Critical Conversations Conference
The purpose of the Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations Critical Conversations (ELCCC) 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.
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.
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