EDU|CAL Annual Symposium

2021 EDU|CAL Annual Symposium

Keynote bio: Dr. Gholnecsar (Gholdy) Muhammad is an Associate Professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She studies Black historical excellence within educational communities with goals of reframing curriculum and instruction today. Dr. Muhammad’s scholarship has appeared in leading educational journals and books. Some of her recognitions include the 2014 recipient of the National Council of Teachers of English, Promising New Researcher Award, the 2016 NCTE Janet Emig Award, the 2017 GSU Urban Education Research Award, the 2018 UIC College of Education Researcher of the Year, and the 2020 American Educational Research Association (AERA), Division K Early Career Awardee.

In 2021 she was named NCTE Outstanding Elementary Educator in the English Language Arts. She works with teachers, leaders, parents, and young people across the United States and South Africa in best practices in culturally and historically responsive instruction. She was granted $750,000 by the U.S. Department of Education to study culturally and historically responsive literacy in STEM classrooms. She brings expertise having served as a middle school teacher, literacy specialist, school district administrator, and a school board president. She is the author of the best-selling book, Cultivating Genius: An Equity Model for Culturally and Historically Responsive Literacy.

2020 EDU|CAL Annual Symposium

Schooltalk: Transforming Communications That Feed Inequality in Our Schools

Words matter.  Everything that is—and isn’t—communicated to and about students has serious implications for their success. The offhand remark to a colleague about students’ communities; the way groups—based on race, “culture,” and income—are discussed in faculty meetings about test scores and data; the assumptions and communication breakdowns between staff and teachers that cause kids to fall needlessly through the cracks; or the deflating comment to a young person about his college prospects: all these words have tremendous power. They are, in fact, actions that undermine efforts to maximize the potential and talent of all students, every day.

In this essential workshop for nurturing equity and antiracism in our schools, Dr. Pollock will challenge us to seriously reflect on and rethink what we say about---and to---students. Participants will engage in personal and organizational reflection via common scenarios, and be provided with suggestions for concrete actions. Learning experiences in this workshop (and beyond, through reading Schooltalk with colleagues) are designed to empower teachers, administrators and support staff who work with young people in our schools to foster more student and school success and more equitable student outcomes.  This "way in" to equity work is appropriate for educators at all "levels" of experience with equity work, both preservice and inservice. 

2019 EDU|CAL Annual Symposium

Keynote bio: Dr. Tara J. Yosso is a Professor in the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. Her research and teaching apply the frameworks of critical race theory and critical media literacy to examine educational access and opportunity. Her work seeks to understand the ways Communities of Color have historically utilized an array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities, and networks to navigate structures of racial discrimination in pursuit of educational equality. 

Dr. Yosso's talk engages these frameworks to foster a critical historical perspective of the communities we aim to serve. She offered timely insights for those asking questions about how a community cultural wealth lens could be utilized to inform our curriculum, our class environment, the relationships we build within the school community, and how that knowledge influences the structures and processes of the school itself.