Inaugural Conference To Explore Diversity In Literacy

The Department of Teaching, Learning and Culture in the College of Education and Human Development is hosting the inaugural Celebrating & Exploring Diversity in K-12 Literature & Literacies (CEDK12) Conference. The conference will be held September 4 and 5 on the Texas A&M campus.

New York Times Bestselling author Matt de la Pena will serve as conference keynote. His work in young adult and children’s literature continues has inspired literacy and creativity around the world.

The conference seeks to bring together diverse voices in interdisciplinary research related to literacy and diversity for the purpose of developing education and teachers’ practices. Organizers are focused on topics such as equity and inclusion, race, gender and multicultural education in pre-service teacher training.

“The idea of the conference is to increase awareness of, especially among pre-service teachers, different practices, different methods and different resources that exist,” explained Peter Scaramuzzo, conference co-chair and doctoral student.

Following the theme of Movement Forward to Inspire, Scaramuzzo used his own experiences as a middle school teacher in New York to help shape the conference.

“I think it’s important that this conversation is brought to the forefront for our pre-service teachers and for practicing teachers. When you’re in the day-to-day it gets so crazy that your head is always spinning. This is one of those essential reminders that your students need you to be inclusive and to represent marginalized voices, multiple voices and multiple perspectives.”

The CEDK12 conference will feature presentations from researchers, roundtable discussions and workshops for participants. Organizers are accepting proposals for presentations until August 31.

The conference is free and open to the public. For proposal information and registration, visit tx.ag/cedk12.