Episode 4: Working Towards a Dream with Dr. Vidya Shah, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University

“If we don’t have a dream, we don’t know where we are going.” 

Dr. Vidya Shah, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, sees dreaming as a critical part of finding our way forward in transforming education. She explains that we must dream of better futures that don’t yet exist. “If we don’t hold a vision of what we want in the future…I don’t know what we are working towards.” 

As a former elementary teacher, Shah sees a fundamental role for educators in working to transform education systems. As she looks toward education systems of the future, she sees teachers moving away from being just experts and lecturers and evolving to be supporters of students as they explore their own curiosities and interests. “I see teachers as guides; I see teachers as facilitators of knowing and becoming and being,” adds Shah. 

“I don’t think we need to work on student achievement; I think we need to work on the barriers that prevent student achievement,” Shah says, and public education systems must aim to help prepare students for an uncertain future. This means, in addition to building a fundamental foundation for students in literacy and math, we must help to equip students with the resiliency, empathy, and skills they will need to rise to their full potential in an unpredictable world. 

Join the conversation between Waterloo Region District School Board Director jeewan chanicka and Dr. Vidya Shah as they discuss the future of the education system. Dream with us at WRDSB as we work to transform the possibilities and potential for public education.

Learn more about WRDSB’s DreamEd initiative: https://dreamed.wrdsb.ca/