Name: Bennet Bediako 

Program: PhD in Educational Studies 

Dissertation Title: Curriculum Reform—The Case of An Innovative Laboratory School in A Midsize Mid-Western University 

Takeaways from the Institute for Teaching and Mentoring: 

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) ’s Institute for Teaching and Mentoring conference was at the Marriot Hotel in New Orleans from October 31st to November 3, 2024. According to the SREB director, the institute is in its 31st year and is the largest gathering of historically underrepresented doctoral scholars in the United States. The institute prioritizes the issue of faculty diversity and supports underrepresented scholars as they go through graduate school, earn doctoral degrees and become college professors.  The theme for this year was Second Line of Success: Marching Toward Faculty Diversity and Fulfilling Careers. Some of the keynote speakers were Dr. Ansley Abraham, Marybeth Gasman, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University, Kim Hunter Reed, Commissioner for higher education, Louisiana Board of Regents, among others.  It was a privilege to be selected as one of the recipients of the Ball State SREB Doctoral scholars Program Award for 2024-2025. This enabled me to attend the Institute this year. The following are my take ways from the conference. 

First and foremost, the institute assembled 100 recruiters coming from colleges and universities across the United States. These recruiters introduced the programs they offer in their institutions and open positions to scholars who visited their stands. Even where there were no open positions, they took details of scholars and promised to stay in touch in case hiring needs and opportunities arose during the academic year.  I took advantage of this and connected with colleges that have schools of education which is my field. Additionally, the SREB also has a scholar directory database which is a tool for facilitating networking and recruiting opportunities both for scholars and recruiters. Scholars are automatically enrolled as soon as they register with the institute, and they can update their profile as and when necessary.  

Secondly the institute also had sessions for scholars where various topics were discussed. Some of the sessions dealt with student centered teaching, prioritizing one’s health as a professor, navigating graduate school, describing your research in five minutes, getting published among others. I attended the CV Review session where an experienced professor made some valuable suggestions regarding how to improve my CV and make it more relevant and marketable for faculty positions. I also attended the ‘presenting research effectively’ session as well as the Inspiration, Innovation and Invention sessions. This session was valuable in that it discussed how to identify problems, asking thoughtful questions and stating hypothesis with a view to coming up with an invention that moves the world. The rules for presenting research effectively are that the presenter should be clear, concise and display conviction. The practical approach used in this workshop was very helpful. 

Thirdly, sessions were held according to disciplines. There were sessions for categories like biological sciences, engineering, mathematics and computer science, health sciences and so on.  These provided opportunities for scholars within the same field to have deliberations on scholars’ research topics and sharing various tools and current software available to help scholars in their dissertation writing. I participated in the Education and Humanities session where we shared ideas about some of the best practices that scholars could adopt to be able to complete their dissertations on time.  

Last but certainly not least the plenary sessions were very illuminating. What stood out for me was Dr Gasman’s presentation on How to Build a Faculty Career. She spoke powerfully about the importance of building a strong network, the need to balance teaching, research and service. She added that some of the best approaches to publishing and doing research is to establish a writing routine, learning from failure, focusing on one’s work and  building alliances. She also highlighted the importance of appreciating and mentoring others as part of the successful faculty life. She concluded by saying that everyone must go where they are wanted since every person has unique skills especially if scholars are having challenges in their department or college.  

Overall, attending the institute was helpful in so many ways especially the opportunity to network with like-minded individuals and I came out more empowered to complete my dissertation while looking into the future with hope. This is an opportunity that I would recommend to any underprivileged scholar.