Preview the Featured Keynote Speakers for #AACTE24
Join AACTE on Saturday, February 17 from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. for the Featured Keynote panel during the 2024 Annual Meeting where education experts will discuss how democracy intersects with education.
The Future of American Democracy, Public Schools, and National Security: What This Means for the Future of Education and the Professions, is informed by research published by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which indicates that “liberal democracy is in crisis where it was long thought most securely established.” Additionally, a recent Social Science and Medicine study affirmed this finding indicating that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States was one of 130 countries that experienced threats and violations of espoused and constitutionally codified democratic norms. In a fireside chat format, this lively session examines the knotty intersections between sustaining and protecting American democracy, maintaining public schools as the American institution devoted to producing citizens for our democracy, and teaching social comprehension and history in a manner that enables young people to become skilled researchers able to accurately discern information (and its sources), cultivate knowledge, communicate thoughtfully, and serve humanity.
This Featured Keynote panel will be moderated by education journalist Valerie Strauss, who will be joined by Sigal Ben-Porath, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Pennsylvania; Leslie T. Fenwick, Ph.D., dean emerita of Howard University’s School of Education and dean in residence of AACTE; and Christina Sneed, Curriculum Developer, The Pulitzer Center.
More about the speakers:
Sigal Ben-Porath, Ph.D.
MRMJJ Presidential Professor
University of Pennsylvania
Ben-Porath is the MRMJJ university professor of education at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is also a member of the philosophy and the political science departments, and the faculty director of the SNF Paideia Program for Civic Dialogue. Ben-Porath is interested in democratic theory and practice and studies the ways institutions like schools and colleges can sustain and advance democracy.
Leslie T. Fenwick, Ph.D.
AACTE Dean in Residence and Dean Emerita and Professor
Howard University
Fenwick is dean emerita and a tenured professor of education policy at Howard University and serves as dean in Residence at AACTE. is. A former Harvard University Visiting Fellow and Visiting Scholar, she is a lifelong educator who has served in every sector of American education. In 2020, Fenwick was one of two fully vetted finalists for the U.S. Secretary of Education position. She holds an appointment by U.S. President Joe Biden to the Board of Visitors for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where she has served since 2017 as an MCLC senior fellow lecturing about character leadership and ethics.
She is the author of the award-winning and bestselling book Jim Crow’s Pink Slip (Harvard Education Press, 2022). Jim Crow’s Pink Slip is the recipient of the 2023 AACTE Gloria Ladson-Billings Outstanding Book Award and was selected as a National Public Radio (NPR) 2022 Book of the Day after being featured on the NPR program, All Things Considered. Additionally, Fenwick was selected as the 2023 American Educational Research Association (AERA) Brown Distinguished Lecturer in Education Research.
Read Fenwick’s full bio.
Christina Sneed
Curriculum Director
The Pulitzer Center
Christina Sneed is an innovative educational leader with education and teaching experience in the areas of speech communication, secondary education, communication: training and development, and educational leadership. Inspired by the New York Times’ 1619 Project, Sneed developed the Pulitzer Center’s 1857 Project, which chronicles the history of racial injustice in St. Louis, MO, and Illinois and centers important events that happened in St. Louis that year as major shift points in American history.
Read Sneed’s full bio.
Moderator
Valerie Strauss
Education Journalist
The Washington Post
Strauss is an education journalist. She wrote for The Washington Post for more than 30 years about local, national, and international education issues, and for more than a decade authored The Answer Sheet blog chronicling the most vital issues in the world of education. She is currently working on a book about education and journalism. Strauss started at the Post as assistant foreign editor for Asia after stints at Reuters serving as national security editor, and at United Press International as assistant foreign editor and reporter. She was also an editor at the Los Angeles Times.
Read Strauss’ full bio.
Register for #AACTE24 Today
Regular registration for the AACTE 2024 Annual Meeting ends February 1. Secure your spot and do not miss the opportunity to see engaging discussions like this Featured Keynote by registering today.
Tags: advocacy, Annual Meeting, federal issues
