Mandy Frake-Mistak, an educational developer for York University’s Teaching Commons, has joined 2020’s cohort of International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL) Fellows. She is one of three Canadians and nine scholars from around the world to receive the honour this year.
The ISSoTL Fellowship, launched in 2019, recognizes leaders who have made exemplary contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) – the examination of learning and how teaching can deepen that experience – at the local, national, regional and/or international levels. The fellowship is guided by core values such as community engagement and global citizenship, and embraces collaboration as a fundamental process for building capacities for new ways of thinking and learning.
Frake-Mistak said the recognition is validation for the work she has done over eight years at the Teaching Commons and reinforces her commitment to continue that work.
“Being recognized on an international scale of this magnitude, quite frankly, is awesome,” Frake-Mistak said. “The fellowship is in part a celebration of the programs I have designed and lead, but that it also represents the community of SoTL scholars that I have sought to build and bring together makes this award so incredibly special.
“It also brings important recognition to the important SoTL contributions from our York community,” she continued.
Frake-Mistak was nominated for the fellowship for her work spearheading the Teaching Commons’ EduCATE course, serving on the SoTL Ontario board of directors, and for publishing several pieces of work including a collaborative article about the impact of EduCATE set to appear in the International Journal of Academic Development.
“Mandy’s work in elevating the scholarship of teaching and learning both within and beyond York has been nothing short of impressive,” said Genevieve Maheux-Pelletier, interim director of the Teaching Commons and one of Frake-Mistak’s nominators.
“In EduCATE, I noticed firsthand how she mentors a compassionate community ripe for purposeful conversations about research into teaching,” Maheux-Pelletier explained. “She has developed a wonderful web of colleagues who have relied on her to blossom into teaching and learning scholars in their own right.”
Frake-Mistak, Maheux-Pelletier and colleagues wrote a chapter titled “Using a community-based approach to engage faculty in the scholarship of teaching and learning,” in Evidence-Based Faculty Development Through the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (IGI Global, 2020).