Teaching in Trying Times

The past few years have presented challenges and opportunities for educators who are committed to civic and political education. In recent years, we have witnessed a surge in homophobic, racist, misogynist, and xenophobic rhetoric in our society and our schools. At the same time, teachers in classrooms across this country have been engaged in the difficult work of challenging oppression and injustice in their schools, communities, and nation. These teachers know that the future of our democracy is at stake.

So often, teaching in these trying times becomes an exercise in refereeing divisiveness, the focus on difference and polarization. But what if instead we centered our work in schools and communities around the idea of love. The kind of love that, as bell hooks suggests, combines “care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect, and trust.” The kind of love that forces us to struggle, and as Fred Rodgers notes, forces us “to strive to accept [each] person exactly the way he or she is, right here and now.” The kind of “profound love” which Freire asserts is the foundation of all dialogue. What does that look like?

The second annual Teaching in Trying Times Conference will address that very question, inviting members of our educational community--educators, youth, families, academic, and activists--to come together to share theoretical and practical ways of teaching with and for love. Love for our students, colleagues, families, communities, and world.

As we watch these challenges unfold in our nation and across the globe, how might focusing on love affect our ability to engage with others who might have different ideas and perspectives than the ones that we bring to these events? In our curricula, to what stories and historical narratives might we turn to illustrate the centrality of love? Through our pedagogy, how might we promote a love to create and sustain community?

Teaching in Trying Times seeks to foster conversations around these pressing questions. This one-day conference will invite primary and secondary school educators from around the country to share both theoretical and practical approaches to political and civic education in these trying times--approaches centered on love.

We are looking for proposals from educators, families, researchers, and youth to share both theoretical and practical approaches to political and civic education. To submit a proposal to present at the conference, please click on the link below.

Submit Your Proposal