Working closely with educators, administrators and families in Franco-Ontarian school communities, Ndiaye helps co-create practical guidelines and tools that support parental involvement in the education ecosphere. Her work highlights an emerging practice focused on “parent-partners” and inclusive, human-centred ways of thinking about education.
Ndiaye is a 2025 Vanier Scholar and a doctoral candidate in the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of education. Our conversation is part of the Scholars in Education series.
Tell us about yourself and your background.
My path has been shaped by working across disciplines, driven by a deep concern for human values. I’m a molecular biologist by training, with a dual degree in management and I previously held different roles in France’s pharmaceutical industry. That first stage of my career in scholarly research helped me develop my skills in modelling, innovation and teamwork. After immigrating to Ontario almost 15 years ago, I chose to pursue a new line of work: teaching. Since then, I’ve earned a bachelor’s and a master’s and am now working on my PhD at uOttawa, all while teaching math and science at a Franco-Ontarian high school. My interest in teaching innovation and collaborative practices inspired me to design and test a project about co-teaching with parent partners (a reference to traditional co-teaching, where two or more teachers work together) aligned with school curricula. That’s how my pilot project on parent partners in teaching was born in my own classroom. This work then made its way into academia as the subject of several scholarly papers. Today, it’s the basis for my PhD research project.
Guide us through a brief overview of your research
My PhD research reflects my desire to better understand and build new forms of collaboration between schools and families. More specifically, it focuses on developing and testing a evaluation framework for parent–teacher co-teaching in Franco-Ontarian minority communities, drawing on a research and development methodology. The main goals of my project are to identify common guidelines and work with people in the field to co-develop a reference document for parent engagement, as well as quality indicators for parent–teacher co-teaching, so I can provide school communities with tools. This research project will, I hope, help document an emerging practice and spark deeper reflection on shared responsibility in education, parent participation and teaching innovation.
What inspired your interest in this topic?
What drives me is the deep conviction that active parental participation can strengthen school communities, and that we urgently need to rethink our models for collaboration in education. Through my experience as a teacher, I’ve seen that parents’ views on school change when they become engaged partners in teaching. My desire to pursue research stems from the rich tension between my observations in the field, my interest in leadership and teaching innovation, and my own experience as an involved mother. This project is also a tribute to my parents, who taught me resilience, excellence and a love of learning, and to my kids, who inspire me every day to dream about a more human-centred, inclusive, collective model for education.
Who do you hope will benefit from your work?
My PhD research could benefit several interconnected stakeholders. For starters, students are at the heart of my work. By promoting their well-being, equitable inclusion and school engagement, I hope parent–teacher co-teaching will help make their learning environments fairer, more motivating and more global in perspective, on a lasting basis. I’d like for my work to benefit teachers and school administration, providing them a new tool for professional development, collaboration with families and context-driven teaching innovation. Parents will, of course, be key beneficiaries too. Valuing their expertise, recognizing their role in education and giving them space to be active participants in classrooms should help strengthen trust, partnerships and joint success. Finally, I hope this project will build lasting bridges between research, practice and community engagement, inspiring school boards, government decision-makers and researchers in the social sciences and humanities to rethink the traditional boundaries between families and schools. This will mean developing more inclusive and transformational policy.
Did your research take any unexpected turns?
Several unexpected issues emerged. The most striking thing was the magnitude of the personal and professional impacts my pilot project had made before I even considered pursuing a PhD. What really surprised me was how this approach instantly resonated with students, their parents and the school team. Another unexpected result was the interest I got from other schools, researchers and education authorities, even though the concept of parent–teacher co-teaching is not part of the authoritative theoretical frameworks yet. This unexpected and encouraging reception strengthened my conviction that sometimes, the simplest solutions can develop on the margins of established practice, and research can be a practical tool for transformation when it’s rooted in the realities and needs in the field. Finally, on a personal level, I never would’ve imagined that this project would, after over 20 years, take me on a cross-disciplinary journey back to my first loves: research, life sciences, creativity, innovation and social engagement. There are so many threads I’m weaving together in my PhD research.
Why did you choose uOttawa?
To me, uOttawa represents an intellectual, ethical and professional anchor point. It’s a hub for education excellence, an active institution in Francophone spheres and open to innovation. Here, I’ve been able to adopt a critical, collaborative and transdisciplinary approach to my PhD research. It’s also the place where I could combine my experience as a professional in the sciences, a committed teacher and a citizen invested in the common good to create a meaningful research project. My choice reflects a long-term commitment to developing as a researcher and contributing to advancing knowledge in the field.
About Awa Ndiaye
Awa Ndiaye is a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholar (2025) and a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa. With a background in molecular biology and professional experience in the pharmaceutical industry in France, she later transitioned to education and has taught math and science in Franco-Ontarian schools. Her doctoral research focuses on parent-teacher co-teaching as an innovative approach to family-school collaboration in minority Francophone contexts. Her work bridges research, practice, leadership, and community engagement to promote inclusive and equity-driven education.
Ndiaye’s recent publications include: Développement professionnel des enseignants à l’ère de l’IA : une réflexion critique pour un modèle efficace de changement durable (2025), published in Médiations Et médiatisations; and Cultiver l’innovation, l’engagement et le leadership partagé à travers le coenseignement parent-enseignant : quelles implications pour les directions d’école ? (2024), published in Éducation et francophonie.
