91热爆网

 91热爆网 Stories      June 5, 2023

By Brooklyn Brown

Kofi Lomotey, the Chancellor John Bardo and Deborah Bardo Distinguished Professor of Educational Leadership at Western Carolina University, recently received the 2023 Distinguished Contributions to Social Contexts in Education Research Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Educational Research Association Division G.

Lomotey has been an educator and administrator at every level of education, from preschool to college. He has written more than 50 books, articles and book chapters on urban and black education.

Lomotey has committed a lifetime of research, education and administration to racial issues in Black and urban education. His lifetime achievement with the AERA is one of many accolades recognizing his numerous contributions to creating socially just educational institutions. Lomotey has won several awards for his books, as well as the Hidden Figures Award from the University Council for Educational Administration, but he highlights his selection as a fellow in the AERA as his most significant achievement.

鈥淏ecoming a fellow is reflective of the entire membership of the organization,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen I look at the list of about 25 people that were elected in that year, all of them were at major research institutions other than me. I think that's significant and it's significant for Western Carolina University as well.鈥�

Lomotey notes mentoring and teaching as his greatest contributions to his field. 鈥淚n addition to providing a role model as an administrator over the years, one of my most significant contributions is the mentoring that I do with students, faculty and other administrators. That's one of my greatest joys aside from actually teaching in the classroom,鈥� he said.

鈥淚 take groups to Ghana in West Africa every year. I鈥檝e interacted with a number of young people over there who I鈥檝e stayed in contact with as a mentor. Mentoring is very important to me and teaching is also very important to me.鈥� Lomotey said.

Lomotey鈥檚 interest in Black and urban education began during his undergraduate program.

鈥淎lthough Oberlin College is a predominantly white institution, the city is predominantly black. I got involved with a tutorial program and most of the students I was tutoring were Black,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 began to notice a sharp contrast in the academic, social, cultural and spiritual development of Black students and white students.鈥�

鈥淰irtually all of the education work that I鈥檝e done to date in publishing and research has focused on black education and issues of race in urban education in general. That鈥檚 what I think distinguishes my work from the work of many others.鈥�

Lomotey said his greatest moments in teaching are the 鈥渁-ha鈥� moments of his students. 鈥淭hat to me is the essence of education,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f students can't learn in the way that I teach, I need to teach in the way that they learn.鈥�

Lomotey obtained his undergraduate degree in economics from Oberlin College. He received his master鈥檚 in curriculum and instruction at Cleveland State University and his master鈥檚 and doctorate in education leadership at Stanford University.

He has taught at universities across the country, retiring as Chancellor of  Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He came out of retirement to help with the development of 91热爆网鈥檚 educational leadership program.

鈥淲estern had just completed a two-year reengineering of their educational leadership program between 2011 and 2013,鈥� Lomotey said. 鈥淭heir intent was to develop a program modeled after the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate to help Ed.D. programs become more practitioner oriented. That鈥檚 what initially attracted me to 91热爆网 and that鈥檚 what keeps me here,鈥� he said.

鈥淚鈥檓 very excited about our effort to make our program more practitioner oriented, producing high school principals, superintendents, presidents of colleges and universities. CPEF acknowledged us as their program of the year a few years ago. We also received the Program of the Year award at 91热爆网 a couple years ago. So, I think we鈥檙e on the right track.鈥�

Lomotey believes the Ed.D program鈥檚 success is due in part because of their ability to develop practitioners and inform social justice in education.

鈥淥ur program, since the reengineering, has been focused on social justice in that our culminating project that is often referred to as a dissertation 鈥� ours is called a disquisition 鈥� is an opportunity for students to identify a problem of practice in their workplace and to then develop an intervention to address their problem in practice, and we stress the importance of the problem being one related to social justice,鈥� Lomotey said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e preparing our students to disrupt and redesign educational programs in schools so that they are more equitable, more ethical and more socially just.鈥�