Associate Professor Sarah Barrett is the recipient of the 2022 Faculty of Education Dean’s Research Impact Award (Established stream). Barrett was recently recognized and presented with the award at an internal Faculty event.
The Dean’s Research Impact Award is awarded annually to a tenure stream member of the Faculty of Education in the Emerging and Established scholar streams, whose sustained programs of research displayed significant impact, broadly defined and relative to their career stage. The award recognizes research excellence, leadership, and innovation including sustained and significant contributions to the field, exceptional research achievements and leadership in research.
“In nominating you for this award, your colleagues were inspired by the interdisciplinary nature of your work, spanning as it does cultural studies, feminist theory, science education, and teacher education,” said Dean Robert Savage. “They were particularly moved by your recent report, Emergency Distance Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic, highlighting that it is one of the first of its kind to offer a comprehensive analysis of teachers’ experiences at one of the most difficult times in the profession.”
As one of Barrett’s nomination letter writers commented, “the report amplified the voices of teachers whose frustrations, hopes, creative ideas and fears had not been adequately captured or mirrored back to them.” Another letter writer noted that Barrett’s approach to research generates “the hope of building something more,” while another Faculty colleague recognized the power of Barrett’s research to engage “what needs to be done to ensure socially just conditions of learning both during COVID-19 and re-imagine education in the coming years.”
Barrett’s research focuses on teachers’ experiences of how their values and beliefs influence their practice; the ethical aspects of environmental education; teaching science for social justice; science teacher education; and developing more inclusive high school science curricula. Her current research revolves around teachers’ experiences of teaching online during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has authored several articles on teachers’ experiences of their unions and workplaces, teacher education and teacher identity, and presented at several national and international conferences.