Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, November 17-20, 2011

General Information:
The 25th annual UCEA Convention will be held at the Westin in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The convention will open at 12:00 p.m. on Thursday afternoon (November 17, 2011) and close at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday (November 20). The purpose of the 2011 UCEA Convention is to engage participants in discussing research, policy, and practice in educational leadership and administration. Members of the Convention 2011 Program Committee are Andrea K. Rorrer (University of Utah), Monica Byrne-Jimenez (Hofstra University), Gretchen Generett (Duquesne University), and Ann O'Doherty (University of Texas-Austin).

Theme:
The 25th Annual 2011 UCEA Convention theme, "Forecasting the Future of Leadership Preparation and Practice: Reclaiming Ground Through Research, Policy, and Politics," recognizes that the field of university-based leadership preparation is contested, while the value of leadership preparation is under assault from multiple directions and by multiple stakeholders. Contested areas include what prerequisites are necessary for leadership practice, who should prepare school and district leaders, what they should learn, where they should be prepared, and what additional experiences are essential to developing effective leaders. Also under scrutiny are what results and outcomes (and for whom) can be attributed to leadership preparation, how we measure outcomes, and how these outcomes are used as well as what counts as successful school and district leadership and how success should be measured.

The 2011 UCEA Convention further recognizes that our roles as scholars and advocates for children, principals, teachers, and communities have never been more important. Consequently, the convention offers an opportunity for scholars and practitioners to consider these and other contested areas in the filed of leadership preparation; critically examine past and current research, policies, and practice; identify relevant and successful practice and research; and build on effective research-based policies and best practices to pave a way forward for the future of quality leadership preparation and practice to ensure conditions for schools and districts to be successful in creating equitable access, opportunities, and outcomes for all children, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, immigration status, ability, or religion.

The 2011 UCEA Convention call for proposals encourages submissions that explore broadly the landscape of quality leadership preparation, including our research and engaged scholarship, our preparation program designs and improvement efforts, our policy work, and the practice of educational leaders. Furthermore, the 2011 convention theme challenges the field to deliberate on the future of educational leadership and how current research and policy engagement efforts and practices are preparing leaders and scholars for the demands of a quickly evolving context. Of special interest is research that provides tools that enable the field to take a proactive role in reframing current policy debates and practice to take leadership development as a more holistic dialogue around school improvement and change.