Change agent

Carol Rolheiser reforms education by getting inside of it.

Carol Rolheiser has been in the thick of education for over 30 years, in myriad roles — elementary and early childhood teacher, special needs and early childhood consultant, viceprincipal, professor and now associate dean of teacher education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT). She has published her research in major scholarly journals, delivered dozens of invited lectures and conference presentations and more than 400 workshops. Her books about educational theory and practice are used the world over by teachers. In 1988, she was named Teacher of the Year by the Canadian College of Teachers, in 1999 she received the Teacher of the Year award by the OISE/UT Student Teacher Union, and, in May of 2006, she was named one of the inaugural recipients of the President’s Teaching Award at U of T.

And despite all her accomplishments, she gives you the distinct feeling that she’s just getting started. She is as committed as ever about making the science of teaching benefit students and teachers.

“For years, we thought of teaching only as an art and that some people were born to be teachers, “says Rolheiser. “There is an incredible amount of artistry in teaching, but now we are looking at teaching as a science, too. It is no longer good enough to say, ‘I can go in my classroom and intuitively do what I do.’ There is also a knowledge base for new and experienced teachers that we have to study and learn.”

As a teacher educator, Rolheiser sees herself as a “change agent” — applying new models of teaching and learning in schools based on her own research, as well as the knowledge created by other academics and practitioners.

One place she’s done this is the York Region District School Board, north of Toronto. For the past five years, Rolheiser has been helping educators strengthen their leadership and teaching skills by applying educational methods such as ‘cooperative learning’ in a project designed to improve literacy achievement in students from kindergarten to Grade 12. Teams made up of literacy teachers, special education resource teachers and principals work directly in classrooms and schools, sharing expertise in teaching skills and strategies.

The program started with 19 schools and grew to include all schools in the district.” We’re tracking the results and are seeing a positive impact on literacy achievement. That’s because the teachers and principals are sharing their leadership and expertise more effectively. Change can’t be dependent on one person. We are able to create school cultures where people are learning the value of working in teams toward common goals. That has an effect on students and their learning.”

And these field experiences have, in turn, an effect on Rolheiser herself.

“My experiences in the field help me be a better university professor, researcher and teacher educator. Teaching and learning are complex processes and are constantly changing. I can’t prepare people to go to into the field without being in the field myself. If I’m only working at the university level, I am quickly divorced from what’s going on in the schools and districts. I need to know what the reality is because we are interconnected systems — everything works together.”