Category: Social Change - page 4

Classroom and home-based strategies to prevent gender bias

Gardner (2006) has identified several factors that aid in mind changing.  One of these factors relates to the affective component of the idea to be learned and alludes to the way that something is taught and may be strategically leveraged in the educator-student and parent-child relationship.   Teacher educators and caregivers need to be intentional..

Read more

How we teach matters

How we teach matters   I attended an educational conference session recently which really resonated with me. Dr. David Smith from Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan gave me language to explain the ‘why’ behind what I do what I do.   I found his session both informative and motivating and will attempt to synthesize my ‘take..

Read more

All Our Relations

“In Canada, half of all First Nations children live in poverty, the life expectancy of First Nations people is five to seven years less than that of other Canadians, and the practice of placing Indigenous children in foster care remains a significant issue.  Secondary school graduation rates for First Nations youth living on reserve are..

Read more

Jan 30 is the 71st anniversary of the death of a great peace leader – Mohandas Gandhi

Gandhi was born Oct. 2 1869 and died (he was shot) Jan. 30 1948 at the age of 79. May 1893 Mohandas Gandhi was thrown off a South African train, motivating him to fight for Indian rights in the British colony.  He is often described as the spiritual and political leader of India. His list..

Read more

Web of relationships and impact on values

  We are who we are partly because of who we associate with.  Perhaps you remember your parents cautioning you to choose your friends wisely. Perhaps you are a parent who understands this and has given similar advice to your own children.  Even the contemporary business literature recommends that as adults we are aware of..

Read more

Servant Leadership

As a way of wrapping up this series on the role of wisdom and spirituality in leading self, highlighting the leadership of Dorothy Day and Jean Vanier, I would like to emphasize how they demonstrated Servant Leadership.  This leadership style requires a strong orientation to values that allow leaders to serve their people well while..

Read more

How to foster personal and professional dispositions of peace as a leader

  “…ongoing awareness practice, ongoing commitment to sustainability and people and ongoing engagement with the possible/potential”. As peace leaders we are meant to confront the reality of ordinary life by inquiring and seeking to understand what lies beyond ourselves in a spiritual quest for wisdom.  This better equips us to engage daily challenges and inform..

Read more

Dispositions and skills to develop as a leader

Be faithful to people “Pressed to identify his own strengths, Jean Vanier referred to his faithfulness to people, the fact that once he had entered into real personal contact with someone it was rarely something he broke”.[i] When we walk alongside people, get to know them in their strengths and weaknesses, joys and sufferings they..

Read more

Why we need wise, spiritual leaders in a secular age

By ‘spiritual’ I am referring to a belief in a reality beyond the senses – whether theistic or not – that provides a framework or horizon of significance giving direction to life.  Canadian contemporary philosopher Charles Taylor’s views on the secular age and individualism help to contextualize why we need wise, spiritual leaders in a..

Read more