Paul Gorski

Too often, diversity, and multicultural education is shaped to be comfortable and easily digestible. While people need some level of comfort in order to grow, true change can only happen when people allow themselves to be vulnerable to difficult, sometimes uncomfortable, dialogue. This is the first step toward greater change in our schools and communities.

During this intimate conversation, aspiring principals will develop practical strategies to:

• Move beyond celebrating diversity toward frank conversations about serious, equity-related issues
• Address achievement gaps, bullying, school culture & classroom climate from an equity mindset
• Ensure school policies and practices don’t unintentionally contribute to existing inequity

Paul C. Gorski is an assistant professor of Integrative and Interdisciplinary Studies in George Mason University's New Century College. He has been an active consultant for ten years, conducting workshops and providing guidance to schools and community organizations committed to equity and diversity. He created and continues to maintain the Multicultural Pavilion, a Web site focused on multicultural education.

Gorski also is the founder of EdChange, a coalition of educators and activists providing professional development on educational equity, building free resources for fellow educators and activists, and modeling a commitment to move beyond celebrating the joys of diversity and toward equity and social justice. He earned a doctorate in Educational Evaluation at the University of Virginia. He continues to publish and present in education-focused forums on topics ranging from whiteness and racism studies to multicultural curriculum transformation. His newest project is Social Justice News Online, a web-based compendium of news articles from around the world related to social and environmental justice, human rights, and activism. He lives in Fairfax, Virginia.