2019 TASH Conference: Educators as Activists: Preparing Specia...

Each year, the TASH Conference brings together our constituents to share resources and success stories, learn about field-driven best practices, and network within a community engaged in shared values. The Conference is attended by passionate leaders, experts, and advocates from every corner of the disability community. Conference attendees are influential in their fields and communities, and play an important role in the provision of services and supports for the millions of individuals and organizations around the world; and include professors and researchers from leading institutions; those involved in local, state, and federal governments and public policy; special and general educators, and school administrators; self-advocates, adult service providers; students, family members, and many others. This year’s conference theme, Building Diverse and Inclusive Communities, reminds us that equity, opportunity, and inclusion relies on the input of broad perspectives and experiences.

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Educators as Activists: Preparing Special Educators to be Agents of Change Seating Available

Limited Capacity seats available

New teachers often learn about evidence-based practices as well as principles of equity and access in their university training, but may have difficulty implementing these principles in their role as a new teacher of a self-contained special education classroom. Through a university-district partnership in Los Angeles, CA, university faculty, district staff, school partners, and credential candidates collaborate to increase both the quantity and quality of time that students with disabilities spend in general education. This partnership facilitates the active engagement of credential candidates and graduates in the process of school change towards inclusive practices, and builds a network of support among candidates and their mentors. This collaboration has resulted in new special education teachers who are actively engaged in school change efforts at their school sites, and who are acting as leaders for inclusive practices, even in their early years as a teacher. In this session, our university-district team will share the systems that have led to partnerships for creating and sustaining inclusive practices. Several newly credentialed teachers will share a) elements of their credential program that helped them to bridge what they learned in classes to their work as teachers, b) the roles they are playing at their school sites to make them more inclusive, and c) the impact they have seen for students and families at their sites.

Presenters