Education Week - August 20, 2014 - Special Report - 8

PERSPECTIVE
What Professional
Development Should Be
By Nancy Flanagan
N
othing is more fascinating
and absorbing
to me-or, in my
opinion, more central
to the preservation of
a high-quality, fully
public education for every child in
America-than teacher leadership.
It is the key reason to believe that
public education might not only survive
but regenerate, the hinge upon
which genuine reform swings. I was
thrilled to be asked to speak about
teacher leadership earlier this year
at the 2014 Ann Arbor Open School
conference on progressive education
and spent a couple of days happily
wallowing in my favorite subject.
It was a fabulous conference-and
absolutely unique. The Open School
invented its own brand of ed camp
31 years ago, two decades before the
ed-camp pioneers, without having to
rely on snazzy tech-tool training to
lure participants into sharing and
swapping their best ideas. In fact, the
conference site-a very rustic Lithuanian-culture
camp about 40 minutes
outside Ann Arbor, Mich.-still has
limited connectivity (a comes-andgoes
single bar), so it was that rare
gathering where most participants
weren't sneaking continuous, surreptitious
peeks at Twitter, Facebook, or
their inboxes. (With two exceptions-
the guy checking his NCAA brackets
and the teacher who took Saturday
morning off to marry her partner of
17 years, then texted a teary, exultant
photo to the group.)
Naturally, I've attended tons of
education conferences-the suitand-heels
mega-convention types
populated by educators whose districts,
organizations, or universities
paid the tab, and the mostlyteachers
type where expensive
keynoters are the draw and prevetted
"content" is presented with
the intent of making instruction
more "effective." Dynamic conference
presenters-yes, they're out
there-are always torn between
knowing that people need time
to filter ideas through their own
mental models and feeling that if
they're going to be paid, they'd best
have some attractive new stuff to
iStockphoto.com
share. Preferably on well-designed
slides. "Sit and get" lives on.
This conference was nothing like
that. Ann Arbor Open School-a K-8
public school, part of the Ann Arbor
school system-was created around
a progressive philosophy and maintains
a delicate balance between
complying with current, increasingly
rigid government mandates and preserving
its core raison d'être: childcentered,
project-based curriculum
and instruction that is responsive to
the children's interests. There's an indistrict
waiting list of families wanting
to get in and a cadre of committed
and dedicated teachers.
What made this conference experience
what professional development
should be? Among other things, the
event was:
* esponsive to the teachers
parents, and school leaders who
attended. The principal and superintendent
were there, as were a
dozen or so parents, plus teachers
from other schools. A homegrown,
annual conference-just to talk-is
an Open School tradition.
* ailored to the wor the mission
and the students. Friday night's program
featured an informal talk by a
former student who shared insights
around several issues, including factors
that lead to school success and
learning loss over summer vacation.
There was an ingrained, completely
authentic comfort level between
the young man and the teachers,
many of whom had had him in their
classrooms years ago. They poked
thoughtfully at some of his talking
Conference Overhauls Behavioral Expectations
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7
ers of a wide range of technology
and other conferences and events
to change their codes of conduct,
which tended to be vague. The
benefits of better guidelines, Ms.
Aurora said, include higher rates
of reporting sexual harassment,
greater likelihood that appropriate
action will be taken, and
changed norms that help mitigate
the extent to which conference
participants are targeted or belittled
for talking openly about such
problems as sexual harassment.
The focus of the revised codes in
the technology industry is identifying
specific behaviors that are
considered unacceptable, such as
using pornography in presentation
slides or taking unwanted
or explicit photos of unsuspecting
women. Ms. Aurora described both
forms of behavior as significant
problems at technology conferences
in recent years; many attendees,
she said, believed they
were socially acceptable until directly
told otherwise.
Ms. Aurora said effective guidelines
also include clear protocols
for reporting and addressing offensive
and harassing behaviors
and explicit consequences for such
behaviors, including evictions
and bans from conferences and
events. Such information was not
previously included in most tech
events' codes of conduct.
Ms. Roth of EdTechWomen and
Ms. Watters of the Hack Education
blog said the overt forms
of harassment described in the
broader technology world do not
seem as prevalent at ed-tech
events. However, they described
a variety of more subtle behaviors-from
sexist jokes to demeaning
assumptions-as widespread
problems.
"Sometimes, we talk about techCommon
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nology as something that men
need to explain to women," Ms.
Watters said.
Codes for Conferences
The changes that the Ada Initiative
is working to foster at wider
technology-industry gatherings
are ones that EdTechWomen and
others would like to see at conferences,
including ISTE, in their field.
Ms. Roth described ISTE's previous
conference code of conduct as
"blatantly insufficient."
That earlier version, which was
in place in June 2013, called on
participants to treat one another
"fairly and with respect," but it
did not provide specific descriptions
of inappropriate conduct or
clear means of redress related to
8 EDUCATION WEEK 2014 CALENDAR OF EVENTS & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DIRECTORY www.edweek.org/go/calendar
harassing behaviors.
Other prominent ed-tech conferences
and events do not appear to
have in place the kinds of detailed
harassment policies suggested by
the Ada Initiative and promoted
by groups such as the Chicagobased
Professional Convention
Management Association, which
wrote about the issue extensively
in the December 2013 issue of its
publication, Convene.
The Washington-based Consortium
for School Networking, for
example, which hosts an annual
gathering that is far smaller than
ISTE's, offers only a guide for vendors
displaying their wares at the
event.
Ms. Roth and others also said
they were troubled by ISTE's initial
response to Ms. Norling's
post, which came in the form of a
June 3 blog post from Mr. Lewis,
the CEO.
In that post, Mr. Lewis wrote
about being distressed at "an attendee's
report of her experience
at one of our past conferences."
He defended ISTE's previous code
of conduct, highlighted the resources
the organization puts
into conference transportation
and safety, and, in the eyes of
critics, disclaimed responsibility
for creating a safer conference
environment.
"It was so, so disappointing,"
said Ms. Roth. "I think that he let
down a lot of people."
In response, EdTechWomen
published a call to "change the
culture" of the ed-tech sector
through a social-media campaign,
public events, the use of teal rib

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Education Week - August 20, 2014 - Special Report

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