Gina Thésée

Gina Thésée is Full Professor in the Department of Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), and is Co-Chair of the UNESCO Chair in Democracy, Global Citizenship and Transformative Education (DCMÉT). She completed undergraduate and graduate studies in the fields of natural sciences and education in Canada. Her doctorate, completed at the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2003, examined the epistemological orientations of teachers of Haitain origin in relation to the sciences at the secondary level. She is the past Director of the Bachelor in Secondary Education program, and recently completed a six-year term as a member of the Committee for Accreditation of Teacher Education Programs (CAPFE), an advisory committee to the Quebec Ministry of Education in Quebec. She is also a researcher in the Research Center for Environmental and Eco-citizenship Education (Centr’ERE) as well as an associate member of the Institute of Sciences, Technologies and Advanced Studies in Haiti (ISTEAH). On a regular basis, she participates in the activities of the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (UNESCO). She is interested in the socio-educational contexts related mainly to colonization, culture, ethnicity, gender and race. Her theoretical framework for transformative and emancipatory education is rooted in critical perspectives, and borrows from diverse critical currents, such as anti-colonialism, antiracism, democracy, environmentalism, feminism, indigeneity or transculturalism. In 2006, she was a Laureate for the Montreal Black History Month, which honoured her for her work in the Black community. Professor Thésée has long been involved in community development with the Haitian community in Montréal, and has also supported numerous cultural projects involving dance and the arts. Before entering academia, she was a secondary science teacher for fourteen years in multicultural school in Montreal.