News & Events

New book on Teaching in Diverse, Standards-Based Classrooms

Connecting Teachers, Students, and Standards

by Deborah L. Voltz, Michele Jean Sims and Betty Nelson

Introduction: Teaching in Diverse, Standards-Based Classrooms

Today’s schools are becoming increasingly diverse. Many teachers find that their classrooms are populated by English language learners, gifted students, students with disabilities, and students who are culturally diverse. Nearly half of all students in U.S. public schools (42 percent) are students of color, approximately 20 percent of students speak a language other than English at home, and approximately 14 percent of students have an identified disability (U.S. Department of Education, 2007a). Approximately half of the students who have an identified disability spend 80 percent of their school day in general education classrooms (U.S. Department of Education, 2007b). To add to this diversity, approximately 12 percent of students in public schools are labeled as gifted and talented (Friend, 2007). Like their peers with disabilities, gifted and talented students also are integrated into general education classrooms. All of these differences make teaching more interesting and exciting as well as more complex.

For more information and options to order the book click here.

Building Hope: Refugee Learner Narratives

We are pleased to let you know that  the Building Hope: Refugee Learner Narratives (2015) document has been published online. The link and information follows.
 
Both an interactive PDF version and a print PDF version of Building Hope: Refugee Learner Narratives (2015) are available. This document is intended to help strengthen the capacity of school communities at all levels (early, middle, and senior years) to provide an appropriate and supportive school environment for refugee and war-affected learners and their families. The core of the document is the stories or ‘learner narratives’ of eleven young Canadians of refugee or war-affected backgrounds who were interviewed about their experiences before coming to Canada and their immigration life since then, with emphasis on their education pathways.

The Global Academy: Social Innovation Competition

Dr. Rumeet Billan @ The Global Academy: Social Innovation Competition
April 8, 2015  – 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

 

The Centre for Global Citizenship Education and Inclusion (GCE&I) would like to formally invite you to join our keynote speaker Dr. Rumeet Billan – twice named Canada’s Top 100 Most Powerful Women, community representatives and industry partners for an inspiring competition of social innovation for social good. The Global Academy competition will showcase Centennial College students from diverse academic backgrounds who are competing to win $5000 to actualize their social innovation. The winner will be selected by industry professionals and the live audience.

 

Global Citizenship & Equity Professional Network Advisory Group Meeting: 12:30 – 2:30 PM
Centennial College, Residence & Conference Centre
, Toronto, ON

 

Attendees of this event will receive the 2014 Global Citizenship and Equity Education Professional Network (GCEEPN) report in the new special issue of the Centre for GCE&I publication: Global Citizenship 2.0. Following the event, GCEEPN members are invited to join us for the first official meeting to commence an GCEEPN Advisory Group to advance the goals of internationalization in higher education.

 

*Space is limited, please click here to register: The Global Academy Event

 

 

Call for Manuscripts for an Edited Book

Diversifying the Teaching Force in Transnational Contexts: Critical Perspectives

Clea Schmidt and Jens Schneider, Editors

Sense Publishers
Anticipated publication date: late 2015/early 2016

A book in the Transnational Migration and Education series (Shibao Guo and Yan Guo, Series Editors): https://www.sensepublishers.com/catalogs/bookseries/transnational- migration-and-education-/

Diversifying the teaching force has become a priority, or, at least, a point of serious debate, in many migrant-receiving jurisdictions worldwide with the growing mismatch between the increased diversities of cultures, languages, and religions of students and families and the still mostly strong dominance of white, middle-class, non-immigrant, and non-ethnic minority background of teachers. Arguments for diversification tend to be couched in terms of disproportionate representation and students from minority backgrounds needing positive role models, yet a growing body of scholarship identifies other compelling reasons for diversification, including the fact that teachers of migrant and ethnic minority backgrounds often possess outstanding qualifications when multilingualism and internationally obtained education and experience are taken into account, and the fact that all students, including majority-background students, benefit from a diversity of role models in schools. Nevertheless, the process of diversification is fraught with complexity. Depending on the context, systemic discrimination, an oversupply of teachers in the profession generally, and outdated hiring policies and practices can all impede efforts to diversify the teaching force.

We invite manuscripts based on original research that problematize issues of diversifying the teaching force and identifies promising practices. All manuscripts should be grounded in appropriate scholarly literature and theory. This academic book will showcase different global contexts and offer empirical perspectives using a range of methodologies and theories rooted in critical social science paradigms, with a view to informing future research, programming, and policy development in this area.

Milestone

Date

Submission of title, abstract, and author(s) to editors

November 15, 2014

Notification of acceptance to authors

December 15, 2014

Submission of full manuscript to editors

March 31, 2015

Feedback from editors to authors

May 15, 2015

Submission of revised manuscripts to editors

August 31, 2015

Manuscripts should be no more than 8000 words, in APA style, and adhere to the formatting provided in the attached Sense Publishers style file for edited volumes, which may also be found in a link at the bottom of this page: https://www.sensepublishers.com/publishwithus/.

For more information and to send abstracts/manuscripts, please contact the editors:

Dr. Clea Schmidt
Faculty of Education University of Manitoba, Canada clea.schmidt@umanitoba.ca

Dr. Jens Schneider
Institut für Migrationsforschung und Interkulturelle Studien (IMIS) University of Osnabrück, Germany jens.schneider@uni-osnabrueck.de

Click here to find a chapter style sheet guide.

Closing San Diego Unified’s Student-Teacher Diversity Gap

Closing San Diego Unified’s Student-Teacher Diversity Gap

Monday, April 14, 2014
By Marissa Cabrera, Maureen Cavanaugh, Peggy Pico

White students barely make up 25 percent of the student population in the San Diego Unified School District, but two-thirds of the teachers and counselors in the district are white.

That lack of diversity among the district’s teaching staff and management is a concern to the school board and school Superintendent Cindy Marten.

A recent report revealed, that while Latinos account for almost half of students at the district, the majority of teachers and counselors are white.

The district says it’s working to find ways to expand the hiring pool of teachers to insure more diversity. That outreach may be tested soon, as the district offers an retirement incentive program which could open up hundreds of teaching jobs.

On KPBS Midday Edition today, we’ll discuss the effort to insure that teachers and management at San Diego Unified reflect the diversity of the student population.

Online article including a short video.