Author Archives: Stacey Lee

Name Change Coming…

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Over the summer, we will transition the name of our work group from Cultural and Linguistic Diversity to Social and Environmental (In)Justice.  We’ll still be focused on CLD issues in education, but we’re expanding to explicitly include environmental issues in education.  We see this as a way to further expand partnerships on campus and in our community.  We also see a connection in skill sets for influencing change, advocacy, building systems of resilience, etc.

In the spirit of this name change, I recommend reading “Don’t Worry about that Collapsing Ice Shelf – Just Book Your Beach Week in Arizona,” which quotes an Oregon State University study about the Antarctic ice shelf.  This Grist article is very tongue-in-cheek, but the science demands our attention and does imply future environmentally-driven immigration and land-/water-rights issues that certainly have social justice ramifications.

Fall Conferences

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It’s not too early to mark your calendars for two fall conferences.  Notice the proposal deadlines are closer than you think.

The 5th Annual Teaching with Purpose Conference will be held on October 10-11th at Roosevelt High School in Portland.  They are accepting presentation and workshop proposals until May 30th.  The keynote speakers are Dr. Geneva Gay (University of Washington professor and distinguished scholar of multicultural education) and Dr. Chris Emdin (Teachers College, Columbia University associate professor and Director of Science Education at the Center for Health Equity and Urban Science Education).

The NW Teaching for Social Justice Conference will be held on October 18th at Madison High School in Portland.  They are accepting workshop proposals until July 1st.  The keynote speaker will be Enid Lee (teacher educator and author of over 30 publications, including Beyond Heroes and Holidays).

Brown v. Board Anniversary

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With the 60th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling this month, several informative stories have come up out about the re-segregation of American schools.

Secretary Duncan wrote a U.S. Department of Education blog: Progress and Challenges 60 Years After Brown v. Board.  I found it particularly interesting in juxtaposition to their March Civil Rights Data Snapshot showing racial bias in school discipline.  The very first statistic of that snapshot is a startling one: “Black children represent 18% of preschool enrollment, but 48% of preschool children receiving more than one out-of-school suspension.”  [Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) aired a short piece about Oregon suspension rates following the national trend.]

The latest NEA Today magazine’s cover article, Still Separate, Still Unequal?, also includes several video clips online that are worth a look.

Perhaps the most provocative story is Alexandra Pelosi and Dorian Warren’s discussion of how public schools have become re-segregated since the 1980s in their The Re-Segregation of America’s Schools online video, taken from a Now with Alex Wagner segment on MSNBC.

World Language and Culture Day

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World Language and Culture Day is coming up on Thursday, May 15, with events in the MU Ballroom at 9 AM – 3 PM.  OSU’s World Languages and Cultures Department is organizing this “day bursting with performances, informational kiosks, and presentations for university and high school students, faulty, staff, and the surrounding community.” A Facebook event page has now been started, too.   If you go in the morning, look for our College of Education table.

You might also be interested in this week’s Spanish Language Film Festival at the Darkside Cinema (214 SW 4th St., Corvallis).  It’s being organized by the Spanish Film Club and sponsored by the School of Language, Culture, and Society with help from PRAGDA and the Embassy of Spain in Washington, DC.

The Center for Latino/a Studies and Engagement (CL@SE) will also be showing Gay Latino LA: Coming of Age at the Darkside on Thursday, May 8th at 6:30 PM – as part of their CL@SE 2014 Documentary Film Series – followed by a Q&A session with director Jonathan Menendez and actor Mario Lopez.   Earlier that same day, Lydia Oterio will be at the Centro Cultural César Chávez speaking on Revisiting the Mexican American Past for a Place-Based Sustainability Model.