For immediate use
Institute of African America Research hosts symposium on African America Children, Academic Achievement and Parental Involvement
Event will take place Oct. 7, 2014 in the Sonya Haynes Stone Center for Black History and Culture
(Chapel Hill, N.C. – Sept. 22, 2014) – The Institute of African American Research will host the public symposium “African American Children, Academic Achievement and Parental Involvement,” featuring research presentations by two leading educational experts. The symposium takes place on Oct. 7, from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in the Hitchcock Room of the Sonya Haynes Stone Center for Black History and Culture and is free and open to the public.
Iheoma Iruka, formerly a research scientist at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, is director of research and evaluation at the University of Nebraska’s Buffet Early Childhood Institute. She led the nationally recognized study, “Pre-school to Kindergarten Transition Patterns for African American Boys,” which showed that parental involvement in educational activities with preschool African American boys plays a significant role in sustaining black boys’ academic success in the early years of elementary school. Keith Robinson is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Texas-Austin and co-author of the acclaimed book “The Broken Compass: Parental Involvement with Children’s Education.” With his co-author, Angel Harris (Duke University), he argues that success of parental involvement in children’s education varies by the form that the involvement takes as well as the race and ethnicity of the child, among other factors.
Iruka and Robinson will give individual presentations and speak about how and when parental involvement matters for the educational success of black youth in particular. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Developmental Science and the Center for Health Equity Research.
-Carolina-
Email for more information: iaar@unc.edu