Three University of Wyoming educational studies faculty members travel to Korea this month to share insights and expertise at the third International Conference on Multicultural Education hosted by the KAME (Korean Association for Multicultural Education).
UW delegation members are Francisco Rios, professor and department head; Jeasik Cho, associate professor; and Kevin Roxas, assistant professor. Rios will deliver the conference keynote talk; Cho and Roxas will present papers related to the event theme, "Rebuilding Global Citizenship in an Era of Multicultural Society."
UW's invitation to participate extends from Cho's ongoing relationships with educational administrators and scholars in his native country.
As Korea has moved from a 5,000-year-old monocultural, agrarian society to an advanced nation with an increasing influx of workers from other countries (two percent, about 1,000,000 workers), it has experienced significant social and educational challenges. Children of cross-cultural marriages (14 percent) enter schools facing many of the same kinds of obstacles that immigrant children attending American schools experience. The international conference on multicultural education emerged as part of a national reflection on how to address these challenges effectively.
"There really is a hunger for listening to focused, advanced discussion on multicultural education itself," Cho says.
Rios will address the larger contextual issues in his keynote, "Framing Multicultural Education for Citizenship in a Global Age: Multicultural Education as a Human Right." Roxas will discuss the role of identity and program support in his paper, "Creating Communities: Working with Refugee Newcomer Students in the Classroom." Cho will introduce pedagogy strategies in his talk, "Critical Performance Race Theory: Principles, Pedagogy and Loving Community."
