We are gearing up for our 2017 Summit on Improvement in Education by watching keynote speaker Jeff Duncan-Andrade’s inspiring and motivating TEDx talk, Growing Roses in Concrete. He presents a powerful case for making education improvement work user-centered and problem-specific. We are also fans of his book, The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools. There, he outlines a cycle of critical praxis:

1. the identification of a problem;
2. the researching of the problem;
3. the development of a collective plan to address the problem;
4. the implementation of the plan of action; and,
5. the evaluation of the action.

Duncan-Andrade’s ideas have many correspondences with the six core principles of improvement, and we’re excited to learn more at the 2017 Summit.