Submission guidelines for proposals

The Teacher Development Special Interest Group (TD SIG) is inviting everyone to submit proposals for video presentations (and a possible subsequent publication thereof) that fall broadly under the theme of teacher development. A successful applicant will have the choice of a) presenting live or b) recording their presentation in advance (to be published on the blog of the Teacher Journeys website) and doing a workshop/discussion session during the conference. Please read the guidelines carefully.

What we are looking for

We are most interested in personal narratives that clearly explain the professional change and the path to it. A typical proposal and subsequent video presentation will consist of the following elements:

  • Description of your situation (views, experiences, behaviors, opinions, etc.) before the change.
  • Description of what prompted the change. This often comes in the form of a critical incident leading to a certain insight.
  • Description of what informed the change. This may be personal observations, experience or reading of specific academic literature (or anything else we may not have thought about).
  • Description of the results of the change. This may include your views, behavior, opinions and/or other things.

Please see some of the previous submissions here, here and here to get a better idea of what we are looking for and, perhaps, for some inspiration.

Proposal requirements

Other than meeting the content requirements described above, your proposal must:

  • be in English
  • be between 150 and 250 words (excluding references, if any)
  • include 3-5 keywords
  • be typed in and follow the guidelines of the default proposal template (click here to download)

Review procedures and support

Each proposal will be blindly reviewed by 2 reviewers. Proposals will be either rejected (with reasons) or accepted. In case of a rejection, we welcome resubmissions provided the feedback has been properly addressed. Our reviewers will do their best to help you write a proposal that fits the theme of the conference and includes the information the TJ audience will expect to see.

In general, the review procedure looks as follows:

  1. Proposal is submitted to reviewers for a blind review.
  2. Proposal is either accepted as is or rejected with feedback from the reviewers explaining how it can be improved.
  3. Proposal is resubmitted to the editor. The editor will review the revisions and will either accept the proposal (in case of minor revisions), send it for another round of reviews (in case of major revisions) or suggest further changes before sending it for another round of reviews.

We aim to support our authors in this process as much as reasonably possible to ensure your work is suitable for the conference. We have no limit on how many times proposals can be resubmitted, but please note that you may need to wait longer than our normal 4-week review window for resubmissions as we prioritize new submissions.

Prerecorded video presentation requirements

If your proposal is accepted, your subsequent video presentation must:

  • be 20-30 minutes long
  • be in English
  • include an abstract of up to 250 words1
  • include a written prompt for a discussion on the blog page (can be part of the abstract or a separate 1-2 sentence-long paragraph under the abstract – please see an example here)1
  • include the same discussion prompt at the end of the video presentation
  • be accompanied by both English and Japanese abstracts1, 2
  • be accompanied by a short bio with a photo1
  • include 3-5 keywords1

Note 1: Please submit all written materials in a single Word file with clear headings indicating each section (English abstract with a discussion prompt, Japanese abstract, short bios and photos of all authors, 3-5 keywords).

Note 2: Please ensure your Japanese translation is written/proofread by a proficient Japanese user. In case you are unable to produce a Japanese abstract, please generate one using deepl.com and include the following disclaimer at the end: “This translation was auto-generated by deepl.com”

Conference

Live presentations

Live presentations are either 25- or 50 minutes long including the Q&A at the end. The length is decided on a case-by-case basis and is subject to time availability.

Prerecorded presentations

Note: All presenters who opt to prerecord their presentation and publish it on the Teacher Journeys blog will be required to have their presentation published at least 4 weeks before the date of the conference. In case the deadline is missed, your presentation slot will be moved to the next year’s conference. Please see this page for more details about the conference.

You will be asked to prepare for a 25- OR 50-minute long session that should:

  • Include a refresher that is NO LONGER than 5 minutes for 25-minute long sessions or 10 minutes for 50-minute long sessions (presentation length is decided on a case-by-case basis and is subject to time availability)
  • Consist of no more than 3 (for a 25-minute long session) or 6 (for a 50-minute long session) content slides if you choose to use PPT or other visual aids
  • Include several prompts for a discussion related to your presentation (that is, provide an opportunity for a guided discussion of various topics/questions related to your presentation)

OR

  • Provide a workshop-like experience with a skill related to your presentation (if applicable) For more information regarding the conference date and venue, please refer to this page.

Publishing

We welcome submissions to our primary journal, Explorations in Teacher Development. Please see the requirements for the ReflectionsExplorations, and Perspectives categories, which should serve as natural extensions of Teacher Journeys presentations into ETD articles.

Note: The submissions will undergo our regular blind review and will be subject to the regular publication requirements.