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Assistant professor Jody Stark to receive dissertation award

April 26, 2018 — 

Jody Stark, assistant professor in music education from the Desautels Faculty of Music, will be honoured with a Canadian Association for Teacher Education (CATE) dissertation award, which she will receive at the Canadian Society for Studies in Education conference in Regina next month.  

“I congratulate Dr. Stark on this prestigious award for research excellence in the field of education,” says Edmund Dawe, dean of the Desautels Faculty of Music. “We were very fortunate to recruit Dr. Stark to our faculty in 2016. The national recognition she is receiving is well-deserved. She continues to make an outstanding contribution to the Desautels Faculty of Music through her ongoing research, teaching, and dedication to our students.”  

The award annually celebrates significant contributions to Canadian teacher education research by recognizing outstanding dissertations and theses by students in the field.

“I am honoured to be the recipient of a Canadian Association for Teacher Education dissertation award for my PhD thesis entitled Beyond the Workshop: An Interpretive Case Study of the Professional Learning of Three Elementary Music Teachers,” explains Dr. Stark. “Understanding teacher learning is critical for school- and district-level administrators, university teacher educators, those that design professional learning structures and events for teachers, and for teachers themselves. Rather than examining professional learning as a process of individual construction, my study examined the negotiations teachers undertake as learners located in specific communities. My new understanding from this work has been instrumental in my teaching at U of M and in my work with colleagues in designing a new music teacher education degree to be offered by the Desautels Faculty of Music. I am pleased to continue this research agenda as a faculty member at the University of Manitoba.”

Dr. Stark is an award-winning music educator who is passionate about making quality music education available to every child. She has studied music and music education in Hungary, at the University of Calgary, and at the University of Alberta, receiving her Bachelière en Éducation from the U of A’s Faculté St-Jean, a Diploma in Fine Arts from the University of Calgary, and a master’s and PhD in music education from the University of Alberta. Prior to becoming a university instructor, Dr. Stark taught music and choirs in both English and French for many years in elementary schools and in early childhood settings.

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