“Simulations, as many of you probably know, can be powerful for – and I’ll use the term teacher candidates, and for those of you working with novice teachers. We wanted a space where we could provide teacher candidates with situated learning. These situated learning opportunities foster reflective practice and connect theory to practice, but most importantly, my work is centered around this, providing an intentional space to have difficult conversations. We have found that in over 20 years, especially in teacher education, there’s no time to talk about racism, other forms of oppression, and how they play out in school spaces. We talk about it in theory but often in the classroom; finding space to have those difficult conversations just often isn’t there, and teachers, the same in the classroom. So simulations provide us an opportunity for a purposeful space where we can have these difficult conversations, and most importantly, we are committed to creating an opportunity to make mistakes and do it in a way where we don’t actually hurt children.”

See Dr. McAllister’s thoughts here or watch the Building Inclusive Classrooms Webinar she facilitated below.

“I had the great opportunity of teaching at the University of Connecticut and I had my class last night and had the great opportunity to use a simulation in a group of six. I’m telling you they were standing up, they were leaning over, they were you know – the pure collaboration and the opportunity to engage in this manner and I love the proactive, as Dr. Mason put out there, they said they’ll do more. I don’t want to do it alone. I love the fact that there were six of us arguing about how we should answer and giving good rationale. For novice teachers, I can’t begin to tell you how powerful something like this would be.”