education writers association conference

education writers association conference

Exploring Innovative Approaches in Education: Insights from the Education Writers Association Conference

1. Introduction to the Education Writers Association Conference

Rolle and Smith facilitated focus on questions including “What innovative practices, policies, strategies show the most promise for reforming systems in education?” “Once you have enrolled a diverse group of excellent students in an exemplary teacher education program, is there enough prospective diversity, inclusive practice, and innovation to disaggregate relevant impacts historically masked within sub (i.e., Black and Latino/a) groups (e.g., college retention, content learning, teaching placements, graduate school and sector placement preferences, teaching effectiveness)?” and “What are the greatest threats to higher education admitting low-income/high-resource students, and what practices might be implemented to help ensure their admission?”

The 2022 National Seminar of the Education Writers Association (EWA) – the professional organization of members of the media who cover the field of education – was held online from May 17 to 29. The annual EWA National Seminar is the pre-eminent conference on public education in the U.S. As the recipients of an EWA Reporting Fellowship, Professors R. Anthony Rolle and Jeffrey Smith of the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College attended the three-day event. At the end of one day’s sessions, Rolle and Smith led a “Community Chat,” a roundtable discussion focused not on educating the nineteen conference attendees, but on leveraging their expertise to help EWA identify education-related topics they might want to cover in the future. EWA conferences are designed to provide insight and resources to an audience of journalists who need story ideas and expert contacts in the field of education. The insight they obtain from their award-winning coverage is cutting-edge; this yearly conference, as such, is valuable because it soaks up top themes and emerging opportunities and concerns.

Exploring innovative approaches in education: Insights from the 2022 Education Writers Association Conference

2. Key Themes and Discussions at the Conference

“Journalists and policy folks who gathered at the event are charged up about improving teacher education, promoting equity through equal access to summer learning, and infusing K-12 education with lessons about the broader world that international students bring with them to our boarding schools and college campuses,” Clark said. “And while there’s much to celebrate in schools and colleges, it’s also clear that those who gathered at the Education Writers Association’s National Seminar are well aware that achievement gaps between racial groups stubbornly persist from kindergarten through college.” The 2018 National Seminar featured the usual star-studded speakers who analyzed how education can help us create solutions to decades of racial, economic, and political polarization. Journalists then brought together parents, teachers, and community leaders from school districts and colleges around the country for a series of deep-dive roundtable discussions on the issues.

The Education Writers Association’s (EWA) 72nd National Seminar, held from May 17-19, 2018, in Los Angeles, featured a phenomenal group of education reporters, essays and polls, and education industry analysts and policymakers for dynamic discussions of many of the top education issues. The conference featured discussions on collaboration and innovation with education colleagues and educators, including Maria Danylesko of the Emmett Institute on Public Lands and the Environment, and Patricia Pritchett, the Institute’s education director. The annual conference features media and industry experts in discussion of the latest trends in education, as well as topics of interest to students and educators interested in becoming writers, editors, and producers in education.

3. Case Studies and Best Practices Shared at the Conference

4. Study 1: Introduction of Friends’ Centre The first explicit actions for funding that led to the establishment of the Friends’ School Centre (incorporated in The Hive: Centre for Social Innovation) were made in 1998. Campaigners through Friends’ School Council had been working with Schools Out, the professional development arm of the Faculty of Education at The University of Tasmania, for some time. They wanted a professional development resource or ‘think-tank’ that would further the development of Friends’ School and the idea of a ‘rural school of thought’ in Australia.

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3.1 Case Studies:

1. Ferriter and Payne note that the Education Writers Association’s national conference, held in Detroit, earlier this month, included sharing the results of recent ‘case studies’ and examples of ‘best practice’ in education. The Wellcome Trust, a global charity that seeks to shape a world in which millions of people enjoy better health, encapsulates three case studies which showed how policy and practice have been influenced over time as a result of a range of funders’ ‘diabetic’ activities. These range from trying to push policy through making ‘passionate’ connections with the media, to seeking to stimulate driver changes by bringing together ‘influential lunches’ and even directly funding ‘big names’ to undertake research. The Lutheran World Federation, a global communion of Protestant churches in the Lutheran tradition, also featured three case studies where good practice has reached a refined state of ‘excellence’. Bermund, Du Preez, Johnson, Kearney, and White document some examples in schools that experienced sustained change. At the 2008 IBSC Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn conference for international boys’ school educators, the steering group conducted an inquiry and inquiry method to provide new guidance. They called on the steering team to investigate the needs of this group of educators, drawing on research evidence and the conference activities.

4. Implications for Education Policy and Practice

Of what relevance is any of this to the broad educational landscape? While infection numbers are decreasing in many areas and vaccines are being rolled out in numerous countries, education remains in a state of flux. Although we may long for “normalcy” and predict a return to it in the 2021-22 academic year, such predictions remain speculative. Furthermore, given the distinct cleavages and inequalities laid bare during the pandemic, grappling with the “known” divagates into territory more perilous and complicated. Ideologically, and to some degree, practically, the interventions endorsed by the speakers at the conference reflect gold standards, not silver, and certainly not bronze. However, as policies, the innovative approaches suggest that educational practices, what teachers do every day, matter. That indeed is a shift and the potential game changer. As catchy as it is to talk about educational policies in the abstract, heavily invested with political theory and psychological meaning, as political investments in the future of an imagined nation, reinforcing the progressive ideals of whiteness, they also signal something rather remarkable about education as a field of study of practice: there are practices. That is, classroom teachers do things with consequences. We know that at least one intervention can succeed in the classroom. Only time will tell if these other progressive approaches will also succeed in educational policies and practices in the margins of welfare capitalism.

5. Future Directions and Opportunities for Collaboration

While skeptics might dispute the capacity for UC San Diego to institute lasting change, the convening inspired views about promoting educational opportunity. The spring conference provides a moment to elevate, in the eyes of the press and perhaps beyond, notable educational work happening at UC San Diego to encourage future directions. There was broad support for research, action, and integration of programming to confront the looming crises and opportunities that big questions present. The conference begins to move from the presentation of questions and possibilities to action steps that can be taken collaboratively or by individual participants. Immediate priorities for work will involve outreach to begin constellating stakeholders and developing the next iterations of campus and consortium programming.

The first theme points to the insights and knowledge that emerged from important and innovative work occurring in several realms at UC San Diego and in the broader world and opens possibilities for implementing some of those insights across the university and beyond through innovative pedagogy, outreach, and research. A second theme highlights the key ideas and networks coming into focus that leverage UC San Diego’s strengths in areas such as public health, global health, climate change, data science, and tech and ethics. The event also devoted a portion of the convening to showcasing the successes and needs of some Chancellors Associates consortium members of the Best Coast Partnership. Speakers in this session explored some of the opportunities on the near horizon and lessons from informal collaboration across the divisions and UCSD Health in the midst of a pandemic.