Eisner SIG Newsletter
March 2018 (AERA Edition)
Elliot Eisner SIG
Email: eisnersig@gmail.com
Website: http://bit.ly/1CTpCVV
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Eisner-SIG-488895484598608
Twitter: @EisnerSIG
Message from the Elliot Eisner SIG Chair
First, I am happy to share that our SIG received a record number of submissions (18) for the 2018 annual meeting. Thanks to all of you who submitted. While this news is particularly good for the SIG, the high number of submissions made for stiff competition. For this reason, we are indebted to all of you who served as submission reviewers. The result is that we are able to offer a range of exciting and provocative sessions coming up for us in New York. We are also looking forward to our reception keynote speaker, the renowned philosopher of education Dr. Nel Noddings. Nel will speak Monday, April 16, 6:15 to 7:45pm, Sheraton New York Times Square, Lower Level, Flatiron Room.
Second, I want to offer special thanks to our SIG Officers, especially our Program Chair, Christy McConnell and our Newsletter Editor, Jodie Wilson. My transition into the Chair role this past year has been smooth and relatively painless, but that would not have been the case without Christy and Jodie’s careful attention to detail and their tireless efforts on behalf of our group.
I always think of Elliot Eisner in connection with AERA’s annual meeting. He loved AERA and other professional meetings because he loved to argue. And he loved to argue because, for Elliot, argument was an intellectual conversation. Confrontation was beside the point, and Elliot took no interest in placing personalities over principles. The principles and values and ideas and how they were all put together—that’s what interested Elliot. He was intrigued with how people think, how they develop and support their beliefs, and what their commitments were. Elliot taught me to attend to my own ideas and the ideas of others. By example, he taught me to look and listen for the structure of an argument; how the ideas relate to one another; what comes first, second, and so on.
Moreover, Elliot’s penchant for ideas and his proclivity for challenging conversations was not limited to his professional colleagues and doctoral students. Rather, Elliot sought to engage almost anyone in intellectual discussions: school superintendents, principals, teachers, and especially children. I think Elliot would have “argued” with a 5-year-old if doing so would help him better understand how the kid thinks, how she puts ideas together, or how she takes them apart. Simply put, Elliot was interested in how minds work. And as he taught so many of us, to be profoundly engaged with ideas is something to be cherished.
David J. Flinders
Professor of Curriculum Studies
Indiana University
Business Meeting: Educational Research and the Eternal Conversation
Monday, April 16, 2018
6:15-7:45 pm
Sheraton New York Times Square, Lower Level, Flatiron Room
Eisner SIG Sessions at AERA 2018
All Eisner SIG sessions will be held on Monday, April 16, 2018, at the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel, 811 7th Avenue (53rd Street).
We look forward to meeting you and sharing these important conversations together!
Roundtable: Eisner in a New Era: Accountability, Knowledge, Aesthetics, and Criticism. 2:15-3:45 pm, Sheraton New York Times Square, Second Floor, Metropolitan West Room.
Business Meeting: Educational Research and the Eternal Conversation featuring Nel Noddings. 6:15-7:45 pm, Sheraton New York Times Square, Lower Level, Flatiron Room.
Celebrating the Twentieth Anniversary of The Kind of Schools We Need
-Jodie L. Wilson