From April 26th to May 7th, at the invitation of Professor James A. Banks, who is the “father of multicultural education” and director of the Multicultural Education Research Center of the University of Washington, Dr. Wang Tao went to Seattle to attend the 26th Anniversary Forum sponsored by the Center. He shared his multicultural education research in China on the issue of the contextualization and localization of multicultural education. In addition, Dr. Wang Tao conducted an exclusive interview with Prof. Banks on the topic “Study on Multicultural Education in China” and actively conducted academic exchanges with Prof. Geneva Gay, Prof. Kam Wing Chan, and Prof. Mia Tuan from Washington University.

On the 26th anniversary forum of the multicultural education held on April 27^th, about 150 educational experts and school representatives from five countries participated. After a speech made by Linda Darling-Hammond, who is a famous educational scholar form Stanford University, Professor Banks invited his four students to share their recent research under the theme of "Passing the Torch to the Next Generation".

As one of these four students, Dr. Wang Tao shared his research experience on how multicultural education has been developed and promoted around the world. He also introduced the localization experience of multicultural education in China, such as the combination of the “Belt and Road Initiative” and international civic education, the education of migrant children under the perspective of urban-rural cultural integration. He also took the example of the Chinese character “和”, which means harmony, and was showed on the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games, expounded the historical meanings, the cultural context and philosophical thinking of “harmony in diversity” in traditional Chinese education. He also told Chinese stories with international perspectives.

Among the students of Professor Banks who came to attend the forum on the 27^th, many of them work in well-known universities and education departments, such as UCLA, Vanderbilt University, University of Toronto, etc. Some of them have received the Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Educational Research. The students have frequently published articles in top academic journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Researcher, and Review of Research in Education in recent years, forming a practical-minded and rigorous multicultural education academic community. As the youngest scholar of this community, Dr. Wang Tao has conducted in-depth exchanges with other members on the issue of publishing journals and project cooperation.

During Dr. Wang Tao’s academic visit, he interviewed Professor James A. Banks, the father of multicultural education and the former chairman of the American Association for Educational Research (AERA) on the issue of subject orientation, development direction, and promotion in China of multicultural education research. The contents of the relevant interviews will be officially released and shared with you after they are collated.

During his visit, Dr. Wang Tao also actively exchanged ideas with Professors Geneva Gay, Professor Kam Wing Chan, and Mia Tuan of the University of Washington. Among them, Professor Geneva Gay, the founder of the "Culturally Responsive Pedagogy" theory, was invited to attend the 16th Shanghai International Curriculum Forum hosted by ICI in early November 2018. Prof. Mia Yuan, the dean of the Faculty of Education at Washington University, will also be invited to participate in related academic activities organized by the Faculty of Education of East China Normal University.