[cmath] Dr. Christine Suurtamm Wins the 2020 Margaret Sinclair Memorial Award

[Kate Bangay]

Dr. Christine Suurtamm wins the 2020 Margaret Sinclair Memorial Award

 

Dr. Christine Suurtamm has been selected as the 2020 recipient of the Margaret Sinclair Memorial Award Recognizing Innovation and Excellence in Mathematics Education. Like Margaret Sinclair, Chris completed her graduate studies while still working as a classroom teacher. Chris is currently a Full Professor at the Faculty of Education and Vice-Dean, Research and Professional Development at the University of Ottawa. Her formal studies began with a B.A. Honours Mathematics from York University and culminated with her Ed.D from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/University of Toronto. She has been a classroom teacher, Department Head of Mathematics, and Director of the Teacher Education program at the University of Ottawa. She has received numerous awards and honours, including the University of Ottawa Award for Excellence in Teaching.

 

Throughout her career as an educator, Dr. Suurtamm has been actively and fully engaged with the mathematics education community in Ontario and beyond. Her leadership has been well documented; she has been involved in organizing and supporting many mathematics education conferences. She has acted as Co-Chair of the International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement in Ottawa, of working groups at meetings of the Canadian Mathematics Education Study Group (CMESG), and of study groups at the International Congress on Mathematics Education (ICME). She has been an Executive member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), a Director of the Ontario Association of Mathematics Education (OAME), and a member of the Steering Committee of the Fields Institute for Research in the Mathematical Sciences. The range of topics of her research as well as her numerous publications, both in journals and books, demonstrates Chris’ understanding that educating our students as well as our teachers is a complex problem involving many variables. Her influence has been felt not only through her publications, conference work, research, and preparing future teachers, but also through many programs, projects, and initiatives that she has undertaken, working with classroom teachers, school and divisional administrators, and individuals at the Ontario Ministry of Education.

 

During the more than 25 years that Chris was a classroom teacher, she worked with teachers to implement several new curricula. Chris believes that teachers “can develop new ideas by exploring issues within their own context and wrestling with these issues with others. Valuing and respecting teachers’ professionalism, commitment, knowledge, and judgment” are critical to her work in supporting the move towards a genuine inquiry-based curriculum. The Award recognizes her years of enthusiastic engagement and ongoing leadership across all levels of mathematics education.

 

 

For more information, please contact: 

Esther Berzunza, Manager of Communications and Development
Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences
eberzunz at fields.utoronto.ca

 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: https://mail.cms.math.ca/pipermail/cmath/attachments/20200221/781848d6/attachment.htm