Summer course

From August 8-19, 2016, I taught an intensive summer course at UPEI. In this course, ED 628 – International Education and Development, students examined the globalized theoretical and policy relationships between education leadership (broadly defined, but with a focus on K-12 schools) and issues related to cultural, economic, political, and social aspects of international development.

 

Sweden trip

In early October I was invited to Sweden to present a series of keynote lectures and workshop seminars. I was able to use some of my time to explore how the Swedish school and municipal systems are dealing with the large influx of asylum seekers and refugees who have been flocking to the country.

To the executive group of the Association of Swedish Superintendents I gave a seminar on “Issues and challenges for school superintendents in Canada”. Then, as part of the ‘Skollerdaren and Forskningen’ (principals and research) conference, I gave three keynote lectures on the topic Educational leadership in a multicultural society. These were each followed with workshop activities to the three groups of principals. The half-day long sessions were held in Umeå (75 participants), Stockholm (240 participants) and Malmő (62 participants).

Before I began the conference tour I spent a day in Luleå, a small city in northern Sweden. Here I spent the day with the Labour Market Management section of the municipality, the group responsible for the registration and settlement (including education) of new immigrants. I was stunned by the numbers. Sweden (with a population of 9.7 million, about a quarter that of Canada) received a total of 80,000 asylum seekers and refugees in 2014, 160,000 in 2015, and 25,000 as of October 2016. Per capita this is the highest rate in Europe. In Luleå, a town of 76,000, 100 refugees were settled in 2015, 248 this year, and the town is expecting a further 371 in 2017. In addition, the national government allocated to Luleå a total of 200 unaccompanied children, aged 16-18 years, who were mainly from Afghanistan and Syria. I compared this to Queen’s County, Prince Edward Island, which has a similar population (it has about 72,500 people). According to the provincial government, PEI is welcoming over 200 refugees. This is excellent, but how would Queen’s County cope with 1000?

I spent an extra day in Malmő, in the very south of Sweden and often a first point of entry for those travelling across the bridge from Denmark. Here I had the privilege of visiting two schools, one a K-9 school with 450 students and the other a ‘Praktiska Gymnasiet’, or practical high school, with 260 students aged 15 to 23. Both schools had large newcomer populations and were working hard to alleviate the challenges caused by this reality. In the elementary school, students were offered extensive Swedish language support and small class sizes.  In the high school, programs were focused on skilled trades, and with 78% of graduates being employed they were obviously doing something right.

At the moment we in Canada are managing to support the resettlement of a limited and prescribed number of refugees who arrive in a controlled and organized manner.  Would we be quite so confident in the face of a sudden unexpected influx?

 

Graduate Student Symposium

On 13-14 October I was honoured to be invited to the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, to speak at the 19^th Graduate Student Symposium. This event, organized by the Conference of Defence Associations and CDA Institute, a Canadian charitable and non-partisan organization that promotes informed public debate and discourse on national security and defence issues, through publications, events and studies. At the dinner was announced the launch of the Captain Nichola Goddard Game Changer Award, a new award named after my first-born daughter and scheduled to be presented for the first time in October 2017. The project, which was co-created by CDA, CDAI and Vanguard Magazine, seeks to honour and bring to light outstanding work in the fields of research, academia, business, the security industry, as well as not-for-profit, and charitable activities that touch on the defence and security community. More details can be found at http://www.vanguardcanada.com/2016/10/04/cda-institute-vanguard-partner-awards-projectaptain

While at RMC I had the immense pleasure of presenting the Nichola Goddard Memorial Sword, which is awarded annually to the top 4th year artillery officer cadet at RMC.