Luther Brown intends to make big change in education

BY PAUL JUNOR

The release of Leading from Where We Are: Challenging the Status Quo by Luther Brown is groundbreaking and revolutionary. The release of this eBook is a timely one as it will challenge many of the: assumptions, myths, misconceptions and false ideas that pervade the landscape of public education in Ontario. It will certainly raise many questions and issues that the varied stakeholders in education will be faced to address.

Luther completed his post-secondary studies to become a teacher at Mico University College in Jamaica.He did further studying at York University and graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. In 2024, he completed his doctoral work at the Ontario Institute of Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. He defended his thesis successfully in the Higher Education Leadership & Policy Studies.

“Critical self-reflection therefore needs to be embedded in order to support your health and well-being.”

Luther utilizes the Delphi research approach which involves gathering information through group opinion and coming to decision based on those who know best.

In this way, “It avoids a binary framing of achievement tied to race. This shift facilitates the agency of students to maximize their benefits from culturally relevant school practices.”

The book is an invitation to school leaders to interrogate their current practice in light of the persistent achievement gap being produced here in Ontario. Luther prefers to utilize production of inequitable schooling outcomes rather than achievement gap as it draws attention to systemic and structural change in the education system.

The last few years of Luther’s professional administrative life was spent as the principal of the Afrocentric Alternative School (AAAS). He retired from the TDSB and knows well the challenges of working with diverse stakeholders who often have competing: interests, needs, desires, concerns and challenges.

There are six concepts that are emphasized by Luther which he believes are essential to the work of leading schools to effectively engage in schoolwide practice of culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy. They are:

1. A Guiding Philosophical Support System
2. Critical Education Research
3. Critical Self-Knowledge
4. Critical Self-Care
5. The Practice of Ableism
6. A Culture Of Accountability

The issue of leadership is tackled directly by Luther especially with respect to the role of administrators in the education system. For Luther, a school leader, critical professional self-care is an indispensable component to be an effective leader.

He states, “This is the deliberate and strategic cultivation professional practice in life giving ways. It requires balance! Strategic self-reflection on your personal needs and on professional practice within the context of daily life and work.”

Luther believes that there is a correlation between professional self-care and critical self-knowledge operating iteratively to support your health and well-being. It is for this reason that, “Critical self-reflection therefore needs to be embedded in order to support your health and well-being.”

Anyone interested in his consulting services at Subannah Education EduConsulting can check www.lutherbrown.ca