GREG WHITBY
Greg Whitby is a Fellow of the Australian College of Educators and the Western Sydney University Australian Institute of Management. He received a presidential citation from the Australian Council of Educational Leaders and in 2017 and in the same year was awarded the Australian College of Educators Sir Harold Wyndham Medal for his contribution to the education of young people in NSW.
Greg has been awarded a Papal Knighthood in the Order of St Gregory the Great and was named the most innovative educator in Australia by the Bulletin Magazine in its SMART 100 awards, nominated personally by Hedley Beare. His contribution to education was recognised in 2018 Australia Day Honours list with the award of the Australian Medal (AM) Member of the General Order of Australia.
Greg’s advocacy for change and innovation has seen him present at international conferences, including the invitation to present to the Congregation for Catholic Education’s first World Congress in the Vatican City in 2015.
Greg continues to influence the global provision of schooling. Focusing on improving the outcomes for each student in every learning environment through quality teaching, he has driven change of learning and teaching and implemented digital enablers to support teacher best practice.
Through building the capacity of leadership teams, Greg has positioned the school systems he has led to respond to ongoing challenges and opportunities of a fast-paced, rapidly changing world.
Greg will continue to challenge accepted thinking about learning and teaching to bring about the change education can deliver for young people.
Schooling in the age of disruption
This is the age of disruption for almost every element of society except education. While we bank 24/7, order the world online and collaborate in real time with everyone everywhere, schooling remains in the most part a cottage industry shackled by unimaginative governments who do little more than tinker around the edges of a broken system searching for a quick win or a pithy headline, and educators who are prepared to accept a ‘that’s just the way it is’ mentality.
Surely our young people deserve better. Accepting the schooling status quo does so many of them grave disservice. Whose world are we educating them for anyway: ours or theirs?
The time for tinkering is over. We need a new narrative - not one of improvement but of transformation. Everything has to be on the table: the curriculum, teaching practices, the role of technology, collaboration across school sectors, governments, universities and business. And we have to implement change at scale.
We already know how to fix this so let's get it done. This is urgent.