Back-to-school 2026: Beginning the year with courage Artwork

Re: thinking education

As an educator, you know the value of reflecting on your current practices with an eye to adapting your strategies for more effective teaching and learning. "Re: thinking education" is an opportunity to listen to organic conversations between colleagues and partners from The Critical Thinking Consortium as they grapple with important pedagogical issues. Each episode will pull back the curtain on their critical, creative, and collaborative thinking and provide an opportunity for listeners to learn and reflect on their own practices.

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Re: thinking education

Back-to-school 2026: Beginning the year with courage

September 02, 2026 • The Critical Thinking Consortium

0:00 | 6:15

“How do we bring that courage to the surface in challenging moments?”

In her back-to-school message, TC² Executive Director Usha James reflects on the courage we bring to teaching and learning, and what that might mean for the year ahead.

A new school year can feel like a fresh start. But none of us arrives as a blank slate. We bring with us our experiences, our learning, our relationships, our hopes and fears, and everything else happening in our lives.

Usha reminds us that courageous inquiry can help us bring our whole selves to teaching and learning.

What does it take to listen when something challenges what we thought we knew? To examine our own leadership and teaching practices with humility? To seriously consider student voice and create meaningful opportunities for agency? To invite learners into complex questions when we may not already know the “answers”?

Download the transcript of this episode.

Visit our website at tc2.ca for more information about professional learning with TC².