While not an event on Crockett campus, I went to the University of Texas to meet the amazing educator Dr. Sonia Nieto during a brown bag lunch called "A Conversation on Culturally Relevant Teaching". Her brilliance was apparent immediately during her discussion with us, and I took away many thoughts and pieces of advice (see my Twitter stream for some of them), as well as an autographed copy of one of her books! It is educators like her that influence my thinking around race and culture, and thus directly how I treat students. Dr. Nieto said "If you're going to be culturally proficient you need to also be socially just. But it takes courage. Taking a stand puts you in jeopardy." I couldn't agree more.
Here's what Professor Angela Valenzuela said about Dr. Nieto:
Educator, researcher, writer, and teacher, Sonia Nieto is Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy, and Culture, College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has taught students from elementary school through doctoral studies and her research focuses on multicultural education, teacher education, and the education of Latinos, immigrants, and other students of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She has written dozens of journal articles and book chapters as well as several books on these topics.