Quick Chat: Literacy in Transcultural, Cosmopolitan Times

In the spring of 2015, the Werklund School of Education hosted a symposium to bring together policy-makers, researchers, administrators, educators and students to discuss the changing face of literacy in today’s classrooms.

Conference organizer Rahat Naqvi, an associate professor in the Werklund School of Education, says the goal of three day conference, Literacy in Transcultural, Cosmopolitan Times, was to discuss ways to teach children about what is happening with respect to shifting cultural changes in the world.

The first day of the program featured a workshop on knowledge mobilization.  Titled “A Call for Change”, the free workshop was open to all and featured prominent academics from institutions across Canada.   55 teachers, academics and graduate students turned out to engage in discussions on language, literacy, and transculturalism.

On the following two days, a group of 20 Canadian and international scholars came together to discuss specific challenges to the shifting needs of students, through different methods of pedagogy as well shifting cultural priorities.

In this Quick Chat, Naqvi discusses this Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded initiative.

Audio:

• Quick Chat (10:16)