Madison, WI, U.S.

DAY THREE- Sonata Room (2nd floor) Gordon Events Center

Shifting teachers’ representations of migrant and refugee children and classroom language policies

9:00 ROUNDTABLE 14. Inclusion and Exclusion & Access and Quality – Education Policies and Schooling Experience of Migrant Children in China. Yanli Timm, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Yun Jiang, Fujian Institute of Education; Yu Tan, South-Central University for Nationalities; Wang Ling, Renmin University of China (UW Chinese Visiting Scholars). 

Migrant children are a special social group that emerged and grew rapidly in medium- and large-sized cities due to the modernization and industrialization of Chinese society. Reforms of the education policy for migrant children have been implemented to ensure migrant children’s full access to compulsory education. The Hukou restrictions on migrant children’s schooling based on their families’ registered place of residence have been replaced by government education grants to the education systems where they live to fund their education. However, this access does not guarantee that migrant children enjoy public educational resources on a level equal to that of local city children. This roundtable discussion will focus on the positive developments of China’s educational policy for these rural-to-urban migrant children, and its limitations in addressing the academic attainment gap that persists between local city children and migrant children. 

10:40 ROUNDTABLE 15. Undocumented: Attaining an equally affordable education at one UWS university. Anne D’Antonio Stinson, Miguel Aranda, University of Wisconsin-Whitewater; and An unnamed, undocumented university student. 

Federal law guarantees every child, regardless of legal immigration status, to a free K-12 public education. But what happens once a student graduates from high school? In Wisconsin, DACA-eligible students are able to enroll but are faced with out-of-state tuition. This roundtable will explore nancial opportunities to allow for an affordable post-secondary education. 

10:40 ROUNDTABLE 16. Teachers creating and negotiating language policies in a country of con ict, displacement, and now, reconciliation: The case of Colombia. Jaime Usma, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia. In a country that attempts to escape from decades of urban and rural con ict and inequity, and where more than six million people have been displaced from their territories, teachers in schools and universities recreate mandated English language policies associated with economic globalization, competitiveness, trade agreements, and now peace. In this presentation, the author will elaborate on current political, social and language education reforms in Colombia, the limitations and challenges these policies pose on educational actors, and how teachers and researchers in the city and the countryside attempt to respond creatively and critically to these mandates, and for the construction of a more inclusive nation. 

12:00-1:30 LUNCH (informal discussions) 

1:30 ROUNDTABLE 17. Semiotics of Hijab. Asmahan H. Sandokji, Maria Ahmad, and Mouna Algahaithi, UW Students & Muslim Student Association of Madison. 

This roundtable will feature UW students and community members from the Muslim Student Association (MSA) of Madison. The purpose is to highlight Islamic practices that manifest in educational institutes. The focus will lay on wearing hijab (hair cover). The facilitators will present the de nition and role of hijab in the Islamic culture, and the laws that protect Muslim women wearing hijab in America. The facilitators will: (a) address their experience in wearing hijab by presenting the beliefs associated with wearing hijab in public, and what hijab add to their personality; (b) address the issues and misconceptions associated with women who wear hijab, and how they logically overcome such misconceptions and issues; (c) talk about what they wish people would know about Muslim women who wear hijab, and what could support them to feel inclusive; (d) lead a sharing of teachers experience with Muslim women at school, share stories and exchange advice related to nding possible ways to create a positive atmosphere for these Muslim women, and how to avoid marginalizing this minority group in the classroom setting. 

2:30-3:00 PLENARY DISCUSSION 

3:00-3:30 BREAK 

3:30-4:30 CONCLUSION PANEL with Jack Laun, Law, Harvard & Stanford, President of the Colombia Support Network; Fessahaye Mebrahtu, Director, Pan-African Community Association, Milwaukee; Anne Stinson, Director, Alternative Education Program, UW-Whitewater 

Presentation of the follow-up Conference at Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle on May 22-24

back to DAY TWO March 16

back to DAY ONE March 15