A variety of factors, both internal and external, have shaped our theme, call for proposals, and intentions for this year’s Convention. From an internal perspective, our organization has learned a great deal over the last several years through our equity self-study and from related learning and work groups (e.g., clinical faculty, equity learning). Among other things, we recognize the need to cultivate a more inclusive community within UCEA (broadly and within our Convention)—a community that actively breaks down the kinds of organizational micropolitics that have been experienced by some members of our community based on individual identities (e.g., institution type, discipline, epistemology, research methods, academic roles, race, culture, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation). These sorts of issues have led some individuals to feel on the margins of our organization and/or where they have less access and opportunity within our organization.
From a national perspective, we draw attention to the fact that PK-12 school leaders, a group of educators central to UCEA’s aims, are currently tasked with leading their schools during a time characterized as a “frontal assault on education” (Vasquez Heilig, 2025b). They are facing challenges that are multiple, are complex, and where notable risks to funding are present. In their work to ensure that all students thrive in their schools, district and school leaders are being forced to navigate through an assortment of attempts to halt a broad range of equity-oriented pursuits within their schools. This is work enacted by school leaders to strengthen inclusion, expand educational opportunities, and cultivate greater overall levels of student well-being and success (Vasquez Heilig, 2025b). Actions to stop such work in schools are poised to harm the most vulnerable students—particularly Black, Brown, and Indigenous students, LGBTQIA+ students, students with disabilities, bilingual emergent students, refugees, and migrants. Additionally, these actions are clear indications of the minimization of race as a systemic, structural, and fundamental ideology in U.S. society (Alexander, 2020; Bell, 1992; Bonilla-Silva, 1997; Katznelson, 2005). Importantly, our host setting has endured a range of challenges and threats that predate these recent assaults to education, educational leaders, and schools that are critical for our consideration. These include such issues as (a) colonialism; (b) economic, political, and policy pressures; and (c) hurricane and other severe weather devastations (Meléndez-Badillo, 2024; Petrun Sayers et al., 2023; Virella, 2022, 2023a, 2023b; Virella & Weiner, 2020). We also recognize that many settings throughout the globe are grappling with their own sets of challenges (e.g., Arar et al., 2020).
We also recognize that higher education institutions and members of the professoriate are also confronting a set of highly destructive forces. Various authors have recognized such actions as those attacking the research enterprise of universities, DEI policies and practices, academic freedom, and faculty governance as pervasive threats to the university community (e.g., Bogost, 2025a, 2024b; Vasquez Heilig, 2025a, 2024b). As a result, members of the UCEA community are being forced to navigate through politicized assaults on higher education while simultaneously working to advance efforts of consequence to PK-12 schools and the preparation and development of future educational leaders.
With these issues in mind, this year’s Convention will be not only a space for the presentation of research, but also a setting that emphasizes learning and capacity development. We view learning and capacity development as critical to organizations, like UCEA, that are working to make progress on organization goals (Cosner, 2009). At the same time, we recognize Puerto Rico as a rich context for our learning and capacity development.
Importantly, Puerto Rico provides an opportunity to explore themes that we view as highly relevant for our current learning and capacity development—themes of collectivity, community, and resilience. Puerto Rico’s multiple devastations and challenges are primarily rooted in its colonial relationship with the United States, severely limiting the island’s ability to determine its destiny and address critical issues such as disaster relief, economic development, and environmental protection. Through personal conversations and the review of articles and artifacts (e.g., Petrun Sayers et al., 2023; Unanue et al., 2020; Virella, 2002, 2023a, 2023b; Virella & Weiner, 2020; Whitney Museum of American Art, 2022), these themes became evident to us as a critical part of the story of Puerto Rico and its people as they have navigated and continue to navigate these sorts of challenges and devastations. These themes were also amplified through a meaningful personal story shared with us during the Convention Planning Committee’s time on the island in February.
As we consider the Spanish translation of our theme, we want to draw particular attention to the term comunidad. Comunidad finds expression through interpersonal connections and relationships, shared values, a spirit of cooperation and collective engagement, and considerations of group well-being (de Montilla, 1990; Pérez-Bullard, 2019). It underscores the importance of belonging and being a part of a larger group. It also calls us to cultivate a shared sense of responsibility, where individuals consider their responsibilities to others and feel compelled to support others.
As we consider resilience, we recognize that the concept of Puerto Rican “resilience” must be understood within this broader historical and political context. This means that we must recognize resilience as not simply an admirable trait but as a necessary response to systemic oppression, and we must acknowledge that discussions of resilience without addressing the underlying colonial dynamics perpetuate the problematic relationship between Puerto Rico and the mainland United States (Bonilla & LeBrón, 2019). The most recent album of Puerto Rico’s Bad Bunny has been hailed as “uniting generations through the spirit of resilience” because of the anticolonial sentiments discussed and the desire to be liberated from colonialism (Rosewater, 2025), and we seek to draw upon his inspiration in this year’s Convention. Lastly, we find the proclamations of Petrun Sayers et al. (2023), who studied Puerto Rico’s efforts to navigate through devastation, empowering as we look towards November’s Convention: “We will rise no matter what” (p. 126).
With all these issues in mind, we will bring UCEA’s 39th Annual Convention to life by intentionally designing this gathering to
- inspire and cultivate greater levels of collective work in four areas central to UCEA’s mission and aims: (a) work that improves the preparation and development of PK-12 educational leaders; (b) work that improves the achievement of all PK-12 students and supports equity-oriented pursuits in PK-12 schools; (c) work that generates knowledge of consequence to PK-12 education policy; and (d) work that focuses on the “pathways and development” of those in the “field of PK-12 educational leadership, policy, and organizations” (UCEA, 2025);
- strengthen and expand our professional community and build personal and collective resilience; and
- cultivate effective communication and advocacy practices for (a) helping educators gain more benefit from our work, (b) enhancing communication to the broader public to better understand our work and its impact on education, and (c) addressing unjust and harmful policies and practices in education
UCEA is “dedicated to the improvement of preK-12 educational leadership, policy, and organizations, including conducting and disseminating research that benefits schools, communities, and society” (UCEA, 2025). To support this aim, the 39th Annual Convention Planning Committee invites collective work in four foci areas: (a) work that improves the preparation and development of PK-12 educational leaders; (b) work that improves the achievement of all PK-12 students and supports equity-oriented pursuits in PK-12 schools; (c) work that generates knowledge of consequence to PK-12 education policy; or (d) work that focuses on the “pathways and development” of those in the “field of PK-12 educational leadership, policy and organizations” (UCEA, 2025).
We also will orchestrate the UCEA Convention to strengthen and expand community—our UCEA community and PK-12 school communities. We will enact the Convention to deepen our appreciation for the varied and intersectional identities of individuals within our organization (e.g., institutional, disciplinary, epistemological, methods, roles, racial/cultural, gender, gender identity, sexuality). We will work to cultivate wider and deeper levels of inclusion and engagement and disrupt any micropolitics that might have previously undermined engagement, connection, or collaboration within our organization. We will also work to deliberately cultivate a community that extends to our international colleagues because we recognize the deep value of collaborating or partnering with these individuals as we learn and work. To complement these actions, we invite proposals that foreground issues of identity for their consideration. We also invite proposals that support community building within our organization as well as those that animate community, coalition or partnership building by educational leaders within PK-12 schools, or within the educational leader preparation and development community.
The cultivation of resilience and r(ac)esilience will also be important considerations for this year’s UCEA Convention design. We recognize resilience—both personal and community—as critical in times of threat (Buzzanell, 2010; Petrun Sayers et al., 2023). We also recognize resilience as an “interactional process” (Petrun Sayers et al., 2023, p. 3). Work by Patrón (2023) also draws our attention to r(ac)esilience. That work considers intersectional identities and issues of oppression and does so through the experiences of gay Latinos (Patrón, 2023). Patrón conceptualized r(ac)esilience as a process in which individuals undergo adversity related to the intersection of their social identities, which are often inextricably linked to systems of oppression, and manage to successfully overcome or cope with various forms of adversity. As we witness the push for color-evasiveness (Annamma et al., 2017) in leadership, we must understand that race matters (West, 1993) and develop tools to effectively counter challenges. With these issues in mind, we also invite proposals that support or examine these sorts of issues in relation to those in the field of educational policy and leadership, programs that prepare or develop educational leaders, Pk-12 educational leaders, or PK-12 schools.
This year’s UCEA Convention also will be enacted to strengthen our communication and advocacy efforts. We recognize communication and advocacy as especially critical to our work ahead. Vasquez Heilig (2025a, 2025b) helps us to understand the importance of such work as we continue to confront challenges and attacks to PK-12 and higher education. Accordingly, this year’s Convention will support the translation of our research and work to forums that are accessible to practitioners. We also will cultivate strategies for helping the broader public better understand our work and its impact on education as well as for challenging actions that are unjust and harmful to education. To complement these activities, we also invite proposals that support or examine these sorts of issues in relation to educational leaders, PK-12 schools, and programs that prepare or develop educational leaders.
