Transformative Researchers and Educators for Democracy

The 2012 Critical Transformative Educational Leadership and Policy Annual Conference hosted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth met head-on with issues of neoliberalism, educational democracy, cultural politics, public education, and seeing teachers and administrators as critical transformational leaders. This book is a collection of the highlights of that conference that addresses these arenas of debate, from the presentations of Deborah Meier, Ken Saltman, Clyde Barrow, and Joao Rosa, among others, to the works of emerging academics and intellectuals in the field of education. The book to serve as an antidote to such ill-informed thinking before it becomes a part of the cultural commonsense, much the way the manufactured realties of high stakes testing, standardization, and police-guarded schools have become normative. It is urgent to learn to accurately read reality in a world in which language and discourse are being resignified to confuse people and turn reality into a board game, a world which large corporations and global financial powers play the role of the old mythological gods, creators of dogmas and flamboyant realities that they want us to submit and worship. This volume is an outcome of an important political critical transformative pedagogical project that challenges the lethal consequences of the impact of neoliberal policies in education. We need to welcome Paraskeva and LaVallees contribution since it offers a crucial tool to help us articulate accurately a critical diagnosis as well as solutions for a more just and democratic public education that cultivates humanity. Jurjo Torres Santom, University of Corunha, Spain This new collection Transformative Researchers and Educators for Democracy: Dartmouth Dialogues is one of the most impressive outcomes of a critical transformative program at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Joo M. Paraskeva and Thad LaVallee provide their readers with acareful selection of chapters that explore the idea of critical and transformative leadership for a democratic conception of education, focusing on a range of related themes in understanding the dimensions of cultural and organizational change. A crucial volume focusing on aspects of the critique of neoliberal globalization in education and a needed book that insightfully combines critique and robust analysis with a utopian and positive agenda for critical transformation. Michael A. Peters, University of Waikato (NZ) and University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign, USA) This edited volume is the result of an amazing critical transformative program in educational leadership and policy studies chaired by Joo M. Paraskeva. Paraskeva and LaVallee produced an important contribution to a timely topic that provides clear evidences that the free market model of education it is not a hope for good public education. This book is not only important to US educators but it is really crucial for educators all over the world. What is analyzed in this book is taking place in Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Alvaro Moreira Hypolito, University Federal de Pelotas, Brasil.