AACTE Annual Meeting 2025 Program Strands

The theme of the AACTE 2025 Annual Meeting, Beyond the Horizon: Charting the Course for Educator Preparation, and its five strands align with the association’s vision and mission to revolutionize education by enhancing educator preparation through research, professional practice, advocacy, and collaboration. Learn more about each strand.

Strand I: Advancing Innovation and Impact
Educators are no longer content providers; they are skills-based, student-centered, personalized learning experts. The skills and knowledge that educators need to succeed in the 21st century is changing. Future educators need to be prepared to teach and work in rapidly changing educational landscapes requiring innovative and impactful approaches to education. The Advancing Innovation and Impact strand features sessions that address the latest practices and advancements in the field and seeks to answer questions that shape the future of teaching and learning.

Strand II: Resilient Leadership During Unprecedented Times
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, leaders at all levels of education from elementary grades to higher education have had to implement new policies and procedures for online learning, technology integration, and student engagement, while navigating censorship efforts that infringe on educators’ ability to teach and counsel students as well as efforts to support diverse students, faculty, teachers, principals, school counselors, nurses, and superintendents, to name a few. This strand explores leadership in the 21st century across the education landscape.

Strand III: Education Policy and Advocacy in an Era of Inequity
Education policy impacts the day-to-day learning of students in Pre-K-12 and higher education, the capacity of teachers and faculty to teach, and the experiences of families and communities. The Education Policy and Advocacy in an Era of Inequity strand offers programming that translates research into policy and practice and provides information of relevant state and federal policies impacting the educator profession. This strand also promotes public advocacy and civic engagement with the intent of offering policy recommendations to current challenges in the field including academic censorship, faculty tenure, teacher licensure and certification, critical shortages in all areas of educator preparation, educator enrollment and retention, teacher induction, student and educator mental health, and school safety. The objective is to offer strategies and examples to enhance collaboration between education stakeholders and policymakers.

Strand IV: Deepening the Impact of Education Research and Research to Practice
The Deepening the Impact of Education Research strand seeks to address the needs of faculty pursuing educational research and those engaged in research to affect practice. This strand includes high-quality, contemporary, and impactful sessions that advance teaching and learning, and how we design, develop, improve, and promote educator preparation programs. Session content is grounded in equity and may include diverse methodologies, in addition to community-based research, conceptual papers, empirical research studies, peer-reviewed scholarly papers, research briefs, and research that increases the use of evidence-based practices.

Strand V: Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Research has unequivocally proven that all students benefit from diverse educators and inclusive learning environments that are affirming and cultivate a sense of belonging. To holistically address diversity, equity, and inclusion, educators should consider any community that has been historically and systematically denied access to quality education or communities that have been discriminated in the education system, including but not limited to Black and Brown communities, low-income, migrant, limited-English proficiency, Native, AAPI, disability, and LGBTQIA+ communities. The Prioritizing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strand offers sessions that demonstrate a commitment to preparing diverse and anti-racist educators, recruitment of educators in critical shortage areas, global perspectives in education, inclusive education, equitable engagement of families, and access to high-quality learning environments for all students.