Workshops
Don’t Waste My Time: Characteristics of Professional Development that Mid-Career Teachers Say They Need View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Jennifer Reichel
Mid-career teachers make up the majority of the educator population (National Center for Education Statistics) and a significant number of of mid-career teachers encounter career cycle periods known as career frustration and career stability (Fessler & Christensen, 1992). The first is characterized by overall frustration and disillusionment with their day-to-day work and the second is seen as a plateau where adequate is acceptable. Despite billions of dollars being allocated to professional development annually (Mirage, 2015), there is a problem designing meaningful learning for mid-career teachers to keep career disillusionment and complacency at bay. Research has covered what content teachers need to have at their command to effectively serve their students (Darling Hammond & Youngs, 2002; Heritage, 2007; Winch, 2004). Additionally, significant research exists about how adults learn (Belanger, 2011; Knowles, 1972; Kolb & Kolb, 2005) and that illuminates the considerations of the delivery of professional development, but there is a gap in the literature about the characteristics of professional development that mid-career teachers need. To keep experienced teachers engaged in continuous improvement in our schools, and to be fiscally prudent with taxpayer dollars, this grounded theory study sought to understand the characteristics of professional development that mid-career practitioners describe as most important to meet their needs. The resulting findings and the emergence of the Mid-Career Professional Development Design framework with its companion guide of application-focused questions are intended to be a tool for leaders and facilitators to consult as they plan, support and implement meaningful professional development for mid-career teachers.
Deconstructing Cultural Curriculum: A Creative Exploration of Inclusion and Learning View Digital Media
Workshop Presentation Shirley Gillett
My background is as a New Zealander, currently both a classroom teacher and a university tutor teaching students who will become teachers. In New Zealand much work has been done in schools regarding identity in particular addressing colonialisation and indigenous people and advocating for and developing a bicultural approach to curriculum and practice. More recently New Zealand is an increasingly diverse country ethnically and there has been a development in understanding the comprehensive influence of culture and language on learning. A contemporary model referred to is Mason Durie ‘s wellbeing (Haora) model “Te Whare Tapa Wha” of a house with four walls: self-care in four key dimensions of well-being: mind (mental/psychological), body (physical), heart (emotional), and spirit (spiritual/essence). I would be keen to engage people in thinking about and sharing their experiences of different ethnicities and learning. The workshop would be café style with participants in groups considering the ways their situation and culture approaches pedagogy in their ongoing day to day classroom strategies and values. Questions addressed such as: What specific approaches to enabling the integration of various cultures and cultural competencies do you use in the classroom? How do you teach and incorporate different values and lived experiences of the classroom learners? How do you in your country classroom teach empathy and acceptance? The output from this would be a series of the participants’ experiences regarding creative approaches and equity for different learners and styles to be put together in a paper combining the similarities and differences.
