Faculty News

University of Washington Professor James A. Banks, known widely as “the father of multicultural education,” will present the UW Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity’s (OMA&D) 14th annual Samuel E. Kelly Distinguished Faculty Lecture on April 13 in Kane Hall Room 220.

Banks is the Kerry and Linda Killinger Endowed Chair in Diversity Studies and founding director of the Center for Multicultural Education in the UW College of Education.

At Prime Time Extended Learning Center in Tacoma, Gemma Stephani recalls welcoming a student who had been expelled from a private elementary school due to behavioral issues.

The student began attending Prime Time after enrolling in a public elementary school, and as the staff grew to know him better, Stephani witnessed a transformation as the child learned to verbalize his feelings more effectively.

All young children possess gifts and talents, Nancy Hertzog says, and a new book by the University of Washington College of Education professor offers insights into how parents, teachers and administrators can help early learners develop their talents.

Sustaining ongoing improvement in instruction is a persistent challenge for schools and districts, but Washington state’s adoption of a new teacher and principal evaluation system earlier this decade is contributing to more collaborative improvement efforts, a new study by University of Washington College of Education researchers finds.

For more than a decade, Angel Fettig has worked with young children and their families as a teacher, researcher, trainer and consultant.

From her earliest years, Margaret (Maggie) Beneke experienced the impact an inclusive educational environment can make on young people.

Following in the footsteps of her mother, who taught in an inclusive early childhood program, Beneke went on to become an early childhood teacher in inclusive settings. Today, her research and pedagogy focuses on increasing access to inclusive, equitable education for all children and families. 

School districts across the nation are turning to research to transform their central offices in ways that support better teaching and learning for all students.

Yet putting that research into practice is no easy task, even when districts bring in high-quality outside help says the University of Washington’s Meredith Honig, associate professor of education policy, organizations and leadership and executive director of the District Leadership Design Lab.

Most schools offer parents specific ways to help out: Join the PTA, chaperone a field trip, grade papers for a teacher or assist on a classroom art project.

Those volunteer opportunities, however, not only reinforce the top-down power structure of schools, but also cater to mostly white, privileged families, maintaining the institutionalized racism that marginalizes low-income families and families of color, said Ann Ishimaru, assistant professor of education at the University of Washington.

Mia Tuan, dean of the University of Washington College of Education, has been selected to receive the 2017 Chang-Lin Tien Award for Leadership in Education presented by the Asian Pacific Fund.