MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA ― By the end of the two-day International Conference on Urban Education, business cards were being swapped from hand to hand, and firm commitments were being made to reach across international borders to find ways to conduct new research and collaborate on future projects.
While a slew of scholarly organizations committed to education research have long existed in the United States, the study of urban education has largely remained on the periphery, according to many of the 500 university professors and administrators, community activists, government officials, and high school teachers and principals who converged on this Caribbean island to explore the topic.
Now, they’ve argued, is the time for a new conversation focused exclusively on some of the challenges that beset urban education, not just in the United States, but indeed across the globe as demographics continue to shift.
And they see the International Conference on Urban Education — a biennial event — organized by the Urban Education Collaborative at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, as the right vehicle to help bring about real reform.
“The ability to network and connect with other educators and share insights and innovative ideas has been valuable,” said Dr. Gabriel Cortez, an assistant professor of educational leadership at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago who was one of the conference attendees. “It’s exciting to see people who are doing similar work and who are committed to cultural relevant pedagogy.”
At a time when many politicians in the United States have all but given up on urban schools, university scholars spent several days engaged in deep conversations with school practitioners about how to make their research, which, in many cases, centers on minority children, more accessible to the masses.
There were workshops about the school-to-prison pipeline, the challenges facing Black males and females, and the role that school counselors can play in helping children and their families access critical services.
