Prof. A. Lin Goodwin
Preparing Learners for Unknown Futures: What Should Their (Quality) Teachers Know and Be Able to Do?
What does it meant to teach? What does it mean to learn?...not just for the here and now but also for a murky and far distant tomorrow we cannot yet envisage or fathom? It certainly is commonplace across the world, to talk about preparing teachers for the 21st century or teaching 21st century skills and competences. But what might be competences or knowledges that are fundamental and enduring, such that they can serve society long beyond the 21st century? In what ways might we need to think differently about what we now define as learning or worthwhile knowing? And consequently, what would we need to teach—and how—to prepare young people for the unknown, but inevitable, future?
In this presentation, I will first talk about dominant modes of teaching and typical perceptions of learning that remain entrenched despite education reform that is and has been ongoing around the world. I then suggest five domains of knowledge that can help us think anew—renew—knowledge and competences for teachers as well as learners, and can potentially, in turn, enable us to reimagine teaching and learning. I will then hone in on teacher preparation, given wide acceptance that teachers are essential to student achievement and that quality teachers produce quality outcomes. Many current reform efforts in education are focused on teachers—their preparation, re-tooling and upgrading, professional development, and assessment. Given different ways of thinking about teaching and learning, how should teacher preparation and schools of education change? I turn to an international study of seven high performing systems to offer key lessons for reforming the teaching profession in ways that can support, nurture and sustain the creative, thinking, agentic professionals we need, not just for the 21st century but for the 31st and beyond into the future.
Biography
A. Lin Goodwin is Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Education at the University of Hong Kong (HKU). Prior to joining HKU in 2017, she was Vice Dean at Teachers College, Columbia University (TCCU) in New York, and the Evenden Foundation Chair of Education. She is a past Vice President of the American Educational Research Association (AERA)—Division K: Teaching and Teacher Education, and the inaugural Dr. Ruth Wong Professor of Teacher Education at the National Institute of Education (NIE) in Singapore. She is also the Co-Architect and served as Co-Director (2012-2017) of a joint Master of Arts in Educational Leadership and Change between TCCU and NIE. In 2015, Dr. Goodwin was honored as a Distinguished Researcher by AERA’s Special Interest Group: Research on the Education of Asian and Pacific Americans.
Dr. Goodwin’s research focuses on teacher and teacher educator identities and development; multicultural understandings and curriculum enactments; the particular issues facing Asian/Asian American teachers and students in U.S. schools; and on international analyses/comparisons of teacher education practice and policy. Recent publications include “Social justice teacher educators: What kind of knowing is needed? (with K. Darity) in the Journal of Education for Teaching, and “Who is in the classroom now? Teacher preparation and the education of immigrant children” in Educational Studies. Her latest book, co-authored with E.L. Low and L. Darling-Hammond is: Empowered educators in Singapore: How high-performing systems shape teaching quality.
Dr. Goodwin has served as a consultant to a wide variety of organizations including school districts, philanthropic foundations, and higher education institutions, around issues of diversity, educational equity, and teacher education. Her work has taken her to many different countries such as Brazil, Jordan, Mongolia, Latvia, Singapore, China, Poland, and Bermuda among others, where she has collaborated with local educators to support quality teaching and teacher development.