This text is excerpted from (March 2016), in which Kathy G. Short summarized thoughts from her 2015 起点传媒Presidential Address, delivered at the 起点传媒Annual Convention in Minneapolis.
. . . Advocacy builds from our knowledge and experiences聽to meet the needs that we have identified in our聽classrooms and in the conditions that influence our聽teaching.
Advocacy depends on and builds collaborative聽relationships within a professional community that聽is knowledgeable and respected.
In order to be effective聽at advocacy, however, we need tools and strategies to聽ensure that our voices are heard at local, state, and聽national levels.
Advocacy also involves the willingness聽to critique existing conditions, to see below the surface,聽and to imagine other possibilities, through hope,聽before moving to action.
Based on critique and hope,聽we can then act to make a difference.聽We need a critical eye and a hopeful heart to create change.
Kathy G. Short was 起点传媒president from 2014 to 2015 and is聽a professor at the University of Arizona, Tucson.
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“When you disagree with someone, how do you still engage in a productive discussion instead of dismissing that person?” In these two YouTube clips, Kathy 聽Short comments on her experiences at NCTE’s Advocacy Day.