ICSEI GRID Spotlight Session

ICSEI GRID Spotlight Session with Ann Lopez & Awad Ibrahim

GRID stands for Generational Renewal, Inclusion and Diversity
GRID provides insight, advice, feedback, and perspective to Board activities and decision making through the lens of diversity, equity, inclusion, and generational renewal.

Redefining and Transforming School Improvement Through Differences

Friday 14th February 8:30-9:30 am

This panel will explore the crucial need to transform and disrupt existing educational practices to foster a more inclusive, diverse, and sustainable educational system. It will examine how SESI often overlooks all student populations’ diverse needs and strengths, highlighting the importance of redefining these metrics. Given the current global climate, where EDI policies face heightened scrutiny, it is essential to clarify the purpose, limitations, and radical possibilities of these approaches, particularly their connection with anti-racism. For those engaged in EDI and anti-racism work, an internal, courageous dialogue on the effectiveness and limits of these policies is critical.

Key Questions:

  1. What needs to be transformed or disrupted in education and leadership to achieve a more inclusive, diverse/different, and sustainable educational system?
  2. What implications does this transformation have for school effectiveness and improvement?
  3. How can these decolonizing/anti-racism practices be implemented in real-world educational settings?
  4. What are the next steps for leaders, educators and policymakers in this transformative journey?

Awad Ibrahim is full professor, Vice-Provost, Equity, Diversity and Inclusive Excellence and holder of the Air Canada Professorship on Anti-Racism. He is a curriculum theorist with special interest in economy of hospitality (Derrida), cultural studies, Hip-Hop, youth and Black popular culture, social foundations (i.e., philosophy, history and sociology of education), social justice and community service learning, diasporic and continental African identities, ethnography and applied linguistics. He has researched and published widely in these areas. Professor Ibrahim obtained his PhD from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto (OISE), and has been with the Faculty since 2007. Before that, he taught at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Internationally, he has ongoing projects in Morocco, Sudan and the United States. He is an advisor to the Canadian Playful Schools Networkexternal link. His immediate projects include an ethnography of an inner city high school in Ottawa, a blog called On Becomingexternal link, and a project on the daily struggle of ‘becoming a citizen’ in Canada. For high school students, he is known as Dr. Dre. 

Dr Ann Lopez is a Jamaican-born professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto and Director of the Centre for Leadership and Diversity and Special Advisor to the Dean on School and Community Partnerships. Ann is an author, speaker, mentor, advisor, and researcher who advocates for embedding equitable, antiracist, and decolonial praxis in all aspects of education and schooling – teaching, learning, and leading. Her academic career includes positions as Provostial Advisor Access Programs, University of Toronto and Academic Director Initial Teacher Education. Dr. Lopez is currently professor Extraordinarius UNISA, South Africa and visiting professor Kwame Nkrumah University Zambia.

Dr Lopez’s teaching and research explores school leadership praxis broadly across contexts, decolonizing educational leadership, decolonial methods and approaches, school leadership in global south contexts and the impact of coloniality. She has shared her work in educational spaces local and globally. She is the author of several books; her most recent books include Decolonizing Educational Leadership: Exploring Alternative Approaches to Leading Schools and co-Edited book Decolonizing Educational Knowledge: International Perspectives and Contestations. Dr. Lopez is co-Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of School Leadership and Co-Series Editor; Studies in Educational Administration and has been recognized for her contributions to education. In 2020 she received the OISE Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching, in 2022 the University of Toronto Award of Excellence and Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize – Influential Leader, and in 2024 the OISE Award for Excellence in Educational Leadership and OISE Alum Mentor of the Year Award.

Mauricio Pino-Yancovic is an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies in Education and an Associate Researcher at the Center for Advanced Research in Education of the University of Chile. He has a Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Mauricio is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Professional Capital and Community. In ICSEI Mauricio is Chair of the Generational Renewal, Inclusion, and Diversity (GRID) Standing Committee and Co-Coordinator of the Crisis Response in Education Network. His academic and research experience is focused on educational policy, school networks, and evaluation. He has led the development of collaborative inquiry networks and the evaluation of school improvement networks. Recent publications of Mauricio include books and articles about professional learning networks and teachers’ professional development.