Barbara L. Jackson Scholars
Program |
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| UCEA Barbara L. Jackson Scholars Network
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| In November 2003, members of the UCEA Plenum voted
to create the UCEA Barbara L. Jackson Scholars Network.
Through this effort, UCEA will create a network
of graduate students of color who are studying in
UCEA members’ educational leadership doctoral
programs and who are planning to enter the professoriate.
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| The Purposes of This Network are to: |
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| a. Provide a system of support for students of
color across UCEA member institutions that will
continue as they enter the professorial role and
begin to mentor others into the profession. b.
Ensure the presence of minority faculty in educational
leadership programs in numbers sufficient to assure
that UCEA programs will reflect the diversity
of our society and schools.
c. Support the K-12 environment’s need
for a larger pool of administrators from minority
groups, through enhanced abilities to recruit
them into university programs
d. Demonstrate UCEA’s commitment to diversity,
equity, and social justice |
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| Guidelines: |
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Each UCEA Institution is encouraged to identify
a minimum of one and preferably more graduate students
who will be named a UCEA Barbara L. Jackson Scholar.
Once identified, the UCEA Barbara L. Jackson Scholars
will receive formal recognition at their institutions
and within the UCEA consortium.
The UCEA Barbara L. Jackson Scholars will become
part of a UCEA network, with a space on the website,
and based on the ability of UCEA to acquire external
funding, will engage in a graduate student seminar
held annually during the UCEA Convention, participating
in listservs and other forms of communication,
UCEA will develop a mentoring program for Jackson
Scholars, through which scholars will receive mentoring
in publishing, teaching and navigating higher education.
Each UCEA Institution is expected to make a financial
commitment to sending the UCEA Barbara L. Jackson
Scholars to the UCEA convention where they will
have opportunities to connect and work with one
another and to provide the scholar with research
and teaching opportunities within their home institution.
UCEA will seek funds to support this network.
UCEA headquarters will assure that this information
on this effort is disseminated widely to garner
support and broaden job opportunities for the students.
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| Rationale: |
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| Although the US, UK, and Canada are becoming increasingly
diverse, the teaching and leadership corps of these
countries, and higher education leadership faculty,
continue to be predominantly white. Data from 1999-2000
% indicate that only 14.8% of school administrators
in the US are people of color. In colleges of education,
where most of these school and school system leaders
are being educated, the percent of faculty members
of color is 15.5 %. Without some proactive intervention,
it does not appear that these figures will change
very greatly in the next decade.
In his book Building Bridges delineating the history
of UCEA, Jack Culbertson notes that UCEA was influenced
at its beginnings by the fundamental belief that
schools and universities must work together to
improve educational leadership preparation and
that “leadership was a prerequisite for
human progress,” (p. 24) In recent years,
both its membership criteria and its strategic
plan, UCEA has taken a public stand to foster
“human progress” through its support
of equity and social justice in our institutions,
our organization, and our work We pride ourselves
on having a membership that is considered among
the best doctoral granting educational leadership
programs in the world. In order to maintain that
status, it is imperative that we model what we
believe by having a diverse faculty.
Establishing a support network for students of
color planning on entering educational leadership
programs in higher education will help in recruiting
students from minority groups into our programs
and thus into K-12 and higher education positions;
will expand our capacity to place and retain minorities
in positions in UCEA institutions, and will lessen
the isolation often felt by minorities as they
matriculate in their studies and work in our institutions,
Taking this action will also assist in assuring
that our institutional cultures are more welcoming
and comfortable for students of color, enhance
our capacity to more fully understand students
from differing backgrounds, broaden the research
perspectives in our field, and enhance our credibility
in higher education and in K-12 schooling. Finally,
this action continues the legacy upon which our
organization was built.
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