IRT Scholars and alums are gearing up for our 33rd Summer Workshop. As Freire reminds us, education is a tool for liberation and love. I am excited that we have continued to expand on the Summer Workshop – now allowing IRT Faculty to instruct, design, and facilitate their courses. Our online platform enables scholars to engage live and through recordings – and we can support all IRT Scholars with curriculum and robust advising.
In our current times, we must be instructing scholars in frameworks and methodologies we are seeing in the field and our courses of study. Our IRT alums have unique perspectives, research, and pedagogical approaches. We are grateful to have such a robust community of scholars, practitioners and more to help build a place of intellectual inquiry and holistic student development.
In April, I attended the AERA conference in Philadelphia. There, I had the opportunity to hear IRT Scholar’s research, meet with Consortium partners, and engage with urgent questions in our field. I am continuously invigorated by the work of those in our communities and the opportunity compounded by increasing our visibility in scholarship. Finally, we held our first IRT Social in 2024, connecting with IRT alums — old and new. The IRT community is an invigorating, beautiful, and dedicated group of individuals – and I enjoy every time I get to meet you all.
We look forward to engaging with our alums and institutions committed to our mission as we continue our growth process. In particular, the IRT is committed to expanding access to our programs by increasing Scholars, engaging in work with educators more broadly (including alums and those outside of the program), and supporting institutions such as Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Minority Serving Institutions, rural universities, and more.
In closing, we remain invigorated by our favorite time of year – the IRT Summer, and look forward to finding ways to engage with you all. I encourage you to reach out via email or in the leave a comment section below with texts that remind you of the workshop or let us know how we can connect with you this summer.
“Looking at the past must only be a means of understanding more clearly what and who they are so that they can more wisely build the future.”
– Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed pg. 86.
Best,
LaShawnda Brooks
Executive Director
Institute for Recruitment of Teachers 