Jon Yoshioka, professor and director of the Master of Education in Teaching (MEdT) program in the College of Education (COE), was elected for the position of Second Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE). Founded in 1920, ATE is a national organization that promotes quality teacher education through both exemplary clinical practice and research.
“I am honored and humbled by this opportunity to lead such a well-respected organization and would like to use it to highlight some of the great work being done by many exceptional educators here in Hawaiʻi and the Pacific who deserve to be recognized by their peers on a national and international level,” Yoshioka said.
With the COE since 2007, Yoshioka was previously a science teacher at McKinley High School, Assets School, and Saint Louis School. As a member of ATE, he has attended all of the annual meetings and summer conferences since he joined in 2015. He has served on numerous committees, an online teaching and learning commission, a leadership academy, and a strategic plan workgroup among other roles within ATE.
After his second vice president term, he will serve as vice president, followed by president of the ATE Board of Directors. During these terms, Yoshioka says he would like to expand ATE’s position as a leader in teacher education so that it can serve as an inclusive venue for all educators–formal and informal–to learn, grow, lead, and share.
“We will need to focus on the relationships that are key to helping educational stakeholders actively find ways to contribute to the success of the organization and profession,” Yoshioka stated. “We need to do what is necessary to develop teacher leaders at all levels and to actively advocate for our students, ourselves, and our profession.”
Yoshioka will be in charge of the 2023 ATE Summer Conference in Washington, DC and the 2024 ATE Annual Meeting in Anaheim, CA.
“Many of my colleagues have taken the opportunity to see what ATE has to offer, and I am pleased to say that they have chosen to make it a professional home,” Yoshioka concluded. “It is a great organization, with ‘knowledgeable, caring, and effective educators,’ and to me, is a perfect place for us to work with one another for a better future for our students and our profession.”
