Stephen Hurley, classroom teacher and educational adventurer

Stephen Hurley

Stephen Hurley has been involved in public education in Ontario, Canada, for almost twenty-five years. He has served as a teacher and a curriculum and information technology consultant, as well as an instructor in the preservice program at the University of Toronto, and has, most recently, returned to the classroom to begin arts@newman, an alternative, arts-based program for grades 7-8 designed to capture the imagination of students who often find themselves on the edge of school. Hurley believes our classrooms are destined to be transformed by turning them inside out, allowing our students' everyday cultures and literacies to play a larger role in how we think about schools and education. Hurley is also an advocate of developing closer links between university research communities, teacher-education programs, and field-based practice. The proud father of eleven-month-old Luke, Hurley lives with his wife, Zoe, outside of Toronto.


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Teaching in the Key of Jocelyn: Challenging One-Size-Fits-All Education

By Stephen Hurley

4/10/08

Like many of you, I grew up with a one-size-fits-all approach to school. I remember clearly the few teachers that allowed me to explore things on my own terms -- and, interestingly enough, these were the school experiences that had the greatest impact on me.

All We Are: The Truth about Stories

By Stephen Hurley

3/7/08

"The truth about stories is, that's all we are." The words of Canadian writer Thomas King have been rattling around in my brain since I first heard them nearly two years ago. Most of us have grown up with some tradition of storytelling in our families, whether it was a nightly ritual when we went to bed or in conversations around the kitchen table after a Sunday meal.

The Road to Change: Resisting the Rituals of School

By Stephen Hurley

2/25/08

In our attempt to explore alternative ways of looking at the practice of traditional education, I am finding that it is necessary to question and actually resist some of the rituals that have become part of this place called school. I encountered one such ritual this month when we returned from our holiday break. Someone reminded me that the school finals for our annual seventh- and eighth-grade speaking competition would need to take place during the last week of January.

Life as a Teacher: Living the Hero's Journey

By Stephen Hurley

2/13/08

One of the main themes that has grounded and inspired this first year of the arts@newman program at Cardinal Newman School, in Toronto, has been "stories of home."

Home Work: Getting Parents to Buy Into Radical Reform

By Stephen Hurley

1/16/08

If you're going to set out to change the way people look at this place we call school, you had better be prepared to spend a great deal of time communicating your vision, the research you've done, and your implementation plans. It's important when you're looking for financial and political support, but it is most important when you're asking for the support of your parent community.

arts@newman: A Creative Effort to Unravel Educational Knots

By Stephen Hurley

10/24/07

I’m in the middle of reading to my seventh-grade class the book Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli. Our overarching theme this year is Stories of Home, and this book seems a perfect fit.

Challenging Our Assumptions: Finding the Roots of Educational Change

By Stephen Hurley

10/3/07

My dad is an avid gardener, and, though the passion for planting and nurturing peonies and petunias has not rubbed off on me, I have learned from him a few things about living a richer life. One of the most important of these lessons relates to ways of approaching change. “You’ve got to know where the roots are,” he would say when teaching me how to get rid of unwanted plants, move a shrub, or properly water a tree. “If you don’t know where the roots are, you’re just guessing!”