NYCoRE’s 3^rd Annual Conference

Education is a Right!

Not Just for the Rich or White!

Date: Saturday, March 24, 2012

Conference: 8:45 am – 5:45 pm

Location: Julia Richman Education Complex

317 East 67th Street, New York, NY 10065

NYCoRE.Conference.Program.2012.pdf

To Register: Conference Registration Page

Note: Childcare will be provided (please indicate that you are interested in having childcare when registering. If you have already registered, please email info@nycore.org)

Keynote Speaker: Kevin Kumashiro
Kevin Kumashiro is professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where he was formerly chair of Educational Policy Studies and interim co-director of the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy.  He directs the UIC AANAPISI Initiative, funded by $3.9 million from the U.S. Department of Education’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Supporting Institutions (AANAPISI) grants programs.  He has taught in schools and colleges across the United States and abroad, and has consulted for universities, school districts, and state and federal agencies.  He has authored or edited nine books on education and activism, including Troubling Education, which received the 2003 Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Award; Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning toward Social Justice; and The Seduction of Common Sense: How the Right has Framed the Debate on America’s Schools.  He is the founding director of the Center for Anti-Oppressive Education, and the president-elect (2010-2012) of the National Association for Multicultural Education.

2012 Conference Overview:

Over the past year, our country and the world have witnessed increasingly visible protests against the influence of private pursuit of profit over our public institutions and interests. This spirit of protest has developed in tandem with the proliferation of spaces for critiquing the injustice of this system and organizing communities of resistance. An ongoing struggle within many of these spaces has been acknowledging the ways in which historical and ongoing racism has caused the pursuit of profit to have far more devastating effects on communities of Color than on White communities. The annual NYCoRE conference seeks to carry out anti-racist work by addressing these disparities in the context of our education system. Our goal is to carry forward the spirit of protest by critiquing the current profit-driven policies and culture of our school system, and specifically identify the ways in which racism is intertwined with those policies. We also seek to be a space for building something new, for taking steps toward the more just, equitable world of which we dream. Through this conference, we hope to build connections, to gain inspiration, and to share practical ideas for creating spaces that work to fight racism rather than ignoring it. To this end, we are seeking workshops that will be of relevance to educators in varied settings that are diverse in their focus topics. Relevant political critiques are welcomed, as are curricular ideas, classroom strategies, presentations on community work, and other ideas for inspiring practice.

Goals of the Conference

• To share information and critical thinking around the conference theme, namely examining the relationship between the influence of private interests and the perpetuation of racial injustice
• To provide stakeholders in the education system with information and new ideas that can strengthen our effectiveness as activists, both within our classrooms (and other sites) and beyond them
• To forge connections between and among educators, researchers, parents, activists, and students, fostering new and innovative partnerships and collaborations
• To develop structures for ongoing discussion and working groups about education and social justice
• To organize a national voice in the ongoing debate over education reform
• To plan actions, advocacy, future meetings
• To bridge the gap between youth and educators by creating a space to make young voices heard.
• To develop and share ideas for inspiring practice, both inside classrooms and in communities

Conference Theme: Education is a Right – Not Just for the Rich or White!

In New York City, public schools have faced merciless budget cuts, resulting in growing class sizes, lack of materials, and huge layoffs. These cuts disproportionately affect schools in communities of Color. Meanwhile, our state and local government continue to award huge contracts to private consulting firms, charter schools, and other corporations. Patterns of resource distribution reveal the values of those making the funding decisions. These patterns are telling in their prioritization of profit over people, as well as in their disregard for communities of Color.

We seek to create opportunities for deepening our understanding of the intersection of racism and the neo-liberal agenda so that we can more effectively organize against them. This is a forum for provocative questioning, for story-telling, for information-gathering, for inspiration, for developing our craft, for activism, for providing new fuel to the ongoing struggle for justice.

Location: Vanguard High School

317 East 67th Street, New York, NY 10065

 PAST CONFERENCES

Conference 2011: Whose Schools? Our Schools!
The challenges currently facing our educational system can be daunting and discouraging. Critical thought and effective pedagogy seem to be buried under the flood of calls for “accountability” and “increased test scores.” But in the face of all these challenges, educators are working together with youth, parents, and community activists to keep the fires of critical thinking and curiosity alive. Committed educators know that there is no silver bullet, no magic wand, and no place for rescue from above. We know that the true superheroes are those who work every day with dedication, creativity, and compassion. We know that we change lives not with promises of rescue, but by working in solidarity with youth and their families to be our own heroes and heroines.

This conference is an opportunity to get together and share how we are doing this, in our classrooms, our schools, and our communities. Join us in celebrating the daily courage of educators in our city and beyond. Join us in networking, connecting, and building a movement of educators and community members who care about social justice.
To Register: Conference Registration Page

Conference 2010: “the struggle for justice does not end when the school bell rings”

2010 NYCoRE Conference Program