Pohnpei State to host the 27th Pacific Educational Conference

With the theme The Pacific Child: Cultivating and Preserving the Pacific Identity, the 27th Pacific Educational Conference will take place from July 19 to 21 in Pohnpei State, Federated States of Micronesia.

The PEC, hosted by the Pohnpei Department of Education, the College of Micronesia-FSM, and Pacific Resources for Education and Learning, is one of the largest gatherings of experts and professionals in the field of education in the Pacific region.

More than 1,000 educators and professionals from the continental U.S., the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands, Asia, and Australia will come together for this event to share and network.

With over 160 professional development workshops, educators of the Pacific region and around the world will share instructional strategies for contextual and culturally grounded learning. Assessment and evaluation, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics education, teacher training technology, math, and climate change are just a few of the subjects to be discussed at this year’s PEC. There will also be beautiful cultural presentations of traditional dance and customs every evening of the three-day event.

On this occasion, the biennial conference is being held on the beautiful garden island of Micronesia: Pohnpei. Home of the capital, Pohnpei is the largest of the FSM islands and has a lush mountainous rain forest. It is the perfect backdrop for this conference, with its rich mangrove forests, beautiful ocean vistas, and indigenous villages. The island has much to explore and enjoy. A short boat trip can take you to two neighboring atolls, Ant and Pakin, with pristine beaches and coral reef. Pohnpei is also the home of the mysterious Nan Madol ruins, known as the Venice of the Pacific. The ruins, which consist of a series of artificial islands, once housed a royal civilization.

As part of this year’s events, the organizing committee has lined up an extraordinary series of keynote speakers along the lines of the conference’s theme, The Pacific Child: Cultivating and Preserving the Pacific Identity. Among the keynote speakers is internationally renowned Māori educationalist and advocate, Professor Graham Smith, an influential contributor to the development of what he has described in his writings as the “25-year Māori educational revolution, 1982–2007.”

Highly esteemed Pacific-island scholar, educator, and leader Dr. John Haglelgam will also speak. Haglelgam has served as a representative, congressman, vice president, and president of the FSM. He has earned recognition as an East-West Center scholar, a Fulbright scholar, and a Distinguished Senior Pacific Fellow at the Australian National University.

Also invited to speak is the U.S. Ambassador to FSM, Peter A. Prahar, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. Prahar has served on assignments that include tours in China, Japan, Albania, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, and Rwanda. [B][I](PREL)[/I][/B]