VCU news

By Vincent Simone

Gesturing toward a large bowl full of Tootsie Rolls and York Peppermint Patties, Autumn Cyprès, Ed.D., jokingly summarized the work she and her colleagues do: “We’re just up here being thoughtful. You know, eating bonbons.”  

As a professor in the VCU School of Education and chair of its Department of Educational Leadership, Cyprès champions the value of her colleagues’ highly regarded and, indeed, award-winning efforts.

“We have several internationally recognized scholars who are doing tireless work to give voice to those in education who have been marginalized,” she said. “We also have several faculty members who bring a lifetime of experience as school leaders to the graduate classroom. This mix of theorists and practitioners is one of the most unique and powerful in the country. I know this is true because of the ideas that come out of folks picking through the candy jar.”

As a former biology teacher and school principal, Cyprès expresses equal respect for “the people doing the real work, getting up early and going to school everyday” and trying to figure out how to handle the innumerable challenges of educating children.

As part of their effort to connect educational leaders with the latest research, Cyprès and her colleagues formally launched a Web portal on Wednesday called “Puzzles of Practice.”

The portal contains a collection of videos in which “[VCU professors] who are experts … on the issues and challenges of leading schools talk to you about how they unpack various problems relative to schools, their place in society and how to help children succeed and include their families,” Cyprès explains.

Each video addresses a separate question (e.g., How can principals use data effectively for school improvement?), summarizes the current research pertaining to this question and identifies resources useful for further action.

“It’s about short infusions of really rich knowledge that’s easy to understand,” Cyprès said.

The idea for this project began — as the best ideas do — with a simple thought. One day, while watching Oprah Winfrey’s Master Class, Cyprès was struck by the artfully filmed interviews of artists, journalists and others and wondered if the format could be reimagined as a way to showcase the work of faculty members and school leaders in short, accessible videos.  

Cyprès brought the idea to Barbara Driver, Ph.D., an assistant professor of educational leadership, and they eventually settled on a few basic details: an alliterative name (de rigueur for teachers, Cyprès remarked); the School of Education’s green apple logo reimagined as four puzzle pieces; and an artistic black-and-white film format.

After a team decided on the questions the "Puzzles of Practice" would address, Driver took over the project and enlisted the help of Cyprès’ husband, Jean-Philippe Cyprès, a commercial photographer, and together they streamlined the process by producing the videos in-house.

For Cheryl Magill, Ph.D., an assistant professor of educational leadership, creating a "Puzzles of Practice" video presented an enlightening opportunity to consolidate her thoughts around a single topic.

“We find that educational leaders today change jobs quite frequently,” Magill said. “And what I wanted to think out loud about was how leaders use information to help them decide which leadership behaviors are the best fit in a new context.”

While the project’s audience is primarily teachers and school administrators — both current and aspiring — Cyprès hopes that many others will find "Puzzles of Practice" interesting.

She’d also love the attention of legislators and other policymakers.

“The research on schools, leadership and politics consistently shows that there is a huge, huge, huge gap between those who decide policy about education and [those] people who understand what it means to be in a school every day,” she said.

Cyprès came to VCU from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in July 2013. As her department’s new chair, she began thinking with her colleagues about their institutional identity relative to the university, local school systems and other educational organizations around the country.

Starting with two simple questions— “Who are we and what do we do?” — their conversations eventually generated consensus around three core competences:
°        Revealing new understanding related to education and society.
°        Advocating for inclusive, equitable and safe learning environments.
°        Connecting those who study educational leadership with practitioners and policymakers.

The department is today focused on a balanced approach to preparing school leaders, dedicating equal effort to revealing and discussing new knowledge and to making this knowledge useful to educators working in the field.

“The idea of connection,” Cyprès explained, “is really about taking very complex ideas and making them springboards for thinking about the practice of leadership, because, in my view, leadership is teaching, and they are interdependent.”

At its launch this week, "Puzzles of Practice" comprised 11 videos. However, the department’s ambitions include plans to produce new content for the portal about every six months.

“I think we have found an idea full of possibilities,” Cyprès said, “and I’m really proud of our team.”

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