uLead 2018

This session follows on from Dr Breakspear’s keynote presentation to provide a conceptual model and practical tools to support leaders to build organisational cultures and routines for continual professional growth.

What responsibility do students, classrooms, and schools have in building stronger and more inclusive communities? What responsibility do we have, as educators, leaders, and stakeholders, to ensure that students have the tools they need to succeed as global citizens?

Unresolved issues, including ignorance about difference, race, and gender, threaten every society. Judge David Arnot, Chief Commissioner for the Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission, will speak about the need to engage students to become advocates for equality, equity, and democracy, and the work of the Concentus Citizenship Education Foundation that supports these goals.

Concentus is helping students, teachers, and schools in two ways. First, with classroom ready citizenship education resources that integrate with curriculum to provide seamless instruction on difficult topics such as: mental health and addictions, disability, racism, gender, and Indigenous culture. For example, the Concentus resources link directly to the Teaching Treaties in the Classroom (“We are All Treaty People”) resources.

The Concentus citizenship education resources are about helping students understand the new 3 R’s – rights, responsibilities, and respect. The resources help students become enlightened, empowered, empathetic, ethical, and engaged – the five essential citizenship competencies (the “5 E’s”). With an understanding of the 3 R’s and the 5 E’s, students are informed, understand how they can contribute to the dialogue, and become part of the responsibility revolution.

Second, Concentus is challenging students, educators, and communities to act on the 3 R’s by entering into community-based dialogues. The first ever-Courageous Conversations event, held in Saskatchewan in November 2016, was a blueprint for dialogue, and a starting point for meaningful action, between students and community leaders. Chief Commissioner Arnot will speak about that event, how it can be modeled in other communities, and the need to learn about the issues that matter.

Effective courageous conversations will positively affect our schools, workplaces, and our communities. As Arnot will emphasize, responding to the challenges of today in a way that respects democratic principles will define the twenty-first century.