The SUNY New Paltz School of Education invites members of the community to an evening lecture with James M. Patton, professor emeritus at the College of William and Mary, and the 2019 Dean of Education’s Distinguished Scholar.
This event will take place at 5 p.m. on Thursday, March 28, in Lecture Center room 102 on the SUNY New Paltz campus. It is free and open to the public.
Patton’s talk, “Cultural Assessment and Cross-Cultural Competency: The Sine Qua Non for Cultural Responsivity and Imagining Otherwise,” will focus on his work improving inclusion and access in education.
A lifelong educator and researcher, Patton has dedicated himself to helping teachers and learners think about how to close achievement gaps and improve outcomes in increasingly diverse classrooms and communities.
He has been a pioneer in defining and advocating for the concept of cross-cultural competency in education, and his work consistently demonstrates that a teacher’s ability to empathize with and adapt to the varying cultural norms of students and their families is key to improving educational outcomes.
About the Distinguished Scholar
James M. Patton is professor emeritus of leadership and special education at College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. During his career at William and Mary, Patton served as Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Director of Project Mandala, a federally funded research and development project aimed at identifying and serving selected students and their families who exhibit at-risk and at-promise characteristics.
Patton is an author or co-author of more than 37 articles in peer-reviewed publications. He has dedicated his research to the educational and psychosocial development of African-Americans; the holistic development of African-American males; the social, political and economic correlates of mild disabilities; curriculum and pedagogical issues around multi-cultural education; cultural competency development; and analysis of policies that affect people of color and those from low socioeconomic circumstances.
About the School of Education
The School of Education at SUNY New Paltz offers nationally accredited programs for teachers and teacher candidates at the undergraduate and graduate levels, with highly rated concentrations in areas including special education, literacy, humanistic education and English as a second language. Most programs lead to recommendation for New York State certification.
New Paltz graduates are leaders in school districts throughout the Hudson Valley and New York State, bringing expertise in content, theory, history and pedagogy to their classrooms.
The School of Education presents The Dean’s Distinguished Scholar series in an effort to deliver relevant and cutting-edge conversations about education to New Paltz students, faculty, alumni and community members.
Learn more at https://www.newpaltz.edu/schoolofed/.
