The Future of Education: Rehumanizing the Teaching Profession

September 15, 4:00 pm ET

The Spencer Foundation teamed up with Phi Delta Kappan to publish a series of thought pieces about the kinds of schools and learning opportunities it may be possible to create in the coming decades. Grantmakers for Education is organizing a series of conversations for our members around the themes being explored and implications for grantmaking. Join funders, researchers, educators, students and advocates in exploring what may be possible and how it could shape your work as a grantmaker.

Session 6: Rehumanizing the Teaching Profession

Imagining a better, more just future requires us to examine the practice of teaching itself and what makes changing instruction difficult. We think of teaching as a profession that carries with it the power for substantial good – at its best, teaching can help drive the building of a just society – but teaching can also cause harm. Join us for a conversation about the ways in which traditional teaching can conserve and reproduce what is “normal,” and how we can look to history for inspiration for other ways to engage in the work. We’ll explore a program that reconceptualized the role of the educator two decades ago and emerged from the pandemic as a proof point of how such an approach enabled the school continue producing positive outcomes for young people. We will discuss how funders and education leaders can support shifts in our narratives about teaching in ways that enable the profession to rebuild itself toward its full potential.

The Phi Delta Kappan articles related to this session are Possible futures: Coming to terms with the power of teaching and When school goes home: Reimagining the educator’s role.

Speakers: Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball, professor at University of Michigan and director of TeachingWorks; Dr. Michael Lipset, co-director 4 learning and director of social impact at the High School for Recording Arts; Callie Riley, senior portfolio manager for education grantmaking at Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies; and Tony Simmons, High School for Recording Arts | Studio 4 Enterprises.

While others are welcome to attend, this event is intended for members and education grantmakers. The session will run for one hour.

About the Presenters

Dr. Deborah Loewenberg Ball
Professor | Director
University of Michigan | TeachingWorks

Deborah Loewenberg Ball is the William H. Payne Collegiate Professor of education at the University of Michigan, an Arthur F. Thurnau Professor, a research professor in the Institute for Social Research, and the director of TeachingWorks. She taught elementary school for more than 15 years, and continues to teach children every summer. Ball’s research focuses on the practice of teaching, using elementary mathematics as a critical context for investigating the challenges of building relationships with children and helping children develop agency and understanding, and on leveraging the power of teaching to disrupt racism, marginalization, and inequity. Ball is an expert on teacher education, and her current work centers on ways to improve the quality of beginning teaching to advance justice.

Ball has authored or co-authored more than 150 publications and has made major presentations around the world. She has also developed distinctive collections of video records of practice that are broadly used to make practice visible. Her research has been recognized with several awards and honors, and she has served on national and international commissions and panels focused on the improvement of education. She served as president of the American Educational Research Association from 2017 to 2018, as a member of the National Science Board from 2013 to 2018, and as dean of the University of Michigan School of Education from 2005 to 2016. Ball has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Education, and is a fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the American Educational Research Association.

Dr. Michael Lipset
Co-Director 4 Learning and Director of Social Impact
High School for Recording Arts

Michael Lipset is a scholar, author, educator, artist, creative producer and Hip-Hop head. His work sits at the intersections of critical arts pedagogies, education change, pushout re-engagement, teacher preparation and social justice. Holding a Ph.D. in Education Studies with a focus on culturally sustaining school change from McGill University and an Ed.M. in the Arts in Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Michael’s writing has been published by Phi Delta Kappan, the McGill Journal of Education, Forbes, Rowman & Littlefield, and more. I He produced the Spotify Original podcast RecordEd Arts. As a Doctoral Intern at the K12 Lab in Stanford University’s d.school he also produced Sound Practice alongside sam seidel, Jessica Brown and Louie Montoya. Michael is a faculty lecturer at McGill University where he teaches critical media literacy, technology in education, and digital literacy to pre-service teachers and graduate students. He also serves as Co-Director of 4 Learning and Director of Social Impact at the High School for Recording Arts.

Callie Riley
Senior Portfolio Manager, Education Grantmaking
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies

Callie Riley is a Senior Portfolio Manager for Education Grantmaking at Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies. In this role, she supports efforts to increase access to high-quality instructional materials, improve aligned professional learning and understand how districts, charters and state education agencies can design systems that enable teachers to create engaging, affirming and meaningful learning opportunities for all kids, with a focus on low-income and/or Black and Latino students and multilingual learners.

Callie has collaborated with K-16 leaders from over 35 states, hundreds of districts, institutions of higher education, foundations, teachers unions and non-profits in support of the adoption and implementation of college- and career-ready standards and assessment-related policy and practice. Before joining Schusterman, she led strategic partnerships for UPD Consulting, led educator engagement for the PARCC consortium, and managed the higher education policy and practice strategy for Achieve. A child of educators, she began her career as a middle school English and reading teacher in Japan and Florida.

Callie holds a master’s in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park and a bachelor’s in East Asian Studies from Wittenberg University. She’s a member and past president of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington DC Regional Board of Directors, served on the organization’s Metropolitan Board of Directors and is also an advisor for Boddle Learning, an edtech start up. She enjoys wandering around the globe, seeing live music and listening to the drum circle in her local park.

Tony Simmons
Executive Director
High School for Recording Arts | Studio 4 Enterprises

While working with national recording artists as an entertainment lawyer, Tony met David “TC” Ellis and assisted him in the formation of Studio 4/ High School for Recording Arts. He co-founded Another Level Records , the first national student-operated record label. Tony is the Executive Director of the High School for Recording Arts, Co-Founder/Co-Director of the New School Creation Fellowship and of the Center for Love and Justice at the High Tech High Graduate School of Education.

Tony has served as board member to such leading national school reform organizations as Edvisions, Inc., Education Evolving, Coalition of Independent Charter Schools and Reaching At Promise Students Association (RAPSA) . His association with RAPSA led to his contribution to the report, “Seizing The Moment: Realizing the Promise of Student-Centered Learning” and to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools report “Over-Age, Under-Credited Students and Public Charter Schools.” He was also a part of the working group that led to the National Association of Charter School Authorizer report on alternative accountability and has been a member of the Black Alliance for Educational Options. Tony recently co-founded 4 Learning.

Tony attended Howard University and Pace University. He also earned a Juris Doctorate from Rutgers Law School.