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Session Submission Summary

Reimaging sustainable learning futures: Developing teachers’ research capacity toward global and equitable educational practices (Part 1)

Wed, February 15, 6:00 to 7:30pm EST (6:00 to 7:30pm EST), On-Line Component, Zoom Room 106

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

How is the topic relevant to CIES 2023?

The panel presentations are located in Sub-Theme III: School Systems and Educators to Improve Learning and Teaching in Formal or Informal settings and specifically address question two within the sub-theme III:

• How should we go about preparing teachers to educate students in uncertain, insecure moments where competing values, pressures, and agendas exceed the traditional scope of the profession?

The panel introduces an all-online graduate-level program in a public university in the U.S. designed to prepare teachers to become global scholars and practitioners through applied research that addresses persistent problems in education within a comparative framework and in a dialogue between the local and the global. The program centers on social justice and is framed within the UNESCO (2016) Sustainable Goals, comparative education theory (Holmes, 1981; Mugo & Wolhuter, n.d.), and transformative learning theory (Mezirow, 2000). Recent program graduates will present their action research reports addressing emergent issues that impact access and equity for disadvantaged communities in their locality and as reflected globally.
The central premise of the program is that teachers must become comparative and global scholars to have agency in their practice and to become effective advocates for the cultural and learning needs of their students, especially those in disadvantaged contexts or at the “bottom of the pyramid.” By learning comparative framing and social science methods, reviewing the literature to select verifiable educational research, and developing and implementing a plan for action research, they can respond to recent UNESCO calls not only to reimagine but to create promising futures.

• What is the need or the problem that the program or intervention tries to address?

The more recent UNESCO (2021) call to ‘reimagine our futures together’ calls for teachers to (a) work collaboratively (p. 81), (b) enact the curriculum and participatory and cooperative pedagogies while managing digital technology (p. 83), and (c) engage with educational research as a way to reflect on their practice but also as knowledge producers (p. 83-84). The latter aim is of much interest as it outlines a new and ambitious objective for those who prepare teachers and for teachers themselves. If we take this call seriously, a much-needed teacher education curriculum reform is required. The program we introduce in this panel demonstrates how an innovative curriculum can equip teachers to meet the challenges of a reimagined, socially just future.
• What advice do you offer or seek at CIES, and how can it address similar challenges elsewhere?

The International Commission on the Futures of Education (UNESCO, 2021, p. 2,4) recognizes that teachers are central to an initial action framework for renewing education. This acknowledgment is welcomed yet overdue as much research has demonstrated the centrality of teachers and the teaching profession for the improvement of education. As the Commission states, “teachers embody pedagogies and mediate the curriculum” and are key actors in developing and realizing key elements envisioned by the Commission. This includes the development of pedagogies oriented toward solidarity and cooperation and the development of truly interdisciplinary and intercultural curricula intended to promote engagement with knowledge, concern for the planet, multiple literacies, and respect for diversity and democracy.
The advice that this panel offers is that UNESCO—through the Commission and other similar working groups—give priority not only to teachers and the critical work they do but also to the preparation of those teachers. Research has shown that many teachers have not been offered the needed preparation that would equip them to be effective teachers of all children, which the authors of this panel consider a lack of fairness (blind). This gap is more acute for those teachers of disadvantaged populations. Currently, the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) consider teachers only as a “means of implementation,” and teacher education is not considered at all as an ‘education target’ (UNESCO, Education for people and planet, 2016, p. 177). Our advice is for UNESCO to center the preparation of social-justice-inquiry-oriented teachers as one of the fundamental pillars for any educational reform that aspires to improve equity and access to education.

• What would you have done differently, knowing what you know now about the project or program?

Although the production of action research is essential for anyone involved in education, it may be difficult for teachers to implement such projects with fidelity, especially during the COVID pandemic. Ideally, a program such as this should seek to develop partnerships with international organizations such as UNESCO, UNICEF, USAID, the World Bank, and CIES to support these teachers’ applied research projects. We are beginning a one-term internship to support those teachers who are finding it difficult to do research in their contexts.

• What was the impact of the project on the problem it targeted? How was the project’s impact assessed?

The progressive pedagogy of the program secured the success of the students and the program itself. Graduates of the program can identify, analyze, and address contemporary problems that cross borders, cultures, and disciplines in various educational settings through comparative framing and social sciences methods.

The program’s impact is assessed in formative ways as part of the 10 courses/30 credits throughout the 1.5 years of the program and in the culminating experience research report. Our presentation at CIES will be one meaningful way to assess not only the impact of the program but to disseminate its outcomes through the work of our graduates. The program is a collaborative production of its faculty, students, instructional designers, and the scholarship produced by the CIES community of scholars, which constitutes the program’s learning foundation.

Note: All of the research reported in these two panels has complied with all relevant federal guidelines and institutional policies according to the Institutional Review Board in the university that houses the M.Ed. program.

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