Although educators across the state work in vastly different environments with a wide range of students, the commonality shared by all is the desire to do everything and anything possible to help students learn and grow. Whether an educator works in a preschool, counseling center, or high school math class, we finish the workday with a commitment to make tomorrow even better for our students. As a Policy Ambassador for the 2024 Utah Legislative Session, I decided to step outside my school building and seek help from those crafting educational policy at Capitol Hill. As a Policy Ambassador, I attended policy training, spent a day at the Capitol, and sent many emails to my legislators. However, my day-to-day participation involved tuning into Senate and House Education Committee meetings to listen, learn, and prepare to speak up.
A few months before the session began, I found myself getting lost while simply clicking around the Utah Legislature website. After the first few days of the session, I was watching committee meetings while simultaneously reading the bills being discussed on the 'Bills and Resolutions' page. Now, I obsessively watch the votes on the 'Reading Calendar' page during House and Senate floor times to stay up to date on exactly what decisions are being made about the systems in which my students are asked to live and learn. Ultimately, putting in the effort to stay informed about proposed bills, public opinion on educational policies, the attitudes of elected officials toward educational issues, and the narratives circulating about public education has been the most important and impactful professional development I have ever experienced. It has taught me that teachers must be content experts not only in the subjects they teach but also in the policies and systems that impact their work.
Feeling alternatively flustered, excited, enraged, appreciative, and inspired, I have reached out to the elected officials in my area to champion the needs of my students and colleagues throughout the session. I have also taken my knowledge into conversations with my administration, department head, and professional learning community. More importantly, my newfound awareness has ignited conversations with colleagues outside my department, with friends, and with family members as they make decisions about who to vote for and what policies they should discuss with their representatives. As educators, our words and actions are often assumed to be speaking on behalf of education, so being informed in what we say and do is imperative.
Being engaged with the democratic processes at work this session has allowed me to become an advocate for education and more of a professional in the field. In my district, teachers are evaluated on their 'professionalism,' and teachers who exude professionalism engage in the following behaviors:
- Engage in self-reflection and professional learning for continuous growth and expertise in content and pedagogy.
- Collaborate and cultivate productive relationships with staff, students, parents, administrators, and the community to improve learning.
- Approach challenges and changes positively in a problem-solving manner.
- Make professional contributions to the school, district, and school community.
Engaging fully with the legislature, whether that be through consistent viewings of committee meetings or through attending Educator Day on the Hill, professionally develops educators as we become more familiar with the structural and often hidden content that drives our work each day. Considering multiple viewpoints on important educational bills requires educators to reflect on their experiences in the classroom and form their own opinions about what legislation is best for teaching and learning. Being informed on educational policy enables conversations and collaboration with legislators, district and school leaders, and the families we serve at work each day. Our active engagement leads to problem-solving with stakeholders at the Capitol, at our schools, and in our communities.
Educators are expected to be experts in what we teach each day—after all, we are molding the minds of the next generation, as they say. However, we cannot pretend that a command of reading, writing, and arithmetic is sufficient; we have a professional responsibility to be aware of and engaged in decisions made on our behalf. Stepping outside our areas of expertise to learn more about education on a macro level results in better teachers and better schools for our students.
