i teach a doctoral seminar on educator professional learning

in light of our crisis & many education implications, i've invited my students to write an alternative final paper

the topic: professional learning in a time of pandemic

here are some of my early thoughts > thread /1

business-as-usual educator professional development is now antiquated, an approach to pedagogical control predicated upon a logic of accountability & compliance that cannot continue post-crisis. such tips, tricks & technologies will harm our most vulnerable learners & teachers /2

educator professional learning needs a substantive rethink

now, more than ever, educators must be provided with options

options to pursue learning opportunities driven by interests & dilemmas

options to engage with learning opportunities that are open, critical & creative /3

educator professional learning must wrestle with topics reflecting the accumulation of individual privilege, while questioning pervasive inequities of American schooling

educators must dialogue in community and critically about pedagogies & tensions exacerbated by this crisis /4

if educators are to facilitate their students' collaborative inquiry in digital spaces...

... then their professional learning should also feature creative opportunities to collaborate, question, and collectively inquire in digital spaces /5

if educators are to facilitate their students' authorship of digital literacies...

... then their professional learning should also feature authentic opportunities to read about, write amidst, and remark upon their own digital lives and literacies /6

if educators are to facilitate their students' critical interrogation of systemic injustice & institutional racism (now is the time!)...

...then their professional learning should also feature supportive opportunities to read about, debate, and make sense of those very topics /7

finally, if educators are to facilitate their students' online learning as an act of care and empathy (given our students' trauma), then professional learning should also model such caring relationships and promote humane solutions to the messy work of teaching and learning. /end