Thomas Korang. Summer school report

Report on Cultural Diversity, Migration and Educational Conference (University of Potsdam)
With millions of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe and over 65 million displaced worldwide, the understanding of cultural diversity, migration, and the educational integration and the adaptation of both the newcomers and the receiving countries continues to be a major concern to all stakeholders.

  With millions of migrants and refugees arriving in Europe and over 65 million displaced worldwide, the understanding of cultural diversity, migration, and the educational integration and the adaptation of both the newcomers and the receiving countries continues to be a major concern to all stakeholders.

 As a masters student of the Higher School of Economics, I had the opportunity to attend a conference program on July 7th to 9th, 2016    with the theme Cultural Diversity, Migration, and Education. The conference was organised and hosted by the Inclusive Education department and the Potsdam Center for Empirical Research on Inclusive Education (ZEIF) within the Faculty of Human Sciences at the University of Potsdam and funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).

 The aim of the conference was to bring to limelight the theoretical perspectives, empirical contributions and policy implications focusing on how to promote the educational success of young people in culturally diverse societies. It brought participants from several parts of the world that presented and discussed various issues. The conference saw several keynote speakers and among them were Adriana Umana-Taylor - a Professor in the School of Social and Family dynamics from the Arizona State University, Geneva Gay – a professor of Education at the University of Washington, USA, and Carola Suarez-Orozco who is a professor of Human Development and Psychology.

 The three days conference saw several symposiums which were devoted to specific vital issues which cut across the various spheres aimed at human development. Among the vital topics that were discussed are Ethnic and National Identity in culturally diverse classroom which was moderated by Prof. Linda Juang (University of Potsdam) whereby the panelist were Moin Syed (University of Minnesota), AlianaBrenick (university of Connecticut, USA), and Karen Phalet (University of Leuven, Belgium), and also Benefits of Cultural Diversity on Learning and Intercultural Competence moderated by Prof. Maja K. Schachner (University of Potsdam) with Adam Rutland (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK), Andrea HaenniHoti (University of Teacher Education Lucerne, Switzerland) and NatasjaSibila (Robert-Jungk-Oberschule, Berlin, Germany)

 In all, the conference activities delved deep into issues about education, cultural and migration and paid much premium to strategies to improve education in culturally diverse societies which have arisen due to a continual globalisation.