Pedro Noguera, director of NYU’s Metro Center for Urban Education, to present Ganders Lecture April 3

Pedro Noguera, director of NYU’s Metro Center for Urban Education, to present Ganders Lecture April 3March 26, 2008Patrick Farrellpmfarrel@syr.edu

Pedro Noguera, professor of teaching and learning and executive director of New York University’s Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, will present this year’s Harry S. and Elva K. Ganders Distinguished Lecture, part of the School of Education’s Landscape of Urban Education Lecture Series. The lecture takes place Thursday, April 3, at 4 p.m. in 220 Eggers Hall (the Public Events Room). The event is free and open to the public; paid parking is available in the Irving Avenue Garage.

The title of Noguera’s lecture is “Content Matters: How Urban Schools Can Respond to and Draw Resources from the Communities They Serve,” and is based on Noguera’s experience over the course of his career in addressing the challenges facing education in urban environments.

An urban sociologist, Noguera’s scholarship and research focus on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions in the urban environment. Noguera has served as an adviser and engaged in collaborative research with several large urban school districts throughout the United States. He also has conducted research on issues related to education and economic and social development in the Caribbean, Latin America and several countries throughout the world.

In addition to his lecture presentation, Noguera also will visit with Sari Knopp Biklen, Laura and Douglas Meredith Professor for Teaching Excellence and Cultural Foundations of Education department chair, and her class, Youth, Schooling and Popular Culture. Nogura will engage the class in a discussion about the juncture where school, popular culture and youth cultures intersect, and why the assumed opposition between school and popular culture are generally accepted as “common sense.”

Noguera is a professor in the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at NYU, executive director of the Metropolitan Center for Urban Education and co-director of the Institute for the study of Globalization and Education in Metropolitan Settings (IGEMS). His published works include “Beyond Resistance!: Youth Activism and Community Change” (Routledge, 2006), “Unfinished Business: Closing the Achievement in Our Schools” (Josey Bass, 2006) and “On Freire: Revisiting the Pedagogy of the Oppressed and Applying its Lessons to American Public Schools” (Teachers College, 2006).

For more information about this lecture, contact the School of Education’s Center for Continuous Education and Global Outreach (CEGO) at (315) 443-4696.