Thank you for your efforts as you lead our government in acting on this existential issue.

I am Kirk Anderson. I was a teacher and a principal for nearly 20 years; eight of these were in northern and coastal Labrador. I'm a former dean of education and a past president of the Canadian deans association in Canada. I'm currently a professor at Memorial University and the University of the Arctic chair for school effectiveness.

As dean, I led the development of a $5-million science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM, grant, where we targeted development to enhance field-based skills for teachers. We also piloted a STEM Bachelor of Education focused on elementary teachers.

I also led the development and implementation of a community-based teacher education process called the Inuit-focused B.Ed., or the IBED. This was a partnership with the Government of Nunatsiavut. We worked diligently there to indigenize our approach to teaching. It also included Inuktitut language for the teacher candidates.

Based on that success, I worked to develop and conclude the first contract with the Nunavut Arctic College, where we collaborated to promote and serve the Nunavut teacher education program. This was part of our university's long-term agreement to work with the Nunavut Arctic College and its goal to become an Arctic university.

My key research areas are indigenous schools, teacher development in the north and school leadership. A key aspect of all my work is to empower people and communities, particularly in the north and in an indigenous context, by reshaping educational research and teaching.

Our schools are among the best in the world. We're particularly good at student achievements, asserting social justice and dealing with differences in socio-economic status. Related to this, while faculties of education are strong and we do develop good teachers, we are not so well connected with other academic interests or STEM-focused researchers. In response to this, many of my actions as an educational administrator and researcher are to build indigenous partnerships and reach out to other fields to make teacher development more interdisciplinary and find ways to connect our research efforts, particularly with the STEM areas.

For example, my action plan as a University of the Arctic chair is to create a truly community-based teacher education model for northern schools as well as create a northern and indigenous doctoral group focused on education and reflective of interdisciplinary fields while engaging communities. We must collaborate with the northern communities and other fields in order to empower them to control their destiny.

Thank you.