Intervening for Social Justice: The critical role of wellbeing in education
Dec 3, 2024 — 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.
Presented by the Empowered Leaders Network, this event features a presentation by Robert E. White, PhD, who will highlight the transformative power of wellbeing in education and share inspiring strategies for creating more inclusive and supportive learning environments.
Overview
This presentation examines the critical role of wellbeing in educational institutes and institutes of higher education, challenging neoliberal practices that alienate vulnerable populations. Through autoethnography, Professor White will draw upon decades of experience in public schools education to explore how fostering individual agency can combat fear, apathy and hopelessness among students and educators. By promoting wellbeing, one may create a healthier, more inclusive educational environment that resists the detrimental effects of neoliberalism and enhances the overall experience of teaching and learning in institutes of learning.
Robert E. White
Professor, St Francis Xavier University
Robert E. White, PhD, has taught extensively in public school across Canada for over twenty years. Since 2003, he has taught and researched at St Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia, Canada. A graduate of the University of Toronto (OISE), Professor White is currently a Senior Research Professor associated with the Faculty of Education at St Francis Xavier University. White’s research interests focus on several topics, including educational administration and policy, postmodernity and globalization, qualitative research methodologies, and critical pedagogy. White is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Leadership in Education. Recent publications include Qualitative Research in the Postmodern Era, Volume I (2012) and Democracy and Its Discontents: Critical Literacy across Global Contexts (2015). An international scholar, White has also received numerous Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grants to pursue his research. In 2013, he received the President’s Research Award, granted by St. Francis Xavier University.