19th annual Multicultural Education Conference to be held at New Paltz

NEW PALTZ — The School of Education at the State University of New York at New Paltz will hold its 19th annual Multicultural Education Conference titled, “A Million Moments for Ensuring Equity and Creating Change,” Friday, Nov. 15, from 8:30 a.m. – 2:30 p.m., Student Union Building, on the New Paltz campus.

The conference program consists of a presentation by keynote speaker Enid Lee, a consultant who works with school districts on equity and anti-racist practices. Lee’s talk, titled “Changing Our System for Equity: Reaching Every Student,” will focus on addressing forms of racism and discrimination found in schools and inform the audience of strategies that can be used to ensure equity.

Additionally, a cultural arts performance, titled “Creativity & Hip Hop Performance: A Catalyst for Intrinsic Motivation for Learning & Action,” will be performed by the Hip Hop Psychology Performing Arts Movement. It will include pieces that encourage social change, identity development, and civic engagement of students.

More than a dozen workshops will also be offered, including: “Challenging Standardization, Promoting Equity;” “Migrant Youth and Families in Our Community,” and “Beyond the Gender Binary.” Attendees will also explore ways to apply multicultural and socially-just practices to educational settings in a time when they are being marginalized by standardized, data-driven, and privatizing approaches to teaching and learning.

The Multicultural Education Conference was founded 19 years ago by a dynamic group of community and educational organizations that included New Paltz’s School of Education particularly those in the Humanistic/Multicultural Program. Their objective was to address the need for advanced professional development, support and ideas for educators, students and community members that would enable them to make their schools more multicultural and gender-fair.

The deadline for registration is Friday, Nov.1. For program information contact Nancy Schniedewind, professor in New Paltz’s Humanistic/Multicultural Education Program, at (845) 257-2827 or email her at schniedn@newpaltz.edu.

For registration information, contact Christine Waldo-Klinger at conferencing@newpaltz.edu or call (845) 257-3033. Tickets cost $40 for adults and $8 for students. K-12 educators may register online for $42. Lunch is included in the fee.