CPED Statement on Police Brutality and Racism in the United States

CPED Statement on Police Brutality and Racism in the United States

Dear CPED Community,

The leadership of CPED stands in solidarity with Black and Brown communities, and we grieve with them for the injustices they have and continue to face. In 2009, the founding CPED membership placed equity, justice, and ethics as the first principle upon which EdD programs should be designed to prepare educational leaders. 

As a cornerstone of our organization, we take this principle very seriously and are angered, pained, and saddened by the recent killings of David McAteeGeorge Floyd, Ahmaud Abery, and Breonna Taylor. We #SayTheirNames because each one represents a recent loss of beautiful and valuable life, but they are by no means the only losses. Rather, they are sadly the latest in a long list of racially-charged deaths of Black and Brown Americans in a country where institutionalized White Racism has been fundamental to our society since the inception of this country 244 years ago. We must remember them and their stories.

The third CPED principle focuses on teaching educational leaders to develop and demonstrate collaboration and communication skills to work with diverse communities and to build partnerships.” We must make this principle a priority in our programs if we are to provide our practitioners with transformational skills. Ask yourself,  How are we teaching our students to have the necessary conversations about themselves and their leadership that will make them strong leaders of equity and justice? How are we engaging our students now, as we return to our classes this week? How are we supporting our current student and alumni practitioners as they support their communities?  We urge you to speak to your students, to open communication and begin a critical dialog that will support them in becoming stronger, more inclusive leaders.

For CPED, we want to support our member faculty and schools of education in these conversations. Over the coming weeks and months, we will share a series of content and online events (webinars, Challenge Fridays, Fireside Chats and more) for faculty and students that will focus on sharing and learning together about equity and justice in EdD programs. 

This Equity and Justice for All series will be supported by our Social Justice CPED Improvement Group (CIG) and by our many members who have worked hard to bring equity and justice to the forefront of their programs. We have also already begun conversations with UCEA Executive Director, Monica Byrnes. We will share more information as this work unfolds. 

Today, CPED Board Member and Dean of the School of Education at Portland State University, Marvin Lynn, asked, What would it mean for our EdD students to pay more attention to issues of race and inequality in educational systems? What if they engaged in critical scholarship that had the potential to change practice? And what if our EdD programs were more intentional about supporting this work? 

Let’s together re/consider the opportunities and outcomes for our EdD programs as we re/prioritize the teaching of equity and justice – and the impact our scholarly practitioners could have working in and with communities of marginalized peoples to change systems of oppression. 

We have a lot of work to do to change oppressive educational systems that lead to perpetualized aggressions against Black and Brown folx. CPED is a community where we can do this, through sharing, learning, and advocating together. 

We invite our members to join our Social Justice CIG, read the special issue in Impacting Education on Social Justice and the EdD, and visit the Social Justice resources on our website’s Resource Center.  

We believe #BlackLivesMatter. We commit to doing our best to impact and change the historically injustice systems of oppression in our society.

With hope,

Jill A. Perry, Executive Director

CPED Board of Directors

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