Joel Westheimer

Joel Westheimer is currently University Research Chair in Democracy and Education and full professor at the University of Ottawa. He is also the education columnist for CBC Radio's Ottawa Morning and Ontario Today shows. Having received his B.S.E. from Princeton University, Dr. Westheimer began his career as a middle school teacher in the New York City public schools before obtaining a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Prior to arriving at the University of Ottawa, he was a professor at New York University, visiting professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, and acting assistant professor at Stanford University. He is co-founder and executive director of Democratic Dialogue, a research collaborative dedicated to the critical exploration of democratic ideals in education and society.

Westheimer's latest award-winning book is What Kind of Citizen: Educating Our Children for the Common Good (2015). Other multiple award-winning books include Pledging Allegiance: The Politics of Patriotism in America's Schools (foreword by the late Howard Zinn) and Among Schoolteachers: Community, Autonomy and Ideology in Teachers' Work. He has published more than 100 scholarly and professional articles and book chapters and addresses radio and television audiences on shows such as Good Morning America, More to Life, The Agenda, NBC TV News, C-Span, NPR, and CBC.

Westheimer is recipient of the Canadian Education Association's Whitworth Award and Knight Fellow for Civic Engagement in Higher Education and has recently been inducted into Kappa Delta Pi, the international education honor society established in 1911 to foster excellence in education. Membership in the KDP Laureate chapter is limited to 60 people who “exemplify the highest ideals of education.” (Past members include Margaret Mead, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, John Dewey, and Jean Piaget).

He grew up in New York City and currently lives with his wife and two children in Ottawa, Ontario where, in Winter, he ice-skates to and from work.