On Wednesday, June 3, 2020, TCG invites you to join with education colleagues from across the country to explore three major interconnected themes: 1) How can theatres sustain and grow the field of Teaching Artists? 2) The role of Education in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy; and 3) What is the purpose of Evaluation, and What is the Relationship Now between Education Programs and Funders?
How can Theatres Sustain and Grow the Field of Teaching Artists?
How can theatres sustain and grow the field of Teaching Artists when the cost of living continues to increase and budgets are tight? Are TAs considered employees or independent contractors and how can organizations support their career paths? How to prepare and train TAs to adapt and be flexible to their different classroom environments in an effective way and keep them abreast as theatre education continues to evolve? How do organizations build a healthy ecosystem for teaching artists and students coming into the field? We will be looking at the relationship between Education departments and internships, fellowships, and apprenticeships—how is the field investing in the pre-professional experience in order to build for the future? These are many of the questions we will explore.
The role of Education in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy
What are the particular responsibilities and opportunities for companies in applying their EDI values to work that centers white artists? As Education Departments, how do we navigate culturally specific artwork that doesn’t reflect the culture of our students with our desire to practice culturally responsive pedagogy? How can we empower students to understand their positionality and use it to shape a series of critical lenses through which to view the work on our stages? How are we equipping teaching artists to engage and mediate between the art and students?
What is the purpose of Evaluation, and What is the Relationship Now between Education Programs and Funders?
Both funders and education departments are developing an ever more nuanced relationship with program evaluation. Still, data overload and evaluation burnout are real issues. How can we gather and process data with a view towards accuracy and sustainability? How can multiple organizations in a community collaborate on data collection and authentic evaluation?
A detailed Education Staff Pre-Conference agenda will be coming soon.
Registration for the Education Staff Pre-Conference may be selected as part of the National Conference registration here. If you would like to attend the Pre-Conference, but cannot attend the Conference proper, please register here.