Call for Proposals: Transforming Education for Social Justice 2025
Call for Proposals: Transforming Education for Social Justice Conference
March 29, 2025 at Easthampton High School, Easthampton, MA
Proposals must be submitted by January 10, 2025.
This year’s conference will focus on Bridging and Belonging without Othering: Youth Civic Engagement. Ongoing tensions at the national and global levels have been accompanied by an increase in anxiety among young people. Locally, we believe it’s imperative to create a space for school community members to learn from, challenge, and support one another to navigate polarization and fragmentation in our communities. Anxiety is a normal biological response to being overwhelmed by the accelerated change we are experiencing related to climate, technology, globalization, demographic change, ethnonationalism, pandemic, war, and more (john a. powell, Othering & Belonging Institute). Those anxieties can deepen polarization, which shows up in our communities and schools. During this conference, we frame and explore tensions across social differences and ideologies that are present in our schools as we seek to find ways for all students and staff to feel a sense of true belonging. We focus on ways to find shared values, create connections through stories, and bridge across differences in order to make generative and lasting change.
Conference Tracks
| Early Childhood | Elementary | Secondary | Youth Led | School and District Leaders |
Conference Session Formats
(note: young people are encouraged to lead and/or attend all session types) All presenters have the opportunity to facilitate their workshops twice.
- Workshop (1.5 hours): Facilitators will provide hands-on instruction and practical ideas and methods that participants can work with or dialogue about during the session and take back to their classrooms/communities.
- Panel Discussion (1.5 hours): Several individuals (5-6) with experience in similar topics will make short presentations, field questions, and generate action-oriented dialogue with participants.
- Youth-Led Workshops or Panel Discussions (1.5 hours): For people of all ages, created and led by young people.
- Lunch Session Caucus/Affinity Group (1 hour) Facilitate a caucus or affinity group centered around a particular identity or experience.
Things we’ll be looking for:
- Presenter information: Please include the name and address for EACH presenter who will be attending the conference.
- Proposal: Title, session format, purpose, goals and objectives, workshop or panel outline, conclusions, and/or questions raised, next steps, any materials provided
- Program Description: A brief synopsis of your session that will be shared publicly to help participants select their conference sessions
Suggestions for Proposals
We envision a conference that supports deep learning and engagement related to the central theme of the conference: Bridging, Belonging, and Civic Engagement. Each session should be designed to support young people and people with identities at the margins to be central to the conversation, both in terms of content and process during the session. For example, adults and young people are often used to being in a certain dynamic where adults lead and young people are meant to listen and follow. We encourage presenters and participants to transform this dynamic in the conference space and beyond.
This year’s theme: Bridging, Belonging, and Civic Engagement
Our schools will not be transformed unless we take action, but our actions need to be informed by a solid understanding of equity, social justice, and belonging principles. The TE4SJ Conference is an excellent opportunity to build on our understanding of those principles. We see ourselves as part of a large community where we all have something to teach, and we all have something to learn. This year’s theme invites presenters to understand their participation as part of a continuous process of knowledge-sharing. Our hope is that by engaging in this process everyone attending the conference will increase their level of awareness and be moved to take the necessary actions to transform education to be a tool for mutual liberation, connection, healing, joy, justice, and equity. Some guiding questions might include: What do I know? How do I use what I know to invite others to join me in transforming education for social justice? What do I still need to learn in order to contribute to transforming education for social justice? What am I doing to promote social justice and equity in education? What do I still need to do? What is my next step? Who are my allies/co-conspirators? Who do I need to build relationships with? Who am I accountable to? Where do we go from here?
Each session is scheduled for 1.5 hours, with the opportunity to run the session twice, to give facilitators and participants the opportunity to engage with the session topic. All sessions should address the theme of the conference: Bridging, Belonging, and Civic Engagement.
Click here to see guiding questions for developing an engaging session design (not intended to be an outline)