Sister Yvonne Marie Pothier (born 1937) is a Canadian mathematics educator and educational psychologist known for her work in the development of numerical concepts in children, and an activist for

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s. She is a professor emerita of education at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and a Sister of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax-Yarmouth.

Mathematics

Pothier graduated from Mount Saint Vincent University in 1966 with a Bachelor of Science, and earned a bachelor of education in 1977 from the University of New Brunswick. She earned a master's degree and Ph.D. at the University of Alberta; her dissertation, ''Partitioning: Construction of Rational Number in Young Children'', was supervised by Daiyo Sawada. She published a condensed version of the same work as an influential journal paper with Sawada. She also coauthored the book ''Learning Mathematics In Elementary And Middle School: A Learner-Centered Approach'' (with

Nadine Bezuk Nadine S. Bezuk is an American mathematics educator, and a professor emerita of teacher education at San Diego State University, where she is a former associate dean and former Qualcomm Professor of Teacher Education, the former director of the S ...

, W. George Cathcart, and James H. Vance, Pearson, 2003; 6th ed., 2015).

Refugee work

In later life, Pothier became active in work with

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s, coordinating the Refugee Sponsorship Program of the Catholic Archdiocese of Halifax, visiting

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

in this connection, and assisting in the sponsorship of many refugees in Halifax. For this work she won the Elizabeth Ann Seton Award of the Sisters of Charity, and was commended by the Nova Scotia House of Assembly.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pothier, Yvonne Living people Canadian mathematicians Canadian women mathematicians Mathematics educators Mount Saint Vincent University alumni University of New Brunswick alumni University of Alberta alumni Academic staff of Mount Saint Vincent University Daughters and Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul 1937 births