ATE 2017 Summer Conference

Sheraton Station Square, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

August 4-8, 2017

Proposals due April 15, 2017

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Re-Imagining Educator Preparation In A Democracy: The Teacher Educator as Public Intellectual explores the need to reframe, reclaim, and restore the ideals of educator preparation in a democracy.

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Communities and states established a public education as a public responsibility in the nineteenth century to educate future citizens and to sustain our democracy. The essential purpose of the public schools, the reason they receive public funding is to teach young people the rights and responsibilities of citizens.  (Ravitch, 2013, p. 237)

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Every child who is educated in the US must be prepared so as to participate actively both in the workplace and in our democracy. These responsibilities include developing critical thinking skills and political will, debating and deliberating issues, choosing leaders, a willingness to compromise for the common good and the ability to participate actively in one’s workplace, community and civic life.

Reimagining Educator Preparation in A Democracy: The Teacher Educator as Public Intellectual requires us to step back and reclaim our responsibilities as teacher educators in sustaining a democratic society.  How can we reframe the ideals of democracy within educator preparation while meeting the increasing requirements and challenges that we face with program accreditation, accountability, and candidate performance?

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The conference theme serves as a call to teacher educators to act as public intellectuals through social re-imagining, inquiry, and participatory action in P-20 educational policy-making at the local, state, and national levels.  The following four strands related to the conference theme are presented to stimulate dialogue and scholarly discourse through research and scholarly inquiry.

Strand I:  Restoring the Democratic Ideal In Educator Preparation

In Democracy and Education, Dewey (1916) stated  “. . . the conception of education as a social process and function has no definite meaning until we define the kind of society we have in mind” (p. 97).  What is the relationship of educator preparation to the function of education within a democracy? Are we preparing our teachers to be able to equip future generations to design and participate fully in the society we want and need?  How can we restore the democratic ideals of education in a democratic society through social re-imagining?

Strand II: Reclaiming Educator Preparation, Policy and Practice for the Common Good

Acting as public intellectuals requires that we, as teacher educators, take up the mantle of social, political, and moral responsibility to reclaim educator preparation for the common good. We must work to effect legislation and change in educational policies that will lead to changes in the current system. We need to develop a counter narrative to the prevailing agenda in educator preparation and licensure.  We must share practices that lead to increased access and representation within the education profession. We need to inquire as to how educator preparation can evolve in relation to a changing society.

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How has teacher quality been constrained by external measures of accreditation and accountability? Have we exchanged our accountability to the profession to fulfill the requirements of high stakes testing?  How have tighter program regulations to meet accreditation requirements impacted access and representation in the profession?

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What practices support the socialization of new teachers who are able to question undemocratic practices that silence or marginalize some students while privileging others? How do we prepare teachers to meet the social and academic needs of diverse student populations, including students whose interests have been historically under-represented in the workplace, the global economy, and society at-large (e.g. students who are undocumented, immigrant, refugee, homeless, in foster care, etc.)? What emergent, responsive pedagogies in our educator preparation programs foster teacher voice, resistance, and resilience?

Strand III: Creating Spaces for Community-based Participatory Research Communities

Acting as public intellectuals, what is our social, civic, and moral responsibility to engage in inquiry and public discourse that interrogates the current political system, and questions political agendas, which inhibit inclusive, responsive, and democratic communities of practice? What is our role as teacher educators in sustaining democracy through intentional and sustained collaboration in diverse schools and communities? How do we question undemocratic practices and policies in educator preparation?  How can we promote a learning ecology that is both academically rigorous and democratic? How do we create intersecting and open spaces of collaboration for community-based inquiry among communities of practice?

Strand IV: Preparing Educators as Agents of Democracy In A Global Society

Dewey understood the politics of education for democracy and the inherent role of teachers in preparing their students as agents of democracy to sustain the next generation of democracy.  As teacher educators, how do we define the political role of educator preparation in sustaining democratic educational systems? What pedagogies engage our candidates in performative practice in the politics of education? How are we utilizing high impact practices, including study abroad experiences, service learning, and civic engagement, for developing teachers and educational leaders who can serve as agents of democracy within a global society? How do we equip new teachers to prepare their students to participate in global decision-making that ensures economic and social justice, educational equity, and ecological sustainability in a global society?

The 2017 Summer Conference Planning Committee encourages formats that use multiple presenters, undergraduate and graduate students, classroom teachers, teacher educators at all levels, other school personnel, and policy makers. These sessions may include the application of research, position papers, descriptions of existing programs/practices, or innovation in teacher education. Various types of sessions addressing the conference theme or other ATE interests are scheduled throughout the conference. The 2017 summer conference is an all multiple-paper type conference.  There will be no single session papers.

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