You know that Canadian teacher who won a $1m Global Teacher Prize a couple of days ago? That’s University of Toronto alumna Maggie MacDonnell, who was chosen from 20,000 nominations from 179 countries to win the prize for her work with Inuit students in a fly-in-only village of Salluit in Quebec.
“The definition of a teacher here is a lot more broad than it might be if you were a teacher in Toronto, Halifax or Montreal,” MacDonnell says in a video posted by the Varkey Foundation, which awards the prize annually to an exceptional teacher. “In an Inuit community, you have the privilege of being able to build very authentic relationships with your students and with your community.”
Salluit is one of the northern communities that has been hit hard with a suicide crisis among the youth. To counteract the trend, MacDonnell has built programs that cultivate resilience, hope and self-belief in her students, involving them in arts, encouraging them to eat healthy snacks at school, arranging cooperative work placements at local businesses and engaging them in sport.
“I’ve always been passionate about sport and physical activity as a tool to build resilience in young people. But I’ve literally seen it and tasted on a day to day basis in Salluit,” MacDonnell says in the video. “It’s not just about the athletics or a performance based outcome. Along the way there is so much youth development going on.”
MacDonnell did her graduate studies at the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education, focusing her research on sport for development. Her supervisor was U of T Vice-President and U of T Scarborough Principal Bruce Kidd, founding dean of KPE.
“Maggie was an exceptional student from the day she arrived. She did her thesis on basketball as a medium of female empowerment in Tanzania and always held the ambition to create a similar program in an impoverished area of Canada, so it's not surprising to see her path and her tremendous contribution. I'm just delighted that she is being honoured in this way,” says Kidd.
MacDonnell says the youth that have joined her running club have quit smoking cigarettes and marijuana, some have returned to school, and some even tell her that when they’re going through tough times and having suicidal thoughts, they are able to use exercise and running as a coping tool.
“When I’m working with my runners I often say that when you run by yourself, you go fast, but when you run with others, you can go so far,” she says in the video.
Acting Vice Dean, Academic, and Director of the Centre for Sport Policy Studies at KPE Professor Peter Donnelly says it was enormously gratifying to see a former student win the Global Teacher Prize. MacDonnell worked on two projects with Donnelly as a research assistant.
“Maggie was part of the first cohort of graduate students who came to the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education to study, and take a critical and constructive perspective on the burgeoning field of sport for development,” says Donnelly. “She always wanted to be in the field, engaged in programming; and Ikusik High School in Salluit could not have a better person to be engaged in the education and development of students who face enormous challenges."
"Maggie really walks the social justice walk," says Associate Professor Margaret MacNeill, who was on MacDonnell's graduate thesis committee at KPE. "It's so gratifying to see that her studies about human rights and sports at U of T have translated into making a significant difference for her students up North."
In an interview with CBC radio Quebec, MacDonnell said she plans to use the prize money to start an NGO with her students that would focus on bringing back the culture of kayaking to the community, through a means of environmental stewardship and youth engagement.
Canadian Prime Minister and former teacher Justin Trudeau was among the many Canadians to congratulate MacDonnell on her win.
Congratulations Maggie! Thanks for everything you do to help your students build stronger futures. #TeachersMatterhttps://twitter.com/teacherprize/status/843474725099749378 …