Uploaded March 2016 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
'No Child Left Thinking: Testing, Accountability and the Threat to Democratic Life'
Our cultural obsession with standards and accountability have had dramatic effects on what is and isn't taught in Canadian and American classrooms. As teachers’ hands are tied to test preparation, students' opportunities to develop the skills of critical thinking that are so vital for any democratic society are severely constrained. This presentation details what we can do about it, how critical pedagogy can be used to challenge a neoliberal education agenda, and how we can restore both sanity to the classroom and dignity and professionalism to teaching.
Joel Westheimer is a University Research Chair in the Sociology of Education at the University of Ottawa, and he is an education columnist for CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning show. He began his career teaching in the New York City Public School system before obtaining a Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research explores the ways educational theorists conceive of teaching democracy and the ways school practices embrace or challenge these conceptions. His research is based on parallel and longitudinal case studies of schools explicitly teaching democratic citizenship and a corresponding process of reading and interpreting social, theoretical, and historical sources.
'No Child Left Thinking: Testing, Accountability and the Threat to Democratic Life'
Our cultural obsession with standards and accountability have had dramatic effects on what is and isn't taught in Canadian and American classrooms. As teachers’ hands are tied to test preparation, students' opportunities to develop the skills of critical thinking that are so vital for any democratic society are severely constrained. This presentation details what we can do about it, how critical pedagogy can be used to challenge a neoliberal education agenda, and how we can restore both sanity to the classroom and dignity and professionalism to teaching.
Joel Westheimer is a University Research Chair in the Sociology of Education at the University of Ottawa, and he is an education columnist for CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning show. He began his career teaching in the New York City Public School system before obtaining a Ph.D. from Stanford University. His research explores the ways educational theorists conceive of teaching democracy and the ways school practices embrace or challenge these conceptions. His research is based on parallel and longitudinal case studies of schools explicitly teaching democratic citizenship and a corresponding process of reading and interpreting social, theoretical, and historical sources.
