2014 Conference Information

2014 Keynote address

James A. Banks holds the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies and is the founding director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, Seattle. He was the Russell F. Stark University Professor at the University of Washington from 2001 to 2006. Professor Banks is a past president of the American Educational Research Association and of the National Council for the Social Studies. He is a specialist in social studies education and multicultural education and has written widely in these fields.

His books include Teaching Strategies for Ethnic Studies; Cultural Diversity and Education: Foundations, Curriculum, and Teaching; Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society; and Race, Culture, and Education: The Selected Works of James A. Banks. Professor Banks is the editor of the Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education; The Routledge International Companion to Multicultural Education; Diversity and Citizenship Education: Global Perspectives; and the Encyclopedia of Diversity in Education, published in 2012 by Sage in both hard and electronic editions. He is also the editor of the Multicultural Education Series of books published by Teachers College Press, Columbia University. There are now 52 published books in this Series; others are in development. Professor Banks is a member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association.

During the 2005-2006 academic year Professor Banks was a Spencer Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. In 2007 he was the Tisch Distinguished Visiting Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University. He was a Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Hong Kong in 2010, a Visiting Professor at the Minzu University of China in 2011 (in Beijing), and a Visiting Professor at Northwest Normal University in Lanzhou, China in 2012. Professor Banks is widely considered the "father of multicultural education" in the United States and is known throughout the world as one of the field's most important founders, theorists, and researchers. He holds honorary doctorates from the Bank Street College of Education (New York), the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, DePaul University, Lewis and Clark College, and Grinnell College and is a recipient of the UCLA Medal, the university's highest honor. In 2005, Professor Banks delivered the 29th Annual Faculty Lecture at the University of Washington, the highest honor given to a professor at the University. 

Research by Professor Banks on how educational institutions can improve race and ethnic relations has greatly influenced schools, colleges, and universities throughout the United States and the world. Professor Banks has given lectures on citizenship education and diversity in many different nations, including Australia, Canada, China, Cyprus, England, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Norway, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, and New Zealand. His books have been translated into Greek, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, and Turkish.

For more information on James A. Banks, please visit his website.

2014 Schedule

June 16, 2014

5:30-7 p.m.
"Meet and Greet" Reception
Midi Restaurant — Harbor View Room

Join us the evening before the conference for a "meet and greet" reception held at Midi restaurant in the Fitger's Complex. Enjoy beautiful views of Lake Superior and avoid the morning rush by registering early for the conference. Take advantage of the opportunity to network with other conference attendees, educational professionals, faculty and students.

Refreshments and appetizers will be served.

June 17, 2014

8:00 a.m.
Mitchell Auditorium Check-in & Registration

8:30 a.m.
Welcome — Dr. Jo Olsen; Dean School of Education

Keynote Address — Diversity in America: Teaching Students To Know, To Care, and To Act in Global Times – Dr. James A. Banks

Racial, ethnic, cultural, language, and religious diversity is increasing in the United States as well as in nations around the world because of worldwide immigration. The deepening diversity within nation-states and the quest by different groups for cultural recognition and rights are challenging assimilationist notions of citizenship and forcing nation-states to recognize, respect, and incorporate diversity. A delicate balance of unity and diversity should be an essential goal of citizenship education in multicultural nation-states. Citizenship education should help students to develop thoughtful and clarified identifications with their cultural communities, nation-states, and the global community. It should also enable them to acquire the cosmopolitan attitudes, knowledge, and values needed to know, to care, and to act to make the nation and the world more democratic and just.

10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.          
Breakout Sessions:

View or download the full breakout session schedule.

Topics include:

• Cultural Competence in the teaching and learning process
• Using online data sets for foster student inquiry
• Forming friendships, creating crisis, overcoming obstacles: Textual features of YAL that support adolescents' engagement with texts
• Using online curriculum to teach face-to-face science students
• Instructional resources for inclusion and exceptionality: The IRIS Center
• The nurtured heart approach...An approach for working with students with challenging behaviors
• Say what? Strategies for teaching vocabulary
• Innovation: Creating Apps 
• Using social media for instruction and intervention: Pinterest, Twitter and more to support secondary language arts.