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We remind you that the international conference, Father Involvement Research 2008: Diversity. Visibility. Community, takes place in Toronto, October 22- 24.
This conference will bring together Canada and the world’s top father involvement scholars. Presenters and discussants for our program of workshops, panels discussions, paper presentations and research posters will be published in late June. The program will include lead scholars from across Canada and the United States and will feature academic and community researchers from Finland, South Africa, the U.K., Chile and more, sharing knowledge from diverse aspects of the compelling and engaging father involvement research that is going on today.
Our latest confirmed speaker is Joseph Pleck, PhD, of the University of Illinois, who will deliver a thought-provoking speech to kick-off our World Café, a unique event designed to allow our community of delegates to participate in a dialogue about how to cultivate a culture of support for fathers based on the research.
Wanda Thomas Bernard PhD, Dalhousie University, Director of the School of Social Work and recipient of the Order of Canada.
Scott Coltrane PhD, University of California. Author of Families and Society.
Andrea Doucet PhD, Carleton University. Author of Do Men Mother?
Rob Palkovitz PhD, University of Delaware. Author of Involved Fathering and Men’s Adult Development: Provisional Balances.
For more information about our conference and updates click here
FIRA researchers will be front and centre at this year’s annual meeting of the Canadian Sociological Association (CSA). The CSA’s annual meeting, held this year at the University of British Columbia, June 3 to 6, typically features workshops, panel discussions and paper presentations on a wide variety of sociological topics.
This year the CSA featured three sessions devoted to the theme Fatherhood In Canada. These fatherhood-related sessions were organised by David Long, professor of sociology at King’s University College in Edmonton. Dr. Long is the author of one of FIRA’s three policy papers, which were commissioned in 2006 and are currently undergoing peer review. “Originally we had planned two sessions relating to father involvement, one devoted to theoretical and empirical issues and the other to legislative, policy and program support issues, but the response was so great that we were granted a third session,” says Long. The majority of the researchers involved with the fatherhood sessions are associated with FIRA. In addition to David Long, the list of presenters associated with FIRA’s cluster research projects includes:
Jessica Ball (Indigenous Fathers), University of Victoria
Annie Devault (Young Fathers Clusters) Université du Québec en Outaouais
Andrea Doucet (New Fathers Cluster) Carleton University
David Este, (Immigrant Fathers Cluster) University of Calgary
Donna Lero, (Policy Reference Group), University of Guelph
Edward Kruk (Separated and Divorced Fathers Cluster), University of British Columbia;
Chris Veldhoven (Gay/Bi/Queer Fathers Cluster), 519 Church Street Community Centre
Denise Whitehead (Policy Reference Group), University of Guelph
Andrea Doucet will also deliver a keynote address as recipient of the 2007 John Porter Tradition of Excellence Book Award for her book Do Men Mother?
“This strong showing from FIRA shows that FIRA has definitely helped to cultivate a made-in-Canada perspective on research, policy and program support for men and their children across the country,” says Long.
For more information about the CSA’s annual meeting click here.
Along with the many articles, reports and other documents already archived on www.fira.ca, we’d like to draw your attention to two new items of interest.
An interesting review of longitudinal research on the effects of father involvement was published in February 2008 edition of Acta Paediatrica. Fathers’ Involvement and Children’s Developmental Outcomes: A systematic review of longitudinal studies, by Dr. Anna Sarkadi, a public health sciences researcher from the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden, reports that father presence, involvement and engagement predict a number of positive outcomes for children. Sarkadi’s findings are similar to those reported in articles by FIRA’s Jessica Ball and Kerry Daly, found in the FIRA resources section.
Click here to read FIRA’s article about Sarkadi’s research, with a link to an online version of the journal article.
FIRA Steering Committee member, John Hoffman, has written a new booklet called Daddy I Need You. A Father’s Guide to Early Childhood Brain Development. The 40-page booklet is the sixth in a series of educational booklets for fathers published by the Father Involvement Initiative – Ontario Network (FII-ON). It is designed to cut through the hype about baby brain science in order to help fathers understand that the kinds of brain-building experiences babies, toddlers and preschoolers really need are rooted in the parent/child interactions that take place in the context of everyday care, comfort and play. Click here to read the full article, which includes information about how to order booklets.
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