K - 16 and Women

Texas Faculty Women’s Forum

March 30 - March 31Austin, TX

Jane Close ConoleyDean of Education

Texas A&M University

Forum: All Hot Topics!

Child care Arts Grants Technology Health benefits

Diversity Learning styles Mentoring Sexual Violence

Women are increasingly represented in the elementary principalship but still in the great minority as high school leaders and in the superintendency

Women are the great majority of elementary teachers and about 60% of high school teachers

Challenges for teacher recruitment and retention are critical

Societal forces make many traditional schooling approaches inappropriate

Public perceptions of school effectiveness and safety are disconnected from school realities

Many districts still dominated by narrowly educated school boards

Academic priorities difficult to maintain in culture of confrontation

In some districts teachers can escape continuing professional development

WOMEN MAY BE ABANDONING PUBLIC PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION

Schools Need

A DEFINING SENSE OF PURPOSE

LEADERS– WHO WILL TRANSFORM CURRENT

PRACTICE make democracy a reality within school

walls

WHAT LEADERS MUST DO

Develop a community of purpose

Create strategic alliances

Create shared visions

COMMUNITY

Engagement, equality, trust, tolerance,

cooperation

THE BASIS OF COMMUNITY

HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONS RECOGNITION OF THE NEED FOR

PARTNERSHIPS SHARED VALUES AND GOALS

Consider primary and secondary schools

HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONS

Appropriately Autonomous Staff

Many Opportunities for Self Development

Sense of Belonging to the Organization

Recognition for Successful Employees

Consider primary and secondary schools

HEALTHY ORGANIZATIONS

Attractive, Interesting, and Satisfying Jobs

Clear, Challenging, Attainable Goals

Adequate Resources

No Constraints to Performance

THE NEED FOR PARTNERSHIPS TO

ACCOMPLISH IMPORTANT GOALS

BLINDING FLASHES OF THE OBVIOUS

BFO’S

BFO’S

93/100 being born in the world are people of color

Texas will be a majority minority state within our lifetimes

Our futures depend on involving historically marginalized people

Access to success is NOT equally distributed

BFO’s

40,000 teachers were needed last year in Texas

2,500,000 NATIONWIDE TEACHERS WILL BE NEEDED IN THE NEXT DECADE

“THE DOG BARKS BUT THE CARAVAN MOVES ON”

Persian proverb

SHARED VALUES AND GOALS: THE PATH TO A

COMMUNITY OF PURPOSE

MANDATES FOR UNIVERSITY FACULTY THE

NEXT CENTURY

Value teaching at every level Support democracy at every level Be nurturers of the educational

enterprise

MANDATES FOR THE NEXT CENTURY

Form partnerships with teachers that are instrumental for children and young people

MANDATES FOR THE NEXT CENTURY

Assert the value of the young -- aware of the cultural constructions that make us callous toward their experience.

“… I can see in her eyes she doesn’t like me. She

doesn’t look at me like the other children.”

PROCESSES OF COMMUNITY BUILDING

Courage Collaboration Reflection Inquiry

Integration

Persistence Experimentation

WHEN ALL IS SAID AND DONE, MORE IS SAID

THAN DONE

The Future of Learning Organizations

From traditional hierarchies

Through autonomous units

To networked communities

Classrooms as nodes on a universal web of information

Classrooms as centers for academic and social emotional

learning

“I’m with my grandma now. My mother hits me and my

sister with a belt too hard. It makes marks on my skin.”

Un solo leno nunca arde.