The Canadian Society for the Study of Education is the largest organization of professors, students, researchers and practitioners in education in Canada. CSSE is the major national voice for those who create educational knowledge, prepare teachers and educational leaders, and apply research in the schools, classrooms and institutions of Canada. Founded in 1972, the bilingual CSSE is an umbrella organization consisting of several national constituent associations.
Louis Volante (PhD) is a Professor of Education Governance and Policy Analysis at Brock University and a Professorial Fellow at UNU-MERIT / Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG). He has held Visiting Professor appointments in England (University College London), the Netherlands (UNU-MERIT), and Canada (University of Toronto).
Louis is an expert with UNESCO’s Inclusive Policy Lab and a member of the United Nations University Migration Network. He also sits on the Executive of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation (JCSEE), which develops and updates standards for the evaluation field across North America. Dr. Volante regularly engages as a consultant and policy advisor for International Organisations as well as regional and national governments around the world.
Professor Volante’s research currently focuses on global education governance; international organizations and policy diffusion; politics and education reform; policy planning, implementation, and evaluation; and assessment policies and practices. His scholarship is widely cited in both academic and policy communities and has been generously supported by international and national agencies such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Louis looks forward to working collaboratively with CSSE’s constituent associations as he begins his term as president.
Dr. Shelleyann Scott is a professor and currently the Chair of the Leadership, Policy and Governance specialisation in Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary. She has held numerous leadership roles within the university context including Chair of department, Associate Dean, Professional and Community Engagement and Director of Graduate Programs at the University of Calgary. Prior to joining the University of Calgary, Shelley was the Director and Coordinator of Teaching and Learning at Curtin University’s Business School, the largest business school in Australia at that time. Shelley has experience in education, government, and business contexts. Her work experience encompasses leadership in an education district office, high school teaching, medical technology, and business consultancy.
Robert Nellis is highly honoured and thrilled to be serving his four-year term as a CSSE Vice-president (Anglophone). Robert completed his Ph.D. in the Department of Secondary Education at the University of Alberta in 2007, with his thesis co-receiving the Canadian Association for Curriculum Studies Dissertation Award. He developed that work into Haunting Inquiry: Classic NFB Documentary, Jacques Derrida, and the Curricular Otherwise (Sense 2009). Since that time, his scholarship has drawn from memoir, creative nonfiction, arts-based approaches, and poetic inquiry. Robert loves working as a continuous faculty member in the Red Deer College School of Education and currently teaches courses in Child Development and Family Studies. Previous courses he has taught include Media, Culture, and Curriculum; Concepts of Childhood in the History of Education; Introduction to Educational Psychology; Communication in the Classroom; and Inclusive Education: Adapting Instruction for Students for RDC. He has also taught Consultation and Collaboration in Special Education, Introduction into Media Education, Assessment and Instruction of Exceptional Learners, and Individualizing Instruction for Adolescents with Special Needs for the University of Alberta, and Introductory College English for Grande Prairie Regional College. His service has included work for Local 37, Alberta Teachers Association, Red Deer College Faculty Association, and the board for the Learning Disabilities Association of Alberta, Red Deer Chapter.
Dr. Christine Martineau is a Cree/Metis/Dene scholar and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at Concordia University of Edmonton, where she teaches in the undergraduate Education minor, the Bachelor of Education After-degree, and the Master of Education degree programs. She has more than 20 years of teaching and leadership experience, the majority of which has been in First Nations communities (e.g., Siksika First Nation, Stoney Nakoda First Nation) as a secondary teacher, principal, and education director.
Dr. Martineau’s research focuses primarily on educational policy and practice, exploring the understandings and perceptions of educators in relation to Canada’s history with Indigenous Peoples, with a specific focus on the Alberta context. Her PhD used an Indigenous Research Methodology, grounded in a Cree worldview, to examine the impacts of colonial education on Indigenous identity development. She received the 2019 Canadian Association for the Study of Educational Administration’s Thomas B. Greenfield Award for best doctoral dissertation in educational administration and leadership completed in a Canadian university in the previous year.
Dr. Martineau has created and regularly leads professional development workshops designed to help educators recognize and understand how anti-Indigenous racism operates in public education and how to combat it through education for reconciliation. Dr. Martineau’s hope is to help transform the educational experiences and outcomes of Indigenous Peoples in Canada by helping educators uncover and address the barriers that continue to exist in education.
Sylvie Roy is a professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary. Her areas of research are: sociolinguistics for change, second and additional language teaching and learning, ethnography and discourse analysis. She has published a book entitled: French Immersion Ideologies in Canada based on her research in French immersion. She has worked in teacher education to train French teachers in Alberta. She also served as Associate Dean of Research in her faculty from 2018-2023. She was the President of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics from 2008 to 2010.
Professor Patricia Briscoe (she/her) is an Associate Professor at Niagara University Ontario. She teaches in the Master of Educational Leadership and Teacher Education and an adjunct professor in the Graduate program at the Faculty of Education, Queens University.
Patricia has teaching experience in public-school teaching (Ontario and Newfoundland) and higher education. As well, she spent 4 years as a Knowledge Mobilization Manager for Ontario Ministry Knowledge Network for Applied Education Research (KNAER-RÉCRAE).
Professor Briscoe’s research focuses on combining her work with educators and communities in developing countries and her work in international short-term teach and study abroad programs with transformative learning theories, building human capital and mobilizing knowledge. She believes that everyone has a right to quality education and access to it should not be predicative of where you are born and live.
Patricia looks forward to continuing her involvement with CSSE in her new role as Secretary-Treasurer and to working collaboratively with the Executive and other national constituent associations.
Tim has been happily employed with CSSE since 1982. Over that time Tim has encountered many amazing people, and forged some strong relationships. Tim enjoys living his life with his partner filled with travel, good food, and good friends. Tim’s role in CSSE involves governance, and finances of CSSE and of four additional national organizations (CASAE, CNIE, CSSHE, and STLHE).
Barb has been with the Society for over 10 years. Barb’s role is to manage membership, conference, and special events registrations and other duties as required. In addition, Barb provides the same for an additional four national organizations at this office which include STLHE, CNIE, CSSHE, and CASAE.
Michael (Mike) has been a member of CSSE since 2014. As Conference Manager, Mike works with the Board of Directors, Programme Committee, Local Team, and Congress organizers to coordinate preparations for the annual conference. Outside of his work with CSSE, Mike is a PhD student at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. His research interests include classroom assessment, teacher education, and equity.
Cam began working with CSSE in 2016. As Communications Manager, Cam supports the website, social media, and member updates. Outside of his work with CSSE, Cam is a PhD student at the University Of Ottawa, Ontario. His research interests include French as Second Language, teacher education, and technology integration.
The objective of CSSE is to promote the advancement of Canadian research and scholarship in education. In order to fulfill its mandate, CSSE will:
CSSE is governed by a board of directors consisting of an elected executive and the presidents of the constituent associations and of the graduate student committee, supported by a permanent staff in our Ottawa office.
The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, known as the Federation, is a membership-based organization that is made up of 66 scholarly associations and 71 universities and colleges, comprising more than 70,000 scholars, students and practitioners across Canada. CSSE is one of the largest scholarly associations in the Federation.
Through its activities, the Federation strives to support and advance Canada’s research in the humanities and social science, fields which are intrinsically important to the development of social, cultural and economic understanding, thus giving our society necessary tools to address the most complex of questions.
For more information on the Federation, please visit their web site.
