Dr. Silvia Nogueron-Liu
Assistant Professor | University of Colorado Boulder Curriculum & Instruction: Literacy Studies Email: [email protected] |
Q: What do you see as some of the most exciting ideas happening right now in Teacher Education?
A: I am doing a literature review right now on digital technology and how that’s impacting classroom literacy instruction. It’s very exciting and alarming. I think a lot about how we can better partner with teachers so they can become technology designers and decision-makers. There’s so much money in educational technology. For example, there is the presence of software developers in the ISTE conference. Walking through the exhibits makes me wonder about who gets involved in the design of the products marketed. When resources to make curriculum are going to the Silicon Valley types and not to teachers, it creates a new set of problems. Many of the developers want their apps to be pedagogically sound, but I think there’s so much more we can do if we see teachers as designers.
Q: What is one new idea in Teacher Education that you are working on?
A: To me, I’m very passionate about and concerned by any teacher professional development related to tech integration, and how teachers get to make decisions related to that. I view teachers as partners and cultural mediators for their students and families, so I approach my work through a culturally responsive frame, asking teachers: How are you using this device? Is it really helping your students and their families?
I’ve found in working with Master’s degree students [who are practicing teachers] that most technology-related decisions are not in their hands. Someone else made the decision to buy the technology, and usually it’s related to testing, which is not always the point of digital citizenship and Connected Learning frameworks. Thinking about “digital citizenship,” there are many layers to that term. It’s very culturally-based. I realize that many families experience a lot of concerns related to technology, but those concerns are based on very different things depending on the family’s background.
Q: The focus of this year’s annual conference is “Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity.” What do you believe it would take to achieve this promise?
A: I think we’re [the education research community] on different pages regarding how we make sense of educational opportunity. What’s the gap that needs to be reduced? Is it an achievement gap? An opportunity gap? Because education researchers have such a specific focus, we tend to target one area and this impacts how we see the “gap.” We need more interdisciplinary work. If we work in teams, we can have more impact beyond our very narrow scope. So for example with my work, I can collaborate with technology designers, or policy scholars, or children’s literature experts. Together we can have more impact. We can make an argument for quality children’s books and iPads.
Partnering with teachers and doing interdisciplinary research is important. Teachers are struggling right now and it’s very hard work. I think partnering with teachers is key to the sustainability of our research efforts.
A: I am doing a literature review right now on digital technology and how that’s impacting classroom literacy instruction. It’s very exciting and alarming. I think a lot about how we can better partner with teachers so they can become technology designers and decision-makers. There’s so much money in educational technology. For example, there is the presence of software developers in the ISTE conference. Walking through the exhibits makes me wonder about who gets involved in the design of the products marketed. When resources to make curriculum are going to the Silicon Valley types and not to teachers, it creates a new set of problems. Many of the developers want their apps to be pedagogically sound, but I think there’s so much more we can do if we see teachers as designers.
Q: What is one new idea in Teacher Education that you are working on?
A: To me, I’m very passionate about and concerned by any teacher professional development related to tech integration, and how teachers get to make decisions related to that. I view teachers as partners and cultural mediators for their students and families, so I approach my work through a culturally responsive frame, asking teachers: How are you using this device? Is it really helping your students and their families?
I’ve found in working with Master’s degree students [who are practicing teachers] that most technology-related decisions are not in their hands. Someone else made the decision to buy the technology, and usually it’s related to testing, which is not always the point of digital citizenship and Connected Learning frameworks. Thinking about “digital citizenship,” there are many layers to that term. It’s very culturally-based. I realize that many families experience a lot of concerns related to technology, but those concerns are based on very different things depending on the family’s background.
Q: The focus of this year’s annual conference is “Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity.” What do you believe it would take to achieve this promise?
A: I think we’re [the education research community] on different pages regarding how we make sense of educational opportunity. What’s the gap that needs to be reduced? Is it an achievement gap? An opportunity gap? Because education researchers have such a specific focus, we tend to target one area and this impacts how we see the “gap.” We need more interdisciplinary work. If we work in teams, we can have more impact beyond our very narrow scope. So for example with my work, I can collaborate with technology designers, or policy scholars, or children’s literature experts. Together we can have more impact. We can make an argument for quality children’s books and iPads.
Partnering with teachers and doing interdisciplinary research is important. Teachers are struggling right now and it’s very hard work. I think partnering with teachers is key to the sustainability of our research efforts.
Dr. Melissa Braaten
Assistant Professor | University of Colorado Boulder Curriculum & Instruction: Math and Science Education Email: [email protected] |
Q: What do you see as some of the most exciting ideas happening right now in Teacher Education?
A: I see two things, really. One of these is related to some of the interesting dilemmas and questions as we return to a more practice-based focus, which has generated some interesting discussions. What constitutes preparing people for the practice of teaching? What’s the role of things that don’t transfer as easily into practice, like Foundations? For me, these are exciting conversations, and I’m glad to see the practice-based turn has generated thoughtful deliberation about this.
Second, is the continued emphasis on what it means to prepare people to be equitable and anti-oppressive teachers. Teaching is political work. How do we think about preparing young people to be part of political activity? Because it is political work, whether they want to see themselves as political or not. Does this mean making people aware? Building them into activists? It’s an exciting set of questions and conversations, and I am glad to see people are embracing this.
Q: What is one new idea in Teacher Education that you are working on?
A: In science education, we’ve done a pretty good job as a field in bringing in goals of social justice—thinking about cultural and linguistic diversity, racial diversity, LGBTQ diversity—but we’ve gotten stalled. Are these principles we want people to have, or are they practices we want people to do in their science teaching?
What I’m working on and trying to figure out is: what are the kinds of practices that people do? Take something like encouraging an inclusive climate. What is it that people do in their daily practice to encourage an inclusive climate? Sometimes, it’s identifying the small steps. Then asking: how do we help brand new people in preservice teacher education practice activities that aren’t separated from the job of teaching elementary school? In other words, I want it to be meshed in with what teachers really do. I don’t know how to do that yet, but that’s part of what I’m trying to foreground. How do you launch and get people engaged in a science activity, but then how do you attend to the people in your small group? You have to have one eye on the horizon. If the person on my right isn’t contributing, how am I going to invite them in? I’m trying to figure out how to fold these ideas into the larger work of preparing elementary science teachers.
Q: The focus of the 2017 annual conference is “Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity.” What do you believe it would take to achieve this promise?
A: Part of it is what I’ve just been talking about. But another layer is that these things can be taught and learned by preservice candidates. You aren’t necessarily born skillful. It can be taught and learned, we just have to figure out how to do it. It’s not like you come out of teacher prep ready to go. We have to really get to a point as a society that teacher preparation matters because it’s something you can learn and refine. We need genuine, serious, and deep teacher preparation.
A: I see two things, really. One of these is related to some of the interesting dilemmas and questions as we return to a more practice-based focus, which has generated some interesting discussions. What constitutes preparing people for the practice of teaching? What’s the role of things that don’t transfer as easily into practice, like Foundations? For me, these are exciting conversations, and I’m glad to see the practice-based turn has generated thoughtful deliberation about this.
Second, is the continued emphasis on what it means to prepare people to be equitable and anti-oppressive teachers. Teaching is political work. How do we think about preparing young people to be part of political activity? Because it is political work, whether they want to see themselves as political or not. Does this mean making people aware? Building them into activists? It’s an exciting set of questions and conversations, and I am glad to see people are embracing this.
Q: What is one new idea in Teacher Education that you are working on?
A: In science education, we’ve done a pretty good job as a field in bringing in goals of social justice—thinking about cultural and linguistic diversity, racial diversity, LGBTQ diversity—but we’ve gotten stalled. Are these principles we want people to have, or are they practices we want people to do in their science teaching?
What I’m working on and trying to figure out is: what are the kinds of practices that people do? Take something like encouraging an inclusive climate. What is it that people do in their daily practice to encourage an inclusive climate? Sometimes, it’s identifying the small steps. Then asking: how do we help brand new people in preservice teacher education practice activities that aren’t separated from the job of teaching elementary school? In other words, I want it to be meshed in with what teachers really do. I don’t know how to do that yet, but that’s part of what I’m trying to foreground. How do you launch and get people engaged in a science activity, but then how do you attend to the people in your small group? You have to have one eye on the horizon. If the person on my right isn’t contributing, how am I going to invite them in? I’m trying to figure out how to fold these ideas into the larger work of preparing elementary science teachers.
Q: The focus of the 2017 annual conference is “Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity.” What do you believe it would take to achieve this promise?
A: Part of it is what I’ve just been talking about. But another layer is that these things can be taught and learned by preservice candidates. You aren’t necessarily born skillful. It can be taught and learned, we just have to figure out how to do it. It’s not like you come out of teacher prep ready to go. We have to really get to a point as a society that teacher preparation matters because it’s something you can learn and refine. We need genuine, serious, and deep teacher preparation.