3141 Chestnut Street • Randell Hall, Suite 235 • Philadelphia, PA 19104-2875 • TEL 215.895.6372 • FAX 215.895.2142 • www.drexel.edu/international
AyanaAllen
Faculty
SchoolofEducation(DepartmentofPolicy,
Organization,andLeadership)
ACEIGlobalSummitonChildhood
I had the privilege to attend and present at
the Association for Childhood Education
International (ACEI) Global Summit on
Childhood Conference in San Jose, Costa
Rica. My presentation with my colleague
Dr. Michael Haslip entitled Educating
Children for a Life of Service: Integrating Global Goals into Curriculum was very well received
by the attendee’s, and based on other sessions that I went to, was very well attended. In this session
titled “Internationalization and Globalized Curriculum”, we had the opportunity to present with
fellow scholars Lilia DiBello from Barry University, Veronica Geser from UNIVALI, and Grace
Jepkemboi, from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Networking with scholars with
similar passion and research interests was one of the most valuable experiences. Grace and I found
many connections in our work concerning culturally relevant pedagogy and identity development
within the African Diaspora and plan to collaborate on a potential future project that will focus on
culturally sustaining pedagogies and identity. The ACEI President Christine Chen attended our
presentation session and Michael and I had the opportunity to chat with her about our work in
Philadelphia and her work in Singapore. This was one of the highlights of the conference for me
because I recently visited Singapore including several schools and The Ministry of Education. We
discussed some of the relationships I had built in Singapore and the prospects of potential research
around early childhood education in Singapore. As my research interest is in urban education we
discussed several of the inequities that exist amongst various racial and ethnic groups in Singapore
and the research gaps that exist in these areas. Throughout the conference itself, it was great to
meet individuals from all over the world who are like minded in their passion for children,
education, and the integration of theory and practice to solve real world problems. One of the
relationships that I established was with Shrikrishna Singh. “Krish” is a publisher of a major
publishing company and interestingly enough lives in Philadelphia. I had the opportunity to share
my work and research interests with Krish who quickly pointed me to journals that he oversees
wherein I could submit my research and make connections with the Editors. Another wonderful
aspect of this trip for me was having the opportunity to get to know my Associate Dean for
Research Dr. Dom Gullo better. Dom took Michael and I under his wing during this trip and we
had the opportunity to share our personal journeys as well as discuss several of the projects that
Michael and I are conceptualizing and ways in which he can support us as our Associate Dean.
Michael and I were so excited about how well received our work was by the ACEI community.
We are now writing two papers based on the integration of both of our research interests (urban
education and early childhood education) for this project. This conference was valuable because it
crystallized that the work we are doing is in fact going in the right direction and hopefully will fill
3141 Chestnut Street • Randell Hall, Suite 235 • Philadelphia, PA 19104-2875 • TEL 215.895.6372 • FAX 215.895.2142 • www.drexel.edu/international
a critical need in the literature concerning social emotional learning, service learning, and urban
education.
On a personal note, this was a wonderful opportunity for me because it was the first time that I
have visited Central America. The rich culture and warmth of the Costa Rican community was
very inspiring and an experience that will last a lifetime. I greatly appreciated the support from the
Office of International Programs which afforded me this opportunity. Thank you!