DR. DARREN E. LUND

Exploring the Challenges and Promise of Multiculturalism in Canada in Turbulent Times 

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In light of Canada’s colonial past, present inequities, pervasive systemic racism, and growing calls for reforming oppressive policies and institutions, our country holds great promise in its espoused commitments to multiculturalism and pluralism. Amplifying the strong citizenship education work of Canadian and American colleagues and other informed voices, this presentation will explore how our multicultural policy continues to shape the public discourse. This entails exploring our contested national identity, and importantly, the curriculum we create and enact for our future generations. Our ongoing efforts as educational scholars may help students find their roles and voices in this pluralistic democratic national experiment. As progressive and critical multicultural educators, we continue to push ourselves and our students into difficult conversations on our own identities, as we seek common ground in our shared visions for Canada. We remain a diverse nation that hopes to continue to improve, one where our lofty multicultural ideals are more ideally enacted and lived through a commitment to equity and social justice.

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Darren E. Lund, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, where his research examines social justice activism in schools, communities, and professional education programs. Formerly a high school teacher for 16 years, Darren founded the groundbreaking Students and Teachers Opposing Prejudice (STOP) program. He has published over 350 articles, books, and book chapters. He is Editor of the award-winning Wiley International Handbook of Service-Learning for Social Justice, and Co-Editor of Critical Multicultural Perspectives on Whiteness: Views from the Past and Present.

Darren co-founded the Service-Learning Program for Diversity, winner of the national 2012 Award of Excellence in Education from the Canadian Race Relations Foundation. Darren has been recognized with a number of honours, including the 2020 Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Award, International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engaged Learning, the 2019 Werklund Research Excellence Award, the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s 2015 Educational Research Award, the inaugural 2013 Alberta Hate Crimes Awareness Award, and he was named a Reader’s Digest National Leader in Education.