“Folks are going to be in really different places in terms of their own schedules and situations,” Sarah Woulfin says. “In the spring, a professor from another university posted an adapted syllabus for the COVID era, and one of the points was to have a class where we can get together for ‘intellectual nourishment,’ in his phrasing. I adapted that into my class as pillars for our work together. We’re here to learn, but know that there is a lot of other stuff going on in the world and our lives. So let’s be humane with each other, foster connection, and learn together during our time online.”
The Education Project is excited to welcome two keynote speakers Basiyr Rodney, Ed.D. and Glenn Mitoma, Ph.D. who will both be further engaging with The Education Project’s main focus; educational disparities, equal access to technology, and social justice in education at our official launch event.
“I think the results of our initial study provide confirmation — from a research standpoint — regarding the many news reports that we have seen about the increased expectation, without additional resources, faced by caregivers of children with disabilities,” says Sandra Chafouleas, co-director of the Collaboratory on School and Child Health and a UConn Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor. “The burden is real, and taking not only a toll on their children but caregiver well-being.”
“A lot of this is based on district funding, and things like that, which unfortunately tend to be so tied to the proportion of kids and families who are living in poverty,” said Sarah Woulfin, professor of education leadership at The University of Connecticut.
The Board of Education appointed Charles Hershon as the middle school principal at a special meeting on July 6. Hershon has served as the assistant principal at Granby Memorial Middle School from 2017 to the present. Prior to that, he was a middle school English language arts teacher in Suffield, and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.
“During the pandemic, I saw teachers from across the world sharing their students’ works similar to a collaboration between students from Purdue University and the University of Connecticut I led three years earlier,” says Christopher Cayari, assistant professor of music at Purdue University. “My students at Purdue were ecstatic to see their ukulele-playing tests turned into a music video featuring their virtual friends hundreds of miles away.”
Interview with Dr. Jeremy Landa, UConn researcher and specialist in education and discrimination in minority communities. Topic: Disparity in Connecticut’s Education System.
S. Kent Butler came to UCF in 2007 to teach counselor education and has more than 30 years of experience in the field and multicultural work. As the head of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion, he has created the Leadership Council for Equity, Inclusivity and Diversity, which is made up of 22 individuals across UCF that champion social justice and equity.
“Like monuments, mascots are not just symbols of a dark past, but barriers to a more just future. If schools and communities are to reckon with the past and present of systemic racism, and move toward a future of human rights, both monuments and mascots must fall,” says Glenn Mitoma, an assistant professor of human rights and curriculum and instruction at the University of Connecticut, and director of UConn’s Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.
“On the anniversary of Juneteenth, hundreds of mostly young, Black protesters went directly to the Hartford mayor’s brownstone house in downtown with a simple demand: abolish police. Despite their demand, the mayor’s response was a mismatch. Instead of defunding, abolishing, or even tangibly reducing the size of the police, the mayor recommended building more affordable housing in the suburbs. Rather than racial and economic justice for the Black and Puerto Rican people in Hartford now, the response was clear: I will not help you change policies, but I will help you leave,” say co-authors Robert Cotto and Brendan Mahoney.
