School of Education | Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations (ELC) | Brock’s Critical Conversations Conference

Brock’s Critical Conversations Conference

ELC Critical Conversations Conference (ELCCCC) included discussions about the relationship between thriving, healthy communities and schools.

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Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations (ELC) Department
Email: elc@uncg.edu (Please include “Brock’s Critical Conversations Conference” in the subject of your email.)
Phone: 336.334.3490
Address: School of Education Building, Room 366
1300 Spring Garden St. Greensboro, NC 27412

Individuals sitting around conversing

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Brock's Critical Conversations Conference logo

The purpose of the Brock’s Critical Conversations Conference is to create dialogues to address the current socio-political climate in the United States. A central goal of the conversations is for participants to walk away with a set of pedagogical tools to use in their practice and daily lives. We seek to extend these critical conversations with faculty, students, teachers, educational leaders, and other community members who are interested in having a positive impact on the world.

    Dr. James E. Ford, Founding Executive Director of the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED)

    James E. Ford, PhD is an award-winning educator, scholar, nonprofit leader, and consultant on issues of equity in education. Dr. Ford is the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED), a North Carolina-based education nonprofit focused on eliminating racial disparities from the education system within the state, from early childhood to post-secondary levels. Business North Carolina has included in their Power List during the years 2023 & 2024 in the field of education. James was appointed by former Governor Roy Cooper to serve on the North Carolina State Board of Education from 2018-2023, where he was an At-Large member and Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.

    Dr. Ford earned his doctorate in Curriculum & Instruction with a concentration in Urban Education (2022), his Master’s of Art in Teaching from Rockford University (2009) and his bachelor’s in Mass Communication from Illinois State University. He is also Principal Consultant at Filling the Gap Educational Consultants, LLC., established in 2016 to offer organizations strategic advising and professional learning facilitation. Dr. Ford has the distinguished honor of being selected as the 2014 North Carolina Teacher of the Year.

    Dr. Ford is a two-time TEDx speaker, published columnist, and advocate for educational equity, with his writing appearing in Education Week, EdPost, Ebony Magazine, and ASCD Education Leadership. He is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., husband and father of four children.

    This event is FREE and open to all but registration is required!

    Click here to Register
    Registration is Required!
    Deadline to Register 5pm on 3/16/2026

    When: Saturday, March 21, 2026 | 8:30am – 4:00pm

    Where: School of Education Building

    Free parking available from the Oakland Parking Deck. Learn more about Parking & Transportation at UNC Greensboro.

    Please contact Nor Othman-LeSaux, ELC Office Manager, at least one week prior to the conference to request disability accommodations. In all situations, a good faith effort (up until the time of the event) will be made to provide accommodations. Please contact us for accommodations and about the conference at elc@uncg.edu.

    Program Information Coming Soon!

      TIMEEVENTSPEAKERVENUE
      8:30 – 9:00 amRegistration & Breakfast   SOEB Lobby  
      9:05 – 9:15 amWelcome and Conference OverviewDr. Tiffanie Lewis-Durham
      Assistant Professor
      Educational Leadership & Cultural Foundations (ELC) Department
      School of Education        		SOEB 120
      9:15 – 9:20 amTransition  
      9:20 – 10:20 amBreakout Session A (please choose one of these three sessions)
       Reflective Dialogue and Inquiry as Praxis: Catalyzing Transformational Change in Rural Schools, Districts and Communities   In this session, participants will learn about and practice Reflective Inquiry and Reflective Dialogue, as critical intervention within educational leadership preparation and practice. These reflective practices are relational processes through which individuals make meaning together by slowing down, providing critical inquiry, listening deeply, and engaging with complexity without rushing to closure. Utilized within educational leadership and preparation, these practices provide opportunities for community building, knowledge sharing, problem solving, and critical conversation. Through PPEERS, Reflective Inquiry and Reflective Dialogue has served as a methodology, pedagogy, and praxis — a way of being in relation with diverse educational leaders.   Principal Preparation for Excellence & Equity in Rural Schools (PPEERS)
      Team in the ELC Department,
      School of Education

      Dr. Chris Kelly, Clinical Assistant Professor PPEERS Director and PI
      Dr. Mark Rumley, PPEERS Assistant Director
      Dr. Annie Wimbish, PPEERS Program Coordinator
      Onna Jordan, Project Manager

      ELC Graduate Students: Kelly Bradford, Kelvon Barkley, Shavonne Oliver        		SOEB 118
       Stories as Bridges: Using Youth Fiction to Foster Cultural Awareness, Information Literacy, and Critical Dialogue   This interactive session explores how fiction-based youth literature can serve as a powerful entry point for fostering cultural awareness and strengthening information literacy. Participants will examine how stories help readers navigate identity, belonging, perspective, and community while building skills in critical interpretation and reflective inquiry. Dr. Rice will share practical frameworks for selecting texts, facilitating dialogue, and creating emotionally safe yet intellectually rigorous spaces for conversation. Attendees will leave with adaptable tools, guiding questions, and strategies that can be implemented immediately in classrooms, schools, and community settings.  Dr. Faith Rice
      Assistant Professor
      Information, Library, and Research Sciences (ILRS) Department
      School of Education      		SOEB 104
       Who Belongs? A Conversation Around Including All Stakeholders   This session will examine the “stake” in stakeholders as we consider belonging. We will explore perspective taking as a path towards partnership, collaboration, and enacting dignity.   Dr. Carol Jordan
      Clinical Assistant Professor
      Specialized Education Services (SES) Department School of Education      		SOEB 106
      10:20 – 10:30 amTransition  
      10:30 – 11:30 amBreakout Session B (please choose one of these three sessions)
       Empowering Youth to Build Compassionate Communities   This session will provide an overview of youth programming from a local non-profit organization that has been promoting civic health in the Triad for almost 90 years. Known for its flagship summer youth leadership camp, Anytown, NCCJ provides an array of workshops and programming for elementary, middle and high school students in collaboration with Guilford County schools and other youth-serving organizations. Participants will learn more about NCCJ’s role in the community promoting civic health that seeks to create communities of belonging for all of us, not just some of us.  Tom Martinek Jr.
      Program Associate
      North Carolina for Community & Justice (NCCJ)          		SOEB 108
       Leading Out Loud: LGBTIQ Leadership in Uncertain Times   What does it mean to lead as an LGBTIQ person in today’s political and educational climate? This interactive session explores the lived realities of queer leadership, the pathways many LGBTIQ leaders take, and the critical skills needed to lead with courage, strategy, and sustainability. Participants will engage in reflection, dialogue, and practical exercises designed to strengthen identity-informed leadership and coalition-building in schools, organizations, and communities.  Christien Hayden
      Co-Director
      Impaqt GSO

             		SOEB 110
       How Immigration Policy Impacts Families and Children   This session will address the legal complexities of the US immigration system and recent changes to policy enforcement that impact students and families. Participants will explore the challenges immigrants face, including language differences, misinformation, identification and documentation, tuition costs and residency, family separation, and the psychological toll these experiences can have on children. Educators will gain insight and empathy for immigrant students and their families and leave better equipped to understand and address the needs of their diverse student populations.  Jodie Stanley
      International Support and Language Access (ISLA) Coordinator
      Human Rights Department
      City of Greensboro          		SOEB 102
      11:30 – 11:45 amTransition  
      11:45 am – 12:45 pmKeynote Address: “We are STILL in Service: Holding onto Humanity in the Climate of Disconnection”   Have you ever tried to place a phone call only to hear, “The number you have dialed is no longer in service”? It communicates disconnection and that the information you once had or approaches you once confidently took are no longer operational. For those who have dedicated their personal and professional lives to the pursuit of equal educational opportunity, the regressive socio-political climate is effectively sending us the same message. That our work is prohibited. And that the core values of multiracial democracy, human interdependence and cultural pluralism should be abandoned. Dr. Ford intends to remind us that universal law cannot be legislated away and that despite the best attempts of some — we are STILL in service. Drawing on personal, historical, and environmental examples, he invites us to reconnect with our own humanity, commit to activating positive change, and take heart in increasingly dispiriting circumstances.  Dr. James E. Ford
      Executive Director
      The Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED)        		SOEB 120
      12:45 – 1:45 pmLUNCH SOEB Lobby & Quad
      1:45 – 2:00 pmTransition  
      2:00 – 3:00 pmMarching for a Message: Student Voices in Action   Participants will hear from a small group of student leaders from the UNCG Middle College about a recent student-led advocacy initiative. Students will share firsthand accounts of their roles and experiences in leading a student-led walkout. This conference session showcases the voices of young people, while highlighting strategies, challenges, and the power of collective student voices and action in schools.       The Middle College at UNCG:
      Arbree Ware
      Genesis “Genny” Arocho
      Naomi Toledo Roa
      Ahtziri Vargas Teodoro
      Jayden Luna  

      Shavonne Oliver
      Graduate Teaching Associate (GTA)
      Educational Leadership & Cultural Foundations (ELC) Department
      School of Education        		SOEB 120
      3:05 pmClosing Remarks  Dr Tiffanie Lewis-Durham
      ELC Assistant Professor
      UNCG School of Education        		SOEB 120

      History

      Dr. Rochelle Brock, past chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations (ELC), was a founding member of the Critical Pedagogy Congress and of the Paulo and Nita Freire Project for Critical Pedagogy.

      Rochelle Brock headshot

      Inspired by the promise of critical pedagogy and the community built at the yearly Congress, Dr. Brock invited students (LaToya Brown, Erica-Brittany Horhn, Frannie Varker, Shareese Castillo, and Alia Henderson) to join her in 2017. They co-wrote a Kohler Grant to the International Programs Center (IPC) and were funded to travel to Turin, Italy that year.

      The Critical Pedagogy Congress is held all over the world intentionally in unlikely places to displace the expected formality of such a scholarly gathering. Open dialogues blur the lines between theory, place, site-specificity, and relationality towards a different type of praxis, one shared among new friends and carried with you wherever you travel.

      Upon their return, Dr. Brock, colleagues, and students planned what was hoped to be our own Critical Pedagogy Congress situated in Greensboro collaborating with Team Quest/Piney Lake/UNCG, A&T University’s Visual Art Department, The Experiential School of Greensboro, Elsewhere Living Museum, The Beloved Community, and other community organizations. Their hope was to bring together educators, students, artists, and community members for open dialogue about the arts, activism, and social justice issues impacting each of their circles and the many points of intersection.

      Their vision of this type of unconference evolved into the many iterations of ELC’s Critical Conversations. Yet, one thing remains steadfast and that is Rochelle continues to bring people together where the engagement is deep, the warmth is felt, and the laughter is heard!

      In memoriam:
      Dr. Rochelle Brock
      October 7, 2020