Professional Learning
43 episodes listed below
Reflective leadership from inside Ontario schools.
Leadership Talks brings school leadership into patient, practical conversation. Episodes move from lived experience to concrete school practice, with guests discussing critical friendship, anti-racism, lesson study, trauma-informed classrooms, community partnerships, and the daily work of supporting students and staff.
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Leadership Talks is a reflective education podcast centred on school leadership in Ontario. It is slow enough to let people think. The format gives principals, former administrators, and education leaders space to tell the story behind their practice, then connect that story to the daily responsibilities of serving students, teachers, and school communities. Episodes tend to begin with a guest’s leadership journey before moving into a focused conversation about a problem of practice. The show is especially strong when it treats leadership as relationship. In one episode, Jillian Kaganich and Krista Tucker-Petrick describe critical friendship as a place where principals can test reactions, check bias, and have difficult conversations without losing trust. In another, Nicole Alois connects anti-racism leadership to student agency, belonging, and the creation of a credited program for Black boys of Caribbean descent. Franz Thibault’s discussion of lesson study brings the same practical patience to instructional leadership, emphasizing shared planning, marker students, and collective ownership of a lesson. Emily Caruso Parnell brings a research lens, including a candid caution about education ideas that are implemented before the evidence is ready. Other episodes address community partnerships, strengths-based leadership, anti-oppression, socio-cultural injustice, and trauma-informed practice. The language is professional but not distant. It assumes that principals and vice-principals need both strategy and care. The show returns often to inclusion, safety, distributed leadership, teacher collaboration, and the need to listen before designing a response. Its conversations are not built for hot takes. They are closer to collegial professional learning: reflective, specific, and grounded in the reality that schools are complicated human systems. Leadership Talks is most useful for educators who want to hear how experienced leaders name the work, wrestle with it, and translate values into action. It carries a steady belief that good leadership is learned in conversation, refined through feedback, and measured by what changes for students and staff.
Made for: For principals, vice-principals, teacher leaders, and education professionals who want grounded conversations about improving school culture, instruction, equity, and student well-being.
What sets it apart: The show stands apart through its patient, guest-forward conversations with practicing and former school leaders. It connects leadership ideas to concrete school examples rather than presenting them as quick tips.
This podcast engages school leaders across Ontario in authentic conversations about their passion and expertise within K-12 education. We hope listeners will gain practical insights and strategies from each other to enhance learning and strengthen their school communities. Most importantly, this podcast will highlight excellence in practice and the joy of school leadership!HOSTSLawrence DeMaeyer – Professional Learning Advisor, Ontario Principals’ CouncilSusie Lee-Fernandes – Director of Professional Learning, Ontario Principals’ Council
A critical friend checks your bias before the next school-leadership decision checks your nerves.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A steady case for critical friendship as part of school leadership.
This conversation centers on Jillian Kaganich and Krista Tucker-Petrick, both principals with the Near North District School Board, as they reflect on friendship and leadership. Their different paths, and the trust that grew between them, give the discussion its shape.
A practical look at how listening to students can turn racial equity commitments into school leadership practice.
Leadership Talks follows Nicole Alois as she shows how racial equity leadership can move from intention into daily school practice. The strongest thread is her account of Redefining the Mandem Pilot Project, a Saturday credited program shaped by asking boys who felt they did not…
Graduate study and school leadership meet the real cost of time.
Leadership Talks spends the hour on the strain of graduate study while still leading schools. Lawrence DeMera speaks with Emily Caruso Parnell, a former vice principal and principal in the Rainbow District School Board who is now an assistant professor at Laurentian University,…
A grounded conversation on making school feel safer for students experiencing trauma.
Leadership Talks treats trauma-informed practice as something school leaders can shape in everyday ways, not as a specialist intervention that starts only after a student is sent elsewhere.
A practical discussion of supporting 2SLGBTQQIA+ work in K-12 schools, with clear ways to begin and keep it going.
Leadership Talks puts school and system leaders in K-12 education at the center, with Jordan Applebaum and Robert DeRoche of the Toronto District School Board offering a grounded conversation about supporting trans, queer, gay, Two-Spirit, and Indigenous Queer Pride work in…
Friendship becomes part of the job here.
Leadership Talks features Toronto District School Board principal Nicole Alois discussing anti-racist leadership, Black student achievement, and moving equity theory into school practice.
This episode features an interview with former superintendent Franz Thiebaud discussing leadership development, instructional leadership, and creating collaborative learning communities through lesson study in K-12 education.
Lawrence DeMera talks with Emily Caruso Parnell about graduate study, school leadership, and how exhausting it can be to carry both at once.
This episode features an interview with Principal Leslie Kennedy discussing her leadership journey and strategies for building community partnerships in K-12 education.
This episode features an interview with Mike Blackburn, a principal for special education and mental health services, discussing strength-based leadership and its application in K-12 education.
This episode features an interview with principal Sarah D'Angelo discussing anti-oppression, socio-cultural injustice, and trauma strategies for school leaders to support students.
Jackie Eldridge, a former York Catholic District School Board teacher and OISE U of T teacher educator, explains trauma-informed practice for K-12 principals, vice-principals, and teachers.
Lisa Paquette and Anna Mena describe OPC’s International Exchange Program, which pairs Ontario principals with school leaders in countries including New Zealand, Denmark, Finland, Italy, and Ireland for job-shadowing and homestays.
OPC's Leadership Talks episode with Robert DeRoche and Jordan Appbaum centers GSAs, Envision, and Two-Spirit Indigenous Queer Pride work inside the Toronto District School Board.
This episode features an interview with vice principal Anjali Bajaj discussing equity and mental health strategies for school leaders in K-12 education.
This episode features an interview with Lisa Cole, Director of Programming at K2I Academy Lausanne School of Engineering, discussing STEM education leadership through inclusive design in K-12 settings.