Joel Westheimer is University Research Chair in Democracy and Education at the University of Ottawa, Canada, and education columnist for CBC Radio’s Ottawa Morning show. He began his career in education as a summer camp director and then middle school teacher in the New York City Public School system, before obtaining a Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is co-founder and executive director of Democratic Dialogue, a group of researchers dedicated to the critical exploration of democratic ideals in education and society. Westheimer’s recent award-winning book is Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in Schools (foreword by the late Howard Zinn). He is also author of the critically acclaimed Among Schoolteachers: Community, Autonomy and Ideology in Teachers’ Work. He’s currently working on his third book, Restoring the Public in Public Education. He has published more than 50 scholarly and professional articles and book chapters and addresses radio and television audiences on shows such as Good Morning America, More to Life, The Agenda, NBC TV News, C-Span, NPR, and CBC. He is recipient of the Canadian Education Association’s Whitworth Award and Knight Fellow for Civic Engagement in Higher Education. Westheimer grew up in New York City and has also lived in San Francisco, Princeton (New Jersey), Argentina, and Israel. Before moving to Ottawa, he taught at Stanford University and at New York University. He enjoys performing in community theatre and plays guitar with a group of professors in a band called The Pedagogues. Westheimer has two children and a dog named Farley. His wife is also a professor – in the English department at Carleton University in Ottawa. In Winter, both he and his wife ice-skate to and from work. Farley stays home.

 He tweets his bi-weekly CBC Radio broadcasts at @joelwestheimer.

 For more information, please click here.