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Selected Highlights of the 1999-2000 COE

 Multicultural Education Initiative

Ø                  Hosted the 7th annual college-wide multicultural education conference. 

Keynote from Dr. Tracy Robinson on The Convergence of Multiple       Identities

Over 15 research poster displays featuring COE faculty and graduate student work in the area of diversity.

Ø                  MCTF sponsored monthly seminars on diverse topics, Sept-May.  Sessions highlighted and spotlighted faculty and graduate student research, results of college multicultural education mini-grants, university multicultural resources, etc.

Ø                  Awarded 9 college multicultural education grants

Ø                  In conjunction with the college-wide strategic planning process, the MCTF developed and submitted for inclusion with the college’s strategic plan a “Statement of Position for Strategic Planning and Strategic Actions” which was accepted by the Strategic Planning Committee

Ø                  Generated and disseminated a list of COE course offerings whose “primary focus is on issues of diversity”.  The list includes over 80 courses representing the majority of our departments

Ø                  The MCTF was invited to, and sponsored a national touring photo-text exhibit, “Love Makes a Family”.  The COE was one of only three sites in Georgia invited to host this exhibit.  A campus wide symposium was developed in conjuction

Ø                  MCTF worked in a sub-committee format to brainstorm and write an initial proposal for developing a college Multicultural Education Center

Ø                  MCTF sponsored and provided moderation for a campus dialog on race, focusing around issues arising from the race and admissions debate

Ø                  Maintained and expanded the multicultural web site, including actual resources, links to relevant sites, notice of seminars and other professional development opportunities, etc.

Ø                  Provided assistance and support to departments in developing final versions of their departmental Cultural Diversity Requirement Plans and worked with the Associate Dean’s office to review departmental cultural diversity requirements and to provide feedback and assistance with revisions.

The College of Education's (COE) has endeavored to develop strong programs across all organizational units in the College, that effectively meet society's educational needs. This achievement is based on the College's "obligation to provide revitalized programs for the preparation of teachers, counselors, school psychologists, special educators and school administrators and to contribute in other ways to the successful implementation of reform" (Strategic Planning Document, 1992, p. 17). It is in the context of the college's broad mission that the multicultural education initiative has emerged.

Increasingly, the popular and professional press is calling for educational institutions to acknowledge our country's changing demographics, and to respond by helping to create a society characterized by mutual respect and a sense of community. While our state has been less affected by changing demographics than a state such as California, population changes are also occurring in Georgia. Inasmuch as The University of Georgia's mission calls for its colleges to "provide Georgia students with educational opportunities consistent with their future careers and personal lives", the College of Education (COE) entered a period of self examination with regard to its attention to issues of diversity. Resulting was the designation of multicultural education as a formal "Initiative" of the College of Education.

Effective academic year 1993-94, multicultural education was identified as one of the three primary agendas for the COE. Specifically, the multicultural education agenda was described in a handbook written by Dean Alphonse Buccino, and distributed to all COE faculty, in this way:

"Multicultural Education: This effort will address the issues of infusing appropriate multicultural perspectives into academic programs. The aim is to respond within each program to the saliency of cultural factors and diversity for the achievement and well being of our students in relation to the universal context and to the context in which they will be working following graduation " (COE 1993-94 Agenda handbook; p. 2).

Clearly, efforts toward infusion and inclusion of multicultural perspectives were already in place in many departments and programs within the COE. However, the establishment of multicultural education as an agenda and "Initiative" signaled the first designation of this as an issue that would be addressed college-wide.