Thursday, January 19, 2012



PRESIDENTIAL WELCOME: 21ST Century Leadership Challenges
to be Unveiled In Kansas City
JOIN US! UPLOAD YOUR PROPOSALS BY MARCH 30, 2012

            Over 300 professors and educators will convene at NCPEA’s annual summer conference in Kansas City, Missouri, August 7-10, 2012. Kansas City is a cosmopolitan, vibrant, creative, down-to-earth place. Did you know that the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts is now open?—this new center in the downtown area is already heralded for its music, opera, theater, and dance. In this inspiring setting we will gather to work and play, and to discuss 21st century leadership challenges that span such important topics as social justice and competition.
We are excited to spend time with you in deeply important dialogue about such crucial issues as the neoliberal assault on public education and what Diane Ravitch has called the “Billionaire Boys Club” comprised of Bill Gates, Eli Broad, and John Walton who are pursuing an agenda that de-professionalizes educational leadership, privatizes the public trust, and imposes an anti-democratic corporate agenda for America’s public schools using test scores as leverage to point to the alleged “failure” of current structures and leaders to deliver quality education.
            The Kansas City conference promises to lift the veil on the neoliberal platform and to expose such political dynamics that hold us back. We will seek new ways forward as an academic group of practical pedagogues and activists that wants to see beyond the veil to what is possible and good as a future-minded social justice community.
            If you are interested in learning more, my article in NCPEA’s Education Leadership Review of October 2010 is available at the NCPEA’s Connexions website as well. Check it out and join us in Kansas City to continue the conversation and share what’s on your mind. See you there!

Fenwick W. English, NCPEA President
R. Wendell Eaves Senior Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership
School of Education
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA


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