On June 30, her last day as Chair of the School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS), Toni Samek received a final piece of good news related to the role.

Elaine Simmt built a one-of-a-kind career, not unlike the woman herself.

While the Faculty Education is grateful that she spent a significant portion of her working life with us, we understand that her retirement, which commences on July 1, 2020, is more than well-earned.

I want to start by expressing my hope that everyone in our community is safe, healthy and finding time for self-care in our current circumstances. I also want to thank our incredible educators, administrators and staff across the education spectrum—including those here in the Faculty of Education—who have continued to support learners through the uncertainty and constraints imposed by this public health emergency.

If you’d like to spend time improving your professional skills this summer, the Faculty of Education has devised online learning experiences for school leaders committed to resilience, innovation and ensuring high-quality educational experiences for all students.

We saw it looming on the horizon for weeks in North America, as it shut down entire cities in China and proliferated rapidly through Europe. Then, suddenly, it was here. The global coronavirus pandemic became, seemingly overnight, a very local public health emergency across Alberta. We’re all still living through what came next: a major disruption in social functioning as schools, businesses, entire economic sectors shuttered in an effort to prevent a spike of infections that might overwhelm the healthcare system.

UAlberta Education faculty and alumni have been affected by the global coronavirus pandemic just like everyone else. Some have taken time while adapting to the new realities of remote education, self-isolation and social distancing to offer expert advice on coping with these abrupt changes to how we live, learn and work. Here’s a round-up of their recent appearances on various UAlberta media.

“Identity is relational, always evolving, always political, and shaped by colonial relations of power,” says Brooke Madden, a Secondary Education and Aboriginal Teacher Education Program professor.

The Teaching and Research Awards ceremony scheduled for March 26 has been postponed. And though a global pandemic might have kept us from gathering, nothing can keep us from celebrating the faculty, sessionals and graduate students honoured with teaching and research awards in the Faculty of Education this year.

Congratulations to the following award and grant recipients, who are exemplary of the teaching and research excellence that have made the UAlberta Faculty of Education one of the top faculties of education in Canada and the world.

According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada’s Calls to Action, post-secondary institutions have an important role to play in Indigenous knowledge recovery and mobilization, both as a site of research and in preparing future educators to integrate Indigenous knowledge and teaching methods in their classrooms and curricula.

Compiling a display of educational resources about an historic genocide proved to be a learning experience in more ways than one for the University of Alberta librarian who drew on the expertise of researchers from campus and across the continent to obtain the materials.