Digical Education

Urban Education: Stephanie Jones-Fosu and Evan Willis

Urban Education has interested me ever since an invitation to a meeting in Chicago in 2002 about the "Graduation Crisis" in urban schools. This interest led me to Boston University, which just continued to foster my interests. In many ways this conversation is a primer for future conversations with Stephanie and Evan as they are researchers at "The Urban Education Collaborative" at UNC-Charlotte (www.thecollaborative.uncc.edu).
Evan Willis is a researcher at UNC Charlotte and a Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) Pastor. His research interests include equity and inclusion, the impact race and religion on Christian schooling, Black male outcomes and its function in both the Black community and in urban spaces.
Stephanie Jones-Fosu is a research at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Stephanie has taught middle and high school social students for 9 years. She has also coached over 100 first and second year teachers through a non-traditional teaching organization. Her research interests include preservice, teacher preparation, and culturally sustainable pedagogy.

Becoming Whole: Conversation with Will Richey of Journeyman Ink

"Introduce Joy, Invite Depth, Offer Reflection" - Will Richey on DaVerse Lounge
Will Richey is founder of Journeyman Ink (www.journeymanink.com), father of DaVerse Lounge a spoken word event in the Deep Ellam community of Dallas, lead teaching artist for Big Thought (www.bigthought.org), and award winning spoken word artist. Will has worked extensively with schools and shares his transition from the classroom to DaVerse Lounge to working with schools.
Prior to this conversation Will shared a spoken word presentation about his story (http://oralfixationshow.com/push-the-envelope-featuring-will-richey/), which is quite personal with deep grief and surprising forgiveness. He states in the podcast that he only did this  and we were able to record separately his poem "Broken.Mending" (https://epellefsen.podbean.com/e/brokenmending-spoken-word-art-by-will-richey/).
I think you will catch Will's idealism or as he says his "utopianism", his hope, and desire for good.

Broken.Mending: Spoken Word Art by Will Richey

Will Richey is the found of Journeyman Ink (www.journeymanink.com), father of DaVerse Lounge, and award-winning spoken word artist. 
I had the opportunity to have a longer conversation with Will that I will post by itself, but in my low tech way I was able to separate a recording of Will's spoken word piece "Broken.Mending", which I think you will bind quite meaningful and will add incredible depth and context to the conversation.
 

What Are You Hoping For: Conversation with Shannon Buerk

Happy 2019, and I think you will be energized by the enthusiasm for our work that Shannon Buerk has.
Shannon is the founder and CEO of engage2learn (www.engage2learn.org) and works with communities across the U.S. to design strategic and innovative learning solutions. Shannon's solutions are grounded in proven best practices that focus on systems thinking and Future Ready Skills. She has implemented scalable, effective coaching processes for educators on change, conflict resolution and communication. She was also recognized in 2017 with a Stevie Award as the Most Innovative Woman of the Year.
She has a deep desire, big vision, and integrated approach to change. I get to ask her a number of questions and there are many more I would like to ask. However, I was struck by her desire to modernize public schools and learning, the belief she has in the power of the public school, and a purposeful vision for designing culture and coaching innovation. I hope you will check out the engage2learn website, blog, and other resources that she mentions to learn more.
 

Ed Next Poll and Research on Faith in Education: Conversation with Albert Cheng

Albert Cheng is an educational researcher and professor at the University of Arkansas, was a post-doctoral research fellow at Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance, and was once a high school math teacher.
In this conversation, I ask Albert to share some of his most interesting findings from the Education Next Poll: https://www.educationnext.org/public-support-climbs-teacher-pay-school-expenditures-charter-schools-universal-vouchers-2018-ednext-poll/.
Likewise, I ask Albert to share some of his experience as a researcher and why its important, and lastly, I ask him to share about his findings in regards to the role of faith in education whether that be in religious schools or the faith of educators. He is doing more research on this area, but some earlier research he has done includes this article produced in the Journal of Catholic Education: https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=http://www.uaedreform.org/albert-cheng/&httpsredir=1&article=1882&context=ce.
 
 

A Vision for Education from the UK: Conversation with Nigel Genders and Andy Wolfe

Despite some tech and connectivity issues with my simple podcast, I think you will gain some amazing nuggets of wisdom from this podcast on vision, collaboration, and leadership development.
I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Nigel Genders, Chief Education Officer of The Church of England Schools, along with prior-podcast participant Andy Wolfe, Deputy Chief Education Officer of Leadership Development, on their work developing a "Vision for Education and the Common Good" for the UK.
There are 4,700 Church of England schools that educate over a million students, which makes it the largest school organization in the UK. See below for some resources that Nigel and Andy mention.
The CofE Vision for Education: https://www.cefel.org.uk/vision/
Leadership of Character Education: https://www.cefel.org.uk/character/ 
Ethos Enhancing Outcomes: https://www.cefel.org.uk/visionresources/
 
 

Pluralism, Policy, and Knowledge: Conversation with Ashley Berner

Ashley Berner (ashley.berner@jhu.edu) is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Education Policy at Johns Hopkins University and the author of Pluralism and American Public Education: No One Way to School.
A year ago I had a conversation with Ashley regarding the argument in the book about the ideas for and potential behind a more pluralistic approach to education in the United States. In this conversation, she shares what has happened since last year with the argument, and how pluralism might actually be a Middle Path in education policy between the current public system and a privatized alternative. Likewise, she shares about the Knowledge Map Project that is providing incredible insights into  developing a greater "vision for an educated person."
Resources mentioned:
NCEE: www.ncee.org
The New Teacher Project: www.tntp.org
50Can: www.50can.org
Chiefs for Change: www.chiefsforchange.org 
Ed Reports: www.edreports.org 

Building Environments to Improve the Human Condition: Conversation with Danish Kurani

According to a recent article school and prison design are historically linked, and I was interested in having a conversation with Danish Kurani about this and how we alter our educational spaces for a new reality.
I've appreciated a number of conversations with Danish over the years as he has sparked a new energy for us to "cultivate happiness", "re-village" our schools, consider educator "comfort" and well-being, and consider "people-centric design".
Danish Kurani is Chief Designer at Kurani, Instructor at Harvard, Lecturer at Stanford, and is an American architect building environments to improve the human condition. You can find more information about Danish's projects at www.kurani.us.
 

Educator Well-being needs a MindShift: Conversation with Rex Miller

According to Rex, educators as a whole display the characteristics of fatigue in a similar way as is described as The Caregivers Dilemma.
Rex Miller is the author of Humanizing the Education Machine and The Healthy Workplace Nudge, and in this conversation we discuss his new MindShift project that is a mesh of these two books as he seeks to discover solutions to the issues that are plaguing educator well-being.
For more information on Rex Miller and MindShift: https://rexmiller.com/mindshift/
 

Post-Election Ed Policy Recap: Conversation with Corey DeAngelis

In this conversation, Corey DeAngelis who is a Policy Analyst for the Cato Center for Educational Reform shares his thoughts on the election and what it might mean for Education Policy. Our conversation meanders from a review of Education Research, the election results, states to keep an eye on, and exciting research that he and other colleagues are working on.
I met Corey via Twitter, and you can find many of the resources he references if you follow him @DeAngelisCorey; however, some of the resources I link below as it may provide greater reading and context to his research and other work that is taking place in research and school choice policy.
Corey's Dissertation: https://scholarworks.uark.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://t.co/mPQQCyfSsU&httpsredir=1&article=4215&context=etd
Impact of Regulation on School Options: https://www.heartland.org/publications-resources/publications/research--commentary-burdensome-regulations-prevent-high-quality-schools-from-participating-in-voucher-programs-in-ohio-and-milwaukee
Mental Health and School Choices: https://fee.org/articles/why-teen-suicide-is-lower-in-states-that-have-more-school-choice/
Milwaukee's Voucher Schools: https://www.the74million.org/analysis-milwaukee-religious-schools-voucher-students/