May 1, 2024 | 12:00-1:00pm | Commons room 331 | UMBC Main Campus

The UMBC Department of Education Research Seminar series concludes the 2023-2024 academic year with a presentation by Professor Vivian L. Gadsden of the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.  Recent discussions of learning and literacy across disciplines and fields are leading to new conceptualizations of how children engage in learning, how they thrive, and how families can both serve as resources and thrive themselves. Such discussions have a long history in literacy research and practice, particularly in relationship to the role of families in children’s early learning. What are the implications of these discussions for how we address the constancy and change that defines educational research and within the shifting social and political landscape? Professor Gadsden's presentation will focus on four issues or propositions that highlight contemporary discussions of child and family learning and the social and cultural bases for literacy.