uLead 2016

After more than three decades of education policies that too often undermine teaching and learning, it’s time for education leaders to stand up and be counted. Alberta school leaders, like educators elsewhere, have endured and resisted misguided reforms that emphasize regulations over relationships, evaluation over education, and assessment and accountability over the artistry of teaching and school leadership. This session explores school leaders’ roles as citizens and enablers and agents of change. What can we do individually and collectively? Why should we act? What kind of citizens should we be?

Joel Westheimer is education columnist for CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning and Ontario Today shows and University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa. He began his career teaching in the New York City Public School system before obtaining a Ph.D. from Stanford University. His newest (2015) critically acclaimed book is What Kind of Citizen: Educating Our Children for the Common Good. Other multiple award-winning books include Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America's Schools (foreword by Howard Zinn) and Among Schoolteachers: Community, Autonomy and Ideology in Teachers’ Work. Westheimer lectures widely and has delivered more than 200 keynote speeches. He is the author of more than 75 academic and professional journal articles, book chapters, and books. He addresses radio and television audiences nationally and internationally. He is co-founder and principal investigator for The Inequality Project, investigating what schools in North America are teaching students about economic inequality.