2009 winners of the Distinguished Academics Awards

UVic’s Dr. Jessica Ball was named Academic of the Year for her work with Aboriginal communities in developing new understandings and resources to support fathers.

For five years, Dr. Ball was the co-principal investigator in a SSHRC-CURA funded study into fatherhood in Canada. Her investigation into Indigenous fatherhood was unique in two ways. It was the first time a systematic study of Indigenous fatherhood had ever been carried out in Canada, and the study took place at a time when First Nations communities were wary of research agreements with non-Aboriginal researchers.

Her success in achieving agreements with five Aboriginal communities in BC for this study was the result of years of working with First Nations in ways that respected their cultures. It was through this approach that

Dr. Ball earned the reputation, as one of her nominees noted, “as one of only a handful of university-based academics who orients her role as a researcher to helping Aboriginal peoples to achieve social justice and to furthering their goals for children and families.”

The success of her work in the 1990s in developing training programs in partnership with First Nation communities for Aboriginal child and youth care workers led to requests from First Nations leaders for her assistance in seeking answers to numerous questions about supporting children and families. Out of these requests came research projects to find ways to support speech and language acquisition of Aboriginal children, and to document how First Nation communities are building their capacity to deliver child and family development programs.

Her Indigenous fatherhood study was developed in consultation with the five partner communities and carried out with an Aboriginal research team. Fathers in the partner communities decided that the best way to use this research would be to produce a DVD and print materials in which Aboriginal fathers would tell real stories of fatherhood in their own words. Thus was the genesis of the DVD Fatherhood: Indigenous Men’s Journeys. More than 3,000 copies of the DVD and the accompanying parenting and program guides have been distributed across Canada and internationally to Aboriginal fathers, community-based programs, government agencies, libraries and universities.

For her groundbreaking research into Indigenous fatherhood, for her acclaimed contributions on research ethics and cultural safety, and for her unstinting commitment to serve the communities she studies, Dr. Jessica Ball was awarded the 2009 CUFA BC Academic of the Year Award.

Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl has spent more than 20 years looking for the good in children. From her time as a school teacher, to her work with at-risk adolescents, to her academic research, Dr. Schonert-Reichl has sought to understand how children develop their sense of morality and how parents, teachers and the community shape a child’s emotional and social development.

Although there is much we think we know about how to raise “good kids”, Dr. Schonert-Reichl puts such knowledge to the test. She applies the rigor of academic research to evaluate various approaches to promoting empathy, altruism and well-being in children.

One of the best-known examples of this work is her on-going evaluation of the Roots of Empathy program. Based on monthly visits by an infant and her/his parents, the program aims to facilitate the development of emotional and social understanding in children. Dr. Schonert-Reichl’s evaluation of the program consistently documents its positive impact and her research has played a critical role in the expansion of this program in British Columbia and around the world.

The scope of Dr. Schonert-Reichl’s work truly is global. She has studied the effects of political violence on adolescents in Israel. She has collaborated with researchers in Australia, Japan and New Zealand on evaluations of the Roots of Empathy program in those countries. She has shared the results of her research with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Despite the international reach of Dr. Schonert-Reichl’s scholarship, her work is firmly rooted in BC school classrooms. As one of her nominators notes:

“Dr. Schonert-Reichl is seldom found in the ‘ivory tower’. Rather, she is typically found in the schools, working directly with teachers, administrators and with children and youth, turning research into practice within the arena of social-emotional development.”

A recent example of her turning research into practice is the United Way-funded study of the psychological and social worlds of children aged 9 to 12. Through surveys, children keeping diaries of how they use their time, and interviews, Dr. Schonert-Reichl paints a picture of the complex transition in every person’s life from child to adolescent.

The results of this research have been printed in booklet form and more than 2,700 copies have been distributed to community agencies, schools, governments and universities. This work has resulted in the creation of community-based efforts to support middle childhood in nine BC communities, and the United Way earmarking $2.6 million for middle childhood initiatives. Emotionally secure children make better adults and provide us with the hope and inspiration that the next generation will be able to live more peaceable and content lives. Dr. Schonert-Reichl’s work not only helps children today but contributes to a better society tomorrow.

For her long commitment to understanding and improving the lives of children and adolescents through her academic research and its practical application, Dr. Kimberly Schonert-Reichl was awarded the newly-named Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award for 2009.