Education gets new dean

BRONWYN CHESTER | Some people accept the mantle of leadership reluctantly, but Ratna Ghosh can't wait to get started. "I was hoping for it," she said over the phone on Tuesday, the day she received the official news that she would be the new dean of the Faculty of Education.

"I'd like to put the faculty on the map, locally, nationally and internationally. We have the brand of McGill and I want to use that."

The first step in her five-year mandate, to begin July 1, 1998, is to "get a good team together.

"I like the feminist theory that says power with people, rather than over people. That's definitely my philosophy," says Ghosh, who adds that she would never have contemplated applying for the position of dean were it not for "the excellent people [in the faculty]. There is such potential. "

When Ghosh speaks of teams, she is not only speaking of fellow members of her faculty. With the change from confessional to linguistic school boards taking effect this September, reducing the number of anglophone school boards to a "more manageable" 11 (from more than 30), Ghosh wants to get to know a few of the directors general "to form teams there too."

She believes the responsibility of her faculty is to train teachers to prepare the coming generation for the impending "culture of science and technology."

Part of that, she says, involves fostering intercultural understanding, due to the human effects of globalization. The author of such books as Redefining Multicultural Education, Ghosh is well-suited to that challenge.

These changes require expanding the role of continuing professional education for teachers, posits Ghosh. She would like to see her faculty's continuing education programs tap new communities, such as francophones and ethno-cultural groups.

Her research interests include education and minority groups, the sociology of education in developing areas and women in development.

Ghosh began at McGill in 1977 as assistant professor of administration and policy studies in the Faculty of Education, having completed her MA and PhD at the University of Calgary and her BA in English at the University of Calcutta. She also earned a diploma studying piano and theory at the Trinity College of Music in London, England.

In 1981, she became associate professor and in 1995 she was appointed full professor in the Department of Culture and Values in Education where, since 1996, she has been director of graduate studies. She was named to her faculty's endowed William C. Macdonald Chair in Education in 1995.

Ghosh speaks Bengali and Hindi in addition to English and French and sits on the editorial boards of The Canadian Journal of Education and The Journal of Women's Studies.

In addition to her work at McGill, Ghosh has a long-standing involvement with the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, a Canadian organization designed to foster scholarly exchanges between India and Canada, where she has been president and director.

While she has decided not to teach during this first year of her mandate, Ghosh plans to continue supervising her seven doctoral students and to carry on with her research on the effects of globalization on women in India and China for which she has received a grant of $70,000 from les Fonds de formation de chercheurs et l'aide à la recherche. She intends to make certain that her own scholarly activities don't wither away as a result of her new responsibilities. "I will need to keep up-to-date," surmises the dean-elect.