Michelle Searle turned her Queen’s education into a lifelong practice of giving back – and received the Chancellor A. Charles Baillie Teaching Award in the process.
Dr. Michelle Searle credits Queen’s, her alma mater, as the place she first discovered the idea of giving back to community through teaching. That idea is one that she now carries into her scholarship at Queen’s Faculty of Education.
Searle, Ed’99, MEd’07, PhD’13, is an Associate Professor of Educational Evaluation at Queen’s and was recently appointed Special Advisor to the Principal on Community Engagement. She is also the 2025 recipient of the Chancellor A. Charles Baillie Teaching Award, in recognition of her “outstanding influence on the quality of student learning at Queen’s University.”
“It was a really proud moment,” says Searle, on learning she received the peer-nominated award. “I felt honoured and humbled and reminded of the responsibility we have as educators.”
With more than two decades of experience advancing community-engaged learning and research, Searle utilizes her expertise in program evaluation and classroom assessment in her roles and in her work with undergraduate and graduate students, who praise her ability to champion multiple avenues for learning.
“Dr. Searle’s intentionality and enthusiasm showed me how powerful it is to centre students in the learning process and make learning authentic through real-world applications,” says PhD student Katrina Carbone, whom Searle supervises.
“From her [Dr. Searle], I’ve come to see teaching not just as sharing knowledge, but as co-creating a space where curiosity and shared exploration guide the experience,” adds François-Daniel Portelance, another of Searle’s graduate students.
Searle is particularly interested in teaching and research synergies and on the complementary forces in community partnerships. She regularly collaborates with groups such as school districts, libraries, and youth-development organizations to evaluate programs or explore knowledge transfer opportunities. She says the funding associated with the Baillie Award will be used to invest in training for community engagement efforts.
“One of the things the award does is to energize me to keep building bridges with community,” she says. “The recognition strengthens my resolve that quality teaching and community-engaged pedagogy is something Queen’s values. It’s an exciting time to be an academic in that kind of environment.”
As a new academic year gets underway, Searle says her multiple roles and commitments can be challenging but ultimately rewarding as she sees new connections being made – within the classroom and within the wider community.
“It’s amazing to see students connect theory and practice in ways they might not even realize to meet the goals they set for themselves,” she says. “The Faculty of Education is the first place I encountered the power of education and change and it’s incredibly meaningful to be a faculty member here now.”
For more information on community engagement opportunities within the Faculty of Education, connect with the .
