The Teacher Education Office is pleased to announce Dr. Bathseba Opini and Yvonne Dawydiak are the 2021 co-recipients of the Murray Elliott Award for Outstanding Contributions to Teacher Education in the Faculty of Education.
This award honours full-time and sessional faculty, staff and other persons associated with the Faculty of Education who have made an outstanding contribution to the Teacher Education Program at UBC.
The recipient will receive a plaque along with a Pendleton blanket. In addition, the recipient’s name will be displayed in the Faculty alongside other recipients of the award.
Congratulations to Dr. Opini and Yvonne Dawydiak!
Thank you to the adjudication committee – Cynthia Clerc, Dr. Surita Jhangiani, Dr. Marianne McTavish, Liza Navarro and John Yamamoto.
Dr. Bathseba Opini
Dr. Bathseba Opini (PhD, Toronto) is an Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Educational Studies at UBC. She also has experience working as a K to 12 teacher in Canada and internationally. Her research and teaching interests are in equity in education with a particular focus on anti-racism and decolonizing education, disability studies, teacher education, educational policy and practice and international education. Dr. Opini teaches courses in the teacher education program as well as in graduate education. From 2014 to 2020, she was the course coordinator for teacher education courses offered by the Department of Educational Studies. She has mentored several teacher candidates through classroom teaching and practicum experiences. Dr. Opini has been instrumental in the implementation of anti-racism education curriculum initiatives in the teacher education program. She is currently concluding a project on anti-racism in teacher education with colleagues in the Faculty of Education. She was awarded the Faculty of Education Lecturer and Sessional Teaching Prize (UBC Vancouver Campus) in 2018.
Yvonne Dawydiak
Yvonne Dawydiak has been with the Faculty of Education since 2013 in a few different roles. She began her work as a faculty advisor, adjunct teaching professor and cohort coordinator of the Personalized Learning & Technology cohort and, after her three-year secondment from the Surrey School District ended in 2016, Yvonne remained in the faculty working in both Professional Development Community Engagement and the Teacher Education Office. In Yvonne’s current role, Learning Design Manager (TEO), she provides instructional leadership in planning, design, delivery and evaluation of initiatives and strategies to enhance innovative teaching approaches including the integration of digital technologies. Highlights in her work include co-planning and teaching with faculty and working directly with teacher candidates and with graduate students in education as peer mentors in teacher education. Her blog, the Scarfe Digital Sandbox, reaches a wide audience within and beyond the faculty.
Yvonne is a graduate of the BEd program (1990) and graduated from the Master of Educational Technology program (2011), during which she devoted time to researching the role of coaching and mentorship on digital technology adoption in schools. Prior to beginning her work at UBC, Yvonne taught for 25 years in the Surrey School district and volunteered her time as a technology integration specialist and coach.