Diversity in Action Committee

Diversity in Action Committee

Diversity in Action Committee

Mission Statement: DIA is an action-oriented faculty committee that engages Rowan faculty, staff, and students through events, resources, and approaches that reflect and deepen the College of Education’s commitment to equity- and justice-oriented teaching, leading, research, and service. 

DIA is made up of faculty from departments across the College of Education and draws on years of experience and commitment to actionable social justice work. Faculty DIA members are engaged in work that ranges from promoting racial justice efforts to supporting multilingual students to forging allyship with LGBTQ+ populations to addressing issues of affordability, such as textbook costs and food insecurity. 
 
The DIA committee college-wide events ranging from speaker series to book studies to research talks. The DIA committee has also created resources for the College of Education that enable faculty and staff to enact justice-oriented values in their teaching.

To contact the DIA committee, email Committee Chair Dr. Kate Seltzer at seltzerk@rowan.edu.

Upcoming Events

Check back soon for upcoming events.

Past News and Events

Democracy, Diversity, and Education: Post-Election Reflections

Facilitated Dialogue
Monday, November 18, 2024, 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Heritage Glass Museum
25 High St. E, Glassboro, N.J. 08028

group image of post election eventJoin us for an engaging facilitated dialogue sponsored by the Diversity in Action Committee (DIA) of the College of Education. This event, Democracy, Diversity, and Education: Post-Election Reflections, provides a space for CED community members to come together in a supportive environment to discuss and reflect on the impacts of the recent election on the educational landscape and how to continue to work and advance the mission of DIA.

 

 

 

 

Opportunities to Work Like Scholars (OWLS) - Erasing Race in Shaker Heights: Exploring Detracking in an "Antiracist" Town with Dr. Margaret Thornton

Workshop
Monday, September 30, 2024, 2:30 p.m.
James Hall, Room 2093
Rowan University

Opportunities to Work Like Scholars (OWLS) is an occasional workshop series presented by DIA in partnership with the Office of the Associate Dean for Research and Innovation. OWLS gives College of Education faculty the opportunity to showcase their social justice-oriented research and to receive feedback from colleagues and other attendees. OWLS events are open to faculty, staff, students, and any other members of the College of Education community interested in supporting equity- and justice-oriented research.

margaret thorntonIn this session, I hope to workshop with participants about recent data collection I did on the detracking program in Shaker Heights, Ohio. Residents of Shaker Heights take pride in the city's desegregation efforts of the past but have struggled to determine how to desegregate classrooms and advanced programs.

Dr. Margaret Thornton is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership, Administration & Research at Rowan University's College of Education. Margaret's research interests include equity-focused school leadership development, school leadership for detracking, and critical race theory. She began her career in education in detracking programs in Central Virginia in both teaching and leadership capacities. An alumna of AmeriCorps, Margaret volunteers with several non-profits, including the wraparound educational service program City of Promise. In addition to her Ph.D. in educational leadership, foundations, and policy, Margaret earned her B.A. in English Literature and her M.Ed. in Secondary English Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Virginia. 

Building the World to Come: Reclaiming the Purpose of Teacher Education with Dr. Nicole Mirra

Workshop, Q&A, Book Signing
Wednesday, May 1, 10:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
James Hall Atrium, 2nd Floor
Rowan University

Rather than preparing educators to survive in the world as it is, what would it look like to support them to build the world that could be with students and communities? In this talk, I propose that we must deconstruct traditional norms and practices of K-12 and teacher education and imagine alternate models of teaching, learning, researching, loving, and dreaming in order to construct equitable democratic futures. This talk will offer a framework and strategies that invite collective imagining about the ethics, commitments, and practices that can guide our field forward with urgency and empathy.

nicole mirraNicole Mirra is an Associate Professor of Urban Teacher Education in the Department of Learning & Teaching at the Rutgers University Graduate School of Education. Her research utilizes participatory design methods in classroom, community, and digital spaces to collaboratively create civic learning environments with youth and educators that disrupt discourses and structures of racial injustice and creatively compose liberatory social futures. She previously taught secondary literacy and debate in Brooklyn, New York and Los Angeles, California. Her books include Educating for Empathy: Literacy Learning and Civic Engagement (Teachers College Press, 2018), Doing Youth Participatory Action Research: Transforming Inquiry with Researchers, Educators, and Students (Routledge, 2015), and Civics for the World to Come: Committing to Democracy in Every Classroom (Norton, 2023). Her work appears in peer-reviewed journals including American Educational Research Journal, Harvard Educational Review, Review of Research in Education, Journal of Teacher Education, and more.

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The DIA Committee posing with their award.

The DIA Committee was honored with the 2023 Excellence in Diversity for Scholarship Award!