Steve Sider

Dr. Steve Sider is a professor and associate dean in the Faculty of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario, where he teaches courses in school leadership and inclusive education. He was a school administrator, special education teacher and consultant, and classroom teacher for 15 years before joining the university faculty. He received his PhD in Educational Studies from Western University in 2006 after earlier academic study at Brock University and Laurier University. He is the inaugural director for the Centre for Leading Research in Education (CLRiE), an inter-disciplinary research centre at Laurier. He is a Fellow at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and an associate of the Canadian Research Centre on Inclusive Education. 

Dr. Sider currently holds three Canadian national research grants examining inclusive leadership practices of Canadian school principals. He is the 2019 winner of the Laurier Donald F. Morgenson Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence in the category of Excellence in Internationalization. He travels regularly to Haiti, Ghana, and Egypt where he is involved in school leadership and special education training and research.

Dr. Sider’s research focuses on the role and influence of school leaders and inclusive education and school leadership. Dr. Sider recently co-authored the book Leadership for Inclusive Schools. He holds multiple national and international research grants exploring competencies for inclusive school leadership. He is past-president of the Comparative and International Education Society of Canada and a member of Inclusive Education Canada’s “Network of Associates”.

Email: ssider@wlu.ca

Website: https://www.leadtoinclude.org/

Projects and Publications

• Book: Sider, S. & Maich, K. (2022). Leadership for inclusive schools: Cases from principals for supporting students with special educational needs. Rowman and Littlefield. https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781475852752/Leadership-for-Inclusive-Schools-Cases-from-Principals-for-Supporting-Students-with-Special-Educational-Needs

• Chapter in Book: Sider, S., Daw, K., Dunham, R., Wong, L. C., & Bowman, J. (2024). The intersection of culturally and linguistically diverse students and inclusive education for students with disabilities in Canada: A scoping review. In J. Zajda & S. Majhanovich (Eds.). Globalisation, cultural diversity and education. Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-53219-1_4

• Sider, S., Ainscow, M., Carrington, S., Shields, C., Mavropoulou, S., Nepal, S. & Daw, K. (2024). Inclusive education in England, Australia, the United States, and Canada: Quo vadis? Exceptionality Education International, 34(1), 55-72. https://doi.org/10.5206/eei.v34i1.16915

• Sider, S., Maich, K., Specht, J., Treadgold, C., & Winger, H. (2023). “Choose your own adventure”: Web-based case studies of inclusive education as a form of professional learning for school principals. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 18(1), 132–154. https://doi.org/10.1177/19427751211046978

• FitzGerald, C., MacCormack, J. & Sider, S. (2022). Perspectives of school leaders on supporting learners with special education needs during the COVID-19 pandemic: An ethic of care analysis. Journal of School Leadership, 33(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/105268462211339

• Podcasts on Leading Authentically and Inclusion with Ontario Principals’ Council and Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario: https://www.principals.ca/en/professional-learning/special-education-for-school-leaders-podcast.aspx#