AACTE Diversified Teacher Workforce TAG to host Day Long Preconference Institute
Driving the National Conversation to Recruit, Sustain, and Retain Diverse Teaching Candidates
The AACTE Diversified Teacher Workforce Topical Action Group (TAG) will convene Pk-20 practitioners, researchers, and community stakeholders to discuss how to bolster collective efforts to recruit, sustain and retain teachers of color. The preconference event will take place on Thursday, March 3 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, Grand Ballroom B, 9:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Across the field of education (PK-20) students, teachers, administrators, teacher educators/professors, and program leaders continue to witness and lament the chronic disparities in representation and lack of ethno-racial and linguistic diversity among teachers (relative to their students) in our nation’s schools. And in the wake of a global pandemic, enduring civil unrest, the impending mass teacher exodus, and calls for racial justice related to systemic anti-Black, anti-Asian and anti-immigrant sentiments within all aspects of society, educational institutions are being forced to engage in introspection with greater magnitude. Teacher preparation programs in particular are feeling increased pressure to recruit, retain and effectively prepare a highly-qualified, racially-literate, and ethno-racially diverse pool of candidates as districts scramble to hire teachers with the content knowledge and pedagogical skills as well as the cultural and linguistic competencies needed to meet the needs of today’s students.
Additionally, our increased commitments to a more thoughtful infusion of critical, courageous, race-based conversations in education has led to ignorant, highly-politicized, knee-jerk reactions designed to stifle productive action that could lead to increased equity. Now more than ever, those connected to or working in school districts and teacher preparation programs recognize the need for and value of creating spaces to discuss, strategize, resist, and innovate to address the enduring challenges we face. This time calls for critical reflection, solidarity building, and comprehensive action in order to re-envision policies, practices, and programs that are inclusive, affirming, and anti-racist at every point along our teacher preparation pathways.
Considering these challenges, as a part of the AACTE 2022 Annual Meeting, the Diversified Teacher Workforce Topical Action Group will convene Pk-20 practitioners, researchers, and community stakeholders to discuss how to bolster our collective efforts to recruit, sustain and retain teachers of Color. The preconference will take place on Thursday, March 3 at the Sheraton New Orleans Hotel, Grand Ballroom B, from 9:00 a.m. -3:30 p.m. This year’s institute will include interactive sessions with scholar-activists from across the country. Participants will have opportunities to network with others with similar commitments as well as to share and plan in cross-institutional, multi-level working groups throughout the day.
Session titles and presenters include
Positionality: Healing & Thriving Across Multiple Landscapes
Socorro Herrera, Professor & Executive Director, Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy, Kansas State University
Securing a Seat at the Table: Strategic Partnering with Policy Makers
Audrey Lensmire, Professor, Augsburg University
Gwen Waltz, First Lady of Minnesota
Carlos Mariani, Minnesota State Representative
René Antrop-González, Dean, New Paltz State University of New York
Growing and Sustaining Equitable Education Partnerships
Tiffany Farias-Sokoloski, Assistant Professor in Practice
Claudia T. Garcia, Associate Professor in Practice
Lucinda “Nicki” Sohn, Assistant Professor in Practice
Jennifer Swoyer, Assistant Professor in Practice
Oralia Gonzalez, Clinical Teaching Supervisors
Grace Treviño, Clinical Teaching Supervisors
The University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA)
Tags: diversity, equity, events, inclusion
