McDowell Foundation Award Recipients

Doreen Lloyd
2005 McDowell Foundation Award for
Contributions to Educational Research

Doreen Lloyd has been an unstinting contributor to the McDowell Foundation since its inception. When the Foundation was created in 1991, Doreen was a newly retired teacher with enormous energy and a strong inclination to maintain her involvement with the teaching profession. Fortunately for the Foundation, she chose to invest part of her warmth, good sense, and enthusiasm in the new organization that had just been created to support professional research and inquiry by teachers.

Doreen began teaching in 1951 after graduating from the Saskatoon Normal School . Returning to her birth place, Prince Albert, she taught all grade levels in three school divisions. Among her favourite assignments were those at the junior high level where, as she once put it, "you never have time to think about getting old." She spent twenty-four years teaching Grade 9 English and Home Economics.

Her teaching was complemented by extensive work with and for other teachers. Doreen was active in the Prince Albert Teachers’ Association, serving at one time or another as president, vice-president, staff representative, and chair of every local committee. She also served provincially as an STF councillor, a member on various STF committees, and an executive member of the Saskatchewan Middle Years Association. For her exemplary service to the professional organization of teachers, Doreen has been awarded honorary life membership in both the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation and the Prince Albert and Area Teachers’ Association.

Her active professional life did not diminish upon her retirement in 1990. She became an active member of the Prince Albert chapter of the Superannuated Teachers of Saskatchewan. She also continued to serve at the provincial level, representing superannuated teachers as an STF councillor or vice-councillor for ten years. She has been a member of the STS executive since 1991, she has held office as president and vice-president, and she has chaired or co-chaired STS committees responsible for conference planning and the constitution/resolutions.

When the McDowell Foundation was created, Doreen quickly became part of the fundraising work needed to establish a sound financial and organizational base for the fledgling organization. She teamed with Bert Gordon as the co-chairs of the Superannuates Track of the Teaching for Tomorrow campaign. For more than two years, she and Bert visited many, if not most, chapters of the Superannuated Teachers of Saskatchewan (STS), explaining the Foundation and soliciting their financial support. Her professional credibility and her enthusiasm were major factors in building the solid base of support that the Foundation has enjoyed among the superannuated teachers of this province.

As an active member of the STS, Doreen also helped to forge valuable connections between the Foundation and the provincial organization representing superannuated teachers. She became the STS appointee to the McDowell Foundation Board of Directors in 1991 and is the longest serving board member to date. In her capacity as director, she has kept superannuates informed about the Foundation and found numerous opportunities to include the Foundation in STS events. The Foundation regularly brings greetings to the STS convention and its research projects have been featured as sessions at the convention. The value to the Foundation of maintaining a strong connection with superannuated teachers, which Doreen has fostered and promoted, cannot be overestimated.

In her volunteer work on behalf of the Foundation, Doreen has typified the importance of collaborative relationships and a sense of community in both education and research. She represents the "supporter" of research, the invaluable person who appreciates the research interests of a wide range of colleagues and willingly gives time, energy and approbation to their professional efforts to improve teaching and learning. Through her longstanding, unselfish work on behalf of teachers and the McDowell Foundation, she has made an outstanding contribution to educational research that has earned her the McDowell Foundation Award for 2005.

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