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Overview
Publications
Overview
Teachers cannot
teach what they do not know. Most practicing teachers today did not
have the opportunities or were not required to learn about other world
regions. Even today, the majority of colleges of education and state
teacher certification practices do not require coursework on other regions
of the world.
Opportunities
must be provided for teachers to learn about the history, geography,
and economies of different world regions and about international relations.
Pre-service preparation, professional development, and direct exposure
to other cultures through travel, study and exchange are crucial if
teachers are to prepare their students adequately for life in an increasingly
complicated and connected world.
To meet the challenge of strengthening international knowledge in the
schools, the National Coalition recommends
that
practicing
teachers need:
- Partnerships
with higher education. With sustained help from the federal government
and foundations, universities have developed substantial expertise
in area and international studies and world languages. If schools
and districts are to have high-quality programs, they need to be able
to draw on this expertise for professional development. But as things
stand, there is a wide gap between college teachers and K-12 educators.
Forging stronger, more sustained partnerships between higher education
and K-12 is therefore both a major challenge and a necessity. A number
of strategies for collaboration were discussed at the meeting, including
models based on Professional Development Schools, the Holmes Group,
and agricultural extension programs. Another suggestion was to build
incentives for collaboration into the Higher Education Act when it
is reauthorized. Funding could be increased for university area studies
and international studies centers that form and sustain strong partnerships
with K-12 education.
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Opportunities to expand their knowledge and experience of world
cultures and languages. Opportunities to study or teach abroad
or to visit educators in other countries are powerful ways to stimulate
interest in other cultures. There are some foundation-funded travel
and study programs for teachers as well as opportunities for some
to participate in federally-funded programs. However, such programs
need to be available on a far larger scale if we are to meet the goal
of incorporating international knowledge into every school district.
There are almost no opportunities for educational leaders (principals,
superintendents, and chief state school officers) to be exposed to
the cultures and educational practices of their counterparts in other
countries.
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Incentives to pursue those opportunities. Today, teachers are
seldom validated for international work. Several meeting participants
raised the possibility of differential certification and/or salary
for teachers (or other school faculty) who gain experience or credentials
in international studies, including foreign languages. Meeting participants
discussed the possibility of making Master's Degree programs in international
studies available to teachers, including those who are combining graduate
study with service in schools. Professional organizations should offer
best practice awards in the sphere of international education.
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Access to curricula, materials, and best practices. As one
meeting participant noted, "one of the forgotten pieces of standards
education is curriculum. We tend to assume that teachers can teach
all day and develop curriculum at night." Teachers need resources
and tools that give them practical, efficient ways to infuse international
content into existing curricula. They need opportunities to observe
and try out best practices. For example, new materials are now available
suggesting constitutionally appropriate ways to teach about world
religions, but many teachers do not know about or have access to these
materials.
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Follow-up to professional development. As one speaker pointed
out, professional development workshops often leave teachers "dangling."
Teachers are usually eager to learn new approaches, but if strategies
demonstrated during workshops don't work well in their own classrooms,
teachers may not try them again. It is therefore important to follow
up, helping teachers to successfully implement new curricula or instructional
methods.
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Mentoring from veteran teachers with strong experience or backgrounds
in international content. This is an important way to help teachers
learn about and try out best practices. National Geographic Society
has included mentoring in its effort to improve teachers' capacity
to teach geography.
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Peer learning with other teachers in the United States and abroad.
Computer-based technologies offer new ways for teachers to learn about
the world. Teachers now work on joint projects with colleagues in
other states or countries, comparing student work and approaches to
subject matter. Many more teachers and students could benefit from
this type of exchange.
Pre-service
teachers need:
- Requirements
and incentives that result in a teacher corps knowledgeable about
world regions, cultures, and languages. Most teacher education
programs have few if any requirements in the realm of world history,
geography, economics, or international studies. Schools of education
need to review their curricula and requirements as well as the incentives
they offer students and faculty to pursue international studies. One
suggestion was to incorporate workshops on international topics into
student orientation programs.
- Liberal
arts programs that encompass international content. The problem
cannot be solved only by changing school of education curricula. Teachers
take most of their subject matter courses in colleges of arts and
sciences, not in schools of education. § Schools of education that
are accountable for their capacity to prepare teachers with competence
in international studies. The National Council for Accreditation of
Teacher Education has a role to play in establishing standards for
schools of education, and has recently been focusing on foreign language
instruction.
- Teacher
educators who have competence and interest in international studies.
There are nearly three million K-12 teachers in the United States,
but only 30 to 40 thousand teacher educators. One speaker suggested
that reaching out to teacher educators can have a "multiplier effect"
and may be an efficient and effective way to influence instruction
in the schools.
- Opportunities
for foreign travel, study, and collaboration. Study abroad can
have a powerful effect on college students, but relatively few prospective
teachers are among those who participate in study abroad programs.
Recently, a few institutions have begun to facilitate student teaching
abroad.
Publications
Proposed
new International Education title for the US Higher Education Act |
4-page
Word document
Prepared by the Association of International Education Administrators
(AIEA), this is a draft proposal to include international education
in the U.S. Higher Education Act reauthorizing (expected in 2004). It
specifies a number of teacher preparation and professional development
programs to be developed and funded.
International
Education and Teacher Preparation in the U.S. | 6-page
Word document
An abstract of a presentation by John D. Heyl and JoAnn McCarthy delivered
at Duke University's national conference, Global Challenges and U.S.
Higher Education.
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