GES+PD+Award+Reports

=GES Professional Development Award Reports=

Recipients of our PD Awards are asked to submit a brief report on their conference presentation, workshop, or project.

April 2014 Amy Katharine Bartlett

On March 26-29, 2014 I attended the TESOL 2014 International Convention in Portland, Oregon. This conference highlights both academic and practitioner research in the field of teaching English as a second or additional language. I attended several great workshops and presentations that are relevant to my Ph.D. research, which focuses on how teachers understand and use a paired approach to the teaching of Inuktut and English reading in grades four, five and six.

The day before the start of the conference I attended a ‘Research Mentoring Workshop’. This was geared for graduate students and new researchers to help them better understand how to develop a research question and design their study. Action research, which is a methodology that I am considering for my study, was highlighted.

The conference presentations provided a great overview/review of a variety of areas related to teaching English as a second language. I was able to see how different areas relate to my own work (i.e., multilingualism, culture, intercultural competence, bilingual literacy, identity), and to identify areas which I hadn’t previously considered, but I can see now are related to my work (i.e., teacher collaboration, trust).

November 2013 Brian Beaton

I attended the 2013 World Social Sciences Forum in Montreal on October 13 to 15 ([]) to deliver my paper called “Settler Colonialism and First Nations e-Communities in Northwestern Ontario” as part of my master’s thesis work. I was a member of the panel called “Challenging Colonialism with First Nations (Indigenous) Innovation” ([]) with five other members of the First Nations Innovation research project where I work ([]).

The abstract for my paper is: Across Canada First Nation community leaders are adopting the e-Community approach for their local broadband development. E-Community is fueled by the desire of First Nations to own, control, and manage their local infrastructure and online services. The paper develops the concept of the importance of locally owned and managed telecommunication infrastructure supporting First Nation e-Community and local resilience. The First Nations e-Community framework provides choices for local people to remain in their communities and contribute to the growth and positive development in these challenging environments. The First Nations' struggle against settler colonialism to access their lands and resources by the colonial governments and their corporate partners continues today. Strong, resilient First Nations are now in a position to influence and support outcomes that benefit themselves, the lands and others in a positive manner.

The paper can be access online at the FNI web site at []. The reference for the paper is: Beaton, B., Campbell, P. (2013). Settler Colonialism and First Nations E-Communities in Northwestern Ontario. World Social Science Forum, Montreal, QC, Canada. October.

November 2013 John Attard

I attended the Atlantic Provinces Linguistics Association Annual Conference, held at the University of Moncton on the 1st and 2nd November 2013. This was my first conference on becoming a member of the association. The theme of the conference was Native American and Aboriginal Languages and Cultures. The first day was dedicated exclusively to the conference theme, while the second day included a wide variety of linguistic subjects applicable to the Atlantic region and beyond.

On Day 1, the conference welcomed distinguished guests from First Nations communities, who set the scene by making presentations and conducting events describing and celebrating First Nations culture. Of particular relevance to the attendees was the presentation on the loss of First Nation languages, made by the Chair of Studies in Aboriginal Cultures of Atlantic Canada at STU. It was a timely reminder that the death of a language is a loss to all humanity.

Day 2 was more of an education for me in the wider field of linguistics. While benefiting from the presentations and literature available at the conference, I made several important contacts in the field, some of whom specialise in the area of linguistics that is relevant to my doctoral studies.

Thanks to the support of GES, I am able to further my studies in the linguistics dimension of language education. I will be happy to share the conference experience with my Education colleagues both in terms of linguistics and First Nations culture and language.

**GES Funding Award Brief 2012-2013** Samuel LeBlanc, PhD Student, 2 nd year The funding offered by the GES in 2012-2013 helped to secure my presence at two international conferences, which significantly nurtured my academic career. The first was the inaugural //Educating for Intellectual Virtues: a conference for educational theorists, psychologists, philosophers, and teachers//, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Here, as session chair and participant, I met with the leaders in my field, made contacts for further research, and got to know a scholar who would turn out to become one of my external doctoral examiners. At a broader level, I was able to speak about my work, exchange ideas, and talk about UNB. The second conference was the //The 39th Association for Moral Education Annual Meeting 2013//, Montreal, QC. The topic was: Multiculturalism, Interculturalism and Education: Pursuing the Common Good through Dialogue and Recognition. As an attendant, it was an excellent learning opportunity on account of the numerous sessions, a chance to network on an international scale, and also an occasion to confirm the good standings of UNB through the mentioning of the work of Dr. Alan Sears of our Faculty of Education. The funding offered by the GES for professional development shows a clear dedication to excellence in research, from which all students should strive to benefit.

4 May 2012 Donita Duplisea

On May 4th, 2012 I attended a conference at Concordia University entitled: //Global Education: Towards New Frontiers.// The purpose of the conference was to bring Masters and PhD Education students together to present their research to each other. The title of my presentation was “True Acceptance: The Final Frontier in Peace Education”. As this is a conference for and by other Graduate students in the area of education, it was a good experience in which to network and also illustrate some of my own work. Drawing from my 14 years of teaching in Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, my research is a theoretical framework coupled with a practical workbook and teachers’ manual that focuses on deconstructing the 5 stages of discrimination: the path to genocide. Following the ideas of Ellen Kennedy, I feel it is important that we as educators, need to not only **teach about** genocide, but also **teach against** and **teach to prevent**. For without true acceptance of all, there can never be peace. I was able to share this work with other students and am grateful to have had the support of the GES in being able to attend. I would also like to thank Dr. Evie Plaice who “dropped-in” while on a break from another conference to give her support and relevant analysis to all the presenters in the room.

19 APRIL 2012 Roxanne Reeves, presenter

International Mentoring Conference Impact of Mentoring: Helping Others Reach Their Human Potential 14–16 March 2012 Orlando, Florida

Short Summary of Presentation Activities:


 * Immigration Inc.: Immigrant entrepreneur mentorship programs in new destination communities **

This research will report on the preliminary findings of a proposed larger study examining how Business Immigrant Mentorship Programs in cities with developing immigrant populations or new destination communities support immigrant mentees [1]. Programs currently being implemented by Canadian Chamber of Commerce affiliates incorporate both market principles and an ideology of volunteerism. The aim of these entrepreneurial mentorship programs is to not only support business efforts by new immigrants in smaller cities but, equally important, to support the development of their social capital as these resources are often further compromised due to limited access to co-ethnics ties. Aside from the well-researched financial challenges face by all entrepreneurs—including lack of financial capital—immigrant entrepreneurs face additional problems when starting a business. Among immigrant entrepreneurs located in new destination communities, these problems are further compounded by a lack of social integration or existing networks, leading to insufficient knowledge of their new business milieu; the economic and social environments; legislation and regulations; and the labour market. Mentoring has rapidly gained popularity as a customized way to assist and support entrepreneurs with personal learning goals and psychosocial support. Mentor relations encourage trust, and mentees benefit through resource exchanges, information sharing, risk sharing, shared IT knowledge, foreign market development, acculturation, and overall increased network resource access. Correspondingly, protégé learning outcomes are expected to be generated in the areas of cognitive learning, affected-related learning, and social networks. In individual interviews, participants were invited to talk about their experiences with the Program. This paper focuses on how immigrant mentees responded to questions about the diverse meanings of cross-cultural mentoring and what skills and/or competencies are required of the mentor or mentee as it pertains to (a) knowledge transfer/personal learning within the dyad, (b) acculturation, (c) perceived business and network gains on the part of the mentee. Early interviews indicate that participants’ conception of mentoring expanded the two functions traditionally used in mentoring studies (career versus psychosocial) to three broad categories role-modeling, mentor as guide, and networking/business.

[1] Much of what is known about immigrant business success has evolved from research on ethnic entrepreneurs embedded in ethnic enclaves, primarily in major US cities, and increasingly from Europe and Canada. Immigrant entrepreneurs residing in such locations are able to draw on ties to co-ethnics to achieve advantages resulting from social capital. Social capital is developed by several means in ethnic enclaves including a sense of “we-ness” created through a common ethnicity.

4 APRIL 2012
 * Joe Blades: //Trail of poems// exhibition project**

My //Trail of Poems// exhibition and performing writer-in-residence project ran from 1 February to 13 March in Galerie Charlotte Glencross Gallery in the Charlotte Street Arts Centre, Fredericton, NB with an opening on 2 February, Groundhog Day. During the exhibition’s well-attended opening I ran a slideshow of 157 images on the wall-mounted, flat-screen monitor in the building’s foyer, and I gave a brief author reading after opening remarks by Daniel Picard, Fredericton Arts & Learning, Inc. Treasurer, and a prepared statement by Dr Jennifer Pazienza, my academic advisor and supervisor. The whole //Trail of Poems// exhibition–installation including the artworks, installation views, performance documentation, and 42-poems written between 2 February and March 17, 2012, will be reproduced in my MEd’s report appendices along with media coverage—an uncommon, definitely not normal, occurrence for MEd projects (or MEd degree work, in general). My planning and preparation for the exhibit started during the Fall 2011 term. The poems are also posted on my blog: [|Joe Blades : Džo Blejds]