1 ENRIQUE ALEMÁN, JR.
TOWARD AN EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP APPROACH
O
ver the course of more than forty years, the Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) at Trinity University has fostered spaces for thought leadership, developed innovative leadership programs, and conducted professional development for school districts and educational organizations in and around Bexar County. With regular cohort-based conveneings, national speakers on critical education issues, and targeted learning seminars for continued leadership development, CEL programming has been, and will continue to be designed to educate professionals on some of the day’s most pressing issues. We aim to create programming and spaces that inform leaders, shape educational policy and influence and improve how our partners practice their craft. During the 2023-24 academic year, we are once again hosting a series of talks, panels and book studies, in addition to sponsoring the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Teaching, where we will honor the best of our member districts’ educators. Our National Speakers Series includes eight nationally renowned scholars, three of whom will be on campus for in-person keynotes and the remaining conducting their lecture via zoom to provide ease of access for working professionals and across regional and national expanse. This year’s theme,
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TRINITY LEADERSHIP FORUM
“Leading in Turbulent Times: Grounding Education in Humanizing and Advocacy Practices’’ encourages dialogue about the ways in which scholars, practitioners and community organizers can work toward systemic transformation at a time when several damaging and undemocratic policy issues are impacting school communities. In addition, we are also sponsoring two book studies and a school leaders seminar series, which are designed to foster small group dialogues across topics related to the cultivating of school culture, improvement science, and the leveraging of educational resources for community change and empowerment. Each of our programs challenge conventional thinking and inspire discussion of alternative strategies for leading in the current socio-political educational environment.
A FREIRIAN CRITICAL PRAXIS FRAMEWORK FOR SOUTH TEXAS
As our CEL team continues to cultivate these spaces and to organize convenings, we are also looking for ways to expand our presence in our community and to share the strategies, programs and initiatives that are making a transformative difference across schools and neighborhoods. So in addition to our continued programming and events, the
CEL is excited to be adding the Trinity Leadership Forum in our next phase of development. These briefs are designed to not only share practice-to-research projects, but to also present initiatives and strategies that educators and educational leaders are currently developing and applying in their school communities. We aim to share ideas that not only improve educational practice for the students and communities that are most disadvantaged by educational systems and policies, but to also showcase the ways in which practitioners are working toward and demanding equity from their schools by empowering youth, teachers and families. In highlighting models of practice, program innovation, and leadership approaches and strategies, we are striving for systemic change and working toward more just educational opportunities. The Trinity Leadership Forum is meant to be a community-building tool that can be used by school and district staff, as well as for action researchers and youth and community leaders, who are seeking to orient themselves to the issues and problems of educational practice that the broader San Antonio community is facing. As a resource, the Trinity Leadership Forum will center the experiences of leaders, and share data from the programs and initiatives that are benefiting schools and empowering the voices that
