Education holds a complicated relationship with ability. In Ontario, K-12 schools are tasked with teaching important skills aimed to ensure youth can participate in future civic, social, academic and employment opportunities. However, when schools suspect a student may not be learning as expected, the determination as to “why” and the decisions that follow can hold critical consequences. Employing a disability studies lens, Parekh’s research examines how student identity characteristics (e.g. gender, race, SES, etc.) and contextual factors can play a role in how ability and/or disability are constructed in schools as well as implications associated to program, pathway and placement decisions. Recognizing the importance of institutional and identity data to monitor student outcomes, Parekh will draw on earlier studies with the Toronto District School Board as well as her own Ontario-wide study, Critical Transitions, to illustrate the need for a relational and intersectional understanding of disability in the examination of K-12 and postsecondary education outcomes.

Gillian Parekh is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Disability Studies in Education within the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ. Gillian is also cross-appointed with 91��ɫ’s graduate program in Critical Disability studies within the Faculty of Health. As a previous teacher in special education and research coordinator with the Toronto District School Board, Gillian has conducted extensive system and school-based research across Ontario in the areas of structural equity, special education, and academic streaming. In particular, her work explores how schools construct and respond to disability as well as how students are organized across programs and systems.

This is a FREE event–all are welcome to attend!

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featuring Dr. Sarah Barrett
Professor and 2022 Dean's Research Impact Award recipient

Teachers’ professional fulfilment might be viewed as a pleasant side effect of an altruistic professional practice dedicated to helping students to realize their potential. However, it might also be conceived as a deliberately sought outcome of a systemic standard of care that extends to all participants within a classroom, school, school system, and profession. In her research, Dr. Sarah Barrett explores how elementary and secondary teachers experience their practice. The focus of this presentation will be on the significance of teachers’ professional fulfillment for teaching and learning. Specifically, she will discuss different conceptions of professionalism, the teacher’s status as a member of multiple communities, and the importance of teachers’ professional fulfilment in the teaching learning endeavour. At a time when teacher shortages loom large in Ontario’s school systems and beyond, this talk will provide a compelling argument for re-thinking our ideas about the teaching vocation.

Dr. Sarah Barrett is a professor in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ, in Toronto, Canada. In 2022, she received the Dean’s Research Impact Award for her work exploring the ways in which classroom teachers experienced the COVID-19 pandemic. As a scholar, Barrett has a long-standing interest in understanding teachers’ experiences of how their values and beliefs influence their practice. This forms the foundation of her research on the ethical aspects of environmental education and professional teaching; teaching science for social justice; [science] teacher education; and developing more inclusive high school science curricula.

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Winton, a critical policy scholar and and co-director of the World Educational Research Association’s International Research Network on Families, Educators, and Communities as Educational Advocates, will show how policies, such as fundraising, fees and specialized schools and programs among others, enable some kids to accumulate more advantages from public education than other children. These policies, she argues, often reproduce patterns of social inequality that exist outside schools.

Winton will then discuss ideas for resisting education privatization and strengthening public education’s commitments to equity, inclusion, open decision-making processes and the collective good.

Her current research examines privatization and public education. The focus of one of her projects is to examine advocacy for and against public funding of private schools in various Canadian provinces.

In a second study, Winton and colleague Beyhan Farhadi are investigating online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This talk is presented as part of the Faculty of Education’s Public Lecture Series that features leading scholars from the Faculty sharing their research and scholarship on key publicly relevant issues in education and society.

For more information, or to register to attend, visit the event webpage.

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In this talk, critical policy scholar Sue Winton will draw on her book, Unequal Benefits: Privatization and Public Education in Canada, (University of Toronto Press), to explain how growing education privatization is undermining public education and democracy. Specifically, she will show how policies, such as fundraising, fees, and specialized schools and programs among others, enable some kids to accumulate more advantages from public education than other children, often reproducing patterns of social inequality that exist outside schools. She will then discuss ideas for resisting education privatization and strengthening public education’s commitments to equity, inclusion, open decision-making processes, and the collective good.

Sue Winton is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ and co-director of the World Educational Research Association’s International Research Network on Families, Educators, and Communities as Educational Advocates. Her current research examines privatization and public education. In one project she is examining advocacy for and against public funding of private schools in various Canadian provinces. In a second study, Dr. Winton and colleague, Dr. Beyhan Farhadi, are investigating online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Faculty of Education’s Public Lecture Series features leading scholars from the Faculty  sharing their research and scholarship on key publicly relevant issues in education and society.

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The Faculty of Education is launching a series of talks that will feature leading scholars speaking about their research and scholarship on key publicly relevant issues in education and society. 

The first talk of the series, titled “Making sense of the great reading debate: A guide to the science and practice of helping all children read” will take place on April 27 at 7 p.m. via Zoom and will be delivered by Faculty of Education Dean Rob Savage.  

Savage will consider his own domain on early reading research and teaching. The goal of the talk is to help stakeholders in the community navigate through the complex and sometimes contested space of early reading teaching practices. Savage will review the research on the role of phonics and wider oral and written language in reading acquisition and its implication for practice and policy. A key goal is to dismantle unhelpful dichotomies that have held both research and practice back and to create positions that are “research-driven” but also informed by the complexities of children and classrooms. 

He will also describe two recent research themes exemplifying this needed balance, delivered at scale in Canada and around the world. The talk will be of interest to anyone seeking to learn more about aiding in all children’s early literacy including parents, teachers, administrators and policymakers.  

Savage is particularly interested in preventing early reading and spelling issues, often using technology. A school-based psychologist and classroom teacher by training, he has an interest in making schools effective learning places for all children. He is the author or co-author of more than 100 highly cited peer-reviewed journal and web articles, chapters and reviews, and frequently presents his research at international conferences. 

This free event is open to all members of the 91��ɫ community. for the April 27 event is open.  

Article from the April 21, 2022 issue of

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A key goal is to dismantle unhelpful dichotomies that have held both research and practice back, and to create positions that are ‘research-driven’ but also informed by the complexities of children and classrooms. He will also describe two recent research themes exemplifying this needed balance, delivered at scale in Canada and around the world.

The talk will be of interest to parents, teachers, administrators, policy makers and indeed, anybody interested in aiding all children’s early literacy.

Robert Savage is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Education at 91��ɫ. Savage is particularly interested in preventing early reading and spelling problems, often using technology. A school-based psychologist and classroom teacher by training, he has an interest in making schools effective learning places for all children. He is the author or co-author of over 100 highly cited peer-reviewed journal and web articles, chapters, and reviews; and frequently presents his research at international conferences.

The Faculty of Education’s Public Lecture Series will feature leading scholars from the Faculty to share their research and scholarship on key publicly relevant issues in education and society.

The post Making sense of the great reading debate: A guide to the science and practice of helping all children read appeared first on Faculty of Education.