Register: https://tinyurl.com/eaurs5uj

Given the chaos of the pandemic, the nationwide attacks on curriculum and Critical Race Theory, and the resultant moral injury, it can easily be said that educators across the country are living through the most challenging years of their careers. In this webinar, our panelists will address the issue of demoralization, a state that is born out of educators’ ongoing value conflicts with pedagogical policies, reform mandates, and school practices. Doris Santoro (Professor, Bowdoin College) will share her research on demoralization and how this experience has been altered and intensified by the pandemic. Julia Hazel will address how these intersecting issues impact educators of color, and she will share the work she has done as Director of BIPOC Leadership and Career Advancement at Portland (ME) Public Schools. Olga Acosta Price, Associate Professor and Director of The Center for Health & Healthcare in Schools at George Washington University, will discuss how comprehensive school behavioral health systems that leverage local school-family-community partnerships are essential for helping to create wellness within our schooling communities. This panel provides not only examples from their own collaborations on educator and school wellness, but they will also share recommendations and promising strategies for how school leaders, union leaders, teacher groups, and individual practitioners can enact and support one another in the process of “re-moralization.” 

USOS offers this webinar in collaboration with the Massachusetts Teachers Association, Citizens for Public Schools, & the American Federation of Teachers-MA.