Navigating the Present and Future of Education: 2022 Year Recap

What a year! We’ve seen much change over this year as well as adjusting to living in our quote-on-quote “new normal” after two years of major upheaval and change. As with every year, the goal of the end-of-the-year blog is to provide some thoughts on the past year and where we are going into the next year. Let’s jump into these trends and then review what is going on now and in the future. Additionally, what separates this blog from the rest is that it is Blog 100 of this website. Thank you to our readers from around the world!

Trends in Education in 2022

• The Omnicron wave of January 2022 saw schools at the brink with staffing shortages due to infection and staff shortages as a result of the pandemic.
• Return to “normal” by Spring 2022 without mass school closures, which created much more stability throughout the year.
• Large investments in education from COVID rescue funds throughout the US.
• EdTech companies begin consolidating after two years of exploding growth.
• EdTech becomes a mainstay in classrooms around the world.
• Deemphasis of online education for K-12, but growth persisted in alternative programs and academies.
• Increased politicization of education on issues such as social justice, critical race theory, particular books being banned, and controversy over what should be added or taken out of textbooks.
• A large focus and emphasis are beginning to shift to educator well-being and sustainability.
• SEL for students has become a mainstay in classrooms.
• Teacher shortage persists and worsens. Some states deteriorate standards to make entry easier into the profession.
• Increased emphasis on research-based instructional strategies.
• Accountability indicators released in many states for the 2021 school year.

Trends in Education to Watch for in 2023

• Artificial intelligence and how that will change the nature of instruction, student learning, and how teachers can harness it to improve workflow, lessons, and student learning.
• Will EdTech continue to see consolidation and buy-up of companies by large multinational corporations?
• Will ideas for teacher sustainability continue and be further implemented?
• What will be done to take on the shortage of educators and support staff?
• How can we use research-based instructional practices along with AI to improve student learning and long term outcomes?
• What skills can we build to harness AI in an ethical and responsible manner that can be implemented in K-12 schools?
• What will careers, jobs, and life long learning look like in a world of AI?

Overall, these are the trends I watched in 2022 and what I will watch for in 2023. There’s much to focus on and reflect upon. What are your thoughts and what are you looking for in 2023 as a major trend in education?

Last, before jumping into what happened to me personally over the year, let’s celebrate that this blog is Blog 100 of this website. Thank you to our readers from around the world!

A Big Year in Writing

Three titles were released in 2022 with an additional title launching on January 4th, 2023 – what a year of book releases. It has been an amazing year of releasing work that has been in the works since early 2021 and late 2020. Writing is a marathon, not a sprint. Additionally, it’s my own form of professional learning where I research, write, and collaborate to share what I have been doing in my practice to hopefully support educators throughout the world.

• Crush it from the Start: 50 Tips for New Teachers – October 2022
• Instruction Without Boundaries – August 2022
• Amplify Learning: A Global Collaborative – Amplifying Instructional Design – June 2022
• Amplify Learning: A Global Collaborative – Amplifying Authentic Learning in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics – January 4th, 2023.

Thank you to my co-authors Becky Lim, Shannon Moore, Janelle McLaughlin, Casey Jakubowski, Kevin Leichtman, and Samantha Fecich for your collaborations in this year’s publications. You are all inspiring educators who bring a level of expertise and experience that provides so much breadth and insight to everything we’ve written together.

Thank you EduMatch Publishing and SchoolRubric as the publishers of this year’s publications! Sarah Thomas and Mandy Froelich at EduMatch along with Wallace Ting at SchoolRubric have been fantastic to work with on each of the books. Your collaboration with each of these projects brought them to life!

New writing projects are in the works. Data literacy, co-teaching, and instructional coaching projects are in process as well as Books 3 and 4 of the Amplify Learning: A Global Collaborative series (hoping for 2023 releases).

The Future of this Blog

My goal is to continue to post monthly blog posts on education-related topics. Instruction, EdTech, coaching, and leadership may remain themes of this blog, but it will continue to diverge into research and policy and other topics influencing education such as Artificial Intelligence, Special Education, Adult Education/Continuing Education, and Higher Education. Ultimately, similar to that of Navigating Education – The Podcast, I want to provide educators, regardless of their context, to help them navigate the present and future of education. Educators face many challenges. Providing resources with the goal to help educators overcome these challenges and support student learning and well-being is what drives this blog.

The Future of Navigating Education – The Podcast

After 30 inspirational and insightful episodes, Season 2 of the podcast came to an end in late December. As an opportunity to grow, learn, and amplify voices, I was blown away by the guests joining the podcast for each episode, their stories, and their expertise as we progressed through each episode. I hope each listener learned as much as I did producing these episodes from the amazing lineup we had.

The next season will revamp elements of the podcast, including its intro and closure. My goal is to also work on adding my own monologue into each episode to either intro the episode or focus on an element of the content of the episode that I would like listeners to also focus on. New episodes will come in either late February or early March 2023.