Brock University’s Distinguished Professor designation is a lifetime appointment recognizing outstanding achievement in each recipient’s academic discipline. This is the first in a series of articles highlighting this year’s recipients. Read more about the award and its recipients on The Brock News.

Affecting positive change in the public policy domain is what drives Faculty of Education Distinguished Professor Louis Volante.

Volante was among 10 professors recently awarded the new honorary title of Distinguished Professor by Brock’s Office of the President. The lifetime appointment recognizes outstanding achievement in the recipient’s academic discipline.

Having worked with more than 150 academics in more than 25 countries across the globe, in addition to publishing seven books profiling more than 30 education systems, collaboration is woven into every facet of Volante’s work.

While the Distinguished Professor designation is an individual honour, Volante said he shares the recognition with many collaborators, from Brock and beyond, who also value synergistic global partnerships that create pathways for new ways of thinking and doing.

“Ultimately, our collective research efforts are meant to facilitate the uptake of evidence-based policies that promote student learning and achievement,” he said.

A policy analyst at heart, Volante’s scholarship, which focuses on the global governance of education, politics, policy, and large-scale reform, has been picked up by many worldwide governing bodies, including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, UNESCO, World Bank and the European Commission (EU).

Interdisciplinary at its core, Volante’s research intersects with fields like statistics, political science, psychology, sociology and economics.

Volante’s current work is tackling the impact of the pandemic on social inequality and student learning outcomes, both in the cognitive and non-cognitive domain. This builds on momentum propelled by three Insight Grants with Volante as Principal Investigator that were supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada — funded by the Government of Canada — with the last two resulting in 10 consecutive years of funding.

Working closely with various international colleagues, he recently published an edited volume that examined the impact of the pandemic on socioeconomically disadvantaged student populations (The pandemic, socioeconomic disadvantage, and learning outcomes — Publications Office of the EU) and is currently working on another book project that considers the long-term impact of the pandemic on academic resilience.

Volante is also a two-time recipient of the prestigious R.W.B. Jackson Award — the only Canadian scholar to win the award multiple times as a first author. The honour is presented to most outstanding English language article in each volume of the Canadian Journal of Education.

Passionate about creating real-world change by harnessing the power of academia, Volante goes beyond pen and paper through his many public media appearances on PBS Newshour and CBC’s The National among other national and provincial news organizations.

“I think it is important for professors to assume an active role as public intellectuals and share their expertise, where appropriate, on important issues that impact our communities locally and globally,” he said. “Being a public-facing academic helps to spread awareness of how research can inform political debate, so that evidence, not divisive rhetoric, drives our public policies.”

Dean of Education Mary-Louise Vanderlee said that in addition to engaging in public-facing scholarly work, Volante continues to mentor graduate students at Brock and beyond.

“Dr. Volante aptly demystifies the complexities of the field of educational studies and learner outcomes while being aware of the groundbreaking international research enabling the focus on cautions and possibilities, where both tensions and possibilities coexist,” she said.