1) What is the title of your current position and what does it involve?

I am currently employed as associate professor and researcher in education with the education and humanities sector at Université de Moncton’s Edmundston campus (UMEC). As professor, I am in charge of teaching courses on the psychopedagogy of children and adolescents as part of teacher preparation programs for the primary and secondary sectors.

As researcher, I am a member of Université de Moncton’s Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research. I am actively engaged in research aimed at understanding the experience of stress in educational environments that are financed, in part, by the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).

On the whole, my key educational and research focuses overlap and gravitate around stress in schoolchildren (primary and secondary) and postsecondary students; education for health; parent/student/school partnerships; the use of visualization in the school setting, as well as the methodological application of phenomenology in education.

2) What is your training?

I have a diploma and a bachelor’s degree in Nursing, as well as a bachelor’s, master’s and PhD in Education. I studied nursing in Edmundston and Ottawa prior to obtaining a bachelor’s in Education (postsecondary teaching) from UMEC and a master’s in Education (teaching) from UQAR. During my doctoral studies, I completed international training in phenomenological qualitative research (Phenomenology Online) offered virtually to 17 doctoral students by the professor emeritus, Max van Manen, PhD from the University of Alberta. In 2004, I was awarded my PhD in Education from UQAM in association with UQAR.

3) Talk a bit about your career path. Where does your passion for research or the work that you do come from and how did it develop?

My interest in stress as experienced initially developed when I was working full-time as school nurse in a polyvalent school with an attendance of some 2,000 students between the ages of 15 and 19. I was responsible for promoting health through classroom teaching and clinical consultation, and it was during this period that my research path was set in motion. In particular, several students talked about different troubles that they were not able to identify and that I ended up connecting to school adjustment or a demanding social or family environment. What was their unnamed experience (stress) that was manifested through discomfort, symptoms, limitations and also challenges that they often enthusiastically take up?

When my eldest son started school, I noticed that the transition was difficult. After having shared my observations with other parents, teachers and management at the primary school he attended, we realized that recurrent behaviors like repeated stomach aches and headaches without organic cause, nervous tics and sleep problems, to name a few, could indicate the presence of an emerging contemporary phenomenon: childhood stress. Collectively, and in light of concerns by all the partners, we committed ourselves to establishing a stress management program aimed at children. Therefore, this project launched my activities as apprentice researcher that I’m consolidating within graduate and postgraduate studies.
In hindsight, I recognize that the scientific horizon of stress developed through professional and parental concerns. However, the unwavering focus remains the questions of a parent who realizes that the start of school can be a difficult passage for the child. To expand on this position, I would like to quote the VIA TVA journalist who, in her introduction to the documentary “Repos enrichissant”, frames the approach in a perspective that is keeping with my life trajectory: “Nurse by training, Renée Guimond Plourde is interested in the phenomenon of stress in children. She has studied the subject as a mother rather than a researcher.”

4) Talk to us about a project that contributed to your career path. How did this accomplishment contribute to the development and promotion of public policies based on evidence?

In short, a research project that is valid to me uses a practical approach to help the school – with the close support of its partners, including parents – meet the needs of school children with respect to wellbeing through the sound management of stress in their day to day lives and in a manner that is both collaborative and optimal. In that sense, the research undertaken is not aimed at fighting stress, but rather it approaches health from a positive angle by fostering wellbeing and educational achievement. In an attempt to provide the child with effective tools for managing stress, the Notre-Dame school stress management project is an initiative for mobilizing stakeholders, community organizations and the Government of New Brunswick, with respect to the overall health of school children attending public schools. I’m choosing to share a few meaningful moments that punctuated the course of a project that is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

The “Projet en gestion du stress chez l’enfant” (Child Stress Management Project) was inaugurated in 1988 at the Notre-Dame primary school in Edmundston (434 school children and 35 staff members). Parents, teachers and school management mobilized and decided to carry out a survey to raise awareness among the different groups to the existence of stress in children, to measure attitudes vis-à-vis the problem and to gather comments and suggestions from all partners. At the end of the study, the persons responsible suggested the establishment of a stress management program that would take into consideration all of the suggestions and comments received. Using a collaborative platform for improving the well-being of every child, the parent/child/staff partnership became the driving force behind this health promotion initiative, or daily stress management learning initiative. This shared concern recognizes the importance of establishing a relationship of cooperation between all those involved by upholding the respective areas of competence. In 1995, the Department of Education of New Brunswick awarded the school with the prestigious Teaching Excellence Award. This award highlighted the contribution of this innovative approach, in view of promoting health and a better quality of life within the school environment.

Graduate and undergraduate studies that take this experience into account contribute to the recognition, by the scientific community, of this initiative in the school and family environment. Articles published in peer-reviewed journals uphold the scientific nature of this approach while recognizing the contribution of a methodological approach that is rarely used in the field of education: phenomenology. Moreover, presentations were made as part of scientific and professional symposiums in Canada and abroad, primarily in Holland, Morocco, France and the Czech Republic. A noteworthy culminating point was certainly the presence of the only Canadian team to make a presentation at the 2007 World Association of Lesson Studies symposium that was held in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. Being in the scientific arena with a school principal and two primary school teachers is quite a privilege for a researcher in education. On this world stage, we witnessed a collective effort aimed at improving the wellbeing of children while fostering a successful learning experience. As the only representatives from Canada, we were in the media spotlight, which enabled productive exchanges with colleagues from several different countries. In 2007, several of the strategies initiated through this stress management program reinforced the objectives expressed in the provincial plans of the Department of Education (putting children first), the Department of Health (Healthy Futures) and the Department of Wellness, Culture and Sport (provincial wellness strategy).

Based on the “Projet en gestion du stress chez l’enfant” (Child Stress Management Project), and with the support of School District 3, an innovative university/school district/public health partnership initiative was launched in twenty primary and secondary schools over the territory. Under the theme, “Ensemble, bâtissons une école efficace,” (Let’s Build an Effective School Together), the 2009 – 2012 triennial planning put forth by School District 3 fosters a climate that allows for quality learning in a healthy environment. Specifically, it was announced that, in June 2012, 100% of the district’s schools would have strategies encouraging stress management. Nurses working with the Conseil consultatif de santé du district (CCSD) were put in charge of the dossier. The stress management training program is aimed at different school staff members and interested parents designated as “tutors.” Based on the training provided, these “tutors” become “multiplying agents” with their peers. In October 2011, some 5,948 school children from kindergarten to grade twelve, throughout the 20 District 3 schools, were able to take advantage of this local initiative.

The introduction of the project over time fosters the establishment of institutional partnerships and collaborations with practitioners in the field and community, teacher training students and local organizations that inspire other schools. In particular, pilot projects are launched in New Brunswick’s francophone and anglophone schools. This approach is also being funded by the Innovative Learning Fund (ILF), an initiative of the provincial government’s education plan aimed at improving the New Brunswick education system using school teams and by providing financial assistance to help them achieve innovative projects that could be shared and used in all schools within the province.

As such, in September 2012, over 150 stakeholders (teaching staff, members of management, preschool consultants, public health managers, mentors, cultural and community agents, mental health workers, administrative assistants, parents, kindergarten transition mentors, Université de Moncton professors, wellness consultants, education trainees, psychologists and guidance councillors), became stress management “tutors” and pursue the mandate of providing stress management tools in their respective schools scattered throughout New Brunswick.

These various research interests are built on local expertise (parents/students/school staff trio) by following a bottom-up process. Specifically, they are based on participation and local consultation, allowing for those concerned to be able to express needs, demands and expectations and have them taken into account. Consequently, the project promoted engagement with stakeholders and sectors that are not directly part of the fields of health or education with which school policies were developed as a joint solution for improving quality of life. These voices created something new by transforming differences into successful complementarities.

Moreover, the “formation du formateur en gestion du stress en milieu scolaire” (training stress management tutors in the school setting) program was awarded the “exemplary practices” distinction from Accreditation Canada awarded by New Brunswick’s Vitalité Health Network. During an interview that it accorded a journalist when the award was announced, the assistant director for Public Health stated: “… this initiative is the only exemplary practice in the four zones that received Accreditation Canada’s attention. This innovative practice that strives to achieve excellence in health promotion of school children demonstrates its audaciousness through the use of numerous partnerships and the presence of a researcher on the team.”

In November 2012, the Notre-Dame school was awarded the prestigious national recognition award by Société Santé en français for having demonstrated its unwavering commitment over twenty five years to the promotion of health through stress management, showing exemplary creativity and creating an outstanding initiative by working in partnership to improve and promote health in school children, for having worked as volunteer to establish changes for the long term improvement of the physical health of thousands of children here and elsewhere. One of the mandates of the Société Santé en français is to encourage complementarities, groupings, collaborations and partnerships at the national level, as well as facilitating the exchange of information and coordination of efforts.

Moreover, it was after obtaining this award that the minister of Education and Early Childhood Development, the Honorable Jody Carr, and the minister of Social Development, the Honorable Madeine Dubé, came to meet numerous stakeholders in the classrooms of the Notre-Dame school. The press took note stating that the Government of New Brunswick was impressed by the program for managing stress in the school environment. The alliance of the francophone school district in northwestern New Brunswick, the Health Advisory Council and Université de Moncton, Edmundston campus can be seen as a model to be followed, a platform for cooperation, influence and action that complement the efforts of governments with respect to stress management in all the francophone and anglophone schools of the province.

5) Describe the importance of the New Brunswick Social Policy Research Network in a few short sentences.

In my career, the “partnership” dimension has been a converging force. My studies in stress management have allowed me to realize that research is indispensable as a link but that it must be part of the great knowledge web by revitalising the place of other players that are part of it and by bringing to life practical environments, such as schools, the family, school management and governments. I agree with the sharing of scientific results as “expertise.” As researcher, I am thrilled to see the results of studies becoming accessible in practical environments, being used as working tools, feeding thought in the fields of education and health, while reinforcing successful partnerships with numerous partners from diverse backgrounds. From this perspective, an interdisciplinary approach like the Social Policy Research Network can act as a gateway between the different fields of expertise solicited while recognizing the credibility of the province’s experts.

6) Would you like to add other information or an anecdote of particular interest, or perhaps a personal touch, something that would surprise the readers?

The expression: “research flows through my veins” describes my relationship with the scientific activity. My passion for the study of stress is about more than simple intellectual engagement. My research work is not parallel to my life as a professional, a researcher, a parent and a woman, but rather it is intertwined. I often use a metaphor to describe these inseparable ties: my specialty is that of “weaving.” From one research project to the next, I learn how to weave the connections between my intellectual life and daily family life, while maintaining my solidarity with others. After many regional, national and international exchanges, it is a passion that has become inseparable from my life and my relationship with everyone I work with and everyone I meet. This field of research that I am still exploring with delight is not only developed to meet university requirements but, above all, it is part of a life project that can contribute to an improved quality of life for all of humankind. In fact, I offer my work as my tiny contribution, my drop in the vast ocean of knowledge.