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Know Your Place, Run Your Race: Strategies on how courageous leaders create safe spaces for both students and adults

transitioned from substitute teacher to principal in a six-year period. She was resolved not to allow a childhood impeded by homelessness and drug abuse to deter her from pursuing her purpose. She earned her undergraduate degree from Clark Atlanta University and received her educational doctorate degree from Maryville University.

Today, over 20 years into her career, Dr. Shahid has remained resilient and uses that spirit of endurance to guide and foster her relationships with the students she serves, many of whom share similar experiences and stories.

She wrote "Know Your Place, Run Your Race" to let people know that they are not alone. We all have a story to tell and it is important for us to share those parts of our lives that we have masked and hid behind. You don’t always have to start at the good part of your story. Dr. Kacy Shahid encourages you to share your story and get the inspiration you need to become a more transparent leader.

Building a Parent Nation

Abstract:
In this virtual presentation, Dr. Dana Suskind will draw on the themes and stories found in her forthcoming book, "Parent Nation," to make the case that America has abdicated its responsibility to families, adopting policies and norms that directly conflict with the science of early childhood development and make it incredibly challenging for any parent to fulfill their role as their child’s first and most important teacher. The consequences of this abdication are profound and tragic, leading many families to struggle—in ways small and large—and robbing many children of the opportunity to reach their full potential. Never one to stop at identifying a problem, Dr. Suskind also offers a roadmap for mitigating this injustice and building a society that enables parents and caregivers to meet the needs of young children. She shows how the science of early brain development can inform not just individual practice, but also societal shifts that allow us to meet the needs of all children. 

is a pediatric otolaryngologist who specializes in hearing loss and cochlea implantation. She directs the University of Chicago Medicine's Pediatric Hearing Loss and Cochlear Implant program.

Recognized as a national thought leader in early language development, Dr. Suskind has dedicated her research and clinical life to optimizing foundational brain development and preventing early cognitive disparities and their lifelong impact. She is founder and co-director of the TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health, which aims to create a population-level shift in the knowledge and behavior of parents and caregivers to optimize the foundational brain development in children from birth to five years of age, particularly those born into poverty.

Speculative Pedagogies: Post-Philosophies and Doing and Teaching of Inquiry

Abstract:
In this session, Dr. Kuby focuses on speculative pedagogies inspired by post-philosophies, specifically how philosophical concepts inspire the doing of inquiry and the teaching of inquiry in higher education. The talk focuses on the suggested readings and a recent co-authored book, Speculative Pedagogies of Qualitative Inquiry, (Kuby & Christ, 2020). Dr. Kuby gives pedagogical examples from two threads of her research agenda: 1) the coming-to-be of literacies when young children work with artistic and digital tools, and 2) approaches to and pedagogies of qualitative inquiry when thinking with poststructural and posthumanist philosophies. Dr. Kuby has provided three suggested readings for the session; she’ll open spaces for questions around these.

is a professor of learning, teaching and curriculum at the University of Missouri, serving as the Department Chair and the Director of Qualitative Inquiry. She received her Ph.D. in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education from Indiana University. Dr. Kuby previously taught primary grades in public U.S. schools and preschoolers in Japan. 

Her research interests are: 1) the coming-to-be of literacies when young children work with artistic and digital tools, and 2) approaches to and pedagogies of qualitative inquiry when thinking with post-structural and post-humanist philosophies. Journals in which her scholarship appears include Qualitative Inquiry; International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education; Journal of Early Childhood Literacy; Journal of Literacy Research; Cultural Studies ↔ Critical Methodologies; Literacy; and Language Arts.

Suggested Readings:

Kuby, C.R. (2019). (Re)imagining multiliteracies research practices with post qualitative inquiry. In N. Kucirkova, J. Rowsell, & G. Fallon. (Eds.). The Routledge International Handbook of Learning with Technology in Early Childhood. (pp. 127-142). New York, NY: Routledge.

Kuby, C.R., & Christ, R.C. (2020). Qualitative Inquiry, 26(1), 71-80. 

Kuby, C.R., & Christ, R.C. (2018). Qualitative Inquiry, 24(4), 293-304. 

Fostering Family Well-Being: Building Two Generation Approaches

Two-generation (2-Gen) approaches focus simultaneously on children and the adults in their lives to foster positive outcomes for the entire family. Join us to learn more about 2-Gen approaches in early childhood and how we can work collectively to bring them to scale in the St. Louis region.

Katie Rahn, Ed.D., is Executive Director at the (The Alliance). Katie has worked in the field of early childhood for almost 20 years as a classroom teacher, center administrator, consultant, and college instructor. She has a bachelor's degree in early childhood education, a master's in curriculum & instruction, and a doctorate in educational leadership & policy.

MacKenzie Grayson is the Project Coordinator at the Alliance. Prior to joining The Alliance, she was the Manager of Programmatic Services at the Parents as Teachers National Center. MacKenzie has a Masters of Education Administration and a Masters of Arts in Teaching, both from Lindenwood University, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Political Science with a minor in African American Studies from Illinois State University.

Leading Change Through the Lens of Cultural Proficiency

Leading Change Through the Lens of Cultural Proficiency tells the story of a school community in the midwest United States that contended with its approach to teaching and valuing students of diverse backgrounds. Featuring the research-based Cultural Proficiency Framework and Tools, the book provides a clear road map to advancing equity across schools and districts. Designed to support leaders and school communities in developing policies and practices that respond to the needs of all students, this book:

• Guides school leaders in a journey of learning the theory and strategies that improved student achievement and improved the working conditions in this district
• Features a real-life case study of a school community using the Tools of Cultural Proficiency and the Framework
• Provides vignettes and data, based on work conducted across an actual school district, that resulted in improvements in school climate, achievement, mindset, and equitable educational practices
• Includes powerful reflection, dialogic, and action activities for use in a variety of community learning modalities
  Is grounded in assets-based assumptions with respect to students, families, and the school community

With a focus on engagement, leadership, implementation frameworks, and collaborative learning, the authors demonstrate how to uncover and remedy inequities. Designed for education leaders at all levels of the education system, this is the ideal foundational text for implementing Cultural Proficiency in your setting as you open doors for all students to thrive.

Learn more about the authors