24 Mar2019

Call for Proposals, Reviewers for 2020 AACTE Annual Meeting “Disrupting Inequities: Educating for Change”

Now through May 29, AACTE is accepting session proposals for the 72^nd Annual Meeting, to be held in Atlanta, GA, February 28 – March 1, 2020. We also invite applications by May 15 for AACTE member faculty to review proposals.

The conference theme is “Disrupting Inequities: Educating for Change,” conceptualized as follows in the call for proposals:

Over the last year, we have witnessed a rapidly changing society. These changes are driven by policy and policymakers with limited knowledge of best practices for working with dynamic and diverse school communities. In turn, this politically-motivated process has produced a grand narrative, while claiming to be colorblind and neutral, that tends to represent a small, privileged portion of the U.S. population.

As educators, scholars, and practitioners, we are keenly aware of the systemic failure occurring in PK-16 environments that serve our most vulnerable populations. We know that high school dropout rates and elementary school reading test score data are being utilized to predict the need for state prisons. We know that teachers, administrators, counselors, and psychologists are mobilized to address issues related to trauma associated with forced separation of immigrant families, disparate policing policies, and intolerance to the LGBTQ community. We also know that people of color, students with disabilities, and individuals from low-income communities are disproportionally impacted by punitive classroom practice and have unequal access to high quality teachers, which is the best predictor of school success. Apathy and a sense of complacency have allowed de facto segregation along racial, geographic, and socio-economic lines at levels that exceed legally-enforced segregation policies of the past, thus entrenching inequalities in under-resourced schools.

As a profession, we are uniquely positioned to obstruct injustice and challenge the dominant ideology and majoritarian narratives. We must promote ways to enhance the learning and development of all students. It is time that we, as educators, become the driving force in crafting our narrative on behalf of our profession, education as a whole, and particularly, PK-16 students. This narrative includes effective educational practices and policies with goals and outcomes that reflect the success of all students. By redefining the meaning and markers for success, we can encourage students to become active learners, productive citizens, critical thinkers, and leaders in their communities and across the globe.

The 2020 AACTE Annual Meeting invites you to join in this unified effort to disrupt inequities while educating for inclusion and change. Proposals are invited that explore strategies for infusing equity and inclusivity into preparation and practice, embrace activism and innovation as methods for transforming democracy, conceptualize practices for establishing a sustainable and diverse profession, and demonstrate successful partnerships and collaborations that advance clinical partnerships and promote community engagement. In addition to the sociocultural frameworks that are commonly utilized, we also welcome the usage of Critical Race Theory (CRT), DisCrit, LatCrit, indigenous methodologies, womanism, queer theory, and other frameworks not commonly represented in educator preparation work.

Session proposals should address this theme with a focus on one of the four strands listed below: