Civic Learning at the Intersections:
U.S. Diversity, Global Education, and Democracy’s Unfinished Work
Program Highlights
Final Program (pdf)
Thursday, October 18, 2007
6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Reception and Dinner (Pre-registration and fee required)
Co-sponsored by the University of Denver and AAC&U
7:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Welcome and Keynote Address:
Global Education in a World Torn Between Jihad and McWorld
Benjamin Barber, Gershon and Carol Kekst Professor of Civil Society and Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland and President and Director of CivWorld
Benjamin Barber has written that
…the forces of Jihad and the forces of McWorld operate with equal strength in opposite directions, the one driven by parochial hatreds, the other by universalizing markets, the one re-creating ancient subnational and ethnic borders from within, the other making national borders porous from without. They have one thing in common: neither offers much hope to citizens looking for practical ways to govern themselves democratically.
Barber will examine the role of higher education in equipping students and society with the knowledge, intellectual and practical skills, and personal and social responsibility needed to successfully address the challenges of “democracy’s unfinished work”.
Friday, October 19, 2007
9:15 – 10:15 a.m.
Plenary: Effective Student Development for Work and Citizenship in a Global Era
L. Lee Knefelkamp, Professor of Psychology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University and Senior Scholar, AAC&U
Research indicates that many students’ curricular and co-curricular experiences lack a clear connection to contemporary challenges students will face as workers or citizens in a diverse democracy. Lee Knefelkamp will examine how integrated programs that engage civic and global challenges as well as intercultural encounters in diverse learning environments can provide students with the knowledge and skills necessary for today’s world of work and active citizenship. This presentation will consider how civic learning at the intersections can help develop student competencies—critical thinking, ability to work collaboratively, intercultural knowledge, and individual and social responsibility—deemed important in our new global century by business and community leaders.
The School Based Civic Engagement Series is a track of three sessions focusing on theories and practices that are successfully empowering students as agents of public change. Participants are encouraged to attend all three sessions to maximize the learning experience. The Community Engagement Site Visit is the only session in the series that requires separate registration.
10:30 a.m. – 1:45 p.m.
School Based Civic Engagement Series
Community Engagement Site Visit: A Closer Look at Public Achievement in Denver Public Schools
(Pre-registration and fee required; limited to first 50 people)
Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning, University of Denver
This community engagement visit will highlight the relationship between the University of Denver's Center for Community Engagement and Denver Public Schools. Participants will visit a public school in North Denver that is successfully engaging in Public Achievement (PA). Public Achievement, founded by Harry Boyte, seeks to renew a more expansive notion of democracy by empowering individuals as active creators, decision-makers and agents of public change. University students work closely with middle school and high school students to coach them through the PA process and develop projects that have a profound impact on their school or community. The site visit will focus upon several aspects of the PA relationship:
former school students who have transitioned to the University of Denver and taken on community organizing/leadership roles as undergraduate students; the teacher and administrative support that is necessary to make PA work; and, how PA can empower K-12 students (particularly students of color) to feel like they have a voice in their school and in particular what happens in difficult situations like school reform.
2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
School Based Civic Engagement Series
Featured Session: Building the Citizen Movement -- and Reclaiming Democracy in the Presidential Election
Harry Boyte, Co-director, Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
Harry Boyte will discuss the role of higher education in developing new forms of citizen government partnership. The citizen movement offers immense promise for solving public problems, creating public wealth, and revitalizing democracy. Young people are at the forefront of developing many new forms of civic activism and socially concerned entrepreneurship including investigative journalism and communication through the internet. As civic engagement in higher education spreads, these new efforts are helping to shift the old model of government as a "vending machine" for public services to a new vision of government as a catalyst for engaging citizens. Dr. Boyte will describe and invite participation in the November 5 Coalition, an alliance to raise the question of citizenship in the 2008 election.
3:15 – 4:15 p.m. & 4:30 – 5:30
School Based Civic Engagement Series
Discussion: Community Organizing, Civic Learning and Diversity Work
Eric Fretz, Director, Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning, Frank Coyne, Associate Director, Center for Community Engagement and Service Learning, Blanca Trejo, undergraduate student and student community organizer for Metropolitan Organizations for People (MOP), Nicole Nicotera, Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Social Work, University of Denver; and Harry Boyte, Co-director, Center for Democracy and Citizenship, Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota
This discussion will build on themes and questions raised in the site visit to Northwest Denver and Harry Boyte’s lecture on Building the Citizen Movement. Participants will be asked to critically reflect on the site visit and Dr. Boyte’s lecture. Following that discussion, presenters will relate participants’ comments to their own civic engagement and diversity work at the University of Denver, focusing specifically on the implementation of community organizing strategies within co-curricular and curricular projects at the University. The intentional use of community organizing strategies provides students with a tangible set of public skills that address and augment the learning outcomes of civic engagement in the academy. Participants will examine how such a set of public skills can contribute to diverse communities accessing and utilizing power to make positive change in their school/community.
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
AAC&U/Campus Connections
Conference participants are invited to share suggestions about how AAC&U can better assist campuses in developing, implementing, and sustaining learning-centered efforts. We are particularly interested in ideas that might strengthen AAC&U’s support of educators, and encourage institutional level educational change. New members are especially encouraged to join in the conversation.
Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Vice President, Office of Education and Institutional, and Co-director, Network for Academic Renewal, Karen Kalla, Co-director, Network for Academic Renewal, and Dennis Renner, Director for Membership, AAC&U
Saturday, October 20, 2007
10:00 – 10:45 a.m.
Plenary
Applied Learning: Generating Habits of Citizenship
Roger Nozaki, Director,
Swearer Center for Public Service, and Associate Dean of the College, Brown University and Nina Tamrowski, Professor, Department of Political Science, Onondaga Community College
As educators, what are some ways in which we can engage students in their learning today to help them grow as engaged citizens for tomorrow? How do students--both those privileged and those less privileged--interact with culturally diverse neighbors, co-workers and citizens? How do students personalize and apply the underlying values of multiculturalism and global education to their lives as citizens? What teaching practices enhance student learning with the goal of encouraging socially responsible citizens? The panelists will answer these questions by sharing their own teaching practices and engaging the audience in discussion about generating habits of citizenship among students
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Discussion Sessions
Applied Learning: Deepening the Conversation
Nina Tamrowski, Professor of Political Science, Onondaga Community College
Applied Learning: Deepening the Conversation
Roger Nozaki, Director, Swearer Center for Public Service, and Associate Dean of the College, Brown University
Examining and Assessing the Intersections of Civic Learning
L. Lee Knefelkamp, Professor of Psychology and Education, Teachers College, Columbia University and Senior Scholar, AAC&U
Curricular and Co-curricular Approaches to Integrating Civic, Diversity, and Global Education
Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Vice President, Office of Diversity, Equity, and Global Initiatives, AAC&U
Institutional Leadership and Change for Advancing Inclusion, Global Education, and Academic Excellence
Alma R. Clayton-Pedersen, Vice President, Office of Education and Institutional Renewal and Co-director, Network for Academic Renewal, AAC&U
|
