The second plenary session is inspired by the book, Thirteen Questions: Reframing Education’s Conversation (Kincheloe & Steinberg, Eds., 1994).  Here is the description of the content of the book from its back cover:

Thirteen Questions: Reframing Education’s Conversation provides alternative answers to those questions about our educational system that have been answered up till now by an outmoded, conservative, educational agenda.  Rather than resting comfortably on a sentimental vision of education’s history to provide their answers, the authors take a realistic look at our current educational system and provide sound answers to the most difficult questions.

This description captured my attention, and the book has lived up to its promise.  Indeed, each chapter of Thirteen Questions examines and addresses a different critical “dialogue” about education through the compelling responses of a variety of educational thinkers/scholars.  While the book is nearly two decades old, the questions (and dialogues that these questions are meant to stimulate) are very much relevant today as they were then.  Therefore, instead of the traditional plenary session, I am asking a “plenary panel” consisting of community leaders and education experts to respond to a select number of the original thirteen questions, reflecting on how far we have come in the 20 years since the publication of Thirteen Questions and dialoguing about these questions in the context of today’s educational climate.

Introduction by President Lynn Bryan

The panelists and discussant are:

Panelists: Ana M. Bercerra, Program Manager for School and Family Programs, Just Communities/Comunidades Justas (co-sponsored with Equity and Ethics Committee)

Timothy Knight, Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, Founder of O.K. Program of Indianapolis (co-sponsored with CADASE RIG)

H. Richard Milner IV, Dr. Helen Faison Chair in Urban Education, Center for Urban Education, University of Pittsburgh

Shirley Steinberg, Professor, Director and Chair of The Werklund Foundation Centre for Youth Leadership Education, University of Calgary; Editor and Author, Thirteen Questions: Reframing Education’s Conversation

Discussant: Kenneth Tobin, Distinguished Professor at The Graduate Center at the City University of New York