Meeting with Ziauddin Yousafzai, Malala's father

Last week, I was delighted to be part of a meeting with Malala's father, Ziauddin Yousafzai. The meeting was to discuss ways that the Laurier Faculty of Education and University of Waterloo's Conrad Grebel College could "educate for peace."

If you are not familiar with Malala's story, you can read her book I Am Malala. Click below to watch a 16 minute interview with Malala:

Malala on The Daily Show

The conversation provided insight into the challenges of education in a context such as Pakistan, particularly for female students. As Mr. Yousafzai stated, "You don't know peace. Until you have experienced the absence of peace, you cannot really know what peace is." Both he and Malala see education as fundamentally important to an engaged and active citizenry.

My research and teaching is largely built around how we can help teachers develop a perspective that connects local and global realities so that their students might become active global citizens. Conversations with people such as Ziauddin Yousafzai help shape my own perspective in this area and I am honoured and humbled to be part of this type of dialogue.