OPSOA OPC | Annual Symposium

The Ontario Public Supervisory Officials' Association (OPSOA) and the Ontario Principals' Council (OPC) jointly sponsor an annual one-day symposium that provides an opportunity for senior system and school leaders working as teams to build professional capital at the school and system levels.

The 2013 Symposium represented the tenth year that OPSOA and OPC have offered this rewarding event.

The speakers were Dr. Andrew Hargreave, Dr. Ben Levin and Dr. Michael Fullan.

Leadership teams from across the province came together for an exciting, stimulating and thought-provoking day with three world-renowned educational change leaders.

Participants included representatives from all public boards in Ontario.

The 2013 Symposium was held at the Toronto Hilton Hotel, Toronto, on Wednesday, April 24, 2013.

Keynote Speakers

Dr. Michael Fullan

Michael Fullan is Professor Emeritus of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Recognized as a worldwide authority on educational reform, Michael is engaged in advising policymakers and local leaders around the world in helping to achieve the moral purpose of all children learning. His books have been published in many languages.

Michael Fullan is currently Special Advisor to the Premier and Minister of Education in Ontario. He holds Honorary Doctorates from Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; University of Edinburgh, Scotland; Newman University College, University of Leicester; and from Nipissing University in Canada. His book, Leading in a Culture of Change was awarded the 2002 Book of the Year Award by Learning Forward (formerly the National Staff Development Council), Breakthrough (with Peter Hill and Carmel Crévola) won the 2006 Book of the Year Award from the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, Turnaround Leadership in Higher Education (with Geoff Scott) won the Bellwether Book Award in 2009, and Change Wars (with Andy Hargreaves) was awarded the 2009 Book of the Year Award by Learning Forward.

Michael Fullan's latest books are:

Stratosphere: Integrating Technology, Pedagogy, and Change Knowledge, 2012
Professional Capital, Transforming Teaching in Every School (with Andy Hargreaves), 2012
Change Leader: Learning to Do What Matters Most, 2011
The Moral Imperative Realized, 2010
All Systems Go, 2010
Motion Leadership: The Skinny on Becoming Change Savvy, 2009

A list of his widely acclaimed books, articles and other resources can be found at www.michaelfullan.ca

Dr. Andrew Hargreaves

Andy Hargreaves is the Thomas More Brennan Chair in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. The mission of the Chair is to promote social justice and connect theory and practice in education.

Before moving to Boston, he taught primary school and lectured in several English universities, including Oxford. Prior to coming to Boston College, he was co-founder and director of the International Centre for Educational Change at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto. He has been awarded visiting professorships in the US (Regents Professor, University of California, Santa Cruz), Canada (Noted Scholar, University of British Columbia), the UK ( University of Nottingham, University of Manchester and the Institute of Education in London), Hong Kong (Onwell Fellow), Sweden, Japan (awarded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science) and Singapore (Koh Professor at the National Institute of Education).

Andy comes from a Northern mill town in England. When his primary school (Spring Hill, in Accrington) was rebuilt a few years ago, he was invited back to lay its inscribed foundation stone. He did this with his best teacher, Mary Hindle (almost in her 90s), as she was the one who first inspired him to become an educator.

In 2010, Andy was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Scandinavia's oldest university, Uppsala in Sweden – other recent recipients having included Nelson Mandela and Jane Goodall. He has received the Whitworth Award for outstanding contributions to educational research in Canada, was awarded a writing residency at the Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, Italy by the Rockefeller Foundation to write Teaching In The Knowledge Society; and became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in the UK in 2010. In 2010, he was given the Contribution to Professional Development Award from Learning Forward (formerly the National Staff Development Council) - the organization's "highest honor".

Andy is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Educational Change. He is leading editor of the first and second International Handbooks of Educational Change, published in 1998 and 2010. He has authored or edited more than 30 books (all but three of them with other colleagues). A number of these have achieved outstanding writing and book awards from the National Staff Development Council, the American Educational Research Association, the American Libraries Association and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, and are translated into many languages.

His most recent books are Sustainable Leadership (with Dean Fink – 2006), Change Wars (with Michael Fullan-2008), and The Fourth Way (with Dennis Shirley-2009). Andy's current research is on successful educational change strategies in high performing schools, districts and countries; organizations that perform beyond expectations in business, sport and education; and special education reform strategies achieved through whole-school changes that also benefit all students.

Andy is a researcher, writer, consultant and adviser. He has addressed international organizations such as the World Bank, OECD (the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development), UNESCO, the Soros Foundation, the European Union, the International Baccalaureate, the International Congress of Principals, the European School Heads Association, the Universities of Latin America, and the International Congress of School Effectiveness and Improvement. Andy has delivered invited addresses and provided staff development in 37 US states, 42 countries and all Australian states and Canadian provinces.

Andy's wife, Pauline, is a school administrator. Their children, Stuart and Lucy, work in the fields of law and international development respectively. Outside of his work, Andy is a keen long distance hiker, a passionate supporter of Burnley Football Club and always up for a game of pool.

Dr. Ben Levin

Dr. Levin is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Education Leadership and Policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto. His career is about half as an academic and half as a senior civil servant. He is a native of the City of Winnipeg who holds a B.A. (Honours) from the University of Manitoba, an Ed. M. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from OISE. Dr. Levin has worked with private research organizations, school districts, provincial governments, and national and international agencies, as well as building an academic and research career. As a civil servant, he served as Deputy Minister (chief civil servant) for Education for the Province of Ontario from 2004 to 2007 and again in 2008-09. Earlier, from 1999 through 2002, he was Deputy Minister of Advanced Education and Deputy Minister of Education, Training and Youth for the Province of Manitoba. As an academic, he has published seven books, including two just out – "More High School Graduates" (Corwin Press) and "Breaking Barriers" (with co-authors Avis Glaze and Ruth Mattingley, Pearson Canada) and more than 200 other articles on education, conducted many research studies, and has spoken and consulted on education issues around the world. His current interests are in large-scale change, poverty and inequity, improving high schools, and finding better ways to connect research to policy and practice in education.

2013 OPSOA/OPC Leadership Symposium

Report of Proceedings and Study Guide

"Improvement, Innovation and Inclusion – The Future of Ontario Education"

Featuring Dr. Michael Fullan, Dr. Andrew Hargreaves and Dr. Ben Levin

The questions and tasks included in this guide will offer an opportunity to review the content contained in the three articles provided in the symposium package as well as the content of the symposium itself.

OPSOA-OPC 2013 Annual Symposium:

Speaker Articles:

Leading for All - Executive Summary, Principal Investigators: Andy Hargreaves and Henry Braun
Great to Excellent: Launching the Next Stage of Ontario's Education Agenda, Michael Fullan
System-wide improvement in education, Ben Levin

OPSOA - OPC Symposium