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On a cloudy June afternoon, the OISE Nexus Lounge was bright with laughter and good conversation as the OISE Associate Dean, Research, International and Innovation portfolio re-launched as the Associate Dean, Research, Partnership and Innovation (ADRPI). To celebrate this rebrand, the ADRPI hosted a panel conversation and networking event to introduce the vision behind the renewed focus. The rebranding reflects the Institute’s ongoing commitment to advancing OISE’s strategy for supporting faculty research, knowledge mobilization, and innovation mobilization with a renewed emphasis on cultivating reciprocal relationships at the local, national, and international levels.

“We're excited with several things, including the panel we have today,” said Associate Dean Michele Peterson-Badali, who finished a 10-year term at the end of June. “It really highlights the idea of partnership as a central construct in the work that we are doing in research, partnership and innovation, which is why there's a bit of a name change to our portfolio.”

Peterson-Badali emphasized the intentionality and structure of the strategic alignment of research partnerships at OISE, “and the fact that we absolutely will be able to align around some key institutional priorities, which is going to enable us to come together to build reciprocal relationships based on trust that will allow us to work together with shared purpose and understanding,” she added.

Introducing a new associate dean

The afternoon gathering also introduced Professor Becky (Xi) Chen as OISE’s incoming Associate Dean, Research, Partnership and Innovation.

Peterson-Badali noted that “Becky Chen brings tremendous capital – deep education research work, deep partnerships with schools, school boards, and education organizations, and a commitment to doing research that's incredibly important for practice.

Chen is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Literacy Development of Bilingual and Multilingual Children with over 100 refereed journal publications and more than 200 conference presentations. She has been a principal investigator on externally funded projects in excess of $1 million and a co-investigator on more than 20 external grants totaling $6 million that engage with academic researchers and community partners.

“I am so glad to be part of the panel here, to listen to this discussion and benefit from it, and in my new role, I hope to continue the wonderful work that Michele has started and accomplished, and to build on that,” says Chen.

A dialogue about system coherence

The panel, institutional leaders and OISE partners who are advancing innovative partnership work in their organizations and across K–12 spaces, formed their conversation around the importance of coherence. In his opening remarks, Brian Kalakula, OISE’s Research Partnership Development Officer, began with a quote. “Michael Fullan, founding dean of OISE, once wrote, ‘Coherence is the shared depth of understanding about the purpose and nature of work.’ In an era where education systems can feel fragmented across levels, roles and even technologies, coherence isn't about everything being the same; it's about aligning strategies and efforts across the system, and that's what brings us here today,” he added.

Kalakula asked panelists, “When you think about coherence in your organization, what resonates most from this quote? How does your work contribute to or wrestle with creating coherence in the system?”. Below are excerpts of their reflections.

Owen Lambert, Vice President, Digital & Innovation, TV Ontario

“There's a very big push at the executive level and the leadership level to push down strategic direction – whether that's mission, vision, purpose – and really build that shared understanding from the ground up all the way through the organization. It's the only way we can actually build the synergies inside the organization to get that kind of alignment on a day-to-day basis.

Jennifer Hove, Director, Data and Reporting at the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO)

“The big idea at EQAO, of course, has always been and continues to be, delivering fair, valid, reliable assessments that produce consistent, comparable, credible information about student learning across the province. The move to digital assessment after the pandemic transformed our assessments, so that was really an opportunity to redefine coherence, redefine ourselves, while still maintaining a lot of the kind of thorough thinking that we've always had.”

David Cameron, Senior Manager, Research and Development at Toronto District School Board

We have 240,000 kids in the system, around 600 schools – it's a massive system, it moves a ton of people through it year to year.

For us, [coherence] means we're able to somehow deal with the the hierarchical nature of education in a way that helps get at the grounded nature of schooling and teaching. How do you grab information that's innovative in a particular school in the city and use that as part of your knowledge mobilization across a broader set of broader set of schools?

It's always a challenge for us, and the degrees to which we can capture a coherent feel – how you build those kinds of structures and strategies in a way that can be adaptive and flexible based on the kinds of practices and work that schools are doing.

Bernadette Smith, Superintendent, Innovation and International Programs, Peel District School Board

One way we have been creating coherence is by developing a multi-year strategic plan with four distinct goals having to do with student achievement, mental health and well-being, equity and inclusion and community engagement. Within each, priorities are based on the context-specific needs of the populations we serve.

“I have seen a transformation through the way we are articulating ourselves and building that coherency. At our last board meeting last night, a student trustee reflected, “Sitting in these board meetings this year, I truly know what's going on in this board and how dedicated you guys are.’ Out there, we're feeling it, there's things happening but just by setting that pace, it does then translate into that work. So coherence is a big word, and it is very difficult to establish.

As the summit came to a close, the theme of coherence—shared understanding, aligned strategies, and collective purpose—resonated clearly. The panel offered not just perspectives, but a shared commitment to the work ahead. With a renewed mandate for reciprocal partnership, OISE’s Research Partnership and Innovation team is poised to drive meaningful collaborations across education systems—locally and globally.