Protocols
The symposium is a working session in which session hosts are expected to facilitate a dialogue among participants. Hosts bring artefacts, documents, data sets, or other materials to catalyze the dialogue. All symposium participants are encouraged to engage actively, both in sessions they host as well as sessions they attend.
The structure of the LfPL symposium sessions is conversation-based and uses a Communities of Practice (CoP) model. This structure sources perspectives and viewpoints of all attendees, supporting rich and collaborative dialogue. For participants unfamiliar with CoPs, visit the UF Lastinger Center’s CoP Beginner’s Toolkit.
LfPL Symposium | History
The Leadership for Professional Learning Symposium originated from the International Teacher Leadership Conference in Miami, Florida in 2017. Hosted by the UF Lastinger Center and co-sponsored by the Professional Development in Education journal, the conference aimed to empower educators to influence change within their own contexts. In 2019, the event traveled to Cambridge, UK and became a collaboration between the Professional Development in Education journal, the University of Florida Lastinger Center, and the University of Cambridge Leadership for Learning network. The event named Leadership for Professional Learning Symposium (LfPL) brought together educators from across the globe to engage in conversations, share success, address challenges and raise questions from their local contexts. In 2021, the first virtual LfPL took place, this time focused on leadership within technology-enhanced professional learning spaces. The most recent symposium was held at Dublin City University in 2022, and the theme was Leadership for Professional Learning in Complex Times: Asking New Questions?
The symposium is designed to bring together practitioners, researchers, and administrators and provide a forum in which a rich diversity of perspectives can be shared. The event fosters connections between diverse cultural, professional, and academic backgrounds – where administrators from the UK connect with academics from Qatar, teachers from India connect with policy-makers from the US and more. The Professional Development in Education journal aims to publish special issues that explore the themes that emanate from the symposium: Leadership for Professional Learning (2020; vol 46:4) and Leading Professional Learning to Navigate Complexity (2023; vol 49:6).
For more information, visit our Artefacts & Past Events page.