Session 3, 3:00pm: Tribute to Sir Ken Robinson: Putting Children & Youth into a World Perspective
Moderator Michael Wilson; Panelists: Peter Gamwell, Fiona McDonnell, Marsha Shack
Michael Wilson
From jazz musician to uOttawa professor in the Faculty of Education, Dr. Michael helped shape the way arts education is taught in Canada.
Professor Michael Wilson’s original career path as a jazz trumpeter in Montreal led very tangentially to a change of course toward teaching. But that hasn’t stopped him from becoming an artist in his field. According to Wilson, teaching is a kind of performance art in its own right. As an educator, he taught aspiring arts teachers to prioritize imagination, creativity and innovation in their teaching methods – what he calls the practice of ‘artistry’.
After completing a graduate teaching program in London, England in 1973, Wilson returned to Canada and became a school board drama consultant and arts coordinator. He joined uOttawa in 1989, where he taught courses in integrated and dramatic arts and initiated professional development courses for teachers in co-operation with the National Arts Centre, the National Gallery and the Canadian Museum of History.
He is the founding lead of the Imagination, Creativity and Innovation (ICI) Cohort of uOttawa’s Teacher Education program, whose methods are modelled around the aesthetic experience, or the ways in which the perception, appreciation and production of art shape our identity and our understanding of the world.
He is also a founding chair of the National Roundtable on Teacher Education in the Arts, a forum for discussion and an incubator of visions, strategies and principles concerning all aspects of arts education. Recently Michael is a founding member of the Canadian Network for Imagination and Creativity. In 2012, he published In a grain of sand: A new Vision of Arts Education.
Peter Gamwell
Born in Liverpool, England, Peter is the author of The Wonder Wall, a presenter, and an award-winning leader in the intersections of learning, leadership and creativity and their impact on individual and organizational health and learning. Peter’s philosophy is simple: the health and prosperity of any organization is directly proportional to the manner in which it values its people; affords them autonomy to make decisions; and gives them creative rein.
Peter has become recognized internationally as a leader and catalyst for creative change initiatives that inspire and advance organizational cultures. He is a Founding member of the Canadian Network for Imagination and Creativity, and an adjunct professor with the University of Ottawa Faculty of Education.
Learn more about Peter Gamwell at Petergamwell.com and follow him on twitter: Pmg12@twitter.
Fiona McDonnell
Fiona is a former student of Eleanor Duckworth, a native to Canada, and translator and colleague of Jean Piaget. She utilizes Duckworth’s Critical Exploration in the Classroom to engage learners in building understanding of phenomena by making self-directed explorations to pursue observations, wonderings, and questions that emerge from their curiosities. The approach respects learners as meaning-makers and transformative agents and encourages the creative and inventive capacities of students and teachers. She seeks to bring a Freirean and progressive approach to any classroom, valuing learners’ experience and insights. Fiona has experience in higher education leadership, teacher education, secondary science teaching and curriculum development. She serves on the Critical Explorers board of directors and holds a doctoral degree from Harvard University. Born in the UK, she currently resides in New Hampshire.
Marsha Shack
Educator. Permaculture Designer. Tiny House Dweller. Raised in Alberta’s Boreal forest and prairie grasslands, Marsha learned the allure of the land by gardening, hunting, fishing, and farming. Earning a B. Ed from the University of Alberta (Social Studies and Drama), she went on to teach, travel, and learn throughout New Zealand, Australia, Samoa, Ethiopia, and back to Alberta. In 2012 Marsha earned her Permaculture Design Certificate with Geoff Lawton, and it shaped her career ever since. (Because symbiotic relationships between humans and the natural world are possible, enjoyable, and essential to our existence.) Currently, Marsha leads Change it Up, a transformational education program for underserved youth and adults in Wetaskiwin, AB.