Through this array of Intensive Institutes, we offer extended opportunities to work with NAME scholars and activists. Full and half-day options are available throughout the conference. Additional costs apply. NAME the Change sessions ( Institutes #W6, T10, F13 and S18) are specially priced opportunities that highlight key topics of interest. Space is limited; advance registration is encouraged.
College & CEU Credit Available for Institutes:
Temple University’s Office of Non-Credit and Continuing Education will be offering Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for conference participants who attend the Intensive Institutes. A “Request for CEUs and Verification of Attendance” form and submission of fees for CEUs ($25.00) to Temple University are required. For more information about requesting CEUs, please contact Rhonda Geyer (rhonda.geyer@temple.edu) or Marylou Delizia (mdelizia@temple.edu) in the Office of Non-Credit and Continuing Education at Temple University Ambler. Or call, 267-468-8500.
Wednesday, Nov.28 – FULL DAY Intensive Institutes / 8:30 am – 4:30 pm
W1 – Developing a Multicultural Curriculum: Keys to Student Achievement
Presenter: Bill Howe NAME Past President, CT State Department of Education
Since 1995, more than 4,000 people have attended the nationally recognized training program – Developing a Multicultural Curriculum (DMC). Developed originally in 1994 under a federal grant, DMC was created to meet the needs of teachers wishing to learn more effective strategies to teach children of color and of schools that wanted a curriculum that would prepare all students for a diverse workforce and a global economy. Recent trends have shown a heightened focus on increasing student achievement combined with a stronger interest in cultural competence. In keeping with the changes this institute will focus more on culturally responsive teaching strategies, as well as preparing students for cultural competence. The institute covers 10 modules, and will include a practical guide to multicultural lesson planning. Cost: $99 with conference registration; $143 for Institute only.
W2 – Meeting NCATE’s Standards for Diversity: Standard 4 and Beyond
Presenter: Donna Gollnick, NAME Past President and Consultant to NCATE and CAEP; and Maureen Gillette, NCATE Board of Examiners Team Chair and Dean of the School of Education at Northeastern Illinois University
This Intensive Institute is designed for teacher educators preparing forn accreditation review by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) or the Council for Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP). The institute will clarify the diversity requirements in the current NCATE standards and the new CAEP standards and share strategies for addressing diversity in educator preparation. The session will emphasize the integration of diversity throughout the teacher education curriculum and field experiences. Participants will explore the development of diversity proficiencies and related performance assessments to determine that candidates actually know the concepts embedded in diversity and are able to teach ALL students. In addition, presenters will make recommendations for increasing the diversity of candidates and faculty in educator preparation as well as discuss how to provide field experiences with students from diverse groups. Recommendations from NCATE’s Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for Improved Student Learning will guide the discussions about reforming field experiences and clinical practice to prepare candidates to work with all students. Cost: $275 with conference registration; $319 Institute only.
Intensive Institutes, Half Day Sessions
Intensive Institutes are scheduled throughout the conference. Thursday-Saturday Institutes are scheduled around the keynote sessions, so that participants in the Institutes do not miss the general sessions. Cost per Institute: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
Nov. 28 WEDNESDAY Morning Half Day INTENSIVE INSTITUTES
W3 – Poverty, Class, and School: Educating for Equity and Economic Justice
Presenters: Paul Gorski, George Mason University, EdChange.org, & Katy Swalwell, George Mason University
True and effective movements require those involved to reject the simple solutions that disregard imbalances of power and privilege and that place the onus of responsibility for change on the most disenfranchised members of the educational community. Too often we drift off this course, sometimes in response to the overall rightward shift in education and social policy in the U.S., focusing on “learning about cultures” (such as the culture of poverty) instead of attending to subtle and not-so-subtle inequities in classrooms and schools. This is a session about moving beyond these old paradigms, such as deficit ideology and the “culture of poverty” approach to understanding poverty in relation to schooling, and reenergizing forward-leaning movements for educational and economic justice. It also is about garnering the energy of existing “occupy” and education transformation movements to help inform class-equitable educational practice in classrooms and district- and state-level offices. Participants will leave this session with a new framework for discussing and disrupting class inequity in education—one focused on equity and social justice rather than a “culture of poverty” and deficit theory. They also will eave with a set of strategies for recognizing the ways in which we, as educators and activists, sometimes fall into deficit thinking unintentionally. These skills will help participants reflect on our own practice and teaching. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
W4 – Let’s Get Real About Racism
Presenter: Lee Mun Wah, StirFry Productions & Consulting
Traditional methods of facilitation, group process and therapy do not adequately address such issues as racism, sexism and cross-cultural communications and conflicts. NAME Award Winning filmmaker, Lee Mun Wah (Color of Fear and If These Halls Could Talk) shares his powerful technique called The Art of Mindful Facilitation – a unique way of relating and observing from an Asian and Buddhist perspective. In this workshop, through guided questions, personal stories, and various diversity exercises, we examine the fears and stereotypes that prevent us from having truly open, authentic conversations about race/racism. We explore what people of color can’t say and whites are afraid to ask. This workshop is about discovering new ways to begin that conversation, creating a bridge to talk about our differences, exploring what opens us up and closes us down, and finally, looking at numerous ways to become culturally competent. A forum for participants to discover conscious and unconscious ways in which racism has affected their lives, it is designed to foster deeper understanding and appreciation of our differences. Participants will draw from effective cross cultural communication and listening techniques, practice facilitation skills for use in diversity-related conflict resolution, in order to develop authentic ways of responding by exploring personal experiences and perspectives from participants of diverse ethnicities. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
Weds. Nov 28 Afternoon- Half Day Intensive Institutes
W5 – Writing for Academic Publications
Presenter: Penelope L. Lisi, CT State University and Editor of NAME’s Journal, Multicultural Perspectives
This popular session will assist anyone interested in publishing in professional journals or other related publications in the field of MCE. Facilitated by experienced editors and writers, it is particularly beneficial for graduate students and junior faculty. The interactive workshop will inform about the process of publishing from both a writer’s perspective as well as the editor’s perspective. Topics include getting started (selecting appropriate journals, turning dissertations into articles, etc.), the submission and review process, and the relationship of publishing to tenure. The presenter is the Co-Editor of NAME’s professional Journal, Multicultural Perspective and has successfully published college textbooks. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
NAME the Change Session: Special fee: $25
W6 – Lifting Each Other As We Climb: Sisterhood in Education and The Social Justice Movement
Presenter: DaVerne Bell, DaVerne S. Bell & Associates
This institute addresses the often-ignored, invisible barriers that have created conflict between white women and women of color since the suffragist era through the contemporary feminist movement. When we take the time to focus on the real challenges that confront us, our common struggles, take time to LISTEN and DIALOG, we find deeply rooted sisterhood draws us together. It springs partially from that foundation of strength and cultural traditions as culture bearers and community builders. Understanding each other develops mutual power for personal survival and more effective coalition-building in our shared work. This interactive session and discussion will provide insight, support, guidance, and networking for empowerment. “Lifting As We Climb”, the motto of the National Council of Negro Women’s Clubs (NCNWC, founded in the 1800’s), illustrates these efforts to coalesce and integrate our identities and our work. Like the great leaders of NCNWC–including Dorothy Height, Mary McLeod Bethune, Ida B. Wells—the NAME women and men who attend this session will continue the tradition of working for social justice and educational equity by confronting the complex intersection of gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation and religion.
THURS Morning, Nov. 29 – Half Day INTENSIVE INSTITUTES
T7 – Strategies For Equitable Access To High Quality Instruction For English Language Learners
Presenters: Maria Pacheco and Sara Smith, Co-Directors of the Equity Assistance Center at Brown University, New England Equity Assistance Center for USDOE Region 2
Even though the number of English language learners (ELLs) in US schools continues to grow, their access to well prepared teachers remains a challenge. From schools of education to the local education agency level, policies and practices aimed at preparing teachers usually focus too little on what is known from the research that works with ELLs. This Institute will introduce the participants to two projects that illustrate a multifaceted approach to enhance the capacity of IHEs and school districts to providing ELLs equitable access to high quality content area learning. The first demonstrates how higher education faculty can infuse research-based practices about ELLs into their syllabi and ways in which they can engage pre-service teachers with ELL communities. The second project demonstrates work with two cohorts of general education content area teachers who have ELLs at various levels of English proficiency in their classrooms. Through intensive and rigorous academic work and job-embedded professional development in the areas of second language acquisition, multicultural competence and reading and writing across the content areas, we enhanced the capacity of these professionals to address the academic needs of ELLs in Math, Science, Social Studies and ELA classes and prepared them to take leadership roles in the area of ELLs education within their schools. Related professional development models and impact data for both projects will be presented. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
T8 – Preparing and Retaining Teachers of Color: Follow-Up to the NAME Summer Institute
Presenters: Rachelle Rogers-Ard, Oakland Unified School District, Christopher Knaus, California State University East Bay, and Paul St. Roseman, DataUse Consulting
This Intensive Institute is designed to actively extend work and dialog from the NAME Summer Institute on recruiting and retaining teachers of color, held in DeKalb, Illinois. While the institute led to rich discussion around barriers and effective programs, further work is needed to frame efforts as both a national imperative and a requirement for transforming local schools. We believe that moving forward with concrete action steps after the summer discussion will strengthen our movement towards challenging the systemic racism that limits teachers of color. The institute begins with a discussion and creative, voice-centered performance to demonstrate how critical race theory frames efforts to diversify the teaching force. Young people’s voices will model counterstories through a call and response format to highlight the barriers to communities of color controlling the education of our youth. The institute then highlights several programs, including successes and struggles. Participants will have opportunities to work in groups to identify strategies, challenge current efforts, and deepen the growing national movement for increasing local, diverse, permanent teacher workforces committed to culturally responsive approaches. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
T9 – Transforming Our P-12 Classrooms One Educator at a Time: Strategies for Creating Multiculturally Responsive Curriculum
Presenters: Erica R. Davila, Arcadia University & Rochelle R. Peterson, Perceptions Unlimited and Arcadia University
This institute highlights the voices of in-service teachers and teacher educators who interrogate their socialization, the intersections of their identities, how they impact their students, and how students impact them as educators. This interactive institute will provide the audience with opportunities to learn and use culturally responsive teaching strategies. Participants will engage in teacher introspection exercises and create transformative curriculum appropriate for P-12 and higher education classrooms. This institute will help practitioners develop the tools to strengthen their roles in the movement by transforming content and their pedagogy. As members of the NAME community, the participants will collaborate with fellow educators who are invested in social change through education.
THURS Afternoon, Nov. 29 – Half Day Intensive Institutes
These Institutes follow the Opening Session, Rose Duhon-Sells Lecture, with Susan Faircloth, Pennsylvania State University.
NAME the Change Session: Special fee: $25
T10 – Writing for the Public: Countering the Conservative anti-NAME Dominance.
Lewis Diuguid, Editorial Board member, Columnist at The Kansas City Star and Emily Richmond, Public Editor, Education Writers Association
Outside of academia, there are serious gaps in public awareness and support of social justice and multicultural education issues. Effectively communicating our work and message requires understanding the rapidly evolving popular media. Communicating the importance of multicultural education to pre-K through 12 teachers, principals, parents and the public is essentially another cultural bridge we must successfully forge. With two expert cultural guides as presenters, this session will reveal strategies, practices and techniques for engaging a wider audience for our work. This session focuses on how to write and publish for the general public in newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs and other venues. Strategies related to the “new newspaper world,” editorial writing, working with local and national media, gaining media attention for local events, and working with (or becoming) an educational journalist are included.
T11 – Leading and Teaching without Fear: Embracing Diversity through Constructive Conflict.
Presenters: Pamela Barnett, Temple University’s Teaching and Learning Center and Tchet Dereic Dorman, Center for Social Justice and Multicultural Education, Temple University
Professionals are often beset by various challenges of teaching, managing or leading groups who differ from them based on race, gender, sexual orientation, class, ability and religion. Contemporary educational, organizational and corporate environments tend to be inclusive and value diversity in the discussion of controversial societal topics but many professionals are uncomfortable managing the resulting conflicts. Leading and Teaching without Fear is designed to introduce an innovative approach to teaching, facilitating, managing, and team building. This workshop will demonstrate how Transformational Social Therapy (TST) provides a framework for overcoming the intractable social issues preventing cooperation and promoting mistrust among and within groups and assist participants in developing their capacity to facilitate learning around diversity?related content and/or enhancing their pedagogy and leadership for a diverse audience. This Institute will assist participants in discovering their individual obstacles to effective leadership and teaching, especially among diverse groups. Participants will learn how TST provides a context for participants to express their emotions, feel sufficiently safe to come into non-violent conflict, share information, and engage in transformative action on problems that affect them and their organizations. The main goal of this workshop is to foster practices that support intergroup collaboration, understanding and interactions for effective leadership. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
T12 – Diverting the Pipeline: Achieving Equitable School Discipline
Presenter: Marta Larson, STEM Consultant, MI After School Partnerships
Tragically, once again, a US Department of Education’s 2009-10 Civil Rights Data Collection documented (in a 2012 press release) that African-American, American Indian and Latino students–particularly boys–are far more likely to be suspended or expelled from school than their peers. Unfortunately, this data represents a pattern that has continued for more than 30 years. Inequities and disproportionality in school suspensions, discipline referrals (and related Special Education referrals) fuel the intractable achievement gaps and low enrollment of students of color in higher education. These patterns are part of the foundation of the school-to-prison pipeline. This session will outline practical strategies to change this pattern by infusing multiculturally-responsive practices in data analysis, policy review, problem solving, school-wide planning, and evaluation to impact the complex issues involved. Schools implementing these methods have seen dramatic and long lasting decreases in both the number and disproportionality of disciplinary referrals and suspensions. The positive outcomes can impact both individual and overall student achievement, and help to close achievement gaps. Case studies, small group discussion, and time for questions will be included. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
Fri Nov. 30 Afternoon –Half Day Intensive Institutes
These Institutes follow the early afternoon keynote session with Molefi Asante.
NAME the Change Session: Special fee: $25
F13 – Welcoming, LGBT Inclusive, Anti-bias Schools as Movement Building: Classrooms, Schools & Communities. Presenters: Kim Westheimer, Director, Welcoming Schools, Vivian Dalila Carlo, Leslie University, & Graciela Slesaransky-Poe, Arcadia University
This Institute provides a practical model of a multicultural and movement building approach in schools that is inclusive of LGBT people and families within multiculturally-responsive practice. The commitment to multicultural responsiveness is infused throughout the activities, tools and resources developed for Welcoming Schools, an LGBT inclusive program that helps schools embrace family and gender diversity and stop bias-based bullying. Although there are many established social/emotional learning and anti-bullying programs developed for schools, few take a comprehensive multicultural approach and even fewer address issues of gender stereotyping and/or the issues of LGBT parents and students. Welcoming Schools can be used alone or in conjunction with these types of existing research-based programs. Making sure that schools incorporate an anti-bias approach in elementary grades is critical. Research shows that bias based on identities such as sexual orientation, race, gender, and language develops at an early age. Experience lessons learned from Welcoming Schools, an LGBT inclusive program that helps schools embrace family and gender diversity and stop bias-based bullying. Activities will include sample professional development modules, lesson plans, family engagement strategies, and lessons learned. Welcoming Schools is a Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Family Projects. Visit www.welcomingschools.org.
F14 – Teacher Performance Assessment: Another Brick in the Wall
Presenters: Ann Berlak, Ginette Delandshere, and Barbara Madeloni, University of MA–Amherst
Throughout the United States the Teacher Performance Assessment (TPA), developed at Stanford, touted by the AACTE and now in the hands of Pearson Inc. is being moved from pilot, to field test, to state mandated high stakes requirement for teacher licensure like a juggernaut. Its use has broad implications for how we think about the purpose of education and what it means teach and learn, for whose voices count in teacher education and teaching practice, for academic freedom, and for the practice of critical multicultural pedagogy. The speed with which it is being imposed, the lack of opportunity for national and local critiques, and the fact that it has been taken up by a for-profit corporation all speak to a dangerous imposition into teacher education of the same technocratic ideologies and surveillance systems that are undoing public education and the public good. In this institute we will review the development of the TPA, its current iterations, its relationship to institutions of power and its impact on how we see and understand teaching, and learning. We will develop a vision for both resistance and re-imagining meaningful teacher education for social justice as a talk back to the TPA. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
F15 – Different Experiences = Different Questions + Different Answers: Diversifying the STEM Pipeline
Presenter: Christopher Burke, University of Michigan–Dearborn
In spite of being a perennial target of educational equity efforts, the under-representation of African American, Latinos, and girls in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) persists. This pattern spans high schools, higher education and the workplace. When individual educators and the institutions we serve analyze assumptions about STEM teaching, recruiting and retention, and transform efforts to better serve diverse students, great gains can be made. Participants in this Institute will examine the ways in which a more diverse student population in STEM classes creates a diversity of experiences and perspectives; as a result students often ask different questions and in the process, create space for re-visioning and revitalizing STEM fields. It will review effective strategies and policies for encouraging women, students of color, and students living in poverty to pursue STEM educational opportunities and STEM careers, and explore the ways in which educators and teacher educators across the spectrum can advocate, mentor, and support a more heterogeneous STEM pipeline. Best practices, innovative approaches and resources for supporting STEM equity efforts will also be shared. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only
SAT Morning, Dec. 1 – Half day Intensive Institutes
These Institutes convene following the Saturday morning keynote session that includes the Chicago Grassroots Curriculum Project, Project South and the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.
S16 – Moving People/Moving Systems: Professional Development for Equity & Social Justice.
Presenter: Gary Howard, REACH Center, Western Washington University
For social movements to be effective, they must employ long-term strategies and thoughtfully sequenced interventions and activities. This session offers a systemic process whereby school districts have directed their professional development efforts toward equity and social justice in a sustained and committed way. Rather than viewing multicultural education as a series of events, celebrations, or one-off workshops, this approach demonstrates how social justice advocates in schools can build the internal capacity of their leadership teams to do the real and ongoing work that is required to reduce educational disparities based on race and poverty. Student outcome data from selected school districts will show the power of such sustained professional development movements. This highly interactive Institute will demonstrate a five-phase process for professional development aimed at creating the kind of personal, professional, and institutional transformations that lead to greater equity of educational outcomes. Participants will gain practical strategies for strengthening their own multicultural professional development programs. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
S17 – More than Just Food, Fun and Festivals: Designing, Implementing and Evaluating African-Centered Educational Models in Schools & Districts
Presenters: Molefi Asante, Temple University, Mama Christine Wiggins, Founder and CEO, Imhotep Institute Charter High School, Marquita Williams and Rhonda McCullough-Anderson
Culturally relevant education is one of the hot points in the field right now but very few district administrators, school leaders, school systems or communities have a full understanding about all the key steps needed to design, implement, and evaluate existing programs or develop new programs, specifically from an African-Centered perspective. This institute will provide participants with real-life, practical information that will help them move from theory to practical change by focusing on the structural changes needed to ensure that a viable African-Centered Model is developed and implemented while also identifying essential professional cultural features that are needed to support the maintenance of an African-Centered Model. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only. NOTE: Friday morning’s keynote speech by Molefi Asante will be followed by an afternoon (optional) tour of the Philadelphia school founded on these principles, the Imhotep Institute Charter High School. Additional fee applies and space is limited; early registration for School Tours is strongly advised; see School and Community Tours page for more info..
NAME the Change Session: Special fee $25
S18 – Active Learning Strategies for Addressing Issues of Inclusion/Exclusion with Students
Presenter: Mara Sapon-Shevin, Syracuse University
This highly interactive workshop will explore ways to use music, movement, games and theater to help students explore issues of inclusion and exclusion. Designed for those who work with elementary-age students, we will explore ways to engage in embodied learning relative to the critical issue of building inclusive, cooperative, heterogeneous classroom communities. Come prepared to move and learn! Mara is the author of many great resources and instructional books related to social justice and multicultural teaching and learning, especially for younger students. Her books include Because We Can Change the World: A Practical Guide to Building Cooperative, and Inclusive Classrooms, Widening the Circle: The Power of Inclusive Classrooms. This session will inspire and excite teaching and learning, through interaction, the arts, movement and lots of deep thinking about making inclusion work for everyone!
Sat. Dec. 1 Afternoon – Half Day Intensive Institutes
These Institutes will convene following the mid-day general session featuring Babatunde Lea.
S19 – Realizing the Power of Movements through Multicultural Education
Presenters: Bill Ayers, University of IL-Chicago (ret.) & Rick Ayers, University of San Francisco
Work with leading radical educators and other NAME leaders in this interactive Institute that will discuss, re-frame, and re-vision an understanding of education. This naturally requires re-visioning the kind of participatory democracy we want to live in. Teachers typically focus on how to make students succeed, but we seldom challenge the what of education – what are we teaching, how are we interacting with students, and to what purpose. The purpose of this interactive workshop is to help educators think about fundamental questions and key issues in the framing of educational purposes. The problem is how we have allowed education to be framed – how it is understood and discussed. The so-called Neo-liberal ideology, a dogma of modern American life that is as faith-based and unquestionable as any fundamentalist religion, grips our policy-making and our minds. Neo-liberal ideology is a belief that so-called market forces represent the best way to order society, to create wealth, and to innovate. Competition is king and everything can become a commodity. This construction is broadly understood and accepted without question, even though we know that it is a system of reproduction of privilege and hierarchy that masks itself as a meritocracy. In this deeply reflective session, we will draw on examples of liberatory education that have inspired movements in the past and will unpack the ways these liberatory projects have been tamed and domesticated as merely ways to motivate students to perpetuate the system as it is. Our purpose is to develop a vision and practice for creating the kind of schools – and society – that we want and need. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
S20 – The N!gga (er) Word Institute
Presenter: Eddie Moore, Director of Diversity, Brooklyn Friends School
In this interactive Institute, participants will critically examine and analyze the infamous “nigga (er) word” and its place/impact within mainstream society. The N!gga (er) Word Institute allows for thought-provoking dialogue about a challenging topic within education, where participants gain a new perspective of “old” or familiar material. The session promises to be challenging, comprehensive and complex – even for seasoned participants. The NW Institute provides material with which most audience members can readily identify and for which almost everyone has an opinion, perspective or experience. It also is controversial and difficult issue that is not going anywhere and is therefore necessary for professional leaders in the field to tackle head-on and address directly. Participants will receive an experiential-based curriculum to substantively analyze the meaning of “nigga (er)” in the everyday lives of the students (communities) they serve. NAME members will have opportunities to dialogue and develop a concrete understanding of the pain or guilty pleasure, its meanings, and concrete strategies for addressing the awkward discomfort over its prevalence on campus, in communities and at home. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.
S21 – Navigating Academia for Multicultural Educators
Presenter: Sonia Nieto, Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Here is an exceptional opportunity to work directly with one of the great scholars and mentor-educators of our time. This popular institute for doctoral students and junior scholars will discuss the promise and pitfalls of academia. Discussions will focus on ideas, suggestions, and strategies for navigating the first years of life in the academy. Included will be discussions on finding mentors, using assigned mentors to good benefit, creating support groups, establishing a research agenda, developing allies, and beginning the publication process. Sonia Nieto is a NAME Scholar and the author of Affirming Diversity: The Socio-Political Context of Multicultural Education, The Light in Their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities, Why We Teach and other foundational works in the canon of multicultural social justice education and teacher preparation. She is also featured in the Monarch Series of NAME Educational DVDs. Cost: $ 55 with conference registration; $99 for institute only.