GLOBAL TEACHER EDUCATION SUMMIT

Building a Global Teacher Education Community for Future Possibilities

Conference Dates: 25-28 October (Friday - Monday) 2024

Venue: Beijing Normal University, Haidian Main Campus, Beijing, China

Website: http://www.gtes.org.cn

CALL FOR PAPERS

The developmental path of teacher education has been impacted by rapid educational changes. The problems of teaching and teacher education flared during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

We at Beijing Normal University have followed and discussed these changes by offering a series of Global Teacher Education Summits, which offered a series of noteworthy forums on teachers, teaching, and teacher education. The last such gathering was a hybrid event held at the height of the Pandemic in 2021. This is the Fifth Summit.

In the past few years, the world of education has witnessed the emergence of a new reality in teaching and learning that forced schools, teachers, and students to adapt to the milieus of virtual and hybrid pedagogy. Concomitantly, teacher education has had to develop a fresh understanding of the transformed nature of teaching and the new roles of teachers so as to better prepare them to explore learning and developmental opportunities for their students.

The aim of the Fifth Summit, therefore, is to help chart a new direction for teacher education by examining critical issues in the changing contexts and their impact on the future of teachers' work and the orientation of teacher education in the new era of schooling.

The challenges generated by the forces of change are formidable. They have to be met by sound evidence-based policies. However, in the implementation of policies, our education systems have failed to deliver the desired results. It has been observed that the most salient educational problems today – scarcity of highly competent teachers, low academic achievement among disadvantaged students, and the haphazard implementation of pro-child and pro-equity educational policies – have been identified decades ago; but they have remained to undermine the quality of our education today.

A significant difference exists between the educational problems then and now. The problems that confront us today are more complex and driven by a multiplicity of forces. Because of this change, our problem-solving approach will have to be multidimensional, one that can transcend the simple calculation of resources and cost and benefit analysis. For example, the widespread learning deficit caused by the Pandemic, as well as the unsuccessful attempts to recover the loss of learning, can only be tackled by a concerted effort of scientists, policymakers, educators, and teachers who can think, act, and educate beyond the classroom. Moreover, the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI, as illustrated by ChatGPT and other digital tools) reminds us of the boundless possibilities afforded by these human-invented technologies while revealing the opportunities and threats that teachers and teacher educators will have to deal with. Furthermore, the growing influence of cognitive science in school curriculum and teaching, and the demand for accountability in teacher education, reflect the deepening influence of scientific facts in educational decision-making. Such a development will stir more debates in the education arena while teachers and teacher educators learn to identify and apply trusted wisdom that can serve their needs.

Today's education problems, especially when they are applied to teacher education, are much more complex because they are beyond the capacity of any one group of academics, professionals and officials who devote their attention to any single area of work. The search for solutions for today's problems anticipates the involvement of more diverse groups of stakeholders who have different interests. They have to be able to work together with the support of solid scientific facts and good practical insights that are based on neuroscience and learning sciences. Knowledge of best practices will also need to be habitually explored to inform pedagogical decisions.

In using “Building a Global Education Community for Future Possibilities” as the title of the Fifth Summit, we wish to illuminate the vital importance of educators working together to accomplish their desired goals for teaching and teacher education. In addition to envisioning collaborative research across disciplinary boundaries, we also hope that scholars, teachers and researchers who are interested in collaborative endeavors will find our conference a useful platform to express and exchange ideas for the development of teaching and teacher education. Perhaps a harbinger to a global teacher education community may be nurtured from some of the ideas that emerge at our Beijing Normal University forum.

There are numerous pertinent issues that should be included in our discussion. In setting the program of the conference, we had to select from topics that are pertinent to the new reality of teacher education and important to its future development. They are suggested as the conference themes, as listed in the section below.

With this announcement, we invite educators, researchers, and policymakers from around the world to take part in a discussion that will foster the growth of a global teacher education community.

CONFERENCE THEMES

We encourage submissions which explore themes that are aligned with the legacy of interests of our previous conferences. Such themes are listed in the following sections.

1. Teacher education for a future of uncertainties

Preparing teachers for the uncertain post-pandemic future and meeting the challenges of change is the most important endeavor for teacher education. Possible topics of exploration for the summit include: fostering teacher resilience, adaptability, and inquisitiveness; multidisciplinary teacher education; changing knowledge base and professional roles of teacher educators; navigating the new environment of teaching and serving diverse learning needs; inclusivity and equitable pursuits in teacher education; innovative curriculum practices and pedagogical approaches; leadership and accountability in the changing context of schools and teacher education.

2. Teacher learning and development in the Digital Age

In the Digital Age, teacher education has to guide the learning and development of teachers in a new environment of teaching and learning where novel technologies and generative AI will assert stronger influence on teachers and schools. Teacher education will have to anticipate such changes in the life and work of teachers and tailor its curriculum to prepare or strengthen the increasingly diverse roles of teachers as instructors, mentors, guides, coaches, and assessors, to name just a few. Possible topics: paradigm shifts in teacher and student learning; cultivating digital literacy and capabilities; individualized teaching and learning approaches; educational reform through technologies; technological innovations for teacher and school improvement; and issues in evaluation and measurement of student competence and achievement.

3. Changes in subject-based teacher education

Teacher education has been traditionally organized around specific school subject areas. School subjects are rooted in academic disciplines in universities. With the rapid changes in academic disciplines, growing interaction and collaboration among different academic disciplines, and the international call for cultivating core competencies in our children, it is imperative to examine, imagine, and reform subject-based teacher education in diverse educational settings. Possible topics: innovative models for interdisciplinary teacher education; curriculum (re)design for evolving academic disciplines in teacher education; integrating core competency into subject-based teacher education; professional identity, learning, and development of subject-based teacher educators; international perspectives on reforming subject-based teacher education; conceptualization and theorization of subject-based teacher education practices.  

4. Evidence-based curriculum, teaching, and teacher education practices

The alignment of curriculum design and teaching strategies with teacher education will be more effective if they are based on empirical insights. Likewise, the quality of policies and administrative practices will be enhanced if they are informed by factual evidence. A dialogue on the efficacy of evidence-based curriculum and pedagogy, as well as their interaction with teacher education, should provide valuable opportunities for reflections on an area of inquiry that is becoming increasingly important in teaching and teacher education. But such inquiries are also in need of continuous refinement.  Possible topics: issues in reliability of evidence; contextual influences on selection of evidences; evidence as tools for value-added teacher education; issues in the methodologies of evidence-based curriculum and instructional designs; implementation of evidence-based policies in schooling.

5. Crossing boundaries for teacher education

In the new reality of education, educators are crossing national, institutional, and academic boundaries to raise the quality of education. Through partnership, association, and networking with colleagues from other schools, universities, and research institutions, educators engage in collaborative work that can transform the school pedagogy and the teacher education system. Possible topics: boundary-crossing as change strategy for teacher education; identifying common interests in teacher education; leadership in boundary-crossing endeavors; matching cultures of teaching in cross-boundary teacher education; transnational professional development programs for teachers; cross-subject integration in multidisciplinary approach to teacher education.