Wednesday, October 7, 2015
5:00PM Welcome by President Brian Rosenberg
Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, John B. Davis (JBD) Lecture Hall
Plenary Speaker
5:15PM – 6:15PM
Reducing Opportunity Disparities in Minnesota’s K-12 and Higher Education Systems:
A Legacy of Civic Engagement
Carlos Mariani Rosa
6:15PM opening reception with light refreshments
Mingle with students and IGC staff who can refer you to opportunities for civic engagement, internship, and study away related to education. Take the next step to get involved!
All events free and open to the public.
October 8, 2015
student-led workshop
10:00AM – 11:10AM
Pedagogy and Theatre of The Oppressed
Weyerhaeuser Board Room, Weyerhaeuser Hall
This workshop will explore the balance of power between the “oppressor” and the “oppressed,” and introduce the theories and practices of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal, two well-known Brazilian educators. The session will explore Theatre of The Oppressed techniques and interactive practices, facilitated by a local artist. The workshop will conclude with group reflection and sharing, as we observe ourselves in action and seek for changes around us. All levels of experience are welcome.
Panel: Nuoya (Nora) Wu ’17; Ruthanne Kurth-Schai, educational studies; Beth Cleary, theatre & dance; Carlos Alberto Torres (IRT plenary speaker), UCLA; Sonja Kuftinec, University of Minnesota
PLENARY SPEAKER
11:45AM – 1:05PM
What is College For?
Andrew Delbanco
Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, John B. Davis Lecture Hall (JBD)
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
1:30PM – 2:45PM
Arts Literacy: Transformative Education Through Empowering Youth Voice
Weyerhaeuser Board Room, Weyerhaeuser Hall
This workshop will be focused on the local—how artists and educators are using arts literacy methods to bring out the voices of students in St. Paul Public Schools. With the help of local teaching artists, we will introduce the pedagogical approach of arts literacy and guide participants through the process of community building, text creating, and performance. This workshop will be an engaging and interactive experience providing participants with concrete skills for creating educational spaces that promote racial equity and youth voice.
Panel: Julia Gay ’16; Harry Waters Jr, theatre & dance; Jan Mandell, Irreducible Grace Foundation.
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
1:30PM – 2:45PM
What to Expect When You’re Expecting Educational Equity: Mothers in New Orleans
Davis Court, Markim Hall
In this discussion-based panel, three mothers/community activists from New Orleans will share their personal experiences within New Orleans’ education system, which has been undergoing tremendous transformation since Hurricane Katrina. These women remind us that underneath the promise of change, new education reforms force parents to put their faith in a struggling system. Inspired by Macalester’s January-term course, “Education, Community, and Cultural Survival in New Orleans,” this workshop will be an informative reflection on the challenges within public education in NOLA and America as a whole.
Panel: Ngan Nguyen ’17; Tracy Pham ’18; Xing Gao ’17; Ashana Bigard, Educational Justice Project (via videoconferencing); Damekia Morgan, LOTUS Consulting Group (via videoconferencing); Cyndi Nguyen, Vietnamese Initiatives in Economic Training
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
1:30PM – 2:45PM
Set It Up!
Harmon Room, DeWitt Wallace Library
This session will talk about the importance of youth media programs, based on the experiences of a program housed at the St. Paul Neighborhood Network. With improved technology and online communities, our young clients have never been as media literate as they are today. However, most young media-makers do not understand that they use this media literacy to contribute to the schools, the community, and the nation. This presentation will focus on youth media-making and its impact.
Panel: Ginny (Hyunjung) Lee ’17; Leola Johnson, media and cultural studies; Kevin Kalla, ‘05, Saint Paul Neighborhood (SPNN) Network
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
3:00PM – 4:15PM
Disrupting the White Norms of Learning in the Classroom
Weyerhaeuser Board Room, Weyerhaeuser Hall
Research has shown that students of color often struggle in a classroom to behave as a white teacher may expect, such as waiting to be called on, tracking the speaker around the room, and maintaining eye contact. In this simulation-based workshop, attendees will be assigned norms with which to comply that may seem unusual. Through this simulation we hope to give attendees the opportunity to question behaviors that are taught and accepted by white teachers. After the simulation we will discuss what makes people feel comfortable and why, and what we can do to disrupt norms and envision multicultural classrooms.
Panel: Becca Hawk ’16; Lizzie Hutchins ’16
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
3:00PM – 4:15PM
Voices from the Middle: The Role of NGOs in Shaping Education Policy
Davis Court, Markim Hall
Nongovernmental organizations (NGO) have long been recognized as groups that work to address social need, and fill the gap between the powerless and the powerful in civil society. They often become the spaces where inequality, injustice, and human need are conceptualized by communities first, around issues of social justice and social change. NGOs are often the places where local and global needs are connected, conceptualized, and negotiated. In their most inclusive educational processes, NGOs can be seen as spaces that give voice to the silenced or submerged educational needs of communities and individuals, and connect them to more powerful and institutionalized organizations of policy change.
Panel: Robert Lin ’16; Mike Anderson, St. Paul Public School Foundation; Changu Mannathoko (IRT plenary speaker), UNICEF
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
3:00PM – 4:15PM
Refugee and Immigrant Education in the Twin Cities
Harmon Room, DeWitt Wallace Library
Educational programming for adult refugees and immigrants in the Twin Cities is the focus of this workshop. Panelists from several local organizations will share their expertise and answer questions on the topic. This session will provide an overview of important issues and challenges within the field of refugee and immigrant education. In addition, participants will gain practical skills in teaching and tutoring adult ESL learners.
Panel: Anna Van Sice ’16; Zoe Bowman ’16; Wendy Weber, political science; Sarah Lund, Hmong American Partnership; Burgen Young, Minnesota Literacy Council; Dominique Winders, International Institute for Minnesota
PLENARY SPEAKER
4:45PM – 6:15PM
The Corporatization and Economization of Global Education
Joel Spring
Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, John B. Davis (JBD) Lecture Hall
student-led workshop
7:00PM – 8:15PM
What Your School Experience Taught You About the School-to-Prison Pipeline
Weyerhaeuser Board Room, Weyerhaeuser Hall
Our school experiences have resulted not just in academic knowledge, but also in an understanding of how the world works for and against certain groups of people. In this workshop we’ll reflect on the schooling that brings students to Macalester, and connect that knowledge to the scholarship on the School-to-Prison Pipeline. This workshop will provide an overview of the pipeline as well as the language to talk about school discipline, structural racism, and racialized mass incarceration.
Panel: Emily Brinkman ’17; Eloá França Verona ’18
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
7:00PM – 8:15PM
You’re Asian, You Must be Good at Math, Right?
Davis Court, Markim Hall
In America, Asians are perceived to consistently achieve high academic accomplishments, especially in math and science fields. But is that really true? If so, why? What’s the “secret method” in Asian education that leads Asian students to higher academic achievement in math and science? This workshop will dispel the mythos of ‘Asian excellence’ by looking into the racial disparities and governmental policies of America, as well as the important differences between American and Asian schooling systems. We will compare and contrast American and Asian schooling systems using a case study of the rigorous and competitive education systems in South Korea.
Panelists: Peace Im, ‘18; Soo Kyoung Lee (via videoconferencing), University of Minnesota; Tina Kruse, sociology
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
7:00PM – 8:15PM
A Linguistic Predicament: English Language Education in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh
Harmon Room, DeWitt Wallace Library
Beginning with an outline of the history of English language introduction by British colonial powers, this workshop will elucidate the current significance of English as the perceived language of opportunity and prosperity. [Jargon:] It will interrogate the ground realities of English language penetration shaped by various factors—economic, social, and political. This will enable us to understand the implications of what many deem as a reenacted colonial relationship, and the usage of English language learning outcomes to assess the health of education systems in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
Panel: Ali Mahad ’18; Aarohi Narain ’18; Lutfe-E-Noor Rahman ’18
All events free and open to the public.
October 9, 2015
PLENARY SPEAKER
10:00AM – 11:30AM
Education in the Neoliberal Landscape: Global Citizenship as an Alternative for Social Change
Carlos Alberto Torres
Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, John B. Davis (JBD) Lecture Hall
student-led workshop
12:00PM – 1:00PM
It Takes a Village to Raise a Child: Community-Based Collaboration in the Twin Cities
Weyerhaeuser Board Room, Weyerhaeuser Hall
Across the Twin Cities, organizations are finding new ways to engage public schools in working collaboratively with community partners to decrease gaps in educational opportunity. Through the diverse perspectives presented in this panel, we will explore the benefits and challenges of community-based education reform by addressing critical issues in program implementation, maintenance, and assessment. We will focus on two Twin Cities programs: the Northside Achievement Zone, a federally recognized Promise Neighborhood designed to provide youth with support from cradle to career, and Achieve Minneapolis, a nonprofit focused on structuring career and college readiness programs for youth in the community.
Panel: Dorothy Moore ’17; Pam Costain, AchieveMpsl; Sondra Samuels, North Side Achievement Zone; Ellen Shelton, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
12:00PM – 1:00PM
The Value of Human Rights Education: Global Empowerment or Wasted Effort?
Davis Court, Markim Hall
Around the world, human rights education takes place in a variety of forms. Our workshop explores the various ways communities are approaching human rights education today. Through case studies in South Africa, Argentina, and Minnesota, we question and discuss these efforts. What are the ethical questions surrounding a top-down versus a grassroots approach? Is human rights education effective? Why is it important?
Panel: Andrea Grimaldi ’16; Puleng Moshele ’16; Jolena Zabel ’16; Shirley Gunn (via videoconferencing), Human Rights Media Center (MRMC); Kristi Rudelius-Palmer, Human Rights Center, University of Minnesota Law School
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
12:00PM – 2:10PM
Photographing the School-to-Prison Pipeline: Ethical Representation and Collaboration
Art Commons, Second Floor Lounge
Photographs of the school-to-prison pipeline are hard to find. Most representations in the media are faceless bodies in prison uniforms. Why are there no images? The visual silence is critical to the continuation of the pipeline. Matsuda approached the topic by grounding the project in self-representation and collaboration by asking the subjects of his photographs to write directly about their experiences and to photograph their own lives using disposable cameras. Three of the subjects from the project will speak about their experiences with incarceration, the school-to-prison pipeline, and their involvement in the project.
Panel: William Matsuda ’15; Azia Brown; Benito Lopez; Jason Sole
student-led workshop
1:10pm – 2:10pm
Outdoor Education for Equity and Sustainability
Davis Court, Markim Hall
This workshop focuses on equity in outdoor environmental education. The panel will examine disparities, and how they might align with class and race. Drawing from personal experience studying abroad in New Zealand, workshop leader Analuna Brambila will shed light on the process of developing a free program at a wildlife sanctuary to expand co-curricular opportunities, especially for students of low socioeconomic status. She will also draw on her capstone project in educational studies, in which she developed an initiative to bring gardens to Minnesota public schools. Chad Dayton will draw on his experiences at Wilderness Inquiry to examine equity in outdoor education.
Panel: Analuna Brambila ’16; Chad Dayton, Wilderness Inquiry; Sarah Sarzoza, Youth Farm; Suzanne Trapp, Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge
PLENARY SPEAKER
2:20pm – 3:50pm
Empowering Adolescent Girls Through Education: Eliminating Exclusion and Discrimination…Promoting Access to Quality Education
Changu Mannathoko
Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, John B. Davis (JBD) Lecture Hall
All events free and open to the public.
October 10, 2015
student-led workshop
12:15pm – 1:30pm
Why Are All the Teachers White?
Harmon Room, DeWitt Wallace Library
People of color are dramatically underrepresented in the teaching field. Moreover, more than 80 percent of teachers in the United States are female. It is important for students to relate to their educators. This connection enriches the students’ educational experience and increases engagement. In this panel we will learn from educators about their experiences as teachers of color and why teacher diversity matters in the classroom. In addition we will explore ways to increase teacher diversity as well as identify causes behind the lack of representation of teachers of color, focusing specifically on Twin Cities public schools.
Panel: Nina Escriva Fernandez ’17; Daniel Bernal, Mounds Park Academy; Braulio Carrasco, Minneapolis Public Schools; Brian Lozenski, educational studies
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
12:15PM – 1:30PM
Trouble in Paradise: A Closer Look at the Fragmented Educational Opportunities in Sint Maarten
Olin Rice 250
With a booming tourism industry and ties to the European Union, on the surface, Sint Maarten offers its inhabitants a life of economic stability, cultural diversity, and Western privilege; all the while basking in a climate of sunny weather and pristine beaches. On taking a closer look, however, there simultaneously exist disparate wealth inequalities, seasonal unemployment, and cyclical poverty further magnified by the fragmentation of educational opportunities. Financial support for higher education is only available for Dutch passport holders, leaving many migrant children unequipped with the skills needed for personal and national advancement. This panel will draw on diverse voices and experiences to analyze the current fragmentation problem and propose effective methods for addressing the issue
Panel: Jonathan van Arneman ’16; Jacob Phillips ’16; Rachel Ozer-Bearson ’16; Jaya Bhojwani ’17, St Olaf
student-led workshop
1:45pm – 3:00pm
Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby: Sex Ed and Sexuality
Harmon Room, DeWitt Wallace Library
How do sexual education curricula impact students and society? This workshop will consider how individual and collective experiences of sexual education shape sexual identity and practice, as well as the efforts of sex educators and other advocates to control the content of sex education. Sex educators from diverse contexts will share their approaches by teaching short sexual education lessons to the audience, much as they would to adolescents. Following the lessons, panelists will discuss and reflect on various methods and materials and their potential implications for public health, gender and feminism, religious practice, family formation, and more.
Panel: Wynonna Ardiansyah ’16; Sarah Atkinson ’18; Elena Baker ’17; Rebecca Hawk ’16; Celeste Robinson ’16; Lynn Bretl, University of Minnesota; Emily Gus, Minnesota Internship Center; Starri Hedges, Gaia Democratic School; Liz Jansen, biology
STUDENT-LED WORKSHOP
1:45PM – 3:00PM
Education for Peace-building In Conflict and Post Conflict Communities
Olin Rice 250
This workshop is presented by students from the Mac student organization Macalester Helping Open Peaceful Exchange (MacHOPE) and focuses on education in post-conflict societies. We will explore two questions: how does the lack of access to education in the midst of a conflict affect victims, and what role does education have in peacebuilding once the conflict has been resolved? Topics discussed will include education access, educating peacemakers, and education for refugees. The panel will explore local and international perspectives, drawing from the expertise and experiences of community members and local organizations. The presentation will be followed by a question and answer session.
Panel: Carly Avezzano ’16; Emily Crnkovich ’17; Shegitu Kebede, Women at the Well; Jessy Belt, Deputy Director at Iraqi-American Reconciliation Project, and Rebecca Janke Growing Communities for Peace
All events free and open to the public.