Pitt's March 31 Horace Mann Lecture to Feature Barbara Bowman, Expert in Early Childhood Education

PITTSBURGH—Barbara Bowman, chief officer of early childhood education in the Chicago Public Schools, will deliver the University of Pittsburgh School of Education's Horace Mann Lecture, "Implications of Cultural Differences in Education," at 5 p.m. March 31 in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, Schenley Drive, Oakland. The lecture is free and open to the public.

An authority on early education, cultural diversity, and the education of at-risk children, Bowman was a founding member of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development and served as the institute's president from 1994 to 2001. She has conducted an inservice for the Chicago Public School System and has directed projects for Head Start and American Indian Reservation teachers as well as caregivers of infants at risk for morbidity or mortality. In addition, she has served on the Family Resource Coalition, Great Books Foundation, and the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Bowman also was president of the National Association for the Education of Young Children.

She was a 2005 planning committee member for the National Research Council's mathematical and scientific development in early childhood workshop, which produced "Mathematical and Scientific Development in Early Childhood: A Workshop Summary." Bowman also chaired the Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy resulting in the book Eager to Learn: Educating our Preschoolers (National Academies Press, 2000).

The purpose of the lecture series is to reaffirm Mann's faith in the public school system and to focus on issues and concerns related to public education.

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