Advancing the teaching of comparative and international education: towards communities of practice

Group Submission Type: Pre-conference Workshop

Proposal

Are you a new teacher of comparative and international education (CIE) or a related course, and searching for guidance on how to plan your course or module(s)? Or are you an experienced teacher of CIE, looking to spice up your pedagogy? If so, this workshop is for you!

This workshop builds on the success of the 3-Minute Teaches Event held at the 2018 CIES conference in Mexico City, wherein members of the Teaching Comparative and International Education SIG shared brief insights into the pedagogical approaches, conceptual lenses, instructional resources (i.e., texts, videos), or assessment forms that they used in teaching comparative education. The 20 people who attended the event thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to engage and discuss their practices with others, so much so that everyone was asking for a longer event. So,…

This workshop aims to cultivate robust communities of practice dedicated to the teaching of CIE. Despite the immense importance of reflective practice and analyzing pedagogical approaches, few studies or spaces currently exist that highlight how CIE is taught. The workshop will therefore provide a unique and valuable opportunity for participants to share, experience, and explore variations for how to teach CIE. The first section examines the histories and theories of comparative and international education, and presents a series of tensions available for teachers of CIE to address or avoid. These include working with/against the nation-state (Sobe, 2016), debating the boundaries of the field(s) (Epstein, 2016; Wilson, 1994), incorporating diverse and decolonial perspectives (Shah, McCormick, & Thomas, 2017; Takayama, Sriprakash & Connell, 2017), and of course, striving for depth, breadth, or both. The second section examines pedagogical approaches that could be enacted to actively engage students of all levels (e.g., undergraduate, masters, doctoral), toward excitement for CIE. The presenters will detail a number of activities they have used in their teaching of CIE, including having students research and role-play prominent figures from organizations (e.g., UNESCO, World Bank, Save the Children), create their own CIE lesson plans, and more. During this section of the workshop, participants will experience first-hand some of these pedagogical approaches as a means to better understand and reflect on how teaching CIE can be a captivating area of study. They will also share their own approaches. The third section investigates several novel approaches to teaching CIE, and pushes the boundaries of what is considered pedagogy by reconceptualizing what it means to teach CIE courses. For example, Will Brehm will highlight the Fresh Ed podcast and how CIE educators might embed various elements of the podcast into their teaching. The workshop will conclude with an opportunity for participants to ask questions and further discuss varied approaches to teaching CIE, towards the solidification of strong communities of practice.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Workshop Organizers

• Matthew A.M. Thomas, University of Sydney

• Lesley Bartlett, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Maria E Manzon, National Institute of Education

• Roozbeh Shirazi, University of Minnesota

• Donald R. Baum, Brigham Young University

• Florin Daniel Salajan, North Dakota State University

• Cathryn Magno, University of Fribourg

• Will Brehm, Waseda University

• Anne Campbell, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey

• Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher, University of Pennsylvania