Opening up to inclusiveness through Engaged Leadership

The Future Forums workshop on Inclusive Excellence and Engaged Leadership in Vancouver brought forth valuable observations about what constitutes excellence, knowledge, and effective leadership.

“The most important thing we learn is humility in leadership. You can’t have engagement without humility.”

“Be like bamboo to be an inclusive leader: Bamboo is resilient because it is flexible. It can bend without breaking.”

“In order to bring in Inclusive Excellence, we need to redefine what merit is, and what constitutes knowledge.”

“Standards of excellence have been shaped by whiteness and maleness. We need other perspectives in order to reshape what excellence means.”

“Engaged Leadership means going against the grain and doing things that might get you into trouble.”

“We need to open up to unknown knowledges by opening up our research structure. When we approach a new community we should ask, ‘what would you like me to ask you?’ rather than just go in with pre-set questions.”

“Traditionally, higher education was a ticket to enter the middle class and to overcome elitism. But, with time, it has become a form of elitism of its own.”