Supporting Immigrant Higher Education Students / Employees

In this presentation, we will discuss evidence-based approaches that foster an inclusive environment for higher-education community members from immigrant and international backgrounds. In particular, we will focus on students, faculty, and staff whose complex linguistic and cultural backgrounds make them a group with remarkable intellectual strength, but also with distinctive growth needs. We will first highlight some of this group’s professional assets based on their multifaceted identities, before discussing appropriate linguistic and cultural sustenance strategies, community and policy support, mentoring and coaching, and religious considerations. A diverse group of presenters will share their experiences; they will represent multiple levels of campus participation, including graduate students, instructors, pre- and post-tenured faculty. Latifa Sebti is a doctoral student at Rowan University’s college of education with a concentration in special education. She serves as a research project coordinator and Adjunct instructor at the Department of Interdisciplinary and Inclusive Education. Her research interest is focused on teachers\u27 perceptions and practices towards inclusive education in STEM classrooms advocating for equitable educational opportunities for marginalized students including students with disabilities and children of immigrants. She is trilingual and identifies as an immigrant. Faten Baroudi is a Ph.D. student, a research/teaching assistant in Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education Department at Rowan University. Her research interests are about addressing equity for linguistically and culturally diverse students, multilingualism/ multiculturalism, and language policy. She got her master’s degree in English Language Teaching. She holds teaching certificates: Teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (CELTA). She is multilingual and she has taught k12 in Tunisia and Turkey. Dr. Madji Fall serves as a Professor-in-Residence in the College of Education at Rowan University. In her role of Teacher Educator in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Education, she primarily teaches courses focused on inclusive theories, practices, and pedagogies in the preparation of English as a Second Language, Bilingual Education, and Subject-Matter Educators. Additionally, she oversees the partnership between Rowan University and a professional development school (PDS). Here, she supports strategic planning around issues of social justice and equity and contributes to improving the quality of teaching through professional development, community engagement, and research. Dr. Fall’s research centers around the intersection of race, language, and power; the social and educational experiences of racio-linguistically minoritized communities; and the use of translocal and digital literacies as tools of epistemological resistance. Her scholarship is based on innovative decolonizing and democratic methodologies and is fundamentally anti-racist and anti-linguists. Huan-Tang Lu is an assistant professor in Counseling in Educational Settings at Rowan University. He is also a licensed school counselor and professional counselor in New Jersey and has clinical experiences working with diverse populations. His research interests include mental health of immigrants, interdisciplinary collaboration, and social-emotional learning. Dr. Zeynep Ercan is a Professor of Early Childhood Education and the co-director of Early Childhood Leadership Institute, a professional development and research institute at Rowan University, New Jersey. She leads large scale research and evaluation projects, writes for academic journals, teaches and speaks on the topics culturally and linguistically diverse children, teachers, families and communities, educational experiences of refugee and immigrant parents and children, best practices for culturally responsive teaching and intellectual development, and professional development of educators and leaders. Zeynep is actively involved in local, national and global scale educational and social issues by serving as board member of CASA of NJ, Vice President for Conferences of National Association for Early Childhood Teacher Educators, and as a volunteer of multiple non-profit and community organizations. She is the recipient of 2014 The Indiana Early Care and Education Award, 2017 Wall of Fame Award for Teaching/Advising at Rowan University, and 2020 Excellence in Engagement Award at Rowan University