Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto and Special Adviser on Education to Dalton McGuinty, the Premier of Ontario
Nominated by: Bruce Barnett
Michael Fullan earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Toronto. He is currently Professor Emeritus at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, and is Special Adviser on Education to Dalton McGuinty, the Premier of Ontario.
Michael is a prolific, award-winning author and his books have been translated into many languages. The close relationship between theory and practice makes his books highly popular with teachers and educational leaders. Much of his work is based on linking moral purpose, which he describes as a deep commitment to all students in raising the bar and closing the gap in student achievement, and capacity building which involves developing the knowledge, skills and competencies required to get better results.
Michael’s work has influenced educators around the world. Working in partnership with individuals and systems around the world, Michael strives to bring about education reform across entire systems — from schools and communities, to districts and regions, and government levels. He led the team that evaluated the National Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in England from 1998-2002. This highly successful reform was designed to improve literacy and numeracy across 20,000 primary schools in England. Building on this knowledge, Michael and his colleagues are working in several countries on large-scale reform initiatives, including Canada, England and Wales, Australia, and the Netherlands. He is also working in provinces in Canada and several states in the United States in applying policies and strategies in order to increase the learning and achievement of all students. His ideas also have been implemented in Latin America, Asia, and Europe through the Microsoft’s Partners in Learning initiative where Michael has developed an elite course focusing on Learning to Lead Change. The course is designed to build system capacity for leaders at the school, region, and state levels. His new work involves helping achieve ‘whole system reform’ in Canada, the U.S. and across the world in helping countries learn from each other as they build new capacity within their systems.
