Song as a Catalyst for Change: Teaching for Equity and Social Justice

FLORENCE SAMSON received her Ph.D. from OISE, University of Toronto, and from 1998-2000 was Co-coordinator of OISE’s Elementary Education Central Option, B.Ed. Program, and Co-coordinator of Practicum. The following year she was Co-coordinator of Student Internship. In August 2001 she assumed her duties as Assistant Professor, Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Queens College, City University of New York (CUNY) where she has had the privilege of participating in the Lincoln Centre Institute (LCI) Teacher Education Collaborative in Aesthetic Education. Since 2002 Florence has integrated an aesthetic education component into each of her graduate foundations of education and undergraduate courses. During this time, she and colleagues from across the CUNY system, have spent countless hours in staff development activities led by LCI Faculty and its philosopher-in-residence, Dr. Maxine Greene. Florence has learned much from the LCI teaching artists with whom she has worked, particularly those with whom she has co-planned the experiential classes which precede engagement with the works-of-art. She sees aesthetic education - inquiry-driven engagement with a work of art - as a pathway to transformation of ourselves and society. Florence is looking forward to sharing her response and those of her students to a performance given by David Gonzales, internationally known singer and storyteller, much of whose work is rooted in his Puerto Rican heritage. In addition to the many responsibilities related to her position at Queens College, Florence is President of the Canadian Association of Teacher Educators (CATE).