Union Innovation in Supporting Early Career Educators: National Education Association's Early Career Learning Labs

• In Event: Beyond Bread and Butter: Rethinking the Influence of Education Unions in Policy and Practice

Abstract

Teacher shortages have rippled across the country in recent years as increasing numbers of current teachers decide to leave the profession and declining numbers of college students choose to enter it. One way to help retain early career educators (ECEs) is to provide them with high-quality mentoring and induction opportunities that include “mentoring with observation and feedback, time for collaborative planning with colleagues, a reduced teaching load, and a focus on high-leverage activities— such as analyzing student work and discussing instructional strategies” (Carver-Thomas and Darling-Hammond 2017).

NEA has developed an innovative way to bring collaboration, support, and high-leverage activities to early career teachers through its Early Career Learning Labs (ECLL). The ECLL model provides teachers in their first five years with a nine-week opportunity to:

• Discover: Local ECLL groups identify a problem of practice
• Engage: Share ideas with a national teaching community
• Learn: Engage in deep learning around the defined problem of practice
• Teach: Apply new knowledge techniques with their students
• Reflect: Share experiences and refine teaching strategies

The focus on a shared problem of practice ensures that ECLL work is relevant and immediately useful to participants. After an initial in-person meeting, participants meet virtually each week, guided by a coach, to discuss potential solutions to their problem of practice and their experiences trying out those solutions in their classrooms.

This presentation and the accompanying commentary paper will include multiple perspectives on ECLL, including national-level program staff, local program leaders, and program participants. [This proposal only lists NEA staff; practitioner participants will be added once they can be confirmed.] Beyond sharing the specifics of the model, we will engage symposium participants in a discussion of the following questions: What does high-quality professional support look like for early career educators? What is the unique role of education associations/unions in addressing members’ needs for professional support and growth? How should education researchers go about studying union-led professional supports?

Author

• Ann L. Nutter Coffman, National Education Association