The Penn GSE Magazine

Dear Alumni and Friends,

 As I write, we are concluding an academic year that has taken place largely in person—a circumstance that would have been far too obvious to note just a few years ago, but which now carries so much significance. It means that our community has enjoyed teaching, learning, working, and celebrating together again after a long period of social distancing and isolation. There has been much to celebrate this spring, from our return to campus, to our top ranking, to our groundbreaking ceremony for the building expansion that will create a state-of-the-art home for education at Penn.

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 At the same time, our return to campus does not mean that our world is as it was. We know the impact that COVID-19 has had on our health care workers, but I believe we are only beginning to assess fully the impact all of the events of the past two years have had on the educational landscape. We’ve witnessed profound disruptions to learning, resources, and social and emotional well-being of young people and educators alike.

 We know that the future we face is complex. More and more, society will demand that individuals become lifelong learners who can keep up with the pace of change. I would argue that preparing educators, and especially educational leaders, for what lies ahead is one of the most important undertakings of higher education right now. Now, more than ever, we need a diverse pipeline of educational leaders who are well prepared to respond to an accelerated rate of change in our world, to cultivate individual and community well-being, to turn challenges into opportunities, and to develop innovative solutions to complex problems.

 I am proud that Penn GSE is producing the leaders of the future. As you will read in our cover story on page 6, our robust set of leadership programs prepares working professionals to advance learning across preK–12, higher education, and workplace settings. Our extraordinary faculty, students, and alumni foster an unparalleled, two-way exchange between research and practice that fuels both our programs and the field. Among the alumni and students you will meet are a Philadelphia public school art teacher who is seeking to effect change as a leader, the executive director of a New York City Department of Education leadership academy who is deeply dedicated to student achievement, the dean of a top business school who has been lauded for leadership during the pandemic, and a leader of global talent development who applies academic research in a corporate setting. They are part of an extraordinary network of Penn GSE students, alumni, and faculty propelling educational leadership across institutions and sectors.

 Leadership is a recurring theme in this issue of The Penn GSE Magazine, from the feature about alumni shaping the workforce, to the interview with new faculty member and former superintendent Dr. Andrea Kane, to the story about the Penn GSE Center for Professional Learning, to the flux leadership approaches of Dr. Sharon Ravitch. I hope you will enjoy these and so many other examples of the vision and commitment of our students, alumni, and friends.

 While change has become a constant in our lives in so many ways, something that has not changed is the Penn GSE community’s commitment to unleashing the power of possibility through education. As always, thank you for all that you do for education and Penn GSE.

Pam Grossman
Dean, Penn Graduate School of Education
George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education

Editor’s note: This issue of The Penn GSE Magazine went to print on May 13, 2022.

Flux Pedagogy and Flux Leadership

How can educators support students’ whole selves during times of radical change? Penn GSE Professor of Practice Sharon Ravitch and collaborators have integrated interdisciplinary frameworks into the transformative approach of flux pedagogy.

Illustration by Jane Shore

Speaking to an audience of Penn GSE alumni and friends, a panel of three mental health professionals shared ways in which they’re responding to students’ mental health during transitional times.