Welcome to NRMERA
We are the Northern Rocky Mountain Educational Research Association, the regional affiliate of the American Educational Research Association. While our membership draws mostly from among researchers and educators in the Rocky Mountain West, we welcome all researchers and educators to be a part of our organization.We host a yearly conference as well as publish a peer-reviewed journal,The Researcher.
2011 Conference: Toward Better Practice
Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Snow King Resort
October 6-7
Message From the President:
In deciding our theme for NRMERA 2011, I was very influenced by the following quote by William Ayers:
"Thoughtfulness requires wide- awakeness– a willingness to look at the conditions of our lives, to consider alternatives and different possibilities, to challenge received wisdom and the taken for granted, and to link our conduct with our consciousness."
Our teaching profession often rallies around the “best practice” cry, framing it as an end result, a set of competencies to be met before best practice can be claimed. Some researchers talk about “owning” a given number of best practice principles and warn that if not perfected, the principles may just become another set of unproductive rituals that are mindlessly applied just to meet best practice criteria. What often happens is these principles are placed on a shelf, we glance at them once in awhile, maybe we take one out for a spin now and then, but we largely ignore them and perhaps feel a bit guilty and overwhelmed by the magnitude of achieving all of them.
What I like about the Ayres quote is that it suggests a willingness to evaluate where we are, and then take action that aligns with our personal philosophies. Those actions may be incremental—moving us step by step at our own pace—guilt-free--toward better alignment between where we are and where we hope to be. In our very busy and productive lives, what I think is needed is a measured personal effort inspired by hope and optimism that will lead us…
Toward Better Practice
Helping to frame our 2011 Conference around this theme will be our Keynote Speaker, Robert V. Bullough, Jr., eminent scholar and colleague, Professor of Teacher Education, Association Director of the Center for the Improvement of Teacher Education and Schooling (CITES), Brigham Young University, and Emeritus Professor of Educational Studies, University of Utah. His most recent books include (with Craig Kridel), Stories of the Eight-Year Study: Reexamining Secondary Education in America (SUNY Press, 2007) and Counternarratives: Studies of Teacher Education, and Becoming and Being a Teacher, also from SUNY Press (2008).
Pamela Cantrell, 2011 NRMERA President
View the PowerPoint presentation introducing our 2011 Theme and conference location: Jackson Hole ABCs