Conference

32nd Annual Bergamo Conference on Curriculum Theory and Classroom Practice

Working from Within: Crisis, Compassion, and Curriculum of Global Imagination

Pre-Conference: October 12-13, 2011
Conference: October 13-15, 2011

Bergamo Conference Center, Dayton, Ohio

Conference Schedule Now Available!

At-a-Glance Schedule

View Map and Directions ā€” Dayton Area Guide

Keynote Speakers

Bernadette Baker is a professor in the department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Wisconsin-Madison. She has lived and worked in teaching and academe in Australia, the United States, and Finland. Her current research interests involve the significant intersections of the three “INTE’s” to the sustenance of a vibrant curriculum studies fieldā€”the interdisciplinary, the international, and the intellectual.

William Doll has been an educator for more than 50 years and retired from the College of Education at Louisiana State University the Vira Franklin & J.R. Eagles Professor. In addition to publishing four books, writing countless articles, co-founding the LSU’s Curriculum Theory Project, and traveling the world as an international scholar, Professor Doll is known by many as a legend in curriculum, revolutionizing the field by introducing complexity and chaos. In 2005, he received the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Educational Research Association.

Handel Kashope Wright is professor and director of the Centre for Culture, Identity and Education at the University of British Columbia. He is co-editor of the book series African and Diasporic Cultural Studies (University of Ottawa), serves on the editorial board of several cultural studies and education journals including the International Journal of Cultural Studies, the European Journal of Cultural Studies, Topia, and the Canadian Journal of Education and Postcolonial Studies in Education. He has published widely on cultural studies of education, Africana cultural studies, critical multiculturalism and anti-racist education, qualitative research and curriculum theorizing.

Respondents

Dennis Carlson is a professor of cultural studies of education in the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. He is the author of Teachers and Crisis: Urban School Reform and Teachers’ Work Culture, Making Progress: Education and Culture in New Times (1992), Making Progress: Education and Culture in New Times (1997), and Leaving Safe Harbors: Toward a New Progressivism in American Education and Public Life (2003). He has just completed a history of the sexual politics of adolescent sexuality education, 1950-2000, titled The Education of Eros. Professor Carlson will be responding to Bernadette Baker.

Hongyu Wang is an associate professor in curriculum studies at Oklahoma State University-Tulsa. Her research interests include nonviolence education, subjectivity and curriculum, cross-cultural inquiry. Author of The Call from the Stranger on a Journey Home: Curriculum in a Third Space (2004), she co-edited with Claudia Eppert (2008) Cross-cultural Studies in Curriculum (AESA Critics’ Choice, 2009; AERA division B Outstanding Book Recognition, 2010), and co-edited with Nadine Olson A Journey to Unlearn and Learn in Multicultural Education (2009). She co-founded with Xin Li the SIG in Confucianism, Taoism, and Education at AERA in 2007. Currently she serves as the co-editor of JCT. Professor Wang will be responding to William Doll.

Michael Hoechsmann is an associate professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. His research interests are in the areas of media, new media, literacy, new literacies, youth, cultural studies and education. He is the author (with Bronwen E. Low) of Reading Youth Writing: “New” Literacies, Cultural Studies and Education (Peter Lang, 2008) and (with Stuart R. Poyntz) Media Literacies: A Critical Introduction (Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). For four years, he was the Director of Education of Young People’s Press, a non-profit news service for youth ages 14-24. Professor Hoechsmann will be responding to Handel Wright.

Pre-Conference Institutes

This year’s conference will feature three pre-conference institutes that address critical issues in curriculum studies on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 12, and the morning of Thursday, October 13.

These institutes will provide an opportunity for established scholars in particular areas of curriculum theory and research to provide instruction and engagement, as well as facilitate dialogue between participants on their areas of expertise. The facilitators will determine the exact format, approach, and content of these institutes. Space will be limited and on a first-come, first-serve basis. There will be an additional cost to attendees in order to cover the expenses of conducting the institutes. For more information on each institute, click on the institutes below.

INSTITUTE A
Race, Epistemologies, and Curriculum Theory ā€” Roland Mitchell and T. Elon Dancy

INSTITUTE B
Chaos and Complexity Theories in Curriculum Studies ā€” William Doll and Jayne Fleener

INSTITUTE C
Curriculum Leadership ā€” James Henderson and Tom Kelly

All-Conference Sessions

There are four all-conference sessions planned for this year’s conference. The sessions will focus on Curriculum Studies and Higher Education, Curriculum Leadership, Spirituality, and Curriculum History. Currently confirmed participants in these sessions include Rebecca Ropers-Huilman, Noelle Witherspoon, James Henderson, Petra Munro Hendry, Michael Dantely, Kelly Winters, Nicholas Clegorne, Riyad Shajahan, Annie Winfield, and Madeline Grumet. More information about these sessions will be given in the coming months.

Provoking Dialogue(s) Series

This will be the second year of our “Provoking Dialogue(s)” series. These four sessions provide opportunities for authors or editors of books that are significant within the curriculum studies field, dialoguers who are also notable scholars within the field, and the audience to engage in provocative dialogues using the featured book as a jumping off point. Currently confirmed authors and editors include Petra Munro Hendry, JoAnn Phillion, Ming Fang He, Elizabeth J. Allan, Susan Iverson, and Rebecca Ropers-Huilman, and Adam Howard.

Book Sale

The annual Bergamo book sale is a tradition of the conference, with major curriculum theory texts available for purchase every year. If you would like your book to be featured this year, please contact Sara Wooten at <swooten(at)jctonline.org> and she will contact your publisher to request a copy.

Film Screening

Jennifer Milam will be hosting a screening of Race to Nowhere on Friday night following the Keynote addresses.

From the filmmakers:

This remarkable new film shines a light on the price our kids pay for this ā€race to nowhere.ā€¯ Cheating is commonplace, stress-related illness, depression and burnout are rampant, and ironically, young people arrive at college and the workplace unprepared and uninspired.

Featuring the heartbreaking stories of young people who have been pushed to the brink and educators who are burned out and worried that students arenŹ¼t developing the skills needed for the global economy, RACE TO NOWHERE points to the silent epidemic running rampant in our schools.

RACE TO NOWHERE is a call to families, educators, experts and policy makers to examine current assumptions on how to best prepare the you.

More information about the film can be found on the film’s website.

Entertainment and Wellness

The conference will, as in past years, offer evening entertainment, fun, and networking opportunities. Club Bergamo is back and will once again feature the musical stylings ofĀ Reagan Mitchell as well as a DJ. To help you stay stress free and to allow you to adhere to any exercise goals while at the conference, we will be offering exercise opportunities such as yoga. We are in the process of confirming other artistic and social events for the conference and will provide updates on these activities as they are confirmed on our website.