UNM PRESENTS PANEL ON DEMOCRATIC TEACHING IN TIME OF WAR

April 15, 2003

UNM PRESENTS PANEL ON DEMOCRATIC TEACHING IN TIME OF WAR

The University of New Mexico College of Education (COE) will present a panel "Teaching Under Siege? Speaking freely about the rights and responsibilities of democratic teaching in a time of war" on Monday, April 21, from 7 to 9 p.m., in the Anderson Schools of Management, rm. 1064.

The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are required due to space limitations.

Guest presenters include Jane Gagne, co-legal director of New Mexico's ACLU, Joseph Vigil, lead superintendent, Albuquerque Public Schools, Ellen Bernstein, head of the Albuquerque Teachers' Federation, and Beulah Woodfin, American Association for University Professors representative.

"This session grows out of a student request in my course 'History and Theory of Bilingual Ed'," said Lois Meyer, associate professor in the COE Department of Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies. "The student, an APS teacher, asked if we could discuss the suspension of six APS teachers due to criticism of their teaching about the war. Though sparked by this request, the session will go beyond the APS suspensions to address the deeper issue of the cultural and societal rights and responsibilities of public school teachers and teaching."

Among the questions the panel will address are: Is there an attack on those who teach diverse perspectives, challenge powerful and dominant cultural and political views, and attempt to construct critical thinking about mainstream beliefs and assumptions? If so, what are the consequences for critical thought and rigorous teaching? Especially at this time when the media are concerned with "patriotism" and "homeland security," what does it truly mean to teach so that the ideals and processes that construct and defend democracy are taught and lived in New Mexico classrooms?

"While the initial issue had to do with teaching about the Iraq war, New Mexico teachers - pre-kindergarten to university professors - work with student populations whose poverty is often invisible, whose cultural/ethnic/gender histories are seldom part of curriculum standards and frameworks, whose home and community languages are rarely acknowledged in school, whose academic achievement measured on standard assessments is low, and whose community perspectives about successful education and the purposes of schooling are often left behind in federal legislation," Meyer said. "These very conditions contribute to the fact that a very high percentage of U.S. military forces come from New Mexico. This session is intended to dialogue about our rights and responsibilities as public school teachers faced with the decision to either address or ignore these realities in our classrooms, and to probe our teaching task in terms of democratic principles."

To reserve a space, call Lois Meyer, 277-7244 or email lsmeyer@unm.edu.

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