“Critical Transformative Leadership and Policy Studies is a masterpiece in education for social justice and creative freedom, a crucial oeuvre for those really committed with the struggle for dignified living conditions for humanity. It is such critical education that these leading voices point to, which is represented in this work by an unrepentant educator, João M. Paraskeva. Thus, as eminent creators, they show the way of change—towards respect for life. Although the night of the world spread its darkness, the light of the sun will continue to shine! Of this, it is a commendable example, and this work is priceless."

Jacqueline Zapata, Universidade de Querétaro, México

“Judging from most of this book’s authors, the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth has put together an excellent series of talks involving some of the finest committed and progressive public intellectuals around. Thanks to their commitment and the efforts of João M. Paraskeva, himself a very inspiring and insightful public intellectual, their talks are now made available to a wider global public. As somebody ensconced in a Mediterranean island (Malta) I am grateful to Myers Education Press for extending the contents beyond North America. By drawing on a number of public intellectuals, not all easily identified with education as an area of specific enquiry, this book helps generate discussions around the connections between educational critiques (not just criticisms) and larger social-economic and political efforts sounding either discordant or complementary notes. This is a great book, quite refreshing and insightful in its scope.”

Peter Mayo, University of Malta

“Too many struggles against genocide, ecocide, epistemicide and omnicide that have emerged from the wheelhouse of the academy have been tragically undermined, not necessarily by the policy wonks themselves, but by the toxic fix of neoliberalism that for decades has been rushing through the veins of college planning councils and boards of trustees, turning universities and colleges into little more than ivy-covered crack houses where a fatal addiction to profit augmentation results in an ideological pathocracy more suited to hustling on the Vegas Strip than for the nourishment of critically transformative leadership and policy practices. Yet the struggle for democracy has not ceased, thanks to the efforts of João Paraskeva, his colleagues, and his comrades throughout the field of education. Which is why this magisterial collection of essays becomes so urgent. The essays included in this stellar collection can provide the necessary seedbed of ideas and practices for rethinking how to refashion our leadership and policy agendas for the refurbishing of a radical democracy for a post-pandemic era.”

Peter McLaren, Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies, Chapman University

“Critical Transformative Educational Leadership and Policy Studies is not only a call for international solidarity in critical times but also an example of it. Background to the book, there is a constructed community of ‘intellectual relatives’ when Paraskeva engaged the faculty and students at UMD in conversations with scholars and practitioners from different fields, thus modeling a critical transformative praxis, a microcosm of the community. This exceptional volume addresses real problems and emerging trends in education, matters on the intersection of politics and education, on critical issues concerning democracy such as the educational and curriculum epistemicide, public schooling, minorities, curriculum, teaching, and learning.”

Fatma Mizikaci, Ankara University, Turkey