Education faculty present workshop for Virginia Diversity Network

Dr. Deborah Napoli, Director of Field Placement in the University of Richmond Department of Education, and Dr. Bob Spires, Assistant Professor of Education in the SPCS Graduate Education program, led a daylong workshop for the Virginia Diversity Network (VDN), a group associated with the Virginia’s independent schools.

The workshop, “Cultural Competency in Curriculum: Understanding Issues of Equity and Social Justice,” provided a framework for understanding the differences between Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Multicultural Education and Social Justice Education.

By placing these ideas along a continuum, Napoli and Spires were able to illustrate the importance of moving beyond superficial understandings of diversity and toward an informed action approach to addressing marginalization and privilege in productive ways in classrooms.

Participants adapted current lessons to the ideas presented in the framework, then explored a website provided by the Southern Poverty Law Center that generates lesson resources tied to various grade levels and academic subjects.

There were 52 participants in the workshop from independent schools across Virginia.