https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/ Episode companions, research notes, and leadership notes from Dr. Donald Easton-Brooks. en-us Fri, 24 Apr 2026 23:55:36 GMT https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/the-backlash/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/the-backlash/ Fri, 24 Apr 2026 23:55:36 GMT Episode companion Donald Easton-Brooks Dismissal, absorption, restriction. When marginalized knowledge wins a place in the record, dominant systems respond in a predictable three-move cycle. A companion essay on why the current wave of curriculum restrictions is not unprecedented, what the research actually shows, and what the strongest counter-argument gets right and wrong. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/lifting-as-we-lead-preview/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/lifting-as-we-lead-preview/ Fri, 24 Apr 2026 22:00:00 GMT Leadership note Donald Easton-Brooks A preview of a forthcoming chapter on Black male deans mentoring Black male faculty — the benefits, the structural costs, and what the institution's reliance on a small number of people reveals about how leadership development is organized in higher education. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/organized-chaos-framework/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/organized-chaos-framework/ Fri, 24 Apr 2026 17:00:00 GMT Leadership note Donald Easton-Brooks Years ago, a colleague described my leadership style as organized chaos. She meant it as an observation, not an insult. The longer I sat with the phrase, the more I realized she was not naming a flaw but a condition. An essay on what the Organized Chaos Framework is, why it matters, and how its six elements function when they are working: Purpose, Boundaries, Decision Rights, Communication, Learning Loops, and Productivity. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/leadership-without-stability/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/leadership-without-stability/ Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Leadership note Donald Easton-Brooks Thirty years of watching institutions has taught me that what the conventional account calls stability is better understood as the temporary absence of disruption. An essay on leading higher education when the ground does not sit still. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/who-gets-to-teach-it/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/who-gets-to-teach-it/ Sat, 18 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Episode companion Donald Easton-Brooks Integration happened to the students. It did not happen to the teaching profession. A companion essay on the history of Black teacher displacement after Brown v. Board, and the ethnic-matching research it set in motion. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/the-cognitive-cost-of-translation/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/the-cognitive-cost-of-translation/ Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:00:00 GMT Episode companion Donald Easton-Brooks San Francisco State in 1968, the California Gold Rush, and ethnic studies as a method rather than a position — the written version of the argument the episode had fourteen minutes to hold. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/purpose-that-actually-works/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/purpose-that-actually-works/ Tue, 31 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT Leadership note Donald Easton-Brooks A purpose statement that can be recited is not the same as one that can resolve a trade-off. An essay on what operational purpose has to do to function under pressure, and why most mission statements do not. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/ethnic-matching-beyond-the-classroom/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/ethnic-matching-beyond-the-classroom/ Fri, 20 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT Research note Donald Easton-Brooks The matching research has begun to extend from K-12 classrooms into college transitions, faculty-student mentoring, and academic leadership. An essay on what three recent extensions are telling us about the construct, and why the policy response will have to extend with them. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/ai-should-compress-time-not-development/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/ai-should-compress-time-not-development/ Sat, 07 Mar 2026 16:00:00 GMT Episode companion Donald Easton-Brooks Episode 1 let NotebookLM narrate a set of writings about learning; Episode 2 I told them myself. The written extension of that second telling — on struggle, Bloom, what LLMs actually do, the cultural context they inherit, and why AI should compress time without compressing development. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/how-we-measure-belonging/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/how-we-measure-belonging/ Tue, 24 Feb 2026 16:00:00 GMT Research note Donald Easton-Brooks The word shows up in every grant proposal and half the conference titles. Here is what the instruments actually measure, what they can't, and the one I keep going back to. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/the-cost-of-being-indispensable/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/the-cost-of-being-indispensable/ Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:00:00 GMT Leadership note Donald Easton-Brooks The leader who keeps everything together through personal effort is running a unit whose capability lives in one person. An essay on the difference between being essential and producing the appearance of being essential. https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/twenty-years-on-ethnic-matching/ https://www.donaldeastonbrooks.com/essays/twenty-years-on-ethnic-matching/ Sat, 13 Dec 2025 16:00:00 GMT Research note Donald Easton-Brooks A retrospective on how the ethnic-matching field has matured over two decades — from the correlational critiques of the early 2000s to the rigorous designs that followed, and what remains contested.