Dear TEIS Colleagues,

I hope that those of you who attended the convention enjoyed the rich opportunities for learning and networking. I also hope you enjoy this newsletter. There is so much more to TEIS than just the convention; I encourage you to participate in TEIS activities year-round, such as the newsletter and the Listserv. We are such a large professional community (the second largest interest section in TESOL next to English as a Foreign Language), and we span so many diverse areas in the field of English language teaching. It is important that we stay connected throughout the year and across our geographical distances.

One of my concerns as chair of TEIS over the past year has been the identity of our interest section. The phrase teacher education is frequently misinterpreted by many in TESOL to mean anything to do with providing teachers with knowledge and learning opportunities. For example, many people assume a convention session titled “Using Differentiated Instruction in the EFL Classroom” would fall under the category of Teacher Education because the focus of the session is educating teachers about differentiated instruction. This is one of the reasons why TEIS had only a 17% acceptance rate of session proposals this year for the convention—a substantial number of proposals were erroneously submitted as Teacher Education sessions (and consequently not accepted) when they should have been submitted to Adult Education, EFL, Secondary Education, and so on.

I have wondered if our interest section would be better titled “Teacher Educators,” although that phrase does not ring well to my ears. Our identity needs to be foremost about who we are as a community of professionals. The term “Teacher Preparation” does not work because so much of our work involves professional development and teachers already practicing in the classroom. Moreover, there are many different names that we ourselves encompass—professors, instructional coaches, trainers, and others. This is a conversation that we should have as fellow TEIS members. Is it time to rebrand ourselves? Let me or the new 2013 TEIS chair, Jenelle Reeves, know your thoughts!

Anne Walker