4.3: Professional Organizations (Joining a Larger Community)

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Education Department
SUNY Oneonta via LumenLearning

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Professional organizations are essential contributors in assisting educators in developing, building, and sustaining teachers’ professional learning networks.

Discussion Questions

Consider the following questions:

What are your professional organization’s belief statements or position statements on teaching
What journals do your organization publish for practicing teachers?
What resources do your professional organization provide teachers?
What special events does your organization hold for teachers?

Professional organizations are important to ongoing professional development and growth. Teachers take advantage of conferences, meetings and opportunities to both mentor and be mentored through the professional organizations for their content areas and/or interest areas.

All professional organizations have web sites that assist in understanding their content, the activities and opportunities they provide to their members, and any publications that the organization may publish for its members. In addition, most professional organizations offer a student rate that can assist in building your resume and networking with like-minded educators. A list of national professional organizations adapted from Masters in Education (2019) appear below.

Professional Organizations by Subject/Concentration Area

National Council of Teachers of English – NCTE www.ncte.org
National Science Teachers Association – NSTA www.nsta.org
National Council for the Social Studies – NCSS http://www.socialstudies.org/
American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages – ACTFL www.actfl.org
American Association of Family and Consumer Science – AAFCS www.aafcs.org
International Literacy Association – ILA http://literacyworldwide.org
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics – NCTM www.nctm.org/
Professional Organizations for birth-6th grade practitioners
Association for Childhood Education International www.acei.org
Teachers First https://www.teachersfirst.com/proforgs.cfm
Association of American Educators https://www.aaeteachers.org/
Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Division for Early Childhood (DEC) http://www.dec-sped.org/
National Association for the Education of Young Children http://www.naeyc.org/

In addition to those on the national level, most states will also have professional organizations for various contents and grade levels. These are an excellent way to make contacts with other educators in your state.

Contributors and Attributions

Foundations of Education. Authored by: SUNY Oneonta Education Department. License: CC BY: Attribution