Organizing Dispositions for Educational Leadership
Virtual Conference - October 22-24, 2020
ABOUT Agenda Recordings & Resources THOUGHT PARTNERS
October 22: Conference Kick-Off Keynote Panel
Moderator:
Barbara Mullen, Chief Equity & Diversity Officer, Providence Public School District
Panelists:
Linda Nathan, Executive Director, Center for Artistry & Scholarship
Jessica Tang, President, Boston Teachers Union
Jeanette Taylor, Alderwoman, Chicago City Council
Rodney Thomas, Vice President of National Programs, Surge Institute
Thursday, October 22nd
6:00 - 8:00 PM EST / 3:00 - 5:00 PM PST
Taking it Personal: Leading for Systemic Change
Our institutions of public education are deeply intertwined with our public health, political, and economic systems. The intersections of education with so many aspects of our lives make the success of our schools deeply personal for all of us. From beginning to end, the change we seek for systems stems from the transformative engagement of individuals who take systemic change personally. Yet, too often, education leaders see themselves as dispassionate technical interventionists without thinking about or being supported to develop the capacities necessary to lead in the multifaceted space of public education. Beyond technical education expertise, leading for educational equity and justice requires the organizing capacities of trusting community expertise, agitating toward social justice values, building power to make change, and developing the leadership of others. Hear from systems leaders and/or changemakers who take it personal and have adopted some of these capacities as they respond to questions like: What do you do, how do you do it, where has it worked, how has it failed, and how can we learn from your work to support a social justice vision for schools in our local contexts? How do you collaborate to improve the education system for students, families, and communities?
October 23: Webinar / Workshop Sessions
Moderator:
Maria C. Fernandez, Senior Campaign Strategist, Advancement Project National Office
Panelists:
Ni'Keah Manning, Member & Program Coordinator, Black Organizing Project
Veronica Rodriguez, Youth Organizer, Brighton Park Neighborhood Council
Jonathan Stith, National Director, Alliance for Educational Justice
Nancy Xiong, Lead Organizer, Alliance of Rhode Island Southeast Asians for Education (ARISE)
Friday, October 23rd
3:00 - 4:30 PM EST / 12:00 - 1:30 PM PST
#PoliceFreeSchools Are Possible: Lessons from Grassroots Organizing Leading the Movement to Abolish School Police
For decades, Black students and students of color and their families have been organizing to end the criminalization and policing of young people in schools across the country. After years of bold and consistent organizing and amidst uprisings against police violence, the movement for #PoliceFreeSchools is gaining momentum and winning. From Oakland, to San Francisco, Denver to Madison, Milwaukee, and Rochester, organizers are terminating school policing contracts, eliminating school police departments, and defunding school policing programs that criminalize and push students into the criminal legal system. Fights to remove police from schools, grounded in police abolition, are happening in all of our cities – generating a new vision for the safety and wellbeing of school communities. Join organizers for a discussion on lessons learned and explore the roles students, families, educators and school leaders can play in building a liberatory education system free of policing. We know that police-free schools is not the end of struggle, but the beginning.
Friday, October 23rd
3:00 - 4:00 PM EST / 12:00 - 1:00 PM PST
Families in the Lead
Researchers and parents, Ann Ishimaru, Soo Hong, and Luva Alvarez will discuss what it means to trust the expertise of families and to partner with them as educational leaders. Through panel discussion, we will dive deep into questions such as: What does equitable partnership with families look like in schools, districts, and community-based organizations, and how does it make a difference for children and young people? How can families be at the center of driving a more anti-racist educational system? What are concrete strategies for developing trust between families and educators, shifting power to families, and supporting parents as leaders? As authors of the newest research on family engagement and family leadership, panelists will share key lessons from their publications, Natural Allies: Hope and Possibility in Teacher-Family Partnerships; Just Schools: Building Equitable Collaborations with Families and Communities; and The Ripple Effect in Action: What 7 Parent Leadership Initiatives Learned from Participatory Evaluation. This session is recommended for family members, educators, administrators, and community partners.
Friday, October 23rd
3:00 - 4:00 PM EST / 12:00 - 1:00 PM PST
Schools That Work for Us
Schools That Work for Us (STWFU) is a framework for thinking comprehensively about school transformation and what needs to be taken down and what needs to be (re)built in order for schools to be sites of true growth, development, and freedom for Black and Brown young people. The framework was developed in 2018 when young people from New London, CT compiled 6 years of Hearing Youth Voices (HYV) research and data that had been collected via surveys, interviews, and hundreds of youth meetings since 2012. Organized around 8 themes—Mental Health, Relationships, Freedom to be and to Move, Full Safety, Teaching and Learning, Collective Power, The Struggle, and Resources—STWFU is a guide that we can all use as we dig into the necessary work of re-designing our society’s institutions so that they are infused with anti-racist and anti-poverty policies and practices. This session will feature leaders (now HYV alumni) who helped develop the framework, as well as current HYV youth leaders who are organizing in their communities to make Schools That Work for Us a reality.
Friday, October 23rd
3:00 - 4:30 PM EST / 12:00 - 1:30 PM PST
Portland Empowered: Shared Space Cafés
Parents and families need to be in contact with their children’s school and to understand the school system in order to make an impact on education policies, practices, and decisions. In Portland, Maine—a small city that has over sixty languages in its schools—Portland Empowered and the Portland Public Schools have implemented Shared Space Cafés. With Shared Space Cafés, parents plan, design, lead, and facilitate conversations in their native languages in small groups that include both other parents and school staff. Interpretation is typically provided primarily for school staff to allow them to understand non-English conversations. Born out of parent organizing efforts, Shared Space Cafés have become important forums for Portland Empowered staff and organizers and Portland Public Schools educators to hear concerns and dreams of parents and families when it comes to education. In this workshop, panelists from Portland Empowered and Portland Public Schools will share the origins and history of Shared Space Cafés and discuss some of the lessons learned.
Friday, October 23rd
7:00 - 8:30 PM EST / 4:00 - 5:30 PM PST
Culturally Responsive Leadership
Education leaders play a crucial role in identifying and addressing inequities in schools and school systems. To do that work effectively, what do leaders need to know and be able to do? In this workshop, Nancy Gutiérrez from The Leadership Academy will present a list of six equity-focused leadership dispositions that The Leadership Academy embeds into their Culturally Responsive Leadership Framework that are crucial for leaders to build a path toward creating a school community by, with, and for every student. The presentation will be followed by a panel discussion with three school principals about how they push for/prioritize equity in schools, what barriers they face, and how organizing dispositions can help overcome them.
October 24: Dive Deep with Us!
Saturday, October 24
11:00 AM - 3:00 PM EST / 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM PST
How do we support the development, growth, and application of organizing dispositions and capacities in educational leaders?
Designed for conference participants/attendees who desire to dive even deeper into conversations and learning, Day 3 of the conference will include opportunities for relational storytelling, text-based inquiry, and action-oriented discussions for advancing theory and practice for organizing dispositions as educational leadership competencies.
Tentative Agenda
Welcome, Introductions, & Community Agreements (20 min)
Development (80 min)
Telling Stories: Listening for Resonance - In small groups, participants will tell each other stories about times when they trusted community expertise, built power to make change, agitated toward their values, or developed the leadership of others.
Break (30 min)
Growth (40 min)
Critical Reading: Our Stories Grow into Our Ideas - Through a text-based Socratic seminar, participants will reflect on their stories to cultivate ideas for how to grow organizing dispositions and capacities for educational leaders.
Break (10 min)
Application (50 min)
Utilizing “Open Space Technology” participants will generate topics for discussion aimed at concrete action-oriented ideas for advancing theory and practice for organizing dispositions and capacities for educational leaders
Appreciations & Closing (10 min)