Championing Equity in Education Leadership feat. Carla Finkelstein

In this episode of In the Lead with UCEA, Executive Director Dr. Mónica Byrne-Jiménez talks with Dr. Carla Finkelstein, associate professor in the Department of Instructional Leadership and Professional Development at Towson University.  Mónica and Carla talk about the evolution of Towson's partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools (BCPS) through the Equity Centered Pipeline Initiative (ECPI). Carla shares her experience in elementary and secondary education and the story of her role in founding the Green School of Baltimore. Carla notes how historical Towson's collaboration with BCPS is, and the context surrounding it. She explains the transformative impact of ECPI on their program, the importance of relationship-building, and the development of structures for sustaining equity-centered leadership pipelines. Their conversation highlights Towson's efforts to integrate professional development, co-teaching models, and shared leadership practices for the benefit of all cohorts in their programs.In the Lead with UCEA is produced by University FM.Episode Quotes:Why Carla saw the Equity-Centered Pipeline Initiative as a promising opportunity[05:51]  I would say that our leadership programs at Towson had, for sure, some equity-centered commitments prior to our joining ECPI, but that, to be honest, we knew that there was room for improvement in our programs in terms of our cohesiveness across instructors and the coherence of our through-lines across courses.On why collaboration was hard to come by before ECPI[08:31] I would say before ECPI, all of the faculty in our department are scholars of education and educational leadership, and also have significant practitioner experience, most of us in our local context. But I would say that, like many universities, our time teaching and preparing for teaching was primarily isolated in many ways, and that any impetus to collaborate was a little hard to come by. We had monthly faculty meetings, like most universities do, and during those times, we might gather instructors who were all teaching the same course and investigate what we were doing. But it wasn't nearly enough time to really be diving into a shared understanding of what we were hoping to provide our students with, and what, kind of, leadership practices we envisioned they would walk away from.The often overlooked importance of building relationships in university-district partnerships[14:53] I think the time spent building relationships also doesn’t always get the attention that it deserves. Some of that building relationships was around our professional commitments, and some of it was really getting to know each other personally as well. But the idea that my colleagues and I really came into this initiative having firm commitments to wanting to be of service to the district, that’s not the norm. Partnerships between universities and districts have historically tended to be primarily transactional. And so, even though we had that desire, it took significant amounts of time to really understand each other and know the depth of our values and commitments in order to find where those connections and leverage points really were.How understanding Baltimore's context shapes today’s educational practices[16:40] A deep understanding of the social and political history of the city of Baltimore is key to understanding how we move in our work. If you don't know how redlining worked in Baltimore, then you won't have a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of why our neighborhoods are the way they are, why economic stratification remains the way that it has been in Baltimore for so long. And of course, all of those things affect the way that our schools run. I mean, I would say that, kind of, commitment towards understanding and being respectful of context is true wherever you are, but it's important to us that we know what that is specifically in Baltimore City.Show Links:Carla Finkelstein | Towson UniversityCarla Finkelstein | LinkedIn ProfileECPI | Wallace Foundation