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INVITED ADDRESS, CORWIN LECTURE 2007

The Culturally Proficient Professoriate

Randall B. Lindsey

It is my honor and pleasure to be with you today to deliver the Corwin Lecture. Thank
you, Rosemary (Papa), for your kind words of introduction and, thank you, Linda (Morford)
for your support in making this visit effortless on my part. A special thank you to Corwin
Press and, in particular, Douglas Rife, President, and Robb Clouse, Vice President and
Publisher, for your support of NCPEA and your continuing efforts to provide voice to those
who continue to articulate between higher education and P-12 schools.
I believe my first NCPEA conference was at the Seattle University in 1981. Since then, I
have had the opportunity to attend several NCPEA meetings and sleep in many fine
dormitories across this country. And, now (looking around the Crystal Ballroom), the
Knickerbocker Hotel in Chicago!!

INTRODUCTION

In all seriousness, my interest in accepting the opportunity to deliver the Corwin Lecture
is based in 3 experiences that provide a frame of reference for my comments today:

• First, this is an Illinois homecoming for me as I was born, raised, and schooled in
  Kewanee;
  o I received my Bachelor’s Degree from Western Illinois University,
  (WIU) and
  o My Master of Arts Degree in Teaching History from the University of
  Illinois.


• Those fine institutions served me well and, ultimately, informed by knowledge of
  Cultural Proficiency in important ways:
  o WIU was the entry point for a generation of students who, like myself,
  were first-generation high school attenders. We benefited from a
  faculty who mentored us into a world that most of us could not see.
  o The University of Illinois, Urbana was where I took my history
  emphasis in Negro American History and where my education was
  informed about the issues of difference in our country.


• Second, I am pleased to be with you today, because I began my administrative
  career about 90 minutes south of here in Kankakee. In 1970 I assumed the role of
  Advisory Specialist to the superintendent on matters related to the school
  desegregation process. Kankakee was one of the first three northern districts to
  desegregate ahead of US Civil Rights sanctions. In my administrative roles in
  Kankakee and the Princeton City School District in suburban Cincinnati I lost my
  educational innocence. I learned that many educators had no interest in all students
  learning or even in all students having access to education opportunities.

Randall B. Lindsey, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Los Angeles