July 10, 2024 >> 10 AM – 11:30 AM PST We are bringing together all co-conspirators who enact imagination for social and eco-justice to determine what we can make possible together. This virtual roundtable is open to all leaders, scholars, and activists who are interested in the vitality of imagination in pursuing justice. Together, we will determine what we can do to create a community of support and collective action that allows us to ‘what if’ a better world for all. Save the date…more details to follow! Check out the project so far–12 podcast episodes and new blogs published regularly ..read more

By Sedigheh (Sedi) Mousavizadeh, MEd. student at Simon Fraser University in Educational Leadership Note: This blog is a response to  Episode 5 of the Cultivating Imagination podcast.   We often meet people who miss their past and happy childhoods or wish for a greater future. We all pray for a better upcoming year on New Year’s Eve. We all desire happier lives, better education, healthier bodies and minds, and a better environment. But will these remain just a wish or will we do something to achieve them? If your answer is “just a wish”, spend some minutes with me! The reason why th ..read more

by Heidi Wood, Indigenous Education Success, Culture & Curriculum Coordinator, Delta School District Note: This blog is an extension of the Episode 8 Cultivating Imagination podcast.   Imaginative leadership holds a place in my heart where educators can bridge the worlds of Indigenous ways of being and pedagogy with the transformative possibilities of social and ecological justice for a more equitable learning environment. When I first came across the work of Imaginative Education, I immediately felt a connection to the cognitive tools and opportunities they provided for student owne ..read more

by Sandeep Kaur Glover, Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University Note: This blog is an extension of the Episode 8 Cultivating Imagination podcast.   Since my invigorating podcast interview with Heidi Wood, I have been ruminating on the nourishing resonances of our conversation. As I pondered what to share with you for this blog, I did not start by clicking characters on my keyboard. I’ve learned that when I start any inquiry in stationary pose, I soon find myself stuck in siloed theorizations, whether it is one disciplinary approach, one metanarrative, or one philosophical concept ..read more

By Christina Velasco, Leadership Coach, San Francisco Unified School District This blog is an extension of Episode 7 of the Cultivating Imagination podcast.   Educational leaders who actively work for equity, excellence and social justice experience work-related stress and require spaces and strategies to support themselves and others. We need systems and structures to support educational leaders’ stamina to stay in the equity work of social justice leadership. Let’s engage our inner rebel and reimagine what professional development is for educational leaders so that they can take care of ..read more

By Mark Fettes, Director of Centre for Imagination in Research, Culture and Education This blog is an extension of Episode 6 of the Cultivating Imagination podcast.   For twenty years, as a faculty member in Education at Simon Fraser University, I ran fairly large scale, community-based research projects with schools and school districts around British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province. The school system can be hospitable to innovation if you put a lot of energy into it, and ideally, energy with some money attached, as I could do in the context of these research projects. Always I c ..read more

by George Theoharis, Professor of Educational Leadership and Inclusive Elementary Education in the School of Education, Syracuse University This blog is an extension of Episode 6 of the Cultivating Imagination podcast. Think about Rosa Parks, Ed Nixon, Joanne Robinson, and the many Black community members of Montgomery, Alabama who imagined a bus system that was not segregated. Think about Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress who imagined creating a South Africa they had never lived in. Think about LaMarcus Adna Thompson who imagined the thrill and excitement people young and old c ..read more

By Lori Driussi, independent education consultant and Faculty Associate at Simon Fraser University This blog is an extension of Episode 7 of the Cultivating Imagination podcast.   Imagination is a way of being, a door opener, an invitation for all to enter and contribute to the world we seek but have not yet realized. One might say the same of education. To move from performative to transformative teaching and leading we need to imagine. Imagine education as an endeavour to create a more just world. Imagine that a relational and radical acceptance is our priority and context for policy m ..read more

By Michael Dé Danann Datura, principal of Cortes Island School   This blog is an extension of Episode 5 of the Cultivating Imagination podcast.   As an “academic” it can be frustrating to have every lecture or big idea followed up by questions of: “…but what do we do now? …what are the practical implications? …how and why will this matter to my students on Monday morning?” As if having courageous conversations about important ideas or philosophies or, for example, the role that worldview plays on complex matters such as the climate catastrophe are “doing nothing.” On the other h ..read more

By Moraima Machado, San Lorenzo Unified School District and Myra Quadros Meis, San Francisco Unified School District     This blog is an extension of Episode 4 of the Cultivating Imagination podcast. In education, imagination is essential. Imagination is the capacity we have as humans to imagine new possibilities. To create and re-create is to re-construct reality.  As a site leader, there is consistently a set of demands to maintain the system. Principals are accountable to many stakeholders and usually get stuck in the bureaucracy of the organizational system. This b ..read more