Dr. Renée Guimond-Plourde and Dr. Norman Vaughan are Co-winners of CEA’s First Pat Clifford Award for Early Career Research in Education
The Clifford Award Selection Committee was unanimous that these two candidates were equally worthy of receiving this award, which had the following 2009 theme: Adolescent Education for the 21st Century: Implications for Teaching and Learning.
Dr. Guimond-Plourde is a Professor/Researcher in the Education, Kinesiology and Recreation Department at the University of Moncton, Edmundston Campus (UMEC). She leads a research program that contributes to the development of the emerging field of study on ‘stress coping’ among secondary school students.
Dr. Vaughan is an instructor in the Faculty of Teaching & Learning at Mount Royal College in Calgary. His research investigates whether interactive learning technologies (social networking sites, blogs and wikis) can be used to design and support assessment activities that increase levels of student engagement.
The Pat Clifford Award for Early Career Research in Education
Recognizing the promise, and commitment to advancing research in Canadian public education.
The Pat Clifford Award
About Pat Clifford
The Award and Recognition
Deadline for Submissions
Who can apply? / Who may be nominated for the award?
Qualifications of Applicants/Nominees
General Selection Criteria
Application Preparation
Application Format and Submission
The Pat Clifford Award
This award is administered by the Canadian Education Association (CEA) and recognizes the work of emerging researchers – their research contributions, their promise, and their commitment to breaking new ground or revisiting commonly held assumptions in education policy, practice or theory in Canada.
About Pat Clifford
Pat Clifford was one of the co-founders of The Galileo Educational Network, which is based in Calgary, Alberta. Pat had an extensive teaching background from primary through graduate level, and was the recipient of numerous awards for both research and teaching practice. Pat passed away in August of 2008 but she left a gift to us in her teaching, scholarly writing, poetry and stories. As a teacher, Pat was steadfast in her belief that each child had the right to succeed brilliantly, and brought to them her own love of literature, writing and history. This award is dedicated to her memory.
The Award and Recognition
- Formal recognition of your research at a public, education-related event.
- Opportunities for you to develop additional knowledge mobilization strategies with CEA to maximize the impact of your work in the policy and practice fields (e.g. panel discussion, workshop with select school districts, podcast presentation, etc.).
- An invitation for you to submit a feature article about your research to be published in Education Canada magazine.
- Promotion of your work through various CEA-vehicles: website, Bulletin e-newsletter, events, as appropriate.
Deadline for Submissions
The submission deadline is 5:00pm (EDT – eastern daylight time) May 31, 2010.
Who can apply? / Who may be nominated for the award?
- Applicants must be in the process of completing a Masters or PhD OR have completed a Masters or PhD in the last 2 years
- Applicants may be from faculties of education or other related disciplines, school boards, provincial or territorial departments of education, educational or other organizations, or research consultants
- Applicants can either nominate themselves or be nominated by another person
Qualifications of Applicants/Nominees
- Individuals with demonstrable promise in educational research as evidenced by completed research papers/projects, letters of reference, and any research awards or citations.
- Those who show promise of making a significant contribution to educational concepts, theory, policy and/or practice through their research, as evidenced by: the description of work, its importance and impact with respect to one or more of CEA’s program priorities, as well as plans for knowledge mobilization and dissemination.
General Selection Criteria
- Quality
- Innovative and opens up new areas of research or extend research in existing areas;
- Research work that is well-grounded conceptually and theoretically, with clear and compelling writing, and which demonstrates the use of adequate and appropriate research methodology; and
- Demonstrates evidence of early career promise (publications, research project reports/papers).
- Contribution and Impact
- A promising contribution to improving educational policy and/or practice in education;
- A promising contribution to improving concept and theory development in education;
- Demonstrated understanding of how their work can be mobilized to make a contribution and have an impact.
- Relevance
A body of work which is relevant and makes a significant contribution to transforming education in one of the following CEA program priorities:- Engaging Learning: research that furthers ideas, knowledge and practices that deeply engage students in learning with a particular focus on transforming learning environments for adolescent learners. Research that broadens and deepens current understanding of learning as the basis on which educational policy and practice should be built.
- Engaging Teaching: research that furthers knowledge of how teaching and learning reinforce each other as reciprocal processes; how teaching can be engaging for both teachers and students; how teachers can be supported to teach the way they aspire to; and how teachers understand their own learning.
- Engaging School and Community: research that furthers knowledge of how school and community reinforce each other in supporting young people in their: learning; academic success; social well-being; transition to employment; civic engagement and citizenship.
Application Preparation
The application must contain a cover sheet along with the following attachments:- Curriculum vitae
- A brief description of the applicant’s work, its importance and impact with respect to CEA’s program priorities and general selection criteria;
- An assessment by the nominator or applicant of the promising contribution to educational research in Canada and its impact on the pan-Canadian scene;
- If nominated: One (1) additional reference letter;
- If self-nominated: Two (2) letters of reference;
- Submissions should be no longer than 10 pages (excluding CV). Any additional pages will not be reviewed.
Supporting Material:
- Copy of two (2) research project reports or papers, with abstracts and/or executive summaries.
Application Format and Submission
The Application must be received electronically by e-mail to 
in PDF format only. The total size of all attachments cannot exceed ten (10) megabytes of information. All applications that do not meet these strict specifications will be discarded.
The submission deadline is 5:00pm (EDT – eastern daylight time) May 31, 2010.
CEA will e-mail a confirmation upon receipt of the application.