Turning Research and Classroom Experience into Equitable Learning Outcomes
Nicole Gilbertson leads the UCI School of Education’s Teacher Academy to offer models of efficacy in creating and strengthening connections between researchers and practitioners, while fostering agency and voice for educators committed to social justice.
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By Carol Jean Tomoguchi-Perez
The UCI School of Education’s Teacher Academy serves as a home for teachers, school leaders and administrators to develop and enhance their professional practice by offering programs in professional development and teacher and administrator leadership. In this issue of Advancing magazine, we connect with Nicole Gilbertson, director of the Teacher Academy. Gilbertson’s interest in pursuing education began in grade school. Inspired by her seventh grade history teacher and her ability to bring experiences into the classroom, Gilbertson went on to major in history as an undergraduate and eventually pursued a Ph.D. in history at UCI while earning a teaching credential in history-social science. Her journey eventually led her to direct the UCI History Project and the Teacher Academy. As director of the Teacher Academy, Gilbertson strives to continue creating opportunities for collaboration and learning between researchers, faculty, graduate students and K-12 teachers, and leverage these collaborative outcomes to support teachers as they create classroom communities that center learning and critical hope. |
Nicole Gilbertson
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What is the driving purpose of the Teacher Academy?
The UCI Teacher Academy mission emerges from the need for community among educators that allow us to ask questions about classroom practice and consider how to engage in research and reflection to improve learning for all students. The Teacher Academy provides a home for teachers and school leaders to develop and enhance their professional practice to inspire and lead others in transforming instruction. Teachers have the expertise and agency to seek and lead change in the classroom, improving educational opportunities – and educational systems broadly – for youth. The Teacher Academy leverages and advances research on teaching and teacher development, and provides opportunities for teachers and school leaders to generate and inform research and practice. These efforts are in service of providing more equitable, socially just, and meaningful classroom experiences, particularly for students from underserved communities, that can lead to equitable educational outcomes.
How does the Teacher Academy programming best serve educators and school leaders?
By creating and fostering communities, educators can come together to learn with and from one another. These communities allow educators from different school contexts and across disciplines to be in conversation to support student learning in their current context, while centering researchers who are leaders in the field of teaching and learning that fosters educational opportunities for marginalized students.
What sets the Teacher Academy apart from other teacher preparation and professional development programs?
My commitment to building bridges across the university and K-12 centers the approach of the Teacher Academy, creating and strengthening connections between researchers and practitioners that foster agency and voice for educators committed to social justice so teachers can impact local schools and districts. We are building and making visible the professional pathways that teachers can engage in over their professional lifespan in order to foster agency and leadership opportunities among educators committed to social justice.
How is the Teacher Academy responding to the current needs of teachers?
Teacher professional learning and leadership opportunities need to be directly relevant to their classroom contexts and student learning objectives to have value for the time and energy teachers devote to this on top of their existing responsibilities and commitments. The opportunities for professional learning and leadership that I strive to create also center opportunities for connection, sharing, and reflection. Some examples of the work that I have been able to engage in over the last couple of months include our Teaching for Justice (TFJ) conference; a book club on the youth version of The Sum of Us: How Racism Hurts Everyone; and an Environmental Justice and Youth Participatory Action Research workshop for high school teachers.
The TFJ conference created opportunities for educators to learn from researchers to deepen their content knowledge; ethnic studies teachers shared resources and modeled humanizing pedagogy; and community members shared opportunities and strategies for activism. Our book club gave us a forum to read and discuss the links between policies and inequality through an economic lens. Finally, the Environmental Justice and Youth Participatory Action Research workshop brought together teachers who have been engaging in action research, where students identify issues in their communities and engage in research, analysis and action to inform and impact their communities.
Can you share the near-future goals and plans for the Teacher Academy?
I would like to develop a cohort of early career teachers, especially UCI School of Education alumni, to foster retention and build professional communities that engage in research around their classroom practice with a focus on equity. A significant factor in educator retention and thriving is engaging in a professional community, where teachers have time and space to build or rebuild relationships with colleagues through collaboration so they can best support students. The first step in creating this pathway is to develop a focus group made up of the School of Education’s Master of Arts in Teaching + Credential and UCI CalTeach alumni to inform our next steps in developing a program that responds to educators' community and professional development needs, and to support retention through mentorship, community-building, and agency.
The UCI Teacher Academy mission emerges from the need for community among educators that allow us to ask questions about classroom practice and consider how to engage in research and reflection to improve learning for all students. The Teacher Academy provides a home for teachers and school leaders to develop and enhance their professional practice to inspire and lead others in transforming instruction. Teachers have the expertise and agency to seek and lead change in the classroom, improving educational opportunities – and educational systems broadly – for youth. The Teacher Academy leverages and advances research on teaching and teacher development, and provides opportunities for teachers and school leaders to generate and inform research and practice. These efforts are in service of providing more equitable, socially just, and meaningful classroom experiences, particularly for students from underserved communities, that can lead to equitable educational outcomes.
How does the Teacher Academy programming best serve educators and school leaders?
By creating and fostering communities, educators can come together to learn with and from one another. These communities allow educators from different school contexts and across disciplines to be in conversation to support student learning in their current context, while centering researchers who are leaders in the field of teaching and learning that fosters educational opportunities for marginalized students.
What sets the Teacher Academy apart from other teacher preparation and professional development programs?
My commitment to building bridges across the university and K-12 centers the approach of the Teacher Academy, creating and strengthening connections between researchers and practitioners that foster agency and voice for educators committed to social justice so teachers can impact local schools and districts. We are building and making visible the professional pathways that teachers can engage in over their professional lifespan in order to foster agency and leadership opportunities among educators committed to social justice.
How is the Teacher Academy responding to the current needs of teachers?
Teacher professional learning and leadership opportunities need to be directly relevant to their classroom contexts and student learning objectives to have value for the time and energy teachers devote to this on top of their existing responsibilities and commitments. The opportunities for professional learning and leadership that I strive to create also center opportunities for connection, sharing, and reflection. Some examples of the work that I have been able to engage in over the last couple of months include our Teaching for Justice (TFJ) conference; a book club on the youth version of The Sum of Us: How Racism Hurts Everyone; and an Environmental Justice and Youth Participatory Action Research workshop for high school teachers.
The TFJ conference created opportunities for educators to learn from researchers to deepen their content knowledge; ethnic studies teachers shared resources and modeled humanizing pedagogy; and community members shared opportunities and strategies for activism. Our book club gave us a forum to read and discuss the links between policies and inequality through an economic lens. Finally, the Environmental Justice and Youth Participatory Action Research workshop brought together teachers who have been engaging in action research, where students identify issues in their communities and engage in research, analysis and action to inform and impact their communities.
Can you share the near-future goals and plans for the Teacher Academy?
I would like to develop a cohort of early career teachers, especially UCI School of Education alumni, to foster retention and build professional communities that engage in research around their classroom practice with a focus on equity. A significant factor in educator retention and thriving is engaging in a professional community, where teachers have time and space to build or rebuild relationships with colleagues through collaboration so they can best support students. The first step in creating this pathway is to develop a focus group made up of the School of Education’s Master of Arts in Teaching + Credential and UCI CalTeach alumni to inform our next steps in developing a program that responds to educators' community and professional development needs, and to support retention through mentorship, community-building, and agency.
Read the Fall 2023 issue of Advancing in its entirety, here.
