Public lecture by Professor Graeme Aitken

Ambition and Its Enemies: A Report Card on 40 Years of Leadership in Education

In more than 40 years in education as a teacher, curriculum developer, university lecturer and Dean, Graeme has sought to achieve ambitious but not always popular goals. In this lecture he will reflect on three of these ambitions, the extent they were achieved and, to borrow Karl Popper’s phrasing, the “enemies” that challenged their realisation – including the enemy of his own personal capacity as a leader.

Graeme Aitken retires in December this year as Dean of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland – a position he has held since July 2008. This lecture offers the opportunity for him to reflect on four decades of involvement in school and university education. ​

Hear what Graeme had to say about STEM Online NZ: