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Session Submission Summary

Co-Constructing Spaces for Reimagining Learning in Glocal Partnerships for Teacher Development

Sun, February 19, 4:45 to 6:15pm EST (4:45 to 6:15pm EST), Grand Hyatt Washington, Floor: Independence Level (5B), Farragut Square

Group Submission Type: Refereed Roundtable Session

Proposal

“Education ought to be thought of as the kind of activity that releases all sorts of human beings to reach out from their own places, their own locations in the world, to make sense of what they live and what they encounter around themselves.” (Greene, 1982, p. 129)

As the world came to a turning point, innovative ways of exchanging knowledge and promoting collaborative learning for transforming global educational experiences emerged. Yet, global disparities make it a challenge to bring equitable and sustainable education for all. In our quest for creating equitable educational experiences, we as teacher educators have engaged in various collaborative experiences to co-construct how local and global can be interconnected and how we can reimagine different learning spaces to transform teaching and learning. Collaborative educational experiences call for a shared agreement among the different stakeholders for a mutual benefit. This requires personally reflecting on cultural norms and expectations, working with humility and addressing power imbalances. In alignment with the CIES Conference Theme “Improving Education for a More Equitable World”, the presenters in this roundtable will share their experiences of facilitating identity-affirming professional learning partnerships to support global learning opportunities across the world.
The collaboration among round table facilitators is grounded in this shared commitment to work toward an education system that disrupts inequities and prepares students to be global citizens who take action for the common good in local and international communities (Andreotti, 2014). It is essential for educators to understand how issues of international resonance intersect with matters pertaining to local communities, to recognize the interdependence of school and community and to envision partnerships that transcend sociocultural boundaries and foster intercultural dialogue (Byker & Thomas, 2019; Hauerwas, et.al., 2021). Each of our engaged research is aimed to reframe global engagement through a glocal lens by advancing educational practices that account for and reflect the cultural wealth and expertise of our local communities; fostering reciprocal partnerships among school and community-based organizations; and creating communities of practice that bridge the silos across disciplines and provide opportunities for mentoring and growth in glocal engagement and teaching (Hartman, et.al., 2018; Sklad, 2015).
We have been working together with fellow educators toward establishing reciprocal mentoring practices that disrupt hegemony and foster intercultural communication, perspective taking, critical consciousness, and reflexivity. Facilitators in this round table will share their research based projects illustrating how case studies, observational and experiential qualitative research supports the co-construction of spaces for reimagining glocal dialogues. Having diverse backgrounds and areas of expertise, the presenters will engage the audience in discussion of approaches to facilitate lifelong experiences for oneself as a teacher educator and for in-service and pre-service teachers.
The first paper explores the design and impacts of intercultural virtual exchange on participating US, Italian and Japanese teacher educators with emphasis on global values and competencies. Moving beyond logical considerations of virtual collaboration, this study examines the shifts in participating faculty’s understanding of their teaching practice and their partnerships as means of supporting glocal learning. The second paper reports on a collaborative online project involving an NGO in Lebanon and an English Language specialist facilitating a team of mentor and novice teachers in different regions of Lebanon. The author will share how virtual collaboration and the co-construction of online modules among EFL teachers not only furthered English teacher education, but also strengthened participants’ identity development and understanding of women’s rights. The third paper presents a case study of U.S. teacher candidates in an instructional design course participating in a semester-long guided professional development with experts in design thinking (DT). During a time of unprecedented teacher attrition and low enrollment in teacher preparation programs, the author will demonstrate how DT can nurture teacher voice, build empathy, and create equitable power structures in education systems and schools.

The roundtable discussion will be facilitated by a chair with expertise in critical pedagogies and culturally responsive education. The chair will begin the discussion by situating the authors’ collaboration through the lens of glocal engagement in education (5 minutes). Each author will then present for 15 minutes (45 minutes in total). Afterwards, the chair will debrief and critique the presentations and then facilitate a structured dialogue with participants (30 minutes) with pedagogical tools found to be effective in the presenters’ research. Lastly, the roundtable will close with participants sharing their own experiences with education partnerships (10 minutes).

The presentations and discussion will provide participants the opportunity to:

learn about different processes and models that support the co-creation of change-making with international partners in virtual spaces;
learn how to establish communities of practice that are affirming using humility, shared power, and trust;
discuss affordances and challenges of building and researching mutually beneficial partnerships with glocal partners;

Participants will leave with ideas and strategies to build their own identity-affirming professional learning partnerships to support globally-oriented lifelong learning opportunities.

Sub Unit

Chair

Individual Presentations