Professional Matters
Asynchronous Session
Featured Gifted and Highly Able Coordinators: Agency and Adaptive Leadership for Equity During the COVID-19 Pandemic View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Guilbault Keri
The COVID-19 pandemic created unique challenges for supervisors of lead gifted and highly able teachers as they navigated frequent changes to policies, procedures, and learning environments. Emerging research on the COVID-19 pandemic and gifted education indicates that gifted and highly able services may have been negatively impacted, gifted learners may have experienced social and emotional stress, and virtual learning may have exacerbated gaps in equity and access (Duraku & Hoxha, 2021; Guilbault & McCormick, 2021; Patrick, Grissom, & Newsome, 2021; Wolfgang & Snyderman, 2021). On the other hand, online learning and teacher professional growth in the use of technology may provide new opportunities for educator and student collaboration, gifted learner acceleration, and curriculum compacting. In this qualitative study, a national sample of 11 district-level gifted education coordinators from small, medium, and large school districts across the United States were interviewed to learn how their roles and responsibilities shifted and how gifted and highly able services were impacted during the pandemic. An analysis of semi-structured interview transcripts revealed four categories: a) adaptations and innovations, b) leadership styles, c) challenges and barriers, and d) a focus on equity. In this session, presenters will share participants’ innovative solutions implemented to address common challenges such as constant changes to policies and procedures, delivery of professional learning, teacher burnout, gaps in access to technology, student attendance and active participation, equity, identification processes, and communication with families and caregivers. Recommendations for future learning and leadership adaptations are discussed.
Reimagining Fieldwork in Teacher Preparation: An Action Research Study Examining the Role of Clinical Practice in Uncertain Times View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dorothy Valcarcel Craig
This study adopted a qualitative stance within the framework of Action Research in examining the role of clinical fieldwork, adaptations due to uncertain times, and the perceptions of value held by graduate students enrolled in field-based classes as part of an English as a Second Language Professional Licensure program. A broad goal of the study was to assess the fieldwork requirement mandated by national and state accrediting bodies for Teacher Preparation and to adjust, adapt, and revise tasks to meet the demands of today’s classrooms within the context of professional licensure requirements. Participants included graduate students representing a variety of teaching situations with varying degrees of experience. Data were collected over a four-month period and consisted of interviews, surveys, online discussions, artifacts, and field journals. Analysis continued throughout the data collection period as units were examined and theory—grounded in data, codes, themes, and patterns—was established. Findings indicate that although fieldwork presents numerous challenges to graduate students who are also practicing teachers there are benefits for those preparing to work with linguistically diverse learners. However, viable options through the use of technological resources were identified that—when needed—may replace the face-to-face field tasks. These options proved to serve as alternative avenues for fieldwork and encourage teachers to reflect on their teaching, engage in their own action research, and apply findings to improve their personal practice.
Interprofessional Education and Professionalism in a Social Work and Nursing Simulation: Capstone Project Paper View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alyson Morgan
Students placed in field education are assumed to have acquired the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities to be successful in their internships. If social work skills are not initially developed and applied prior to students’ BSW field education, and prior to students entering a foundational masters level program, it is likely that these students will be less successful during their advanced standing master-level internships. Social work programs could utilize experiential learning theory, and specifically simulations in their curriculum by placing emphasis on developing social work skills. These skills can be related to understanding diverse populations, intersectionality, accessibility/equity of services, critical consciousness, and the role positionality and social location play in delivering services. As noted above, simulation allows students to practice skills in a safe setting, where they can receive feedback. This experiential learning activity will allow students to hone skills prior to practicing without supervision; this leads to less harm and marginalization of vulnerable populations. The purpose of this study is to analyze gaps in services provided in a social work program’s pedagogy utilizing case study methodology. This study considers how experiential learning opportunities, specifically, the role interprofessional education and simulation play in increasing professionalism (communication, respect, excellence, altruism, and caring) amongst graduate social work students prior to field education.
Disaster Response and Professional Trajectory: Transformative Experiences in Higher Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Laura Racovita, Mioara Diaconu, Linda Reeser
During the last decade there has been an increased emphasis on the role of calling or vocation and professional choices. The literature proposes different definitions of these concepts, generally revolving around the idea of finding a purpose in life. Authors propose that the perception of one’s vocation may change due to different positive or negative lived experiences. Trauma research has investigated the effects of both direct exposure as well as secondary or vicarious traumatization on first responders, volunteers, or mental health professionals. It is known that exposure to disaster response can have long lasting effects through either post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomology, or port-traumatic growth (PTG). PTG is described as the positive result of the struggle to deal with one’s traumatic experiences. Participating in disaster response activities can impact individuals directly affected by the disaster, as well as the first responders and volunteers, who are often members of helping professions. Each individual can have unique personal responses to the disaster response experience, affecting them psychologically through either burnout or satisfaction with the disaster relief work, as well as socially either through isolation, or by emphasizing the need for, and role of, community in building resilience and post-traumatic growth. However, the literature is scarce in investigating the impact of disaster relief experiences on one’s vocational and career choices. Therefore, this phenomenological case study will explore the effect of disaster response volunteering on students and education professionals’ career choices through the lens of calling and vocation.
Social Significance of the Pedagogy of Life: Transforming Existential Suffering into Communal Agency View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yasukiyo Sugimoto
In my doctoral research, which examines oppressive correctional education, I originated an existentialist educational philosophy toward cultural liberation, that is, a pedagogy of life. In this paper, I first describe the essence of my pedagogy. This philosophy offers the means to transform students’ existential suffering caused by structural contradictions, such as racial and gender disparities, to emancipate themselves from cultural oppression. Second, I present a teaching methodology based on this alternative philosophy which affirms the co-existence of human beings and builds more harmonious social relations. The key ideas are the students’ critical reflection of themselves, the cooperative interactions between and among students and teachers, and the co-production of a new, humanistic knowledge. Third, I describe the results of this alternative education by presenting my practice as a Chief at a juvenile correctional facility for eighteen- to nineteen-year-old females in Eastern Japan. The main task for the students is to confront intersectional social oppression. And fourth, I discuss several hurdles that occur in the practice and explore a future direction of the pedagogy of life. The primary goal is to guide the students to overcome their uprootedness – both psychologically and relationally. In brief, this alternative philosophy is an answer to the “Can-the-subaltern-speak-?” question, the cultural conundrum raised by post-colonial feminist literary critic Gayatri Spivak, and has great possibilities for human liberation and social transformation.
