2023 Institute Call for Proposals
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Call for Presentation Proposals
2023 NAEYC Professional Learning Institute, Portland, OR
Sunday, June 4 – Wednesday, June 7, 2023
NAEYC is transitioning to a NEW online abstract management system! The submission link is not quite ready, but here’s some information to help you prepare while we work to get the site open.
Overview
NAEYC’s Professional Learning Institute brings together seasoned and emerging early childhood leaders in a community of learners focused on deepening the early childhood knowledge base, addressing challenging and controversial issues facing the field, and developing skills to improve professional development and practice.
The Institute features hundreds of informative sessions and research posters, unique networking opportunities, and a vibrant exhibit hall marketplace. NAEYC seeks proposals that reflect innovative thinking in early childhood education, informed by research, policy, and practice.
The theme for this year’s Professional Learning Institute is Joyful, Equitable Learning for All.
The ECE field is guided by foundational documents that articulate and elaborate on expectations related to effective practice with young children and expectations for the core knowledge and skills essential for every early childhood educator. The Developmentally Appropriate Practice, Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education, Code of Ethical Conduct and Professional Standards and Competencies position statements are intentionally connected to each other and reinforce the notion early childhood educators are the most important in-school factor in implementing quality early learning and care.
The tracks for the 2023 Professional Learning Institute, along with the corresponding topics, provide an opportunity for program leaders, trainers, educator preparation faculty, researchers, state agency personnel and policymakers, advocates and practitioners to showcase recent work that is resulting in stronger quality early learning and care, efforts to advance the ECE workforce, and current research that informs the ECE field.
Tracks 1-5 in the grid below are directly connected to the 6 Guidelines in the Developmentally Appropriate Practice position statement. Track 6 addresses the ways in which educators consider ethics to inform decision-making in their practice. Track 7 highlights ways in which early childhood educators are supported in becoming and are recognized as ECE professionals, both from state-wide efforts, professional preparation and professional development.
Proposal writers are encouraged to approach the tracks from their perspectives as program leaders/trainers, educator preparation faculty, researchers, state agency personnel/policymakers/advocates, or practitioners. In particular,
- Program Leaders/Trainers should consider the ways in which they implement policies and practices that support their staff or educators in addressing the topics at hand. What has been the impact of these policies and practices? How do you structure professional development to strengthen educators’ ability to effectively support young children and families?
- Educator Preparation Faculty should consider the ways in which they build students’ proficiency in the competencies described in the track. How are field experiences designed to support the competencies? What are important content resources and assignments that you use in creating your curriculum? How are you incorporating research and content resources that represent diverse perspectives and that prepare students to incorporate culturally responsive practices?
- Researchers should highlight new insights and data that advance the field’s knowledge base in the respective tracks. How does the research represent perspectives of or findings from populations in underserved communities? BIPOC populations? What are findings from recent program evaluation efforts?
- State agency personnel/policymakers/advocates should highlight legislation or regulatory policies that are helping providers, educators and faculty strengthen practices in relation to the topic tracks. What advocacy initiatives are underway to advance the field in relation to the topics in the tracks.
- Practitioners should highlight specific strategies they are using to address the topics in the tracks. How have outcomes for the young children you serve improved because of your work?
| Track | Track Description | Topics |
| 1. Caring equitable community of learners (Social/emotional, equity, etc.) | One of the DAP guidelines, this track explores what creates a sense of belonging for each child and family including establishing strong relationships, selecting materials that reflect children and families, fostering relationships and problem solving between children, and creating classroom, and school climates that are equitable and culturally responsive. Includes thinking about both what is taught in higher ed on this topic as well as how the guidelines apply to higher ed settings. |
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| 2. Building Family and community partnerships | Strength and opportunities for growth in family and community partnerships and engagement. |
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| 3. Observing, documenting, assessing children's development and learning | Addresses formal, informal and teacher made assessments. How do educators know what children are learning in order to make decisions about teaching? What is working systemically and what is not? What are the tools needed for emphasizing teacher observation and documentation into the assessment process? |
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| 4. Teaching to enhance children's development and learning | Outlines the many things teachers do to support children's learning from scaffolding children's learning, to creating engaging joyful environments, to how systems and school and education leaders and policies support such environments. Includes explorations of environments, materials, approaches and scaffolding to support learning in key areas such as math, science, literacy, and social and emotional learning, |
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| 5. Creating an engaging research based curriculum | Describes what curriculum is, what makes a quality early learning curriculum, how educators make adaptions and considerations for specific curricular areas such as math; literacy; social and emotional learning; science; technology, media, etc. |
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| 6. Incorporating ethical decision-making | These sessions focus on NAEYC's Code of Ethical Conduct; how ethics connects to equity and new research and contexts for ethical decision making. |
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| 7. Building A Strong Profession | This track addresses NAEYC's Professional Development Standards and Competencies as well as topics such as equitable and livable wages for preschool educators and Guidelines 6, being an early childhood professional |
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Important Information Required for Proposal Submissions
An individual's name should appear on only one proposal as the lead/primary presenter. NAEYC is not responsible for scheduling conflicts that might arise if an individual's name appears on more than one accepted proposal. Most sessions are 2 hours in length with some 1 hour in length. Please consider the session length when submitting your proposal. Be prepared to provide the information below:
Presenter contact information for ALL presenters (includes primary and additional presenters)
- First and Last Name
- Company/Institution/Affiliation
- Professional title
- Department
- Complete mailing addresses
- Phone numbers
- Email Address
- Presenter website/LinkedIn Profile link (if applicable)
- Demographics – gender, age range, ethnicity, years in ECE
- Are you a member: Y/N
- Presented previously?
- # of NAEYC conferences as a presenter
- Speaker Bio
Proposal Information
- Track category
- Topic category
- Age level (Infants, Toddlers, Infants & Toddlers, Preschoolers, Kindergartners, First to Third Graders, All Children, and Adults)
- Primary Audience (Advocates, Consultants/Trainers, Mentors/Coaches, Policymakers, Program Directors/Administrators, Public Agency Officials, Researchers, Students, Teacher Educators (Faculty))
- Content Level (Introductory, Intermediate, Advanced)
- Session title
- Description of Proposed Presentation
- Describe how your proposal reflects the fourth edition of the Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) position statement; NAEYC’s Advancing Equity in Early Childhood Education position statement and/or other NAEYC position statements.
- Learning outcomes of presentation
- Opportunities for linkage and application
- Format of session
- Expertise of presenter(s)
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Session length
- 1-hour session – limit 5 presenters
- 2-hour session – limit 6 presenters
- Research Poster session – limit 2 presenters
- Room capacity
- Preferred room setup (theater or rounds)
- Require additional AV equipment
- Presenter comments/requests
- Audiovisual equipment: NAEYC will provide a standard audiovisual equipment setup which includes a screen, an LCD projector, and stand. One table microphone and one podium mic will also be provided per session. Any additional AV equipment is at the presenter's expense including sound patches, laptops, and internet. Additional equipment can be rented through our AV vendor.
Presenter Registration
If your proposal is selected, you may register for the conference at the reduced presenter rate. Details about the discounted presenter fee will be emailed with acceptance letters.
No Sales policy: NAEYC’s stated policy is that presenters may not display or sell products in session rooms. Presenters are not permitted to sell products before, during or after their session at the Annual Conference. If you would like to purchase a booth in NAEYC's Exhibit Hall, please visit the Exhibitors & Advertisers page. More information will be posted in the coming months.
Questions
Please email NAEYC's Conference Department at [email protected] or call 800-424-2460.