On the morning of Friday, January 15, I joined nine other SRI affiliates gathered at Winter Meeting in Tucson to share information about teacher education programs we facilitate and the ways we embed SRI tools and practices in the preparation, induction, in-service, and mentoring of effective teachers. While our focus was pre-service teacher education, participants came to the conversation from a range of contexts as varied as the many routes toward teacher preparation: alternative certification pathways, school- and district-based credentialing programs, university-based undergraduate and graduate preparation and degree-granting institutions, post-baccalaureate and mid-career designs, and in-service professional development were among the programs represented by the gathered SRI affiliates working to support emerging teacher practice.
Our learning experience, deftly facilitated by Angela Breidenstein and Pat Norman, built on an informal conversation launched during Winter Meeting 2014.
During this session, we described the current landscape: What do the teacher education programs we’re involved in look like, and how are we currently using SRI principles, practices, and tools to support the development of new teachers? Common themes, patterns, and questions quickly emerged from among the varied experience and contexts in the room.
In the second half of this session, we examined an Essential Question: Given that SRI principles, practices, and processes comprise a strong, visible, and sustained presence in the teacher preparation programs we facilitate, what would it look like for teacher preparation programs to be a strong presence in SRI? In other words, how might SRI develop and sustain intentional structures that support affiliates who work directly with teacher candidates in pre-service teacher education?
Using the Futures protocol, participants engaged in imaginative brainstorming around:
- the potential of university partnerships;
- influencing policy at local, state, and national levels;
- funding and other resource identification;
- teacher recruitment;
- growing the SRI affiliate base; and
- building the capacity and opportunity to network with SRI affiliates engaged in similar work.
While this conversation was merely a preliminary foray into our shared mission of preparing teachers well with an eye to exploring an SRI pre-service teacher education strand, we left the experience energized, full of optimism, and committed to take some next steps together. First, all the notes from this learning experience, including the transcript of the Futures Protocol might be made available to SRI affiliates. Then, we could ask SRI affiliates in the field who are working in pre-service teacher education to identify themselves. To that end, we wonder:
- Are you engaged in the work of preparing teachers?
- Do you use SRI principles, processes, and tools in pre-service education?
- Would you be interested in joining this conversation?
- Would you consider helping or serving on a steering committee?
Please identify yourself as an affiliate currently working in pre-service teacher education by completing a simple information-gathering form at:
https://docs.google.com/a/trinity.edu/forms/d/1Krmcba0eXE30fCvptWut0CK1YecxghXVRdLNTzSmuHk/edit
Then, consider joining future conversations around this initiative, which may include virtual and/or face to face meetings in the summer, and another gathering at the Winter Meeting 2016 in Miami.
Thank you for considering joining this important conversation. Please don’t hesitate to email me with your questions and/or concerns!
All my best,
Beth I. Graham (bethigraham@aol.com)
SRI National Board of Directors
On behalf of participants in the WM15 Learning Experience, “Establishing an SRI Pre-service Teacher Education Strand”
