Craig Morrison
CRAIG MORRISON, Roarockit Skateboard Company’s Education Design Specialist (Pedagogy Pro), is a 2019 Prime Minister's Award for Teaching Excellence Recipient and the Ontario Art Education Association’s 2012 Art Educator of the Year. He is a design/er educator now based in Hamilton, Ontario and the recently retired Founding Teacher of Oasis Skateboard Factory in Toronto.
Prior to OSF, he was a founding catalyst and Curriculum Leader of the Arts & Social Change Program at Oasis Alternative S.S. in Toronto, inspired by his alternative university degree earned in “Arts & Social Change” from New College of California in San Francisco. Craig is also a graduate of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education/ University of Toronto Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (Emphasis in Arts Education) M.A. program, the Artist in Community Education B.Ed. program at Queen's University, and the undergraduate Drama and Visual Art programs at the University of Guelph. He has an Honours Specialist qualification in Visual Arts from OISE as well as an additional qualification in Native Studies from York University.
As an academic, Craig is the inventor of a new approach called Push Pedagogy and his ongoing design and research-creation work as Hooky with teenage skaters/creators and community collaborators explores diverse forms of creativity, learning and entrepreneurship outside the mainstream school setting through the radical educational potential embedded in the material, creative artifacts of skateboarding.
Since 1995, as a leader in education innovation, Craig has worked with Toronto area youth in mainstream/alternative school/community-based contexts, spoken to emerging artists and educators in numerous colleges and universities, mentored high school teachers, facilitated workshops and conference sessions for educators from across Canada and consulted on various skateboard/art/education initiatives in the US and Britain.
Oasis Skateboard Factory
Founded in 2008, as the first school site in the Toronto District School Board and the world fully dedicated to offering all subjects with a skateboard design focus, Oasis Skateboard Factory (OSF) is an award-winning alternative school program. Craig reimagined high school as a professional design studio and created OSF to help students at-risk re-engage, earn high school credits and graduate by running an entrepreneurial business where they learn hands-on to build skateboards, design original custom graphics, collaborate with local artists/community partners, and brand/market/retail their work (oasisskateboardfactory.ca). This innovative design program has won numerous awards under Craig’s creative vision and leadership:
Juror’s Choice Award, DesignTO Festival (2021)
Problem Solvers Award, First Place, Arc’teryx (2019)
Champion of Public Education, The Learning Partnership (2018)
Award for Ending Youth Homelessness, Eva’s Initiatives (2015)
Future Dragon Student Award, CBC’s Dragon’s Den (2014)
Ken Spencer Award for Innovation in Teaching & Learning , Canadian Education Assoc. (2012)
Hottest on the NOW Magazine "Barometer" Design Issue (2012)
#1 on the Toronto Star's "Coolest Schools" List (2011)
Craig is an expert in sharing student creative work in public contexts such as art shows, displays, commissioned work etc. and has initiated and collaborated on many social justice skateboard art projects with youth at-risk including the OSF GRRLZ SK8 CREW and OSF INDIG SK8. He also started the ongoing alternative schools art show (since 2005) at Xpace Cultural Centre in Toronto as a platform for underrepresented, emerging artists that he curated for 16 years including yearly high-profile public window installations.
“If it wasn’t for OSF, I wouldn’t be passing high school. I would have dropped out by now. Instead, I’ve been accepted into Seneca College’s Art Fundamentals program in the fall.”
— Johnny Bartlett, OSF Graduate
“After the success of his pilot project, Morrison was confident that skateboards were a great tool for getting youth — especially those identified as ‘at-risk’ within their communities — engaged with their education. He was right. If the typical over-90 percent program completion rate says anything, it’s that kids are definitely interested.”
— Julia Brucculieri, Arc’teryx
“Oasis Skateboard Factory (OSF), founded by teacher Craig Morrison, has attracted considerable media exposure and received a Ken Spencer Award from the Canadian Education Association (CEA) for its innovative program. Students design, build and market skateboards, along with paraphernalia for the skateboard culture, and earn academic credit. Students who fared poorly in their previous schools re-engage through their OSF experience. Nearly all OSF students graduate from high school.”
— George Pearson, EdCan Network
“Craig is amazing. I come to school everyday and I enjoy what I’m doing. At my old school I didn’t go.”
— Tanya Kocur, TDSB Student