Illinois State University’s College of Education will host the 12th
annual Diversity Education Conference on Friday, Feb. 23, from 9 a.m. to 4
p.m. in the Bone Student Center Old Main Room. The conference is free and
open to the public. Cash donations and nonperishable food items for local
food pantries will be accepted at the door.
Sponsored by the student organization, UNITE (Urban Needs in Teacher Education), and the COE Diversity Education Committee, the conference theme is “Many Roads to Educational Success: Diversity Initiatives In and Out of the Classroom.” Future and current teachers, teacher education and social science faculty and the general public are encouraged to attend.
This year’s conference begins at 9:30 a.m. with keynoter William Ayers, school reform activist, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago and author or editor of more than 14 books. Ayers’ presentation, “Teaching the Taboo, Trudging Toward Freedom: A Curriculum for the Twenty-First Century,” will draw on his experience with urban schools and engage the audience in discussion on what it might mean to teach for social justice in the 21st century.
The remaining sessions, featuring Illinois State faculty and students, start on the hour and run for 50 minutes. At 11 a.m., Kenton Machina, professor emeritus of Philosophy, and Anu Gokhale, Technology, will speak on “Promoting Inclusive Approaches to STEM Teaching,” which will focus on K-12 classroom strategies that can help to overcome the gender and race biases that lead to skewed career choices in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. In her noon hour session, “Classroom Diversity: Let’s Face It,” doctoral candidate Weirong Wang, Curriculum and Instruction, will present findings from her study of college students and their international instructors.
At 1 p.m. Pauline Clardy and Maria Luisa Zamudio of the Bilingual Education program in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction will present the interactive session “For Monolingual Teachers of Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students.” George Padavil, Educational Administration and Foundations, will present “Addressing Language Diversity in the Classroom,” at 2 p.m.
The final session from 3-4 p.m. will be feature the Guerrilla Theatre, a University diversity and social action theatre troupe. The student actors will perform a set of short skits followed by discussion facilitated by peer counselors from Student Counseling Services.
For more information or to request special accommodations, contact Lucille Eckrich at (309) 438-2048 or lteckri@ilstu.edu.
