Fall Conference 2024

Understanding Children's Rights as Human Rights and Embracing Our Responsibility as Educators 

Although the United States is the only country that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, educators need to uphold the rights of the child in their schools, preschools, classrooms, curriculum, and teaching. In this presentation, Mariana Souto-Manning will explain why belonging should be the right of every child and shed light on how every educator can center children's rights as human rights.

Reception to follow

Mariana Souto-Manning, PhD is President and holds the Irving and Neison Harris President's Chair of the renowned Erikson Institute, in Chicago, Illinos.

Throughout her career in Early Childhood Education, Dr. Souto-Manning has used her passion for equity and justice to envision and build learning environments that support the unique brilliance of multilingual students. She has dedicated herself to developing educators who support the development of children, their families, and their communities. Dr. Souto-Manning began her career as a teacher in public preschools in Brazil, where, as a Brazilian woman of Color, she observed the need for change. Dr. Souto-Manning has developed and taught courses in Teacher Education, Integrated Early Childhood Education, and Special Education Programs, Child Development, Linguistics, and Early Childhood Education. A vision for equity and justice drives Dr. Souto-Manning. Her work examines the wrongs of the past from a restorative point of view that seeks societal healing to create more holistic educators, clinicians, parents, and lifelong learners.

Making Sense of the Role of Progressive Education in Today’s World: A Conversation with Barbara Stengel and Lyde Cullen Sizer

Barbara Walters Campus Center
9:30am - 12:30pm

Much has changed since John Dewey wrote Democracy in Education in 1916. In the years since, progressive education has made significant inroads in public schools, but it has also been thwarted by conflicting values. Our questions include: Who has benefited from those progressive inroads over the last 100 years? Who has not? Where do we still see vestiges of the fundamental concepts at the center of progressive education? How can we train teachers to build on these values, bringing them to all children in today’s schools? How can the whole community take responsibility: Parents, teachers, practitioners, administrators, and students? Longtime teacher educator and President of the John Dewey Society, Barbara Stengel, will share her perspective with our own History faculty member, Lyde Cullen Sizer.

This time includes the plenary conversation, breakout discussion groups, and a closing discussion with the full group.

Lunch to follow

Barbara Stengel is Professor Emerita in the Practice of Education in the Department of Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University, USA. She is the author of three books including Just Education (1991), Moral Matters (2006) and Toward Anti-Oppressive Teaching (2020). Dr. Stengel is a former President of the Philosophy of Education Society and current President of the John Dewey Society.

1:30pm - 2:45pm

Small Sessions A include:

Child-Centered Practices: Teachers’ Non-Negotiables in Pedagogy
Jerusha Beckerman

In this panel discussion, moderated by Art of Teaching Program Director Jerusha (Rue) Beckerman, a group of public school teachers will talk about some child-centered elements of their practice that they maintain throughout ongoing changes to curriculum and school policy. Through their stories, we will consider the ways certain aspects of progressive pedagogy – such as choice, collaboration, interdisciplinary connections, multimedia expression, connections to home and community experiences, and attention to individual interests and ways of working do in fact continue to be important parts of what is considered “best practice,” even in contemporary mainstream classrooms. We will talk about how some central traits of children and childhood are better honored and included through these practices and therefore how important it is to articulate and uphold them.

"If I wasn't Staying True to My Values, I Wouldn't Want to be Teaching." Teaching from an Ethical Center in Daily Instruction
Cara Furman

What does it mean to teach well? How do we support teachers in this endeavor? This workshop is premised in the belief that teaching well is ethical work that also demands efficacy. In this practical and hands-on session teachers will have a chance to think through and articulate some of their core values as teachers, how these values live in their daily practice, and come up with some ideas to better bring their practices in alignment with their values when they go back to work on Monday!

Parents’ Aspirations and Pressures
Jan Drucker and Lorayne Carbon

In this session parents (including those who may also be teachers, clinicians, service providers) will have the opportunity to share the childhoods they want their children to experience and the confusions, pressures and obstacles that make their role as parents very challenging. The discussion, moderated by Jan Drucker, longtime Sarah Lawrence faculty member, Early Childhood Center Consultant, and clinical psychologist, and Lorayne Carbon, longtime Director of the SLC Early Childhood Center, will be an open, nonjudgmental conversation in which participants can think about their own childhood experiences, how things may have changed, and what concerns them about the way childhood is viewed and structured currently.

Small Sessions B include:

Growing Values-Driven Practice
Jerusha Beckerman and Cara Furman

In this follow-up conversation to the earlier Child Centered Practices and Teaching From an Ethical Center, we will consider ways we can build upon some of the ideas shared to fortify and grow these areas of our practice within the current cultural and political climate in schools. Understanding the ways that children and childhood are honored and supported through these practices, we will remind ourselves how vital it is not only to hold on to these ideas but to defend, strengthen, and expand upon them, pushing back against their further erosion in our classrooms. This discussion, moderated by Art of Teaching Program Director Jerusha (Rue) Beckerman and Cara Furman, Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Hunter College, is open to all teachers, parents, and practitioners, including those not present at the earlier connected sessions.

Children and Nature: Addressing Environmental Issues Through Connection and Play
Christina Edsall and Michelle Byron

Join our session to explore the vital role of nature within children’s development. First, participants will be invited to establish a sense of place and engage with natural objects.  Then, we will share compelling research that highlights the profound benefits of connecting to nature, such as enhancing children's creativity, resilience and well-being.  Come ready to learn, connect and inspire a new generation of nature enthusiasts!

This presentation will focus on the impacts of social media use on the development of young children and explore the ways that we connect and disconnect through our screens. Among other topics, we will review some of the existing research on the relationship between screen use and self regulation, how screen use impacts emotional and social development, and how parents and caregivers can support healthier screen use for themselves and their children. We will also discuss the impacts of the decline in free play time and how our children (and we) can benefit from more time unplugged.