About UnLeading

This work has been inspired by Dr. Kevin Kumashiro who challenges us to question common sense assumptions of schooling, to acknowledge the partiality of knowledge, and to be in the practice of unlearning as we learn and unteaching as we teach.

The UnLeading Project makes two assumptions: Leadership exists in all spaces, and we are all leaders. If you are a leader or aspiring leader, or if you are interested in leadership in classrooms, schools, communities, homes, districts, and academies, this podcast series is for you. If you know that traditional approaches to leadership have not addressed the realities or attended to the aspirations of students and communities most harmed by schooling, this podcast series is for you.

Throughout this website and podcast series, we focus on:

  • Naming the logics of discourses and intersecting systems of oppression that have been used to oppress, dispossess, and dehumanize  
  • Centering approaches to leadership based in knowledge systems that have been silenced under dominant conceptions of leadership

Come join us on the UnLeading journey!

Meet the UnLeading Team

Profile. Vidya Shah.
Vidya Shah

Dr. Vidya Shah is an educator, scholar and activist committed to equity and racial justice in the service of liberatory education. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher & Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, and her research explores anti-racist and decolonial approaches to leadership in schools, communities, and school districts. She also explores educational barriers to the success and well-being of Black, Indigenous, and racialized students. Dr. Shah teaches in the Master of Leadership and Community Engagement, as well as undergraduate and graduate level courses in education. She has worked in the Model Schools for Inner Cities Program in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and was an elementary classroom teacher in the TDSB. Dr. Shah is committed to bridging the gaps between communities, classrooms, school districts and the academy, to re/imagine emancipatory possibilities for schooling. Dr. Shah is also a facilitator with the Center for Courage and Renewal, focused on nurturing deep integrity and relational trust for a more loving, equitable, and healthy world. 

Jocelyn Shih
Sayema Chowdhury
Aurra Startup
Amanda Lima
Tharmila Apputhurai
Myrtle Sodhi
Monica Tang