Media

Sponsored by the Tin Ka Ping Education Fund of the Tin Ka Ping Foundation, the Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) presents the Academy for Leadership in Teacher Education (ALiTE) International Webinar Series for Exemplary Scholarship and Knowledge Exchange on “Global Trends and Challenges in Teacher Education and The Place of Teacher Inquiry”, to be delivered by Professor Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, USA, on October 15, 2020 (Thursday).

In developed countries around the world, efforts to boost teacher quality have brought unprecedented attention (and critique) to teacher education, including the development of multiple, sometimes competing, reform agendas. In the first part of this webinar, Professor Cochran-Smith will focus on global trends and challenges facing contemporary teacher education by identifying five interrelated “turns,” or broad shifts in thinking: the policy turn, the accountability turn, the practice turn, the research turn, and the equity turn. In the second part, she will focus on teacher inquiry, which is based on the assumption that teachers are professionals and life-long learners who generate as well as consume knowledge. The webinar will be concluded with an analysis of how the major “turns” correspond or collide with the notions of inquiry and professionalism and what the implications are for policy and practice.

Members of the media are welcome to cover this online event. Details are as follows:

Date: October 15, 2020 (Thursday)
Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
Speaker: Professor Cochran-Smith, Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education for Urban Schools, Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, USA
Language: English
Format: To be conducted by ZOOM Webinar
Registration: https://hku.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_BSmHZGySRxCf-C8v7Ou26Q

Professor Marilyn Cochran-Smith is the Cawthorne Professor of Teacher Education at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College, USA.  Drawing on her research interests, which include practitioner inquiry and teacher education research, practice and policy with a focus on social justice and equity, Professor Cochran-Smith is a frequent presenter nationally and internationally.  She has written 10 books, seven of which have won national awards, and more than 200 articles, chapters, and editorials. Her co-authored book, Reclaiming Accountability in Teacher Education won the 2020 Best Book Award from the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE). Professor Cochran-Smith was also a 2020 winner of the Spencer Foundation’s prestigious Mentorship Award as well as the 2018 winner of the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) Division K Lifetime Achievement Award. Professor Cochran-Smith is an elected member of the National Academy of Education, a former president of the AERA, an AERA Fellow, and an elected member of the Laureate Chapter of the Kappa Delta Pi National Education Honorary Society.

For media enquiries, please contact Ms Emily Cheung, Senior Manager (Development and Communications), Faculty of Education, HKU (Tel.: 3917 4270 / E-mail: emchy@hku.hk).