Teachers and students alike will be gathering to discuss important issues in the field of education during the 2019 Education Summit. From K-12 teachers to college professors, educators of all kinds will be present.

The 2019 Education Summit will take place on Monday, Nov. 11 from 3 to 7 p.m., with an additional session on Tuesday, Nov. 12 from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Both sessions will be held in Maucker Union.

“The Education Summit is an effort that we typically put on every year,” said Lisa Hooper, director for the Center of Educational Transformation and Richard O. Jacobson Endorsed Chair. “It brings together scholars, practitioners, policy makers, teachers, parents and students in an effort to inform. We have rich and deep conversations about critical and emerging issues and evidence-based research and practices.”

Themes of the conference are contained within its title, which is “Culturally Responsive Pedagogy and Practices: Challenging Systemic Inequity and Injustice in Education and Health.”

When the summit was first announced, people were invited to submit proposals involving different topics. From these proposals, four “strands” were created as areas of focus. The strands were culturally responsive pedagogy (i.e., teaching methods), inequity/injustice in the education system, partnerships between communities, schools and universities and cultural/linguistic competence in the education and healthcare systems.

Although Hooper is looking forward to every speaker at the conference, she is especially excited to hear some of the voices from outside of the teaching field.

“We have parents and students who are participating,” Hooper said. “I think that, sometimes, in the academy, we don’t get to privilege the voices of parents.”

Aside from parents, another voice that will be heard comes from a fourth-grader.

“Really, I’m excited to hear everyone speak,” Hooper said. “But in particular, parents, students and, in this case, a fourth-grader.”

Two of the events during the summit will encourage interactivity with the audience. One of them is a think tank dialogue titled “Leading and Learning with Character.” The second interactive presentation will be called “The Power of an Invitation: The Impact of Using Hip Hop to Help Students Share What They Know,” led by Shuaib Meacham. Christopher Burke, 2019 Iowa Teacher of the Year, will also be present at the summit.

As a new resident to Iowa, Hooper has noticed some changes that have taken place between this year’s conference and the years before it.

“One of the things that I have done — I’ve been here for a bit over one year — is try to understand the culture of Iowa in general, the Cedar Valley in particular,” Hooper said. “I’ve also tried to understand critical and emerging issues for the state of Iowa. One of the themes in those conversations over the past 15 months has been the intersection of education, health and culture. That is a change that is bringing different sectors and disciplines to work towards a common good. It improves education, it improves health and it improves levels of equity. That intersectionality and cross-section work might be slightly different.”

One of Hooper’s favorite parts of the conference is seeing people learn and share. She enjoys seeing people lean forward in their seats and get excited. In addition, she has seen many people form partnerships at the summit.

“The aim this year and going forward is that the Education Summit offers something to everyone,” she said. “Offering useful information and conversation for everyone that attends — that is really important, that utility. The summit affords the participants something; they leave with something. A tool, some knowledge, a seminal scholar or a partner going forward is useful.”