-suited for the task. "When we ask parents questions about their child care provider, the results tend to be very positively skewed," Perlman explains. Now, the team has found a better research tool. Conjoint surveys - which measure the value individuals place on the features of a product or service, and are typically used in marketing research - offer more nuanced insights when studying parental choices about their young children. Read more.

Manitoba recently announced it would abolish its elected school boards, joining Nova Scotia and parts of Quebec. Is it time for Ontario to do the same? Steve Paikin speaks with Sachin Maharaj, a lecturer in educational leadership and policy at OISE, about the purpose the province's school boards serve, where they succeed and fall short, and what the result would be if Ontario eliminated its oldest form of elected representation. Watch here.

Online education comes with various constraints and barriers for families. Doctoral student Jennifer Sparks offers five ways parents can support their children's virtual learning experience. Read more.

Christina Caleca and Kristina Leis arrived early to class one day and an instant connection was made. The namesakes later joined the OISE Mentorship Program to support each other - and with friendship as an advantage, they brought a deep passion for mentorship and education with them. Learn more about how the pair has nurtured their relationship at OISE, one bound by calls to create communities of justice. Read more.

Congratulations to Dr. Normand Labrie on his appointment as Interim Dean of OISE! Currently our Associate Dean of Programs, this distinguished leader and academic is known for his ability to build consensus and drive meaningful change. We are delighted to welcome him into his new role. Read more.

Today, we join academic institutions and governments around the world in declaring a climate emergency. We have issued the OISE Climate Emergency declaration, which acknowledges the need to take urgent and decisive action to slow human-caused climate change, and move towards more just, equitable and sustainable forms of living. Add your name to the OISE Climate Emergency Declaration to signify your commitment to this collective work. Read more.

Race, gender and economic status can all be barriers to Toronto's green spaces, but there are simple steps - better signs, more volunteer guides - that could make the urban wilderness more inclusive, says OISE researcher Jacqueline Scott. Read more.

Derek Chauvin has been found guilty for the murder of George Floyd. As many reflect on this historic verdict, advocates like alum Syrus Marcus Ware of Black Lives Matter Toronto pointed out that much remains to be accomplished: "Our fight is not done." Read more.

The 2021 federal budget promises new investments to create a Canada-wide early learning and child-care plan. Prof. Fikile Nxumalo and researchers explain what is possible in early childhood education beyond the provision of safe and affordable care for children while adults work. The team outlines seven actions to ensure Canada builds a sustainable and relevant early education system for the 21st century. Read more.

Vincentian born OISE doctoral candidate, Judy Grant, writes about the recent La Soufriere volcanic eruption in her hometown in St. Vincent and what it means to learn in struggle. "Since the volcano erupted, it illuminated where the strength, hope and possibility for transformational change truly is - the grassroots community," she remarks. Read more.

"Mental health is health. Mental health matters." Alum Rumeet Billan (MEd '10, PhD '14), an award-winning author, entrepreneur and learning architect, has been recognized as one of OptiMYz's Top 100 Health Leaders for 2021. The list represents those whose compassion and skill in areas such as health and mental wellbeing has helped individuals recover and thrive, and comprised of only women this year. Read more.

On heels of alum Dr. Karen Edge, an academic at University College London, and her 10 year old son Isaac's OISE Stay At Home Club episode on racism, Ontario Principals' Council asked him if he would share some of his perspectives living in a multiracial family. Here are Isaac's thoughts on racism. Read more.

OISE alum Dionne Brand, a Trinidad-born Canadian author and award-winning poet and novelist, has been recognized with the prestigious Windham-Campbell Prize -- an anonymously judged US literary award worth $165k USD. Brand was recognized in the fiction category. Her latest books include the poetry collection The Blue Clerk, which was a finalist for the 2018 Governor General's Literary Award for poetry, and the novel Theory, which won the 2019 Toronto Book Award. Read more.

The path leading to Dr. Megan Scribe's award-winning doctoral thesis began with a reading of an RCMP report about missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. And Scribe's thesis titled "Indigenous Girlhood: Narratives of Colonial Care in Literature and Law," is being recognized by OISE with the Leithwood Award for Outstanding Thesis of the Year. Read more.

Further to OISE's success as a leader in education are the contributions of our faculty. OISE extends its fullest gratitude to the winners of our 2021 Teaching Excellence Award: Doug McDougall, Angela Pyle, Arlo Kempf, Joseph Flessa and Thelma Sambrook. Read more.

The new Cultivating Community Award celebrates the achievements of staff, students or faculty who have undertaken positive actions to influence and improve a sense of belonging, inclusivity and community within OISE and beyond. Here are our inaugural recipients. Read more.

Annually, OISE issues several awards of excellence to staff, to honour individuals and teams in categories of excellence, innovation and leadership. This year, meet six OISE staff who have played an integral role in making OISE an exceptional place to work and learn. Read more.

It is critical for educators to combat damaging stereotypes in the classroom, says Prof Mary Reid. This includes doing away with the model minority myth, and acknowledging Asian Canadians as a diverse diaspora from numerous nations. Read more.

Dr. Shelley Stagg Peterson has received the U of T President's Impact Award for her contributions to children's literacy learning in remote Northern Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities. Dr. Peterson will receive $10,000 per year for five years for her research on innovative approaches for supporting Indigenous children's ancestral language, cultural and literacy learning, and remote Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators. Read more.

Prof. Normand Labrie is the recipient of the annual Award of the Centre for Research on French Canadian Culture (Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française or CRCCF) of the University of Ottawa. The CRCCF Award recognizes the merits of outstanding researchers or authors whose work has focused on French Canada in one or other of its multiple dimensions, and underscores the admiration and recognition of their peers for their particular work or involvement. Read more.

Today, U of T is putting access programming front and centre with its annual Access Connections Day conference. We spoke with Ann Lopez, the provostial advisor for access programs, about the importance of breaking down barriers to education. Read more.

OISE student Sarah Gallah has been selected as one of only 50 educators across North American to receive the prestigious Grosvenor Teacher Fellowship with Lindblad Expeditions and the National Geographic Society. Sarah will embark on a life-changing voyage to one of the many remote and extraordinary environments the Lindblad fleet explores around the world. Currently, through the fellowship, Sarah is virtually teaching her high students how to use coding to understand climate change. Read more.

In his March 4 talk, Professor Slotta presented a series of studies in which the physical classroom is integrated with learning designs. "What is it about place?" Slotta asked. "How does classroom space matter? And how can we design curriculum so that students work together as a learning community?"

"Our actions must move beyond performative hashtags." ​Professor Mary Reid reflects on the Atlanta Shootings, and suggests five concrete actions for addressing Asian hate. Read more.

Play-based writing activities are a meaningful and effective way for parents to provide essential foundations for their children's literacy. Professor Shelley Stagg Peterson shares some fun activities to incorporate at home. Read more.

Professor Kathleen Gallagher's Radical Hope Project, a multi-year international research project that examined how young people are doing in our recent years of global unrest, has led to the production of a film documentary - and a resource tool for students and teachers. Read more.

It's been one year since the WHO declared the coronavirus a pandemic. For many of us, exhaustion has become a new normal in our daily lives. OISE alum, Dr. Rumeet Billan, offers tips and strategies for dealing with and managing burnout. Watch here.

Dr. Erica Neeganagwedgin has established a scholarship for Indigenous (First Nations, Métis and Inuit), Black Indigenous and Taino students at OISE. The Olive Moxam Indigenous Bursary, named after the Taino scholar's mother, will support Indigenous and Black Indigenous students in the Master of Teaching program. With the new scholarship, Neeganagwedgin is looking to tell a different story than the one being told. Read more.

Across Canada, students from high-income families tend to attend different schools than students from low-income families, a phenomenon known as socio-economic segregation between schools. Professor Anna Katyn Chmielewski and Dr. Sachin Maharaj discuss their research on this trend in Canada. Read more.

They are leaders, hardened volunteers and thoughtful supporters of their community. But five OISE students, named as co-winners of the University of Toronto Student Leadership Awards, are also leaders at their home faculty. The award, which annually recognizes outstanding student leadership to graduating students, also notes outstanding service and commitment to their own division, of which Grace Garlow, Athena Tassis, Yin Liu, Stephanie Buono and Rebecca Judges have shown clear commitment to OISE and its close-knit community. Read more.

The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education continues to rise in the QS World University Rankings, placing as the third highest ranked educational institution globally. The QS World University Rankings by Subject highlights universities that are leading across education, teacher training, and academic studies in education subjects. Rankings are determined using 13 performance indicators grouped into five areas - which include teaching, research, citations, international outlook, and industry income. Read more.