PRAIRIE VIEW, Texas – Carol Chang Goodwin, a school counselor in the Alief Independent School District, took a few days of her summer vacation to study abroad even though she traveled only about an hour from her home. She wanted to hear and see what she and educators from around the world had in common and what they were doing differently.
“It was very informative,” Goodwin said of the four-day International Centre for Innovation in Education Conference at Prairie View A&M University. “After talking to a lady from Dubai, I found that some students there have to have a 504 plan – a clinical diagnosis – to receive specialized education. In our school, all it takes is a parent saying their child has trouble learning. Talking to people from other parts of the world sometimes shows you how much you have and how much farther you are ahead.”
Teachers and researchers from New Zealand, Germany, Croatia, Tunisia, Canada, Sweden, Turkey and elsewhere gathered to learn from each other, build relationships and network during the conference that relied heavily on the themes of service learning and project-based learning.
“This is the first time in our 17-year history the conference was held in the United States and the first time being held at an HBCU,” said ICIE cofounder and general director Dr. Taisir Sabhi Yamin, a Cornell University graduate who resides in Germany. “We planned the conference for three years with Dr. Fred Bonner, director of the MACH III Center at PVAMU, because his center is making very impactful contributions to gifted education in general and excellence in education.”
This year’s ICIE included 12 keynote speakers, 12 symposiums, 32 workshops and representatives from about 40 countries.
The conference was the culmination of the vision of president Dr. Ruth Simmons, PVAMU and the MACH III Center, said Bonner who has directed the center since 2015 and holds and endowed professorship.
“I think this shows the limitlessness of what research and scholarship can achieve on an HBCU campus,” he said. “We hope to change the narrative about Black colleges and research.”
