Dr. Jodi Bornstein, Assistant Professor of Education and Coordinator of Social Studies Education and Faculty Fieldwork Liaison, and seniors Evelyn Ciaburri and Angela Taurino presented at the 13th Annual Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (PA-NAME) organization conference at Kutztown University  on March 26.

Their presentation, “Practicing What We Teach: The Significance of Building Community in the Teacher Education Classroom,” addressed elements from Bornstein’s Designing Learning Environments course. PA-NAME is an organization committed to a philosophy of inclusion and celebrates cultural and ethnic diversity as a national strength that enriches a society and rejects the view that diversity threatens the fabric of a society.

“Our presentation at the PA-NAME conference was a huge success,” says Taurino. “Attendees were able to appreciate the significance of community because we taught relationships by creating relationships.  Instead of telling our audience what a Circle of Power and Respect (CPR), which structures time for building connections between students and teacher, our group began our presentation by sitting in the circle and practicing its four essential components.

“I know this technique of practicing what we teach worked: I was able to greet each person from our audience, by name, every time I met them at some other point in the conference—and they greeted me back, with a warm, welcoming, and knowing smile.”