Deepening Deeper Learning: Building a Coherent Equity Focus Across Teacher, Leader, and Executive Preparation

• In Event: Preparing Exemplary Teachers and Leaders for Every Child: Building a Network of Institutions to Inspire a National Movement

Abstract

When they function well, schools and districts support the learning of teachers so they increase their capacity to meet the needs of students and continue on a trajectory of professional growth (Little, 2012; Borko, 2004; McLaughlin & Talbert, 2006). Creating such environments is in large part the responsibility of school leadership (Bryk et al., 2010), which must negotiate district conditions and priorities in order to develop schools into places where leaders, teachers and students see themselves as continuous learners (Honig, 2012).
Teachers, principals and doctoral students preparing for professional roles have often been prepared in isolation from one another, rather than in environments that model the interconnectedness of districts, schools and classrooms. (Dobbs-Oates & Wachter Morris, 2016; Authors, 2018). This isolation has made the task of developing coherent pedagogies across the spectrum of educator preparation difficult. On the preparation side, faculty within one institution, but separate programs, who are trying to build a common commitment to equity; deeper learning pedagogies, such as modeling and performance assessment; and teaching and leading based in the science of learning and development; are often working in loosely coupled ways at best and at cross-purposes at worst. On the school side, teachers and leaders do not necessarily enter the workforce with the same vision of how schools should operate, what specific roles each of the professions should inhabit, and how they should work together in the best interest of children. For institutions of higher education to support system-level change in schools and districts, they need to model system learning at its best.
This presentation will address how four institutions are experimenting with several cross-cutting aspects of educator preparation for deeper learning to build a more coherent equity focus across teacher, principal and executive preparation. First, the programs have begun to integrate and build from program-specific relationships with particular districts and schools in order to extend those and include other programs. Second, programs are experimenting with integrating several community-based placements into their educator preparation programs that closely align with their vision of equity and deeper learning. These placements include robust examples of culturally sustaining pedagogy and project-based learning. Third, they are beginning to include EdD candidates as co-researchers within teacher and leader preparation programs, to integrate the programs and to create a stronger research agenda on the programs. Finally, they are building and enacting models of deeper learning across every layer of the educator preparation system so that as candidates graduate and enter districts and schools, they are taking with them coherent instructional visions for teaching and leading equity-focused schools and districts.
The presentation will also attend to the inquiry process they are building across the four institutions. This will include how they have organized themselves to participate in one line of inquiry that involves multiple programs at each of the institutions, collect data to better understand practices, and learn from one another’s current and evolving practice.

Authors

• Rebecca Cheung, University of California - Berkeley

• Jennifer Robinson, Montclair State University