What is Teacher Advocacy? w/ Thea Yurkewecz and Keith Newvine

Introduction

00:00Hey folks, welcome to a very special episode of The Literacy Advocate in which I have the privilege of interviewing the president and past president of the New York State Reading Association. And we talk about a very important topic and that is what is teacher advocacy? I hope you enjoy this episode. I am so excited today to be welcoming two very special guests, Thea Yurkewecz and Keith Newvine. Thea is an assistant professor and program chair of the reading and literacy committee from the State University of New York at Geneseo. I should have wrote in here like little pronunciation keys. How do you pronounce that? It's Geneseo. Geneseo, I'm leaving it in baby. She is a national board certified teacher, literacy specialist, teacher educator, and past president of the New York State Reading Association. Her international work includes coordinating a student teaching abroad program in Bangkok,

01:00Thailand, and facilitating professional development to educators in Beijing, China. She continues to focus her research on supporting specialized literacy professionals and preparing future literacy leaders. And my other guest, Keith Newvine is a literacy PhD candidate at Syracuse University, an 18-year high school English teacher, co-founder of the Central New York Social Justice League, and vice president of the New York State Reading Association. His research focuses on centering contemporary young adult literature written by and about black indigenous people of color in suburban English language arts classrooms to demystify discourse of whiteness. Guys, welcome to the show. So happy to be here. I'm so happy to have you. Now, one of the first things I like to do to break off the interview is ask you guys a question you weren't prepared for. This is my question. When you guys were kids, what were your favorite toys?

02:00I will tell you mine. When I was a kid, my favorite toy, I don't know, I don't know what our age gap is, but do you guys remember when yo-yos were really big like in the late 90s? Oh yeah. There was a yo-yo called the X-Brain and I love, me and my friends would all take turns like trying to learn tricks on this X-Brain yo-yo. What about you guys? I think they're me and I just found them at my parents are the American Girl dolls. I think and it totally fits with my profession right now because it has to do with reading and imagination, putting it together and writing. So, oh yeah. Which American Girl doll was your favorite? Samantha. I don't remember which one that was, but my sister was really into them. What about you, Keith? I had a really, you know, long story, but we were relatively poor growing up

Defining teacher advocacy

03:00and so I used to, I tell people all the time that I had two toys when I was a kid. My identical twin brother and a stick and sometimes the stick broke. That's an exaggeration, but we had one of those plastic bikes with a big wheel in the front. I forget what they were called. I think they were called big wheels. Big wheels, that's it. But we only had one and so we had to share those and so that was a big one that we had. Love it. So transitioning to our topic today, we are going to be talking about advocacy and before we dive in, because what I want to do is have you guys unpack what teacher advocacy looks like and what teachers can do to be advocates. But before we dig into that, let's just start off with how you define advocacy. So for me, Keith and I kind of talked about this because I think everyone has their own definition

04:00of advocacy, especially when we're talking about educators. I think it's very personal, localized to your community, your school, your culture, and then it goes beyond. So I like to think of it as multifaceted and ever-changing. It's really, I think, personal unrest and empowerment to make change. And again, it can be individual or collective. So going within and beyond your communities of practice. And I think that teachers have the power to make changes in so many different ways. What about you, Keith? I think people are often afraid of the word advocacy because they think it means big grand gestures. But I like to think of advocacy similarly as a spectrum that little things can be done by educators from choosing the curriculum that you decide to center to standing up and speaking your voice or letting your voice be heard or standing up for others.

05:00So I often think of advocacy, for me anyway, as leveraging those positionalities, whatever they may be, as a classroom teacher, as a citizen, in order to advocate for literacy as a human right, which is something that I believe in. And you guys have a New York State Reading Association focus on advocacy or definition of that. And what's that? Yeah. So in your introduction, you stated that I'm past president of the New York State Reading Association. It's a not-for-profit organization in New York State that involves a lot of literacy teachers, as well as classroom teachers all working together to create professional learning opportunities that enhance our profession. And so Keith right now is our new vice president. And part of our organization is really different missions and goals. And one of those is advocacy.

Advocacy in practice

06:00And we really play a role in that here in New York State because we want our members to know what's going on. We're promoting different policies, practices, just keeping our members and beyond in the know with current events nationally and locally. Awesome. Well, let's talk a little bit about how you guys have been advocates as literacy professionals. So what are some of the things that you guys would highlight about, yeah, this is a way that I believe that, you know, this is a way that I believe I've made a difference like as an advocate. I'll get started and say that part of part of my advocacy has to do with my position as a teacher in the classroom. And I continually advocate for redesigning curriculum that centers authors of color and characters of color and contemporary issues. But beyond the classroom, I try to be involved in communities that work to disrupt the status quo.

07:00In that, you know, some people would say, and I'm not sure I wholeheartedly agree, but some people would say that the system of education marginalizes some and privileges others. And so I try to get into personal learning networks via Twitter or social media to try to disrupt that status quo. As a personal citizen, I also attend as many local Board of Education meetings or local government meetings to ask questions of representatives in regards to civil rights and especially the right of literacy as a human right. So I try to be involved as much as I can in local politics, but especially Board of Education, because I'm so passionate about my position as a teacher. What about you, Thea? I think that personally, I think I'm always

08:00changing and making goals for myself as we should with what's going on currently in our personal lives locally and beyond. And so a lot of things I did when I was in the classroom was I attended professional development, but then also worked my way up to provide professional development, facilitate it. And I think that's part of it because I'm spreading the word about strategies and tools to help teachers. And I think that's a nice way to kind of start that path of advocacy. And then just being in the know, like Keith was talking about attending school board meetings, knowing who are the stakeholders within my local community is such a nice way for us to do that. And that's how I started my path in advocacy. And then I think, speaking along those lines of moving forward in my career is just getting into networks that are like-minded. For example, Keith and I, we never would have crossed paths unless we joined the New York State Reading Association, which is such a nice thing, right? Being involved in

Why advocacy matters

09:00organization and finding those people that really fit your point of view. And I have learned so much about advocacy through meeting him and working with him, as well as others. And so that's a nice way that I've advocated is just getting involved in those organizations, because it always pushes me forward to learn more about our profession and our field. What would you say as like your central reason, like this is why it's so important that teachers be advocates? I'm not sure that there's no such, I don't believe that there's such a thing as an apolitical classroom. I think that no matter where you are and what you do, that what you do has a bias to it. And it could be a bias in one way or the other. And so when you come from that positionality, you realize that as a teacher, you're educating young folks to believe or not

10:00believe, or to know or not know. And so it's important to recognize that as teachers, you have an awful lot of power in what students come away from your classroom with. And knowing that almost necessitates an understanding of advocacy, what you're pushing out, or what you're promoting needs to be at the forefront of your mind. And so as representatives of the New York State Reading Association, we try to help people understand what's going on at the state level, and maybe even at the national level, because we're also affiliated with the International Literacy Association, and we get information from them. And as teachers, daily practicing teachers, you often don't have time to keep up on all of those. And so we sort of see it as our responsibility to disseminate information to teachers in ways that are more manageable. An example of that would be some of the online professional

Professional development as empowerment

11:00development workshops that we have coming up. All of them focus on a particular concept in literacy that teachers likely wish they knew more about, but just don't have the time or expertise. And so we call in some nationally recognized experts to help deliver that information to our members. Yeah, I love that. Diving right into the how-to, we're going to be talking about professional development, like here are ways that teachers should be ought to be doing professional development, and then keeping current in the literacy education community. Let's start off with PD. So what would you guys say that teachers should be doing as professional development? Well, I think that for professional development, it's really important for you to shine, right, to empower others. And I think that's what Keith was talking about, like we can make that change or shift the thinking. And it's nice

12:00to have a pulse on what's happening in the current research field when it comes to literacy. And so I think that bringing your knowledge to your peers is something that we should celebrate. I mean, I really like teacher leadership, because we have so much to offer. There are experts that can come in to tell us how to do things, and we can learn from that. But we can also learn from each other. I mean, we've learned, can I be honest, I've learned so much about technology and virtual teaching tips this summer from watching teachers on TikTok. And I'm just learning from others. And I think that's such a wonderful community that we have. So I think professional development now is so different than just sitting down and watching somebody stand in front of you and talk. There's so many different facets to PD now, virtually, and through small video clips and things that we can do to support each other in this community. Let me just take a second, Thea, and say for the listeners, if you've not been on TikTok,

13:00and you're a teacher, one easy way, like we're gonna loosely define PD in that sense, which I think is awesome. If you just, okay, listeners, here's the thing. This is the part where we started talking about how TikTok can make a great platform for doing like virtual PD, but nevermind, because as we all know, TikTok may be banned. So farewell, TikTok. We loved you while we had you, even though that's probably not a great thing that you're collecting all our data. Just start watching some like tech how to specifically for teachers on TikTok. The TikTok algorithm is so good that it, like you watch a couple of those and it will just keep feeding those kinds of videos to you. So that's actually a really good tip. Yeah. Oh yeah. And I love that teachers are putting themselves out there. And I think that's pretty bad to see. Let's empower each other to highlight new tools and resources that is only gonna help our students

14:00because that's the goal at the end of the day, is this PD is what can we do to create this wonderful teaching environment, whether virtually face-to-face, hybrid right now, what can we do to support each other in all those modalities? Yeah. Keith, is there anything that you would add there? Yeah, I don't want to add anything. And I don't want to mansplain what Thea just said. I would just follow up by saying, I don't know of a teacher who has gone into the profession that doesn't want to do what's right for kids. And when you come from that position, you recognize that the people who are in the classroom are there because they want to do good by your children. And that makes them experts in doing good for children. And there is a lot of untapped potential in schools of teachers who are experts whose voices often don't get heard. And so one of the things that I like to do is to try to bring along folks who otherwise wouldn't

Teacher expertise from the classroom up

15:00consider themselves as an expert and say, you know what, you can write this paper or you can join me in this PD. Let's do it together. Let's figure this out together. And so as Thea said, teacher educator, I really feel like that's the grassroots movements of professional development, that it comes from the people in the classroom talking about what they need and then figuring out. And again, there isn't a teacher that won't figure it out. If they really want to know, they'll figure it out. And I compare it to, you know, if my washer broke right now, I would go to YouTube and watch a video and I would pause it when I needed to pause it. And I would figure out how to fix it. That's what teaching is. That's what learning is. Just what's the issue? How can I fix it? And where do I go from there? And PD is no different from me. As people that have a lot of influence over your literacy association, how have you guys,

16:00this is just a curiosity question that's popped into my head, but how have you guys been thinking about PD in that context of like, it's a grassroots thing? I think for our organization, we've always highlighted the profession, the teaching profession. And we invite, you know, well-known experts in the field of literacy research to come to our conference. And then we also invite teachers to present on what they've been doing in their own classrooms. And that's so important because we want to highlight that expertise. And so we've always had that mentality with our organization is that we want our teachers to feel part of this platform, part of this conference, as well as, you know, promoting different kinds of workshops at the local level. Because as part of our organization, we have local councils throughout New York state in different regions. And then

Staying current through professional networks

17:00they can also present locally, if not, you know, statewide at our conference. Love it. So when the world opens back up again, are you guys going to do like a TikTok reel of just teachers that have given great TikTok videos right at the beginning of the conference? Should be. Should be nothing but a virtual TikTok literacy conference. That would be great. I love it. Okay, let's talk about specific ways that teachers can stay current in the literacy education community. And I'll let either of you guys just take it away there. I'll start by saying that social media, for all of its faults, really is one of the best ways to get professional development. Following particular hashtags on Twitter, especially, which has sort of been usurped by educators in the last few years.

18:00I, you know, in my opinion, in revolutionary ways, but following particular groups and people, for example, there is a group that was just started by a bunch of folks called the Abolitionist Teaching Network, and you can follow them on Twitter and Instagram, and they come out, they come up with a bunch of anti-racist educational resources. There's a hashtag that I follow called #DisruptTexts, which is a group of four women of color who are trying to disrupt the canon in secondary literacy education. And so one of the biggest things that has happened to me as an educator is following folks on Twitter and making it a regular habit habit to expand my personal learning network through Twitter, especially. But there's also groups on Facebook, you know, like one of the groups that I started when, in March, we called it the K-12 Online Learning Collective, which is just a group

19:00folks from across the country and, in fact, the world to provide resources for teachers on, hey, you know, here's something you could consider, or more importantly, I need to try to do this. Can you help? Does anybody have any ideas? And so, again, that's a grassroots kind of thing. Somebody posts a question, and you might get an answer from somebody who lives in Taiwan or Florida or Texas. And so, embracing social media as a valid form of professional development and scholarship, I would say, is a great way to stay current in literacy education. Yeah. Oh, I agree with that. Thea, what would you add there? I think that we just need to be in the know of the stakeholders that influence education, knowing them by name. So, Keith and I were actually talking about this because I, as a teacher educator, teaching undergrads and graduates, I always show them what part of my first class

Knowing the people who shape education

20:00is showing them images of our U.S. Department of Education, Secretaries of Education, and then also our Commissioner of Education showing pictures. Who can you identify who these individuals are? And Keith and I were talking, wouldn't it be great to put like a celebrity there and see if they recognize the celebrity, but not the other two that really impact their teaching profession overall and influence the curriculum and everything that happens within our state and in our country. And I think that we just need to know more about our position as teachers, about what's going on at the local level, a state level, and beyond. So, knowing who's on your school board, knowing the Commissioner of Education, where is the State Department located? Just things like that, I think, are so important because we need to have that knowledge in order to be part of those conversations if we want to really understand what's going on with policy and practice, and then, therefore, how

21:00does that relate to what I'm doing in my classroom? And so, I think that, you know, staying on top of that, getting on those listservs, because, you know, our State Education Department, no matter what state you're in, puts out information that you would like to know about when it comes, especially now, when we're thinking about what's happening in schools with virtual hybrid or face-to-face, like they're putting out a lot of information too. So, let's stay on top of that so we know what's going on. And I think there are a lot of great websites that I just, you know, subscribe to, to know in different states what's going on, to know what's going on locally, and we need to be involved in that and part of the conversation. Yeah, I agree. You gave me a list here of subscriptions that you highly recommend, and I'm going to put these in the description of the episode so anybody can click on them, but it's the U.S. Department of Education, the International Literacy Association, the Literacy Research Association, Chalkbeat, Ed Week, Chronicle of Higher Education, State and Local Teacher Unions, might not be able to

Research and professional journals

22:00put that in the description, and the Washington Post and the New York State Education Pages. Is there anything else that you would add as like, here's another great way that teachers can stay current? A lot of the research that gets done in the literacy community happens in partnership with schools, but it often gets published in places where that teachers don't have access to unless they are willing to purchase academic journals out of their own pocket or convince their administrators or their district to purchase. So one of the ways that I always recommend folks to stay current is to put in some, a request for funds to purchase professional journals like the NCTE, the National Council for Teachers of English, has journals for elementary school The Reading Teachers. You know, one is called, well, I'm going to go with The Reading Teacher, comes from the

23:00International Literacy Association, which is geared toward elementary, and it's more practitioner based. Then they have the Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, the JAL, that focuses on, you know, middle school and secondary. And so, in those journals, you can get electronically, or you can actually get them in hard copy sent to your school. And so, that's one of the ways that I, that I always recommend students stay current on, or professionals stay current on the research that's happening. Awesome. Love it. All right. As we wrap this up, guys, what is one thing that you, one thing that each of you would want people to take away from this episode? Oh, boy, that's a tough one. There's so much. I would say this, especially because I just got done with a couple of really lengthy meetings with teachers who are really worried about coming back

Adaptability, risk, and small acts of advocacy

24:00to school. Your first day of teaching was nerve wracking. You didn't sleep the night before. You didn't sleep the week before. And no matter how much you planned and prepped, there was no way to know what was going to happen when you walked in that room. There really wasn't. You never met these kids before, and you never been in this school before. But you got through it. You know, you made small adjustments. You figured it out. You leaned on people. You stood up when you needed to. You figured it out when you had to. I don't think anything has changed. You know, as an 18-year high school teacher, nothing's changed on that first day. There's still things that pop up, no matter how much I plan, that I got to go back, you know, drop back and punt. And so literacy is a lifelong pursuit. And so, too, is literacy education. It's not something that you're going to perfect ever.

25:00And the minute you think you've perfected it, then we're here to tell you that there's something outside on the horizon that's coming up that you don't know about yet. And so you have to be adaptable, and you have to be willing to risk it for the betterment of kids. I'll quote Bettina Love again and say, especially because over 80% of the teaching population is white, to quote Bettina Love, you got to put some skin in the game. You got to be willing to put your life on the line to help protect these kids. And teachers have been doing that for a long time in a lot of ways. But in new ways, in the new centuries, this requires a little bit of patience and grace and sensible risk-taking for youth. Awesome. Man, I love that, Keith. What about you, Thea? Wow, Keith, that's amazing. Well, I think for me, what you can take away from this is just,

26:00I think it's okay, like Keith said, that unrest. And I think that there's a lot of unrest right now, and feeling uncomfortable. And I think Keith and I were talking about, I was a little uncomfortable coming on this podcast. It was just a different platform. And then Keith reminded me, he's like, this is about advocacy. And if we're highlighting this topic, you have to put yourself out there and be a little uncomfortable. And I think that's part of it, trying something new and really making your voice heard in a new way. And it's that little nudge from your colleague that really helps you to see that you're making a change in a small way. So I don't know how many people this is going to reach, but I think that we're all in this together. And it's so difficult to stay on top of things. Every day, something's changing. And now there's new videos every day coming out, new information about policy, new information about research. And I think we can do our best

27:00to just try to stay as current as we can with what we have in front of us. And if we can make changes, just small ones in our own classroom with our own students, that's part of advocacy. It's just trying to do the best you can with what you've been given and then seeing what ways you can make small goals for yourself in the future. And the fact that people are listening to this podcast, I think is part of advocacy because you're trying to stay current with what's happening and find new ways to make goals and change your practice, change your thinking. And if not, share with others because you're not maybe ready yet, but maybe you know somebody to share this with that's ready to take those next steps. And at the end of the day, if you look at what teaching is, it's all about advocacy and teaching is political, whether we like to think about it or not, but at the same time, I think that we have a lot of power and we're ready

Where to learn more

28:00to empower others. Man, thank you guys so much for that. Where can listeners go if they want to connect with you further? Where would you send them? We'd send them to nysreading.org. That's the New York State Reading Association website. There's some great resources on there under professional development. We have a couple of online workshops coming up in October, November and December, but we also have resources for diversity and inclusion and ways to connect with other people in your community. So nysreading.org would be the site we'd send folks to. Thea and Keith, thank you guys so much for being on the show. I've had a great time talking to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, Tim.