Teacher candidates are committed to helping their students understand consent and the continuum of sexual violence but feel they are inadequately prepared to do so, says Salsabel Almanssori.

Her dissertation examining the experiences of teacher candidates learning about sex education and sexual violence prevention will receive recognition today from the Canadian Association for the Studies of Women and Education.

An adjunct professor of education and women’s and gender studies and a full-time educator with the Greater Essex County District School Board, Dr. Almanssori is one of two winners of the association’s graduate awards for 2022.

“I am honoured to receive this national recognition of my scholarship,” she says. “It fuels me to continue this important work, by mobilizing the knowledge of my dissertation and advancing my research program in sexual violence prevention education.”

Association president Lynn Thomas noted the selection committee was particularly impressed by Almanssori’s work to address a pressing issue with implications for advancing safety in schools by highlighting the need for prevention instruction in teacher education.

“We are thrilled to learn about the work of new scholars such as yourself that we believe will make such an exciting contribution to the field,” Dr. Thomas wrote in the letter announcing the award. “From what we have seen in your nomination letter we have no doubt that we will continue to hear about you and your scholarship in the future.”

She invited Almanssori and her supervisor Christopher Greig to attend the association’s annual meeting, conducted online May 16.