Podcast Club: The Unleading Project

Date/Time:

Friday, February 16th, 2024 10:30 AM – 12:00 PM – Listening to:  

Monday, March 4th, 2024 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM – Listening to:  

  • Season 1 Episode 2 Community Centered Leadership  

Monday, March 25th 11:30 AM – 1:00 PM – Listening to:  

  • Season 2 Episode 5 Leading Through Solidarities  

Workshop Overview: 

The UnLeading Project team, led by Dr. Vidya Shah, Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Education at York University, have created the UnLeading Project Podcast to address how we might better “trouble taken-for-granted assumptions about leadership and learning that reinforce the status quo and center the experiences, knowledge systems, and leadership approaches of the global majority, including Indigenous people, Black and African diasporic people, people of color as well as people with multiple and intersecting marginalized identities” in order to “redefine leadership to be responsive to the socio-political realities of local, regional, and global contexts”. The team does this work with an understanding that “seemingly neutral and apolitical approaches to leadership have not addressed the ​longstanding inequities and challenges in Ontario’s public education system” questioning what it means to “undo and unlearn practices and ideas that promote hierarchy, individualism, compliance, power over, silence, and a culture of fear”, thinking about the “type of leadership required to facilitate this work, how leaders are selected and prepared to lead, and how we might continue to develop models of leadership … by looking up and looking out to alternative leadership frameworks and wisdom.”  

Join OHD’s new podcast club where we’ll listen to and learn from the UnLeading Project team and invited guest panelists, and then collectively discuss and consider how these learnings can be applied to our individual and collective leadership work at UW.  

Learning Outcomes: 

Participating in Podcast Club will provide you with an opportunity to:  

  • Learn directly from scholars, activists and educators seeking to redefine harmful (but common) modalities of leadership; instead grounding their work in intersectionality and collaboration;  

  • Critically reflect on your own leadership styles, practices and ideas;  

  • Learn how to better implement anti-racist, intersectional leadership;  

  • Develop ongoing relationships with other people leaders to whom you can seek guidance, validation, and encouragement; &  

  • Participate in learning offered in an alternative/non-traditional format.  

Preparation/Pre-requisites: 

Participants will listen to 1 pre-determined podcast episode prior to each gathering.  

Podcast info and episodes can be accessed here . Episodes can also be listened to via any podcast listening app.  

Intended Audience: 

All UWaterloo Employees 

Managers & Supervisors and other People Leaders are strongly encouraged to enroll. 

Workshop Format: 

Monthly, hybrid (in-person and virtual) facilitated discussions, with each month focusing on a different podcast episode. Light refreshments will be provided for those in-person.

Facilitator(s): 

Meaghan Ross - Learning and Development Specialist, Leadership Development

If you have any questions or accessibility needs Meaghan should be informed of prior to you enrolling and/or attending the workshop, please email m23ross@uwaterloo.ca  

Location: 

Participants can attend discussions in person in EC1 1004, or via Teams.