Improving the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators Conference

Improving the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators Conference

 I realize that as a one-time attendee, this is quite a presumptuous post. However, in my last post, the subtext was my disappointment with all that we put into our presentation, the challenges of leaving our classrooms during the week, and the financial costs associated with the conference meant that we (presenters) are seeking to trade these costs for at least an equally beneficial experience. I think it is also important to note that conference attendees are not all making the same trade. A tenured professor has a different experience than a public high school classroom teacher. It is poor form to critique without offering suggestions, so a few ways that I feel this conference could be improved mostly revolves around increasing the diversity and number of those attending the conference. Most of the sixty or so attendees were college professors who are involved in the education of future teachers.

This means that the people most needed to be at the conference, in addition to these professionals, are the two other groups implied in the education process: pre-service teachers themselves, and teachers who have already entered the classroom. 

In ensuring that these two groups are well represented at the conference, professors could learn in real time a practice of relevancy and authenticity that moves far beyond theory. Two session tracks could be created - one for practicing teachers to share their valuable experiences, and one for pre-service teachers to share how their experiences are matching up with the instruction they are receiving. All three groups, pre, post, and professor could learn from each other in ways that would be valuable for actually advancing the work of preparing teachers for the classroom.

These changes would also drive diversity in demographics. Having diversity in age, race, class, and gender also add value to a conference and the representation of the offerings of sessions. 

This is a conference where the Georgia Teacher of the Year, Michael Kobito pictured with his almost entirely white student band, spoke on the importance of the Three R's in Education: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships. This largely seems to come from this internet article here.

This is a conference where the GATE President, Dr. Don Livingston, shared survey data about how teachers are mostly valued for what we do. The survey data came from various surveys across many social groups. Each percentage was above 50% so that must mean something good, right?

This is a conference where the lunch keynote speaker was not actually a public educator. Dr. Artesius Miller is the founder and CEO of the Utopian Academy for the Arts, and an entire public charter school network.

I was so very sad to attend a conference with only sixty or so educators. I am even more depressed when I think about the way in which our public education system is being systematically dismantled. Conferences like GATE are essential to sustaining and restoring our profession. GATE should be an act of resistance and a place of centering our power. While several of the sessions I attended supported this work, this was a different tone than the rest of the overall conference and the dominant theme of the conference. Where is the "Reimagining Pedagogy for Transformation" as promised in the title of the conference? Does the power reside in public charter schools? Or perhaps it is behavior management of students, as one session promised.

There were some great sessions I attended, and I am sure some that I did not. But overall, I am concerned about the level of intentionality towards transforming our schools versus continuing to support the status quo in the dismantling of what we hold dear.