Note: You will find the option to vote below, after the statements. When prompted, please log in to your ICSEI member account first.
Each person standing for election was asked to provide a 300-word statement (without citations or references) detailing their motivation and contributions to school effectiveness, improvement, innovation and ICSEI, including their vision for ICSEI.
The statements are listed in the same order as nominees are listed on the ballot paper.
Dr Danette Parsley, EdD
For more than twenty years, including in my current role leading Marzano Research, I have worked at the nexus of school improvement research, practice, and policy. I love collaborating with educators at all levels of the system to generate and use evidence for improving practice and, ultimately, opportunities and outcomes for students. I have partnered with state-level organizations to strengthen statewide systems of support for districts and schools, worked with schools to develop and refine approaches for improvement, and initiated and supported professional learning networks to spur educational change. Over the years, active participation in ICSEI has greatly enriched and strengthened my work through access to cutting-edge research, multiple perspectives, and opportunities to develop new partnerships and exchange ideas. I am passionate about ICSEI’s goals for building an increasingly diverse, inclusive, and representative community and strive to bring those values to the forefront of our decision making—from speaker selection to committee membership to organizational policies.
As a Board Member, I have served as the chair of the Generational Renewal, Inclusion, and Diversity (GRID) Standing Committee; helped to identify and implement new online systems for membership and conferences that increased efficiency, transparency, and member engagement; and worked to plan our second virtual congress with a program committee that has broad geographic, academic, professional, and network representation. I am committed to the Board’s work to identify and foster the conditions for networks and network leaders to thrive as the connective tissue of the organization while promoting a central vision for consistency and strategic execution across ICSEI. As the CEO for a small business, I also bring expertise and a perspective that will help ICSEI continue to hone operational efficiency and transparency, so that we can achieve even greater organizational excellence, sustainability, and possibility—for innovation, deeper collaboration, and expanded programmatic opportunities.
Professor Carmen Montecinos Sanhueza, PhD
I have accepted my nomination for membership on the ICSEI Board as an opportunity to work with the ICSEI leadership in moving forward an international understanding of the challenges and opportunities school systems worldwide are confronting. The ongoing health crisis has enhanced awareness that too many educational systems are failing to meet the needs of their most vulnerable students. This crisis has also amplified the key role that families play as stakeholders in educational improvement, leading us to rethink how their voices can enhance and inform discussions on school improvement. At a time when we are called to build back an educational system that is more equitable, ICSEI members have collaborated across national borders to envision what is meant by an effective school system that is adaptable and resilient in the face of uncertainty and rapid changes.
I am interested in making a strategic contribution to increasing the diversity of countries represented at each ICSEI congress as a board member. I am a university faculty member and the director of one of three centers in Chile dedicated to research and development on leadership for school improvement for the past seven years. I and other members of our center have benefitted from regular participation in previous congresses, ICSEI networks, and the research collaborations that have emerged from the rich conversations that ICSEI enables. I am well connected with school effectiveness and improvement scholars across Chile, Latin America, and internationally, and currently lead a team that is preparing a proposal to host ICSEI in Chile in the near future. These connections have grown and strengthened through ICSEI. My interest in joining the board is in giving back to our community so more researchers and practitioners can participate in the collaborative forum that ICSEI members create.
Mr Andrew Wambua
I am a Kenyan educator and a researcher, currently pursuing doctoral studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. My research interests are in: Leading for Improvement, Collaborative Professionalism, Equity and Inclusion and School Reform. I am a co-founder of Africa Voices Dialogue https://www.linkedin.com/company/africa-voices-dialogue/, a platform that serves as a convening space for a series of dialogues, workshops and conferences in education in the African continent, within which experiences and narratives of educators and learners can be seen, heard and loved, and find a space of belonging. I am also serving as an Early Career Coordinator in Educational Leadership Network and a member of Generational, Renewal, Inclusion and Diversity (GRID) Standing Committee. My vision for ICSEI is as follows:
i) Contribute to teaching and learning by promoting collaboration among policy makers, researchers and practitioners. Echoing the African proverb “Teeth that are together help each other in chewing food”, we learn better by learning together, we lead better by leading together and we achieve more by working together as a team.
ii) Support ICSEI’s new and innovative ideas. The success of ICSEI 2021 virtual congress meant that future congresses will be more inclusive because those who could not travel due to several reasons will have an option of attending them virtually. This will serve as a great opportunity to broaden ICSEI Networks and even reach learners, teachers and other educators who are furthest behind.
Joining ICSEI Board will broaden my educational horizons and hence enable me to contribute more in the global arena. As such, I am thrilled to express my interest to join the Board and together, we shall endeavor to ensure that ICSEI remains, and is seen as a place where policy makers, researchers and practitioners thrive.