Conference Theme: Looking Inward, Thinking Forward
Higher education is experiencing significant budgetary, policy, and cultural challenges that are prompting institutions to reflect upon, justify, and adjust their practices and processes—and sometimes their values. To create flexible responses to these shifting and complex times, it is imperative that we “look inward and think forward:” that we critically examine our current contexts, narratives, and traditions while keeping in mind the future goals and needs of our institutions, our disciplines, and the communities we serve. (Note: we are closely monitoring the situation related to COVID-19. At this point, we are proceeding with the conference planning and anticipate that the conference will take place in November in Seattle as planned. We will provide updates as new information becomes available or if anything changes regarding the conference.)
Proposal Submission Deadline: April 30
Because of our unique and longstanding partnerships with faculty, students, and administrators, educational developers are uniquely situated to facilitate important and necessary changes, from amplifying and supporting research-based teaching and learning practices to advocating for campus policies beyond the classroom that create more inclusive learning environments. As we strive to understand and articulate the internal and external challenges we currently face, storytelling can be a powerful means of advancing collective visions for change and strategy.
To that end, we are calling for proposals that critically engage the 2020 conference theme “Looking Inward, Thinking Forward.” Proposals may focus on how educational developers, centers, and/or institutions as a whole examine their histories and goals as they reflect on data and experience to anticipate and plan for new challenges, how to create community around shared stories and goals, how to define institutional priorities and initiatives, and/or how to develop innovative approaches in response to emerging challenges and changing priorities.
The following prompts are provided to guide proposers in addressing the conference theme:
- Reflecting on data and experience to anticipate and plan for new challenges
- How do we creatively respond to challenges resulting from a changing environment in Higher Education generally or our campus more specifically? This may include responses to campus trauma, reorganization, technological innovations, and an increasingly diverse student and faculty body.
- What are the challenges and opportunities for our discipline in the context of significant changes in Higher Education funding, policy, and culture? How do we effectively and efficiently manage these in a way that affirms the continued relevance of educational development?
- How do we leverage data, scholarship, and stories to define campus and center values? Which values are open to change and which ones do we need to affirm?
- Advancing Communities, Learning, and Leadership Through Stories
- What is the role of shared narratives and stories in negotiating change and creating community as part of our multifaceted professional roles as campus leaders, teachers, collaborators, etc.?
- How do we tell stories to different audiences (including internally v. externally)? How do we take ownership of them?
- How can we use storytelling to guide learning? How can stories help learners connect with knowledge in more authentic, meaningful, and critical ways? (Note: The definition of learners here is context-dependent and may include faculty, students, administrators, and colleagues.)
- How do we leverage technology to create stories and reach our intended audience?
- Leading Organizational Development and Systemic Change for the Future
- How can educational developers become actively involved in leading campus change in inclusive, sustainable ways?
- How do we engage mid- and late-career faculty as their status within an institution evolves and identities change? (e.g., into department chairs, center fellows, institutional administrators, etc.)
- How do we foster and leverage relationships with institutional and/ or system administrators?
- What kinds of narratives are deployed as Educational Development Centers are founded, or as they mature, restructure, or merge with other groups?
- How do institutions tap into their mission, vision, and values to develop external academic partnerships and/or initiatives, especially around diversity, equity and inclusion, teaching and learning innovation, or to communicate the value of higher education?
Please plan to join us in looking inward and thinking forward while sharing your research and practices using various modes of presentation and engagement.
Claudia Cornejo Happel, Conference Co-Chair
German Vargas Ramos, Conference Co-Chair
Tammy M. McCoy, Program Co-Chair
Jerod Quinn, Program Co-Chair
Hoag Holmgren, POD Network Executive Director
Please email the conference team with any questions you may have:
conferenceteam@podnetwork.org
Downtown Seattle photo by Tiffany Von Arnim. Used with permission under Creative Commons license 2.0. Copyright Tiffany Von Arnim.