“The job of schools isn’t merely to prepare us to succeed in the world as it is. I think the job of schools is to build our capacity to imagine the world as it is not yet; the world as it could be, and then build towards that world if we so choose.”

Dr. Kevin Kumashiro, is an internationally recognized expert on educational policy, school reform, teacher preparation, and educational equity and social justice. He shares that schools are a place of ideological struggle where many groups converge and try to define who we are and what we are trying to become. He explains that this is why schools are seen as liberatory spaces for many.

He advocates for a more expansive perspective of what success in education looks like.

“Success shouldn’t be measures of how well assimilated or conformed you are to sort-of a narrow way of fitting in the world. Success really has to be far more expansive and disruptive. I think education should be getting us to question what we thought was conventional wisdom, not merely to absorb the conventional wisdom,” he says.

Join the conversation between Waterloo Region District School Board Director jeewan chanicka and Dr. Kevin Kumashiro as they dream together about a future education system that will benefit all and redefine success in education. Continue to dream with us at WRDSB as we work to transform the possibilities and potential for public education.

Learn more about WRDSB’s DreamEd initiative: https://dreamed.wrdsb.ca/

“When I think about the two row education, I think we need to aim towards valuing Indigenous languages, valuing Indigenous knowledge systems; the Indigenous literature, the research, the Indigenous science…All of those things that our people have from ancient times to modern times that we can contribute to the betterment of society.”

Diane Longboat, Knowledge Keeper, a citizen of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Turtle Clan, Mohawk, resident of Six Nations Grand River Territory, and founder of Soul of the Mother, shares how Indigenous wisdom, knowledge, spirituality and way of life should be brought alongside and seen as valid as what is currently taught in schools - much like the Two Row Wampum. Longboat says the education system of the future needs to embody principles that recognize each person as a sacred being with beautiful and unique gifts. Spiritual community leaders provide an essential connection to school boards to help students understand their learning experiences and reach their full potential. “Spiritual training is essential. And I think that’s what we represent as spiritual leaders in our communities. We represent an essential connection to school boards to bring that into the school system,” she says.

Join the conversation between Waterloo Region District School Board Director jeewan chanicka and Diane Longboat as they dream about the future of the education system. Continue to dream with us at WRDSB as we work to transform the possibilities and potential for public education.

Learn more about WRDSB’s DreamEd initiative: https://dreamed.wrdsb.ca/

Important Notice to Listeners Thanks for listening to the DreamEd Podcast. Please note: This DreamEd Podcast episode includes brief references to suicide, alcoholism, drug and substance use, and sex and human trafficking in reference to teaching students about safety and supporting well-being. Please take care as you listen to this episode. If you or someone you know is in need of support, please reach out to local mental health resources, your healthcare provider, or a caring and trusted adult.

“The conversation has to be across sectors, and across generations, and across the country.”

Annie Kidder, Executive Director of People for Education, takes us through her vision for an education system built on partnerships across sectors and across industries, to make schools true hubs of their communities.

Kidder explains how these partnerships must be anchored in a shared understanding of public education as an asset in Ontario and across Canada, with more than 90% of children in Canada attending public schools. Partnerships can amplify public education’s ability to address numerous societal challenges, whether it be poverty, polarization, climate change, or the labour market. “What gets left out in terms of the possible solution, or the thing that could be driving change for society, is public education,” said Kidder.

Join the conversation between Waterloo Region District School Board Director jeewan chanicka and Annie Kidder as they discuss the future of the education system. Dream with us at WRDSB as we work to transform the possibilities and potential for public education.

Learn more about WRDSB’s DreamEd initiative: https://dreamed.wrdsb.ca/

“If we don’t have a dream, we don’t know where we are going.”

Dr. Vidya Shah, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, sees dreaming as a critical part of finding our way forward in transforming education. She explains that we must dream of better futures that don’t yet exist. “If we don’t hold a vision of what we want in the future…I don’t know what we are working towards.”

As a former elementary teacher, Shah sees a fundamental role for educators in working to transform education systems. As she looks toward education systems of the future, she sees teachers moving away from being just experts and lecturers and evolving to be supporters of students as they explore their own curiosities and interests. “I see teachers as guides; I see teachers as facilitators of knowing and becoming and being,” adds Shah.

“I don’t think we need to work on student achievement; I think we need to work on the barriers that prevent student achievement,” Shah says, and public education systems must aim to help prepare students for an uncertain future. This means, in addition to building a fundamental foundation for students in literacy and math, we must help to equip students with the resiliency, empathy, and skills they will need to rise to their full potential in an unpredictable world.

Join the conversation between Waterloo Region District School Board Director jeewan chanicka and Dr. Vidya Shah as they discuss the future of the education system. Dream with us at WRDSB as we work to transform the possibilities and potential for public education.

Learn more about WRDSB’s DreamEd initiative: https://dreamed.wrdsb.ca/

“If you offer someone an opportunity to take on a project that they feel passionate about, well immediately you have unleashed their curiosity, unleashed their creativity, their imagination, their dream state, and that leads to such a depth of learning. What I really like about it is it naturally leads to inquiry. When you go down that pathway, you stop doing what the traditional education system does for the most part, which is finding the answers to questions; instead, you flip it and you start questioning the answers.”

Dr. Peter Gamwell, Adjunct Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, believes that when you empower students to have choice, a voice and self-direction, it imbues learning with significance. Gamwell emphasizes that students who actively participate in their own learning pathways are more engaged and able to develop valuable critical thinking skills and challenge norms.

Foundational to supporting student success and well-being is the belief and understanding that “there are seeds of brilliance that lie within absolutely everybody,” said Gamwell. We need to value it, act on it and challenge ourselves to think from a strengths-based perspective. Through service leadership and connections with communities, we are able to create inclusive learning spaces that foster creativity, innovation, engagement and well-being for all students.

Join the conversation between Waterloo Region District School Board Director jeewan chanicka and Dr. Peter Gamwell as they discuss the future of the education system. Dream with us at WRDSB as we work to transform the possibilities and potential for public education.

Learn more about WRDSB’s DreamEd initiative: https://dreamed.wrdsb.ca/

“Like it or not, our learners - adult learners and kid learners - are really motivated and self-directed. It speaks to me about what then does public education need to do to facilitate that for kids who have the capacity already - whether it is capital, the ability to, people to resource them - or kids who could do it if they had those opportunities? That’s where public education can really level the playing field.”

The role of public education is to create milestones, opportunities and resources to close gaps and create the learning environment and opportunities for all students to be successful. Camille Williams-Taylor, Director of Education, Durham District School Board, believes that the approaches to public education should be flexible to support student achievement and well-being. Schools are spaces that need to reflect the diversity of learners and communities it supports and build communities.

Williams-Taylor suggests it is important to expand our thinking about the possibility of what school spaces might look like and how to create the flexibility that is needed and necessary to close gaps and remove economic and social barriers to education so that all students can graduate and be prepared for their future pathways. The impact of this thinking will exponentially influence our communities and will reinforce community-building efforts.

“We need to get comfortable with the notion of one person, one conversation, one classroom, one student, one experience at a time,” says Williams-Taylor.

Join the conversation between Waterloo Region District School Board Director jeewan chanicka and Camille Williams-Taylor as they discuss the future of the education system. Dream with us at WRDSB as we work to transform the possibilities and potential for public education.

“There are so many of us, including students, parents, teachers, and administrators - we don’t even know what it means to dream.

Albert Einstein has been attributed with saying, “You can't solve a problem by using the same thinking that created it.” If we want to disrupt the education system and transform it into a system that supports the potential of all students, we need to break out of conventional thinking and knowledge that is limited by colonial structures and systems preventing us from dreaming. During an interview with Dr. Andrew B. Campbell (Dr. ABC), Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto – Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, he shares how he envisions a new education system that is built on relationships.

“People are ready for the freedom dreaming, you know,” says Campbell. “There are spaces that people are already saying we want to do something different. I think what is holding a lot of these people back … is the policies, structures and ideas.”

Join the conversation between Waterloo Region District School Board Director jeewan chanicka and Dr. Andrew B. Campbell as they discuss the future of the education system. Dream with us at WRDSB as we work to transform the possibilities and potential for public education.

Students at Cameron Heights Collegiate Institute in Kitchener are making connections to their future careers in Shaun Chandler’s welding shop. We spoke with Chandler, and some current and former students to learn more about what they’re learning, and how it shapes their options for the future.

Visit the Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM) website for more information.