AACTE Member Leaders Discuss Why Leadership and Partnerships Matter in Crises
AACTE Board members John Henning and Mary Murray recently met with me to discuss why leadership and building partnerships matter during times of crises. In the videos, Henning and Murray shared the following:
“A key rule of a leader during difficult times is to unify people and bring them together around the problem. By helping them move forward, things can get done rapidly, which is important when change is occurring quickly. With rapid change, it’s also important for leaders to stay organized,” said John Henning, dean of the school of education at Monmouth University. Henning is an experienced educational practitioner, researcher, and leader. His primary research interests include practice-based teacher education, teacher development, instructional decision-making, and classroom discourse. He is also an active scholar and researcher, with more than 50 publications. His fourth book, titled Building Mentoring Capacity in Teacher Education: A Guide to Clinically-Based Teacher Education, was released in 2019 by Routledge. He served for more than 20 years as a high school teacher. Henning obtained an M.Ed. in vocational education and a Ph.D. in educational psychology from Kent State University in Ohio. He received a B.S. in general agriculture from The Penn State University.
“Collaboration is so important during these turbulent times. …We had strong collaborative relationships before [COVID-19] happened. …We were able to pull everyone together and say what is best for our college students and local school districts and how we can work together. How we worked to meet the needs of the local community is something that we pride ourselves in,” said Mary Murray, associate dean for student services and teacher education at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). Murray has long been an advocate for children with special needs as well as for their parents, drawing on their experience and making them part of the educational process not only for their own children but for BGSU students preparing to be intervention services specialists as well. She has played a pivotal role in transitioning children with disabilities to public school settings, developing the Autism Certificate/Masters program at BGSU, development of the Inclusive Early Childhood Program at BGSU, and initiating the parent professional collaborative approach in college preparation of future teachers of children with disabilities. The parent professional collaboration initiative has now been adopted by the Ohio Department of Education as a model for parent professional training across the state. Murray received a B.Ed. in elementary education, an M.Ed. in special education, and an Ed.S. in education administration from University of Toledo. She also obtained an Ed.D. in leadership and policy with specialization in early childhood special education from BGSU.
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