Annual Conference Keynoter:

Dr. Lily Wong Fillmore

Bio: Lily Wong Fillmore is retired from the faculty of the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley where she held the Jerome A. Hutto Chair in Education.  She is a linguist and an educator: much of her research, teaching and writing have focused on issues related to the education of language minority students.  Her research and professional specializations have been in the areas of second language learning and teaching, the education of language minority students, and the socialization of children for learning across cultures.  Over the past 35 years, she has conducted studies of second language learners in school settings on Latino, Asian, American Indian and Alaskan Native children.  Her research and publications have focused on social and cognitive processes in language learning, on cultural differences in language learning behavior, on sources of variation in learning, and on primary language retention and loss.  She has conducted research in Yupik villages along the lower Yukon River in Alaska, and directed a UC Berkeley doctoral program for American Indian leaders in several pueblos in New Mexico. Her current research focuses on the role academic language plays in literacy and academic development.

Keynote title: "Viewing Early Education Through Multicultural Lenses."

Keynote description: In a society as diverse as ours, the question of what kind of preparation children need for schooling is not as easily answered as policy makers often assume. The children our schools serve come from a diversity of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and are being prepared at home to handle life and learning according to the cultural and personal precepts of the family. The family's socialization practices are sometimes congruent with the society's practices, and they are sometimes in conflict. How can early educators work with families to find common grounds for preparing children for learning, support families in strengthening their efforts in rearing children, and encourage modifications where they are needed to give all children the best preparation possible for schooling in this society?

Preconference session title: "Preparing children for literacy in the early years."

Preconference session description: Research on literacy development has shown that the richer the language children are exposed to in the early years of life, the better their chances of developing literacy skills eventually. We will look at ways to support the language skills children need for literacy development once they are in school.

Session title: "Socialization for learning: a cross-cultural look at socialization practices"

Session description: In this workshop, we will consider how culture figures in learning, and why it is necessary for teachers to consider their own cultural beliefs and practices as important factors in how they work and interact with children.