CEA Chair Carole Olsen presents Dr. Joel Westheimer with the 2009 Whitworth Award for Education Research prior to his lecture, No Child Left Thinking: Testing, ‘Accountability’, and the Threat to Canadian Democracy, in Halifax last October.
Dr. Joel Westheimer Wins 2009 CEA Whitworth Award for Education Research
CEA is pleased to recognize the significant contribution of Dr. Westheimer, who is University Research Chair and Professor of Education at the University of Ottawa. The Whitworth Award Selection Committee was unanimous in selecting Dr. Westheimer for his high quality and very important, program of research into citizenship education. As a true ‘public intellectual’, he has made highly relevant and influential contributions to Canadian education.
Dr. Westheimer will deliver the Whitworth Lecture at a CEA Public Forum on October 27th, 2009 in Halifax.
Related reading: What kind of citizen? Democratic dialogues in education (PDF, 5 pages, 388 KB)
The Whitworth Award for Education Research
Recognizing work that matters
The Whitworth Award
The Recognition
Deadline for Submissions
Who may be nominated for the award?
Qualifications of Nominees
General Selection Criteria
Application Preparation
Application Format and Submission
The Whitworth Award
The Whitworth Award for Education Research was first presented in 1967, and was made possible through a generous financial donation by Dr. Fred Whitworth, a former Director of the Canadian Council for Research in Education. It has, since then, recognized individuals who have made a sustained and substantial contribution to educational research over a period of time.
The 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 may be nominated for the award?
- Researchers in faculties of education and other related disciplines; school boards, provincial and territorial departments of education; educational and other organizations that focus on educational issues; or research consultants.
- Applicants can either nominate themselves or be nominated by another person
Qualifications of Nominees
- Those with demonstrable professional respect and recognition, as evidenced by letters of reference, research grants or awards, citations, and/or publications.
- Those who have made a sustained and significant contribution to educational concepts, theory, policy and/or practice through their research, as evidenced by: routine writing or speaking about their research to groups of policy makers or practitioners, demonstrable influence on policy decisions, practices in school districts or schools.
General Selection Criteria:
- Quality
- Innovative and opens up new areas of research or extends research in existing areas;
- Is well-grounded conceptually and theoretically;
- Demonstrates evidence of professional respect (research grants, scholarly reports and publications).
- Contribution
- A substantial contribution to improving educational policy and/or practice in education, as evidenced by routine writing or speaking about their research to groups of policy makers or practioners;
- A substantial contribution to improving concept and theory development in education, as evidenced by publication record and number of citations;
- A substantial contribution to education research over a period of time.
- Impact
- Influenced the initiation of a new policy and/or practice or the improvement of existing ones;
- Influenced the development of a new concept and/or theory or the improvement of existing ones;
- Acted as a research mobilizer through the creation of new processes or organizations that conduct or disseminate educational research.
- 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 & Format
Cover sheet along with the following attachments:- A curriculum vitae
- A description of nominee’s/applicant’s body of 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 specific 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.
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.