National Leader in Multicultural Education to Speak at UH Manoa

University of Hawaiʻi
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Posted: Mar 14, 2002

HONOLULU — Dr. James A. Banks, Russell F. Stark University Professor and Director of the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington, will be the featured speaker at "Educating Global Citizens in a Time of National Crisis," a one-day conference presented by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa‘s Service Learning Program/Hawaiʻi Campus Compact. The conference will be held on Wednesday, March 20, from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Hemenway Theatre on the UH Mānoa campus. Banks‘ presentation will take place from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. with a book signing to follow, both of which are free and open to the public.

Banks is past president of the American Educational Research Association and the National Council for the Social Studies. He is a member of the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences, as well as the National Academy of Education.

He is the author of numerous books including "Teaching Strategies of Ethnic Studies," "Cultural Diversity and Education: Foundations, Curriculum and Teaching," "Multicultural education: Issues and Perspectives," and "Educating Citizens in a Multicultural Society," and has written over 100 articles, contributions to books, and book reviews for professional publications. He is the editor, with Cherry A. McGee Banks, of the "Handbook of Research on Multicultural Education," published by Macmillan. This landmark publication was the first research handbook on multicultural education to be published, and in 1997, it received the Book Award from the National Association of Multicultural Education.

A former elementary school teacher, Banks received his bachelor‘s degree in elementary education and social science from Chicago State University, and his master‘s and doctorate degrees in these fields from Michigan State University. He has served as a consultant to school districts, professional organizations, and universities throughout the United States and in Canada, Great Britain, the Virgin Islands, Guam, The Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Israel, Portugal, Japan, and China.

The Service Learning Program was established to create a central office that assists university students interested in responding to community needs by locating these community needs, informing students of the needs, and linking courses with experiential learning. In July 1994, the program, along with other colleges and universities in Hawaiʻi, joined Campus Compact, a national service learning organization. Since joining, Hawaiʻi has formed its own state Campus Compact with UH Mānoa‘s Service Learning Program serving as the state office. As of June 1995, all Hawaiʻi institutions of higher education had become members of Hawaiʻi Campus Compact and joined to increase the link between their respective colleges and universities and their local communities.

The conference is sponsored by a grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service and the President‘s Diversity and Equity Initiative. For more information about the conference, contact the UH Mānoa Service Learning Program at 956-4641, or visit www.hawaii.edu/osa/ServiceLearn.