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Christopher Busey, assistant professor of curriculum, teaching and teacher education, is working to forward the field of social studies education by fostering critical dialogue across the Americas.
For more than 10 years, Busey has been a part of the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA), an affiliate group of the National Council for Social Studies that seeks to connect K-12 educators, university faculty, graduate students, researchers and other individuals with an interest in social studies education and associated topics and issues.
This year, he serves as 2018 program chair and has organized the annual CUFA Conference, which brings together scholars to engage in pivotal civic and social conversations to shape the research and practice of social studies education.
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“This year I expect for CUFA to address many of these issues and concerns we see going on,” Busey said.
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The conference’s curriculum will explore the theme “Expanding the Intellectual Contours of Social Studies in Troubling Times,” addressing the opportunities, challenges and tensions seen in current civic and citizenship issues affecting society. Topics include “Learning Social Studies in Virtual and Augmented Spaces,” “Translanguaging Towards Justice: Bilingualism as a Civic Tool,” “Would We Be Slaves If We Were Alive Back Then?” and “Tensions, Complexities & Contradictions in the Teaching of Immigration.”
There are several featured sessions that will discuss ethnic studies in social studies education and address race and civic education through an intersectional lense examining gender, class and language of race, Busey said.
While the annual conference has traditionally drawn in faculty in education from social and social studies education programs, this year’s program has attracted a more diverse crowd.
“This is one of the first times where we have seen a heavy presence of teachers, as well as community educators, community activists, poets, spoken word artists and so on, who are involved in CUFA.”
Additional activities include a pre-conference brown bag workshop on advocacy for undocumented students and families sponsored by the Scholars of Color Forum, JAVA Network Literacy Lunches dissecting practical texts beyond the field and “Collaborative Initiatives” sessions describing how to effectively encourage civic and citizenship education in both traditional and nontraditional settings. Opening and closing keynote speakers are Dr. David Stovall and Dr. Angela Valenzuela.
Although Busey’s main role as program chair is developing the conference curriculum, he is also tasked with effectively conveying to the broader educational field what is deemed integral in civic and citizenship education today. “I am communicating a larger message that this is what we are going to address with our research and with our teaching and with our service,” he said.
Busey believes his efforts will follow suit of former program chairs who were willing to push the limits.
“What I’m doing is merely building upon prior years of tradition, of pushback, of rethinking the contours and the boundaries of what constitutes social studies education,” Busey said.
The 2018 CUFA Conference will take place Nov. 28-30 in Chicago, Illinois.
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