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Lastinger Center Speaker Series
Hosted by the Lastinger Center for Learning at the University of Florida College of Education, this in-person colloquium series explores the intersections of leadership, professional learning and education at an international scale by inviting different guest speakers from around the globe to lead each session.
Upcoming Sessions
Where Special Education and Policy Research Meet: Insights from School Staffing Studies
Session Details:
For decades, special education researchers and education policy researchers have worked parallel but separate from one another. The two communities each study distinct questions, collaborate with different state and local actors, approach causal evidence in distinct ways, and disseminate to entirely different audiences.
This talk traces the trends that have given rise to this division, explores the consequences, including the overwhelming absence of special education policy-focused research, and concludes with a discussion of two recent studies meant to close this gap. Specifically, a research team of special educators, policy researchers, and state partners worked together to understand the consequences of special education staffing models on student academic outcomes.
Where: Norman Hall Conference Center at the UF College of Education
When: Thursday, October 1, from 4 to 6 p.m.
Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, Boston University
Speaker Spotlight:
Dr. Jones is Professor of Special Education and Associate Dean for Research at Boston University Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, newly returned from a three-year term as Commissioner of the National Center for Special Education Research at the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.
Future Sessions
The UF Lastinger Center is inviting suggestions to curate the Lastinger Center Speaker Series (formerly the LfPL Speaker Series).
We are accepting recommendations for individual speakers or panel sessions from within or beyond the College of Education. We’re also interested in co-sponsorships or partnerships that can help host our speaker series guests by presenting recent research relevant to the College of Education’s focus on education.
You may also share this call with colleagues, community partners, and graduate students who may share similar interests.
We are looking for topics or themes that are timely, research-informed and focused on:
- Educational leadership
- Educational policy
- Special education
- Teacher practice
- Curriculum instruction
- Early childhood, literacy and/or mathematics
Past Sessions
Advancing & Assessing Educator Development in Incoherent Times: Building a New System of Understanding
Speaker Spotlight
Dr. Jason Margolis, St. Bonaventure University
Dr. Jason Margolis is a Distinguished Professor and Program Director for Educational Leadership in the School of Education’s Educational Leadership department at St. Bonaventure University. With over three decades of experience in teaching and educational leadership.
Dr. Margolis’s research explores teacher leadership, school change, and complexity theory, with a focus on integrating academic content and social-emotional learning. His award-winning scholarship, including the 2017 IPDA Best Article of the Year, has been widely published in top journals such as the Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, and The Learning Professional.
Session Details
In this interactive talk, Dr. Jason Margolis will draw from complexity theory and contemporary socio-political dynamics to discuss the significant and increasing limitations of linear approaches to educator development. In a time of bifurcated and broken understandings, language, and goals related to education, teaching, and learning, the session will also highlight unique opportunities present in our time.
Dr. Margolis will explore with the audience new ways of assessing the impact of educator development and creating a more coherent educational system – which may be rooted in the same question: How can we better understand the process of perspective?
Session Artifacts
Leading School Improvement in Chile
Speaker Spotlight
Carmen Montecinos, Ph.D.
Dr. Carmen Montecinos is a psychologist and professor at the School of Psychology of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile. She is also Executive Director of Líderes Educativos PUCV and C Líder: Associative Center for Educational Leadership as well as a principal researcher at CIAE, Universidad de Chile.
Session Details
This presentation will focus on innovative approaches developed by Lideres Educativos at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile, to support professional learning among school leadership teams.
Leadership teams are expected to develop and implement school improvement plans that must be sensitive to context while simultaneously meeting centrally defined improvement goals, which are monitored through a robust performance-based accountability system.
Session Artifacts
Behind the Curve? Future-Facing Professional Learning
Speaker Spotlight
Ken Jones
Ken Jones is an Education Consultant and Professor Emeritus at University of Wales Trinity Saint David.
Session Details
This presentation critically examined international models of professional learning and leadership, with a special focus on emerging practices in Wales. It challenged traditional approaches to professional development and emphasized the need for future-facing, adaptive, and inquiry-driven learning systems.
Participants explored how educators and leaders can move beyond compliance-based models to shape transformative, collaborative, and context-sensitive professional learning environments.
Session Artifacts
NPLE Information Pack
This document introduces a professional learning quality assurance process in Wales aligned to the national approach for professional learning.
OECD Trends Shaping Education
This report is designed to support long-term strategic thinking in education. It offers an overview of historical trends in various fields of life and raises pertinent questions about their impact on education.