Vanderbilt, George Washington University’s Schoolteacher at 50 conference reframes teaching profession

By Jenna Somers

On October 30 and 31, education scholars, practitioners and policymakers convened Schoolteacher at 50. The conference marked the 50^th anniversary of sociologist Dan Lortie's book about the ethos of the teaching profession. Attendees reflected upon Lortie's insights at the time of publication as well as their applicability in the 21^st century, including their potential to influence a transformation of the profession in response to the needs of teachers and students today.

Ellen Goldring

With support from the Spencer Foundation, the Wallace Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, the conference was held at George Washington University and co-hosted by its faculty, Joshua Glazer and Matthew Shirrell, as well as Vanderbilt University professor Ellen Goldring, who was a Ph.D. student of Lortie's at the University of Chicago.

In her opening address, Goldring summarized Lortie's insights into the teaching profession of his day: that its focus was on the classroom of the time, rather than long-term improvements; that teachers worked in isolation from each other, stuck to their routines, were attached to their communities and had limited opportunities to move or advance in their careers; and that they were motivated by the psychic satisfaction of the job over pay and progression.

Goldring wondered whether these traits of the profession would attract a new generation of educators. "What do attractive or high-demand professions require today? What does Gen Z look for in their career and professional choices, including teaching?" asked Goldring, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy and distinguished research dean at Vanderbilt Peabody College of education and human development.

Ellen Goldring speaking at the Schoolteacher at 50 conference

To answer her question, Goldring offered a window into the future of teaching, characterized by cycles of improvement and innovation, team-based practices and designs, partnerships that span across roles and systems, evidence-informed work, differentiated careers with real career advancement, and a sustainable workload that protects time for collaboration, research and exploration of AI and other new technologies.

Ellen Goldring speaking at the Schoolteacher at 50 conference

"This is a design critique, not a moral critique…[Teaching's] defaults produce the culture. Change the defaults, and you change who applies, who is supported, who stays, and what the work accomplishes," Goldring said.

Following her address, conference attendees shared ideas and developed research agendas to advance the profession. Vanderbilt faculty members, Jason Grissom, Ilana Horn, Jennifer Russell, and Chezare Warren, contributed to these discussions.

Ellen Goldring (center left) and Jason Grissom (center) at the Schoolteacher at 50 conference

The evolving role of school leaders

Jason Grissom

As a scholar on school leadership, Grissom discussed how Lortie's view of the demands of the principalship shaped his insights on teachers, many of which remain much the same today but that the principal role has evolved as well.

The most obvious difference is that the principalship has gone from being an almost exclusively male-dominated profession when Lortie was writing about teachers, to now a 60 percent female majority, indicating increased pathways to the principalship for female teachers. However, even today, relative to their percentage of the teaching workforce, men advance into administration at higher rates.

Principals are now expected to engage deeply in instructional leadership, including teacher development, coaching and data-driven improvement. However, principals often report feeling underprepared to manage these demands alongside hiring and retaining teachers, especially as teacher applicant pools continue to dwindle.

Principals are also responsible for developing professional learning communities to reduce teacher isolation, foster collaboration and manage resources for school improvement.

The demands of today's principals look much different than they were 50 years ago, and they reflect the rapid shifts occurring in the teaching profession.

Jason Grissom presenting at the Schoolteacher at 50 conference

"I am concerned that principals are not being sufficiently supported to deal with many of the changes and challenges of the teaching profession in 2025," said Grissom, Patricia and Rodes Hart Professor of Public Policy and Education. His research has offered strong evidence of a connection between effective school leadership and student outcomes, so for him, any talk on transforming the teaching profession must include the role of principals.

Collaborative improvement networks

Russell elaborated on Goldring's address to talk about improvement networks that give teachers opportunities to engage in collaborative continuous improvement. Improvement networks and similar collaborations have been on the rise in teaching for the past decade. They take teachers out of isolation and invite them to become active, collaborative problem solvers.

Russell, professor of leadership, policy and organizations, highlighted her work with the improvement network of secondary schools in the Dallas Independent School District that tackled root causes of inequitable literacy learning opportunities.

Jennifer Russell

"They collaborated to develop and iteratively refine instructional tasks that engage students in culturally relevant and more powerful literacy learning. In so doing, they mitigated the egg crate structure of schools and de-privatized teachers' practice. Collaborative continuous improvement has the potential to shift the frame from teachers as primarily the recipients of externally generated knowledge to…agentic, collaborative problem solvers," Russell said.

"Collaborative continuous improvement has the potential to shift the frame from teachers as primarily the recipients of externally generated knowledge to…agentic, collaborative problem solvers."

Improvement networks are considered by many teachers to be their most effective professional development experience, and they are especially helpful to teachers in rural areas who may be the only subject-area teacher within their grade level. Moreover, they align with career attractors for a new generation of teachers.

Jennifer Russell (center) at the Schoolteacher at 50 conference; Jason Grissom and Ellen Goldring in the foreground

Later in the conference, Horn, professor of mathematics education and the Wachtmeister Family Chair in Peabody's Department of Teaching and Learning, added to Russell's guidance by sharing her engagement with "beating-the-odds" schools. These schools demonstrated that teachers sharing responsibility reduced teacher anxiety and unequal workloads, and improved student outcomes.

"…when you find beating-the-odds schools or departments, you find teachers working collectively to improve practice."

Ilana Horn

"The finding that informed the foundation to my work is this consistent, robust finding in the sociology of education that when you find beating-the-odds schools or departments, you find teachers working collectively to improve practice.

"Teachers did create these networks, and they did distribute cognition. Some recognized that they were better at developing curriculum, at finding activities, developing assessments, talking to parents, working with administrators, and they distributed that work among themselves," Horn said.

Ilana Horn (center) at the Schoolteacher at 50 conference

Generative AI in teaching

Russell also touched on avenues for AI to support teachers' professional development and even mitigate isolation. In one example, a teacher she knows, who is the only fifth grade mathematics teacher in his school, trained Chat GPT to be his teaching colleague. Russell was skeptical at first, but the teacher now feels more successful and effective in his work. He trained Chat GPT on videos of his teaching and instructional materials, and now the chatbot aids his curricular sequencing and daily lesson plans.

"This might free up time for teachers to do the things that provide them the kind of psychic rewards that they derive from teaching, like forming meaningful connections and making sure that every student is known and feels like they belong," Russell said. "There are a lot of ways we should think about the potential of generative AI in reshaping the profession."

The teacher as an artist

Goldring's idea that "changing the defaults" could fundamentally alter the teaching profession provides a powerful framework for transformation. Warren, associate professor of leadership, policy and organizations, offered another to close out the conference.

Chezare Warren

"What would it mean to train teachers in the ways that we train artists, to help them to see the boundaries of their craft, but also to constantly invest in helping them to notice the unique talent and gifts they possess that make them a standout teaching professional-their superpower if you will. And to prepare them to exercise use of that superpower to advance and improve the science of teaching?

"In teacher education, we have to provide space for people to see themselves more clearly, even as they are learning methods and practices that can be useful," Warren said.

The conference underscored the need for a comprehensive redesign of teaching as a team-based, continuously evolving profession and left attendees with a path forward to address important questions confronting education in the 21^st century.