Post by bergsteiger on Feb 10, 2009 12:39:41 GMT -5
Multicultural Educators "Celebrate Diversity" In The Age Of Obama
By Cooper Sterling
The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States created quite a buzz at the 18th annual conference of the National Association of Multicultural Education [NAME], held in New Orleans from November 12-16, 2008.
Radical multiculturalists consider Obama as an ally who is likely to advance key aspects of their agenda with the promise of increased federal funding.
And the economic stimulus bills now before Congress do indeed contain $140 billion of federal spending on education—which will, will, rest assured, find its way to "discretionary" spending for "civil rights" programs in the Department of Education.
Obama’s recent pick of black "education activist" Russlynn Ali, a vociferous advocate of reforms to close the "education gap" between blacks and whites, for assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education ensures that "social justice" "equity" and "diversity" and other forms of social engineering will be high priorities under Obama’s team at Education.
"Beyond Celebrating Diversity: Reactivating the Equity and Social Justice Roots of Multicultural Education" was the theme of the 2008 NAME conference. Attendance comprised the usual turnout of hundreds of teachers, administrators, and academics. About half were black, there were a few Asians, and the rest were granola-headed whites, including perhaps 15%-20% Jews. The 5-day program was a festival of left-oriented seminars and workshops.
The choice of New Orleans as the location for the 18th annual NAME conference factored in with the "equity" and "social justice" theme. The post-Katrina period has become a cause célèbre for "social justice" activists. The accepted storyline is the saga of a disadvantaged population displaced by an oppressive federal government (around the French Quarter FEMA stands for the Federal Emergency Mismanagement Agency).
This year’s NAME program included a "Hurricane Katrina Tour" for $28.75—billed as "an eyewitness account of the events surrounding the most devastating natural and man-made disaster on American soil."
Numerous vendors, including several academic publishers (Peter Lang, Routledge, Teachers College Press), had paid to offer the latest Marxist-flavored literature.
For example, Peter Lang prominently displayed a collection of essays titled Undoing Whiteness in the Classroom: Critical Educultural Teaching Approaches for Social Justice Activism. The book targets graduate-level teacher candidates and seeks "alternative approaches" for recognizing "whiteness as a hegemonic process in the school context." Student teachers are "required…to reify the process of whiteness." One illustration in the book is a computer-enhanced image of the profiles on Mt. Rushmore with "some of the Fathers of the First Nations on the North American continent"—Indian chiefs in full regalia—imposed on them.
Also for sale: Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Brazilian radical ideologue Paulo Freire. The book, a pillar of the education left, develops a revolutionary theory for action, quoting Lenin to emphasize Freire’s point that "Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement." Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara also receives honorable mention.
The full gamut of extreme multiculturalism and social justice was explored throughout the various 215 workshops, seminars, symposia, and lectures: "Freedom Dreams and Whiteness Nightmares: Future Educators on Struggling for a Democratic Counterpublic in Teacher Education," "Beyond White Liberalism: A Critical Analysis of Whiteness in Our Pedagogy and Ourselves," "Centering Race to Address the Intersections of Privilege and Oppression," "The Illusion of Race," "Immigration and Oppression: Strategies to Promote Justice Through Authentic Cultural Experiences," "Beyond ‘Heroes and Holidays': Using Digitizing Ethnic Group Archives for Developing Critical Learning Modules," "Hip Hop as Critical Pedagogy in Secondary Education," "Undoing Whiteness in the Classroom: Critical Educultural Teaching Approaches for Social Justice Activism," and "Multicultural Spirituality and One-hand Clapping."
This year’s NAME conference included three well-attended general sessions with keynote speakers. Perhaps the most notable keynote address was given by sociologist James W. Loewen. As a retired professor of sociology at the University of Vermont, Loewen has carved out a niche on the radical-left academic circuit. His books, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Text Book Got Wrong and Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, have been national bestsellers.
By Cooper Sterling
The election of Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States created quite a buzz at the 18th annual conference of the National Association of Multicultural Education [NAME], held in New Orleans from November 12-16, 2008.
Radical multiculturalists consider Obama as an ally who is likely to advance key aspects of their agenda with the promise of increased federal funding.
And the economic stimulus bills now before Congress do indeed contain $140 billion of federal spending on education—which will, will, rest assured, find its way to "discretionary" spending for "civil rights" programs in the Department of Education.
Obama’s recent pick of black "education activist" Russlynn Ali, a vociferous advocate of reforms to close the "education gap" between blacks and whites, for assistant secretary for civil rights at the Department of Education ensures that "social justice" "equity" and "diversity" and other forms of social engineering will be high priorities under Obama’s team at Education.
"Beyond Celebrating Diversity: Reactivating the Equity and Social Justice Roots of Multicultural Education" was the theme of the 2008 NAME conference. Attendance comprised the usual turnout of hundreds of teachers, administrators, and academics. About half were black, there were a few Asians, and the rest were granola-headed whites, including perhaps 15%-20% Jews. The 5-day program was a festival of left-oriented seminars and workshops.
The choice of New Orleans as the location for the 18th annual NAME conference factored in with the "equity" and "social justice" theme. The post-Katrina period has become a cause célèbre for "social justice" activists. The accepted storyline is the saga of a disadvantaged population displaced by an oppressive federal government (around the French Quarter FEMA stands for the Federal Emergency Mismanagement Agency).
This year’s NAME program included a "Hurricane Katrina Tour" for $28.75—billed as "an eyewitness account of the events surrounding the most devastating natural and man-made disaster on American soil."
Numerous vendors, including several academic publishers (Peter Lang, Routledge, Teachers College Press), had paid to offer the latest Marxist-flavored literature.
For example, Peter Lang prominently displayed a collection of essays titled Undoing Whiteness in the Classroom: Critical Educultural Teaching Approaches for Social Justice Activism. The book targets graduate-level teacher candidates and seeks "alternative approaches" for recognizing "whiteness as a hegemonic process in the school context." Student teachers are "required…to reify the process of whiteness." One illustration in the book is a computer-enhanced image of the profiles on Mt. Rushmore with "some of the Fathers of the First Nations on the North American continent"—Indian chiefs in full regalia—imposed on them.
Also for sale: Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Brazilian radical ideologue Paulo Freire. The book, a pillar of the education left, develops a revolutionary theory for action, quoting Lenin to emphasize Freire’s point that "Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement." Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara also receives honorable mention.
The full gamut of extreme multiculturalism and social justice was explored throughout the various 215 workshops, seminars, symposia, and lectures: "Freedom Dreams and Whiteness Nightmares: Future Educators on Struggling for a Democratic Counterpublic in Teacher Education," "Beyond White Liberalism: A Critical Analysis of Whiteness in Our Pedagogy and Ourselves," "Centering Race to Address the Intersections of Privilege and Oppression," "The Illusion of Race," "Immigration and Oppression: Strategies to Promote Justice Through Authentic Cultural Experiences," "Beyond ‘Heroes and Holidays': Using Digitizing Ethnic Group Archives for Developing Critical Learning Modules," "Hip Hop as Critical Pedagogy in Secondary Education," "Undoing Whiteness in the Classroom: Critical Educultural Teaching Approaches for Social Justice Activism," and "Multicultural Spirituality and One-hand Clapping."
This year’s NAME conference included three well-attended general sessions with keynote speakers. Perhaps the most notable keynote address was given by sociologist James W. Loewen. As a retired professor of sociology at the University of Vermont, Loewen has carved out a niche on the radical-left academic circuit. His books, Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Text Book Got Wrong and Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism, have been national bestsellers.