Top 18 Equity Conferences for Educators and Leaders in 2019

The right conference can supercharge your leadership and ability to teach students. There are many trainings and workshops out there, but which will help you engineer for equity? Which are made for culturally responsive educators and leaders? I’m not sure about brother Paulo, but here are 18 of the freshest conferences.

Culturally responsive leaders only have so much time and being away from your site, classroom, or office feels more stressful than being there. But in this case, getting away can help you be a stronger leader, upon returning.

 

Personal Reflections

Early in my career, as a teacher, I never attended conferences. Wish I did. I had not heard of conferences for educators.

But as a leader, I was lucky enough to be sent to Deloitte, and I loved it. Not because it was focused do equity (it was not!), but because I got to get away. SFUSD sent like 30 staff members, there was amazing food, comfortable accommodations, and a beautiful setting. We also came back with some shared language. And we were treated so nice. Can’t beat that.

That isn’t the best story about equity conference but it got me hooked on any type of professional learning. I later attended School Retool from Stanford’s dSchool and New Tech Network’s NTAC (reflection here). Then, I started attending equity-focused leadership trainings. Below are my 7 recommendations and 11 more recommended by the homies.

My Personal Recommendations

1. • National Equity Project Liberatory Design & Coaching for Equity in Oakland, CA (Read my review here)

   • Zaretta Hammond’s Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain Foundational Seminar (Here’s what I learned)
     

   • Shane Safir’s Brave Spaces Institute in Oakland, CA

   • Elena Aguilar’s Art of Coaching Conference in Monterey, CA

   • Teachers for Social Justice Conference in San Francisco, CA

   • Institute for Teachers of Color Committed to Racial Justice in Riverside, CA

   • National Anti-Racist Book Festival in Washington D.C.

Suggested by the Twitter Homies

1. • Free People Free Minds
     

   • Hip Hop Education Conference

   • 

   • Facing Race Conference

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   • Tolerance.org Workshops

   • 

   • African American Male Achievement Spring Symposium

   • 

   • School Reform Initiative Equity First Retreats

   • 

   • Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color

   • 

   • Creative Reaction Labs

   • 

   • Courageous Conversations about Race

   • 

   • National Association of Multicultural Education Conference

   • 

   • Racial Equity Institute Workshops

   • 

 

What do you Return with?

• New ideas, frameworks, and concepts
• Book recommendations
• Connections and new collaborators
• Clearer purpose and focus

One of the homies, a school coach named Jose Garcia (@OriginalGarcia) shared his thoughts on conferences. He said, “it’s what we take from the training that shifts the way we do things. If we’re not applying the new learning it’s meaningless and will not move us towards a more equitable society/schooling. Application could look like creating a new lens, stopping/starting new practices, or influence the decisions we make on a daily basis. And it’s important how we share that learning back with our school community (staff, leadership team, students and families). Power in collective action.”

 

Conclusions

Stop thinking about it and go. It is worth your money, and you can afford at least one conference a year. If you can keep it close, even better. Some you can even take your family along and make it a mini-vacation. If you are wondering how to pay, write grants, say yes hoping it will be good and find creative ways to use your funds. Don’t forget that you should share what you learn with your team and staff. Don’t try to bring too much back. You don’t want to overwhelm your team. Instead, think how what you learned can help you more effectively meet your goals. And spread the word.

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What should I add to the list?

Did you attend a dope conference? If you have a reflection, let me know if you want to guest post about it.

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Thanks to the following twitter homies for suggesting conferences, trainings, and workshops:

@nay_sanch @korytellers @Mrs_1202 @laurynmaria @1melissapatrick @Teachers_Lead
@theChrisAguirre @ChristieNold @KatColeReads @melissawinchell 

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