Samira ElAtia, recipient of a Killam Annual Professorship
31 October 2023
Up to eight Killam Annual Professorships are awarded each year to outstanding academics at the University of Alberta in recognition of their distinguished scholarship. The award is based on scholarly activities including teaching, research, publications, creative activities, presented papers, supervision of graduate students, courses taught, and contribution to the community beyond the University in activities normally directly linked to the applicant's University responsibilities. The duties of Killam Annual Professors are not changed from those they regularly perform. Each professor is presented with a cash prize of $3,500 and a commemorative plaque. A committee appointed and chaired by the Vice-President (Research) selects recipients and forwards its recommendations to the Killam Scholarship Committee, which then submits the list of recommended applications for approval by the Killam Trustees.
At the core of Samira ElAtia’s research is the fair and equitable assessment of students, at the K-12 and post-secondary levels, and the advancement of language learning through engagement. Her research is transdisciplinary and relies on collaborations between different disciplines (computer science, psychometrics, medicine, engineering, social and applied sciences) and stakeholders (Alberta Education, Council of Ministers of Education-Canada (CMEC), ministries of education abroad and various testing agencies); the focus is on social, economic, linguistic, and legislative factors that influence individual performance. Dr ElAtia’s framework places students and instructors at the heart of the assessment practices, especially in complex and challenging bilingual context. She has designed a comprehensive model for assessing graduate students’ attributes, and also developed a prototype to flesh out this model in an e-learning environment using educational datamining techniques and learning analytics. Dr ElAtia is currently exploring intersectionality of gender issues in educational leadership.