Institute 9: Best Practices in Literacy Leadership: Nurturing Development through Sustainable Learning and Creative Change
Reading Today Online asked all of the Institute Chairpersons for IRA San Antonio to respond to three questions designed to give our readers and all of the prospective attendees a better understanding of the insights and benefits they will gain from attending these day-long programs. Below are responses from Institute 9 Chairs Cindy Lassonde and Kristine Tucker.
What is the professional urgency that this Institute is designed to address?
Literacy leadership is contextualized by the realities of high-stakes testing, accountability measures, teacher development initiatives, data-driven literacy programs for K-12 students, acclimation to the new Common Core State Standards, and a shifting landscape regarding teacher evaluation procedures. Mirroring the super-charged pace of life in general, literacy leadership responds to the prioritizing and re-prioritizing of local, educational needs defined by 21st century college and career readiness goals.
But, what would happen if we took pause? What might result if within this pause we ask, "How might we perceive and build a different kind of literacy leadership pedagogy or praxis when 'need' is defined as nurturing the development of sustainable learning, creative change, and renewal?"
Working within a professional landscape increasingly defined by quantitative means necessitates the clearing of space for this kind of inquiry and exploration. Best Practices in Literacy Leadership: Nurturing Development through Sustainable Learning and Creative Change is a qualitative conversation and inquiry into what it means to be a literacy leader when “need” is reconsidered and defined as sustainable learning, creative change, and renewal.
What types of literacy professionals is the Institute designed for?
This institute is designed for anyone who identifies as a stakeholder in advancing literacy leadership. All voices are welcome.
How will attendance at this Institute help those literacy professionals “make a difference” in their work?
Best Practices in Literacy Leadership: Nurturing Development through Sustainable Learning and Creative Change celebrates educators as literacy leaders, adult learners, and agents of social change. This institute will change how literacy leaders conceptualize, approach, and engage literacy leadership as participants fold new tools and strategies into their developing repertoire. This institute offers a variety of practical leadership strategies to create responsive, respectful, and sustainable learning communities nurturing growth, development, and transformation.
Registration Information: This preconference institute will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio, Texas from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday, April 19 before the 58th International Reading Association Annual Convention begins on Saturday, April 20. Register online for this or another institute and/or to register for the annual convention. Call 888-294-9167 or 415-979-2278 to find out how to register by phone, fax, or mail. To learn more about convention events in San Antonio, visit the annual convention website and the online itinerary planner (iPlanner), or read more Reading Today annual convention articles.