New Virtual ELATE Discussion Series: Small Talk about Big Ideas
An exciting new initiative for fall 2024 is a virtual ELATE discussion series, “Small Talk about Big Ideas.” Each interactive discussion will include community building, a brief presentation by the author, breakout rooms for connection and dialogue in small groups, and an opportunity for Q&A with the author. The inaugural events will focus on two outstanding articles from English Education.
The first discussion will center Stephanie Anne Shelton’s (2022) Janet Emig Award winning article “Communities of Discomfort: Empowering LGBTQ+ Ally Work in a Southeastern Rural Community,” and will take place on Thursday, September 26, 2024, 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET. Shelton’s (2024) article analyzes one English teacher’s experiences incorporating LGBTQ+ topics during student teaching and the first two years of in-service teaching in a rural public high school in the Southeastern United States. Importantly, Shelton’s research highlights how justice-centered teachers can draw on standards and community support to incorporate LGBTQ+ topics despite constraints.
Register to Attend on September 26
The second discussion will feature Rubén González’s (2024) article “I’ve always had the abolitionist spirit in me: Pre-Service Teachers of Color and Pedagogies of Abolitionist Praxis,” and will take place on Tuesday, October 22, 2024, 5:00–6:00 p.m. ET. González highlights how ELA teacher preparation programs have embraced the rhetoric of abolition and abolitionist pedagogy, yet often fail to implement the actions necessary to realize true abolition. His article calls for a critical shift in teacher education, pushing the field to realize abolitionist praxis in both formal and informal training settings, and offers activities to guide this integration.
Register to Attend on October 22
All ELATE and NCTE members are invited to join these interactive, virtual discussions to meet the authors, chat in small groups with other ELATE and NCTE members, and learn more about cutting-edge research that is informing the field of English education. Please contact profdev@ncte.org with any questions.
This discussion series is cosponsored by the Center for Equity and Justice in Teacher Education at Georgia State University and the Center of Racial Justice and Youth Engaged Research, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
A former high school English teacher, Stephanie Anne Shelton is an Associate Professor of Qualitative Research at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to seven books, she has more than 60 peer-reviewed article publications, often co-authored with K–12 teachers, appearing in outlets such as English Education, English Journal, Qualitative Inquiry, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies, and Teaching and Teacher Education. She is the 2020 recipient of the AERA Division D Early Career Award in Measurement and Research Methodology, 2021 NCTE LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Leadership Award, 2022 Nellie Rose McCrory Teaching Excellence Award, 2022 American Library Association’s Choice Book Award, 2023 NCTE ELATE Janet Emig Award, and 2023 Divergent Award for Excellence in Literacy Advocacy. Her scholarship has been funded by the Spencer Foundation, American Educational Research Association, National Council of Teachers of English, the SEC Faculty Grant Program, the Georgia Governor’s Office of Student Achievement, and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Rubén González, proudly from Greenfield, California, is a PhD candidate in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education at Stanford University. His current research explores how students and teachers of color develop and enact an abolitionist praxis in the classroom, school, and larger community settings. Rubén’s scholarship has been supported by the California State University Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program (CDIP), the Stanford Haas Graduate Public Service (GPS) Fellowship, the Ford Pre-Doctoral Fellowship, and the NAEd/Spencer Dissertation Fellowship. Prior to pursuing his graduate studies, Rubén was a high school English, English Language Development, and AVID teacher in Sacramento, California. He completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in English at Sacramento State University after transferring from Hartnell College.