The Office of Research and Graduate Students facilitates the ongoing development of successful research programs and the coordination of graduate student life across the Faculty. The Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Students is Prof. Andrew Large and the Research and Graduate Students Administrator is (TBD). Together they coordinate two Faculty committees, identified forthwith along with their aims:

Committee on Research and Graduate Students

• to adjudicate Faculty-wide graduate scholarships and prizes
• to liaise with the Education Graduate Students Society (EGSS)
• to liaise with Departments in matters related to graduate studies such as admissions, supervision, courses, tracking, ethics, comprehensive exams, etc.
• to liaise with the Education Library in matters related to research and graduate students
• to assist in developing an active and collegial Faculty-wide research culture for graduate students
• to advise in the development of a Faculty Research Strategy (e.g., infrastructure support, collaborative research, research centres, mentoring, targeted funding)

Other responsibilities include liaison with the Office of the Dean and Associate Dean of Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies, the Office of the Vice-Principal and Associate Vice-Principal of Research, and the Education Graduate Students’ Society.

In addition, The Student Committee for Doctoral Studies in Education has been formed to contribute to the establishment of a cross-Faculty culture of doctoral studies and a Seminar Series on Doctoral Studies in Education.

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PhD Mentors

Six PhD students, all with a success record in gaining fellowships, have been chosen to be mentors in the Faculty of Education. Their role throughout the Fall and Winter semesters is to help students identify a variety of doctoral fellowship opportunities, assist student in the application process, and mentor students on developing their CV for future funding opportunities. If you are interested in having one of them as a mentor, simply contact them by email to set up an appointment. You will find below their award history and research interests.

• Jessica Toste - DISE
• Sarah-Jane Renaud - ECP
• Lorie Kloda - SIS
• Shannon Walsh - DISE
• Emily Kerner - ECP
• Charles Antoine Julien - SIS

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Jessica Toste

Email- Research Lab Website

My research interests focus on resilience factors related to classroom success, learning disabilities, reading instruction, inclusive education, and educational effectiveness. Specifically, her doctoral research program investigates the role of individualized instruction, classroom working alliance (teacher-student relationship), and social-emotional adjustment in relation to students’ reading achievement. More broadly, Jessica is involved in research related to resilience and adaptive functioning of youth at-risk; including non-suicidal self-injury, depression, and other mental health issues.

Research Grants
Bloom, E. L., Toste, J. R., & Heath, N. L. Enhancing teacher-student relationships for students with learning difficulties or behavioural disorders. Ministère de l'Éducation, du Loisir et du Sport du Québec (MELS) Program to Support Research and Development in Special Education, 2009-2011, ($51,381).

External Fellowships:

• Canada-U.S. Fulbright Fellowship, Student Research Award (2008-2009)
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, CGS Doctoral Research Fellowship (2007-2010)
• Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, Bourses de doctorat en recherche (2007-2010, Awarded)
• Fonds Québécois de la Recherche sur la Société et la Culture, Bourses de maîtrise en recherche (2006-2007)
• Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s (2005-2006)
• Fonds Recherche Santé Québec, Undergraduate Summer Research Award (2004)

Scholarships and Research Awards:

• Herschel and Christine Victor Fellowship in Education, McGill University (2008-2009)
• Governor General’s Gold Medal, Social Sciences and Humanities (2008)
• McGill Alumni Association Graduate Award, McGill University (2008)
• G. M. Dunlop Award for Outstanding Master’s Thesis, Canadian Association of Educational Psychology (2008)
• Max Stern Recruitment Fellowship, McGill University (2007)
• Doreen Kronick Scholarship, Learning Disabilities Association of Canada (2006)
• Stansfield Award for School-Based Classroom Research, McGill University (2006)
• Chantal Malard Memorial Prize, McGill University (2005)

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Sarah-Jane Renaud

Email

My current research is in the area of children's understanding of mortality and spirituality. I am investigating the role of parents, educators, and health professionals in children's developmental understanding of death. In the past, my research has focused on children's moral development, specifically children's truth and lie telling behaviours and the ability of children and adults to detect children's deception.

Grants and Awards
SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier (CGS), 2008-2011, $35000/year McGill University Graduate Studies Fellowship, 2007-2008, $5000 McGill University Ellen Edith Grubb Stansfield Award, 2007-2008, $1000 McGill University Alma Mater Travel Grant, 2007, $750

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Lorie Kloda

Email

My doctoral research explores the clinical questions asked by rehabilitation therapists in the context of evidence-based patient care. The research takes a qualitative approach to uncover and describe the information needs of a group of allied health professionals working in stroke care. Occupational therapists, physiotherapists, and speech-language pathologists will be asked to record clinical questions and then be interviewed about these patient-specific information needs. In addition to identifying different types of clinical questions and the structure these questions take, the reasons for pursuing answers to questions will also be elicited. This research contributes to the growing body of research on the information behaviour of health professionals by studying rehabilitation therapists and their question-formulation behaviour as a first step in the evidence-based practice process.

Fellowships:

• McGill University Education Graduate Students’ Society. Doctoral Award for Research and Professional Excellence ($1000), 2009.
• Canadian Library Association. World Book Graduate Scholarship in Library and Information Science ($2500), 2009-2010.
• Thomson Scientific/Medical Library Association Doctoral Fellowship ($2000), 2008.
• Fonds québécois de la recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC). Bourse de doctorat en recherche ($20,000/year), 2007-2009.

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Shannon Walsh

Email

My research work is cross-disciplinary and touches on education, anthropology, film, political economy, geography and philosophy. My doctoral thesis uses critical pedagogy, visual methodology and ethnography of everyday practice to investigate how women and children living in politically active shack settlements in South Africa are accessing health services, specifically around HIV and AIDS. I am also a film director, and in 2009 I premiered my first feature documentary, H2Oil about the human and environmental costs of Alberta's oil sands.

I have been the recipient of numerous awards, scholarships, fellowships and prizes (SSHRC, FQRSC, CIDA, CIHR, Health Canada, CDAS, etc).

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Emily Kerner

Email

My research interests are in the areas of counselling process, motivation, and adolescent career development. She is interested in understanding the processes through which amotivated adolescents develop autonomous motivation for career exploration, and the role counselling can play in this process. Using design experiment methodology and qualitative methods of analysis, Emily’s dissertation focuses on both designing a group career counselling intervention and exploring participants’ experiences of developing motivation in the group.

I currently holds a Bourse de Doctorat en Formation from the Fonds Recherche Sante de Quebec (FRSQ) in partnership with the Fondation Lucie et Andre Chagnon. I am also the past recipient of a McGill Graduate Studies Fellowship, two McGill Alma Mater Travel Awards, and the Middlebury College Rosalin Lieberman-Riess Memorial Award. ",0); #>

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Charles Antoine Julien

Email

I am concerned with design, development and testing of interactive software interfaces for information searching. My doctoral research has produced a virtual reality library catalogue where searchers can fly and search through a collection of information items organized by subject. This novel interface is tested using a repeated measures within-subject controlled experiment.

I have been awarded the FQRSC doctoral grant in May 2008.

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