Home > Recapping the 2012-2013 Academic Year

Recapping the 2012-2013 Academic Year

Hello to all the beautiful people,

Well, it is hard to believe that another academic year has passed! With the commencement ceremonies and convocations now behind us, newly minted graduates are set to go out into the world and enact the change that they have theorized about and practiced often during their time at Teachers College. As for IUME, this second year under Director Ernest Morrell marked a period of rapid growth and development in which we collectively built on the foundation we set last year and in the thirty-nine years prior under Dr. Edmund Gordon. Just as last year was an exciting time of innovation and rejuvenation for the Institute, this year exponentially continued in this framework via three ways: through offering additional community programs, breaking ground on many new research projects, and disseminating widely the Institute's work. For example, in regards to the community, IUME sponsored or co-sponsored larger community initiatives such as the Preemptive Education Conference, the Anti-Bullying Summit, the Diversity in Research and Practice Conference, and the Educating Harlem Lecture Series. Furtheremore, IUME also co-sponsored the first cross-campus Hip-Hop videoconference series, hosted two Youth Summits, sponsored two new faculty fellows, and continued to hold monthly Culture Circles and IUME Colloquia led by student researchers. Outside the academic community, the Institute has remained true to its mission of working directly with schools and community-based programs. Examples of this work include providing programming for Atlanta youth during the NCAA Final Four, working with schools in the CSD5, Brooklyn, Harlem, and New Jersey, co-sponsoring the New York City Urban Debate league and hosting the first Columbia Debate Institute.

As alluded to, 2012-2013 was also a banner year for publications and presentations showcasing the work of IUME. Some of these publications include the book Critical Media Pedagogy: Teaching for Achievement in City Schools (Teachers College Press); the co-edited special issue of the United Kingdom journal Learning Media, and Technology entitled “City Youth and the Pedagogy of Participatory Media"; and various peer-reviewed articles in selective education journals. Furthermore, the IUME Gordon Commission Fellows presented their synthesis papers at the National Academy of Education, the LTI project was featured at the International Reading Association (where one of our teachers won an award for research), and nearly a dozen papers were presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco.

Yet, the foundation of the Institute is, and will always be, research -- specifically, research as a form of a social justice. It is the research that drives IUME and is at the heart of what we do and why we do it. We must continue to advance the interests of the disenfranchised through community and student-driven yet rigorous research that illustrates the often-hidden brilliance of youth. Thus, IUME also broke ground on new research this past year including the Educating Harlem project, the Youth Historians project, the Ethnic Studies project, the Powerful Literacy Pedagogy Project Finally, and many others.

Overall, it was a highly successful year, yet, it was not done in isolation -- we owe this success to you! To the teachers, to the researchers, to the volunteers, to the community leaders, to the parents, and mostly, to the beautiful youth we encounter each day. Thank you to those who dedicate your lives to this work -- no matter the avenue -- and for supporting the Institute whether it be by attending one of our campus events or participating in a research project. Frankly, we are humbled not only by your attendance at these events and in these partnerships, but by your support and dedication in being part of a coalition of passionate people committed to improving the future of our kids and our communities. Yet, as we well know, we all have much work to do -- we must continue to emphasize youth voice, for they are the ones who should lead the way. And, we must continue to come together in the pursuit of social justice, not for the sake of our individual concerns or for the sake of the Institute, but for the sake of the brilliant students who are unfairly marginalized in schools all across the world each and every day.

Thank you for being a part of IUME -- this year, and every year. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and/or visit our social media pages to engage in many of the projects described above, and to stay up to date with our work.

See you in the Fall!

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We are of course sad to say "goodbye" to our first cohort of IUME students but excited to see all the wonderful things everyone will accomplish in the future. Additionally, IUME project assistant Saúl Martinez was the featured student speaker at the Teachers College Convocation. Watch his incredibly inspiring and powerful speech below: