K12 and Graduate Student Scholarships for the Intercultural Competence Conference

Conference Presentations for K-12 Educators

The list of all presentations is on the ICC website with the summaries for each one. The list below includes presentations that may be of special interest to K12 educators attending the conference.

Access, Benefits and Challenges in Global Virtual Exchange Programs for Young Learners - Liudmila Klimanova (University of Arizona), Mirjam C. Hauck (The Open University), Loye Ashton (Class-to-Class), James A. Elwood (Meiji University), & Nael Alami (Modern University for Business and Science) 

This symposium discusses the impact of Virtual Exchange (VE) on K-12 institutions around the world. Our approach is guided by critical VE, i.e., VE through the equality, diversity, and inclusion lens and with a focus on social justice and peace-making. We will present and discuss large data on the VE programs involving younger learners in six geopolitical regions. Presentations in this symposium include:

A Survey of VE Research on Young Learners: Current Trends and Challenges

The ABCs of Young People and Virtual Exchange (VE): Global Research on K-12 Programs and Outcomes

A Comprehensive Report on Case Studies of VE Implementation in Africa, MENA, Central Asia, East Asia, Europe, South and Latin America

Fulbright-Hays GPA as Experiential Professional Development – Abby S. Limmer (University of Arizona), Julie Ellison (University of Arizona), Mickey Marsee (Chandler-Gilbert Community College), & Rosa Clara Salazar (United High School) 

This symposium discusses a program in which the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona (http://cmes.arizona.edu) led a Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad to Uzbekistan & Tajikistan: Persianate Cultures in Central Asia: Coexistence and Integration. This program took 12 educators abroad to learn from local scholars, educators, & students. After returning, they created lesson plans based on their overseas experiences. In particular one paper in this symposium, Uzbek Koreans: Who Are the Koryo-Saram and Why Haven’t I Heard of them?, describes a high school lesson in which students investigate the story of ethnic Koreans in Uzbekistan, the Koryo-Saram, their 1860s migration to Russia’s Far East and forced 1937 deportation. Students explore their lives today, how they grapple with discrimination and develop a sense of identity. Students conclude with an introspective reflection on their own identity. 

Fostering Empathy and Diverse Mindset through International Exchanges – Noriko Okubo (Knox English Network, NPO), Tomoko Graham (Harvard University), Naemi McPherson (Brown University), Yoshihiro Nakajima (Osaka Metropolitan University), & Elena Yoo (Hawaii Baptist Academy) 

This symposium showcases cross-cultural collaborative exchanges to foster empathy and diverse mindset of K-16 learners in the United States and Japan. Discover how the process of inquiry, reflection and transformation helps broaden learners’ perspectives as global citizens. It shares practical insights applicable for educators in their curriculum. 

K-12 Chinese Language Teachers’ Professional Identity in Times of Tension – Wenhao Diao (University of Arizona), Yi Xu (University of Pittsburgh), & Yang Xiao-Desai (San Francisco State University) 

This study focuses on Chinese language teachers’ professional identities in American K-12 schools during the COVID-19 pandemic era, when the surging anti-Chinese racism coincided with the deteriorating Sino-US relationship. Our findings illuminate the racial, political, and epistemic tensions that these teachers had to negotiate. 

From Bullying to Belonging: Stories Build Peace and Ethnocultural Empathy – Emily White (University of Utah) 

Language educators can empower global language learners to reduce bias, stereotypes and discrimination by teaching peacebuilding competencies such as intercultural empathy and cognitive flexibility. This presentation will offer second language educators two positive interventions that promote perspective taking, critical thinking and common humanity. The first intervention highlights the work of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and global education activist, Malala Yousafzai. Learners identify a personal, community or international issue they want to solve and illustrate a solution. Over 1,200 K-12 learners participated in this educational project; thirty percent of participants identified bullying as an issue they wanted to resolve.  In response, the presenter implemented a community multicultural art and storytelling project with 2,500 K-12 and 200 higher education language learners.  The Everyone’s Story Matters initiative aims to reduce bias and stereotypes to prevent underlying bullying beliefs. Learners present personal stories and portraits of someone who matters to them to build a shared sense of humanity and belonging for learners of all ages, backgrounds and language proficiencies. 

Critical Virtual Exchange to Address Teachers’ Needs in Times of Conflict – Shannon Sauro (University of Maryland, Baltimore County), Pia Sundqvist (University of Oslo), Gréta Björk Guðmundsdóttir (University of Oslo), & Anna Nicolaou (Cyprus University of Technology) 

This study presents the outcomes of a “critical virtual exchange” project which aimed at connecting primary and secondary teachers from across Europe who were working with Ukrainian students displaced by the war. Topics in weekly meetings included taking advice from experienced teachers of Ukrainian students, information about trauma-informed teaching, the social and cultural background and needs of Ukrainian students, and perspectives from Ukrainian scholars and teachers. The participating teachers also built a community with their fellow colleagues across Europe for the purpose of ongoing support and resource-sharing after the conclusion of the virtual exchange. The study sheds light on the potential of virtual exchange in addressing critical pedagogical goals in crisis-affected contexts and ways to establish virtual support communities.  

Equity Audit of a Teacher Education Program: Promoting Inclusion – Josh Tolbert (Indiana University East) & Amanda Shufflebarger (Tucson Unified School District) 

This poster presents a study of an equity audit which attempts to improve outcomes and experiences of non-white rural P-12 learners by increasing the equity literacy of faculty and pre-service teachers in a rural university teacher education program. 

Teaching for Global Competence with Literature – April A. Mattix Foster (George Mason University), Kathleen Ramos (George Mason University), Sarah Rich (George Mason University), & Rebecca Eisenberg (George Mason University) 

This work focuses on strategies for teaching for global competence and anti-racist education, specifically using children’s and adolescent literature and global thinking routines to foster inquiry, engage learners in perspective-taking of others’ viewpoints, invite respectful dialog, and spark thinking around advocating for a more just world. 

Strategies to Challenge Stereotypes and Embrace Shifting Identities – Anne Haggerson (US Department of State’s English Language Programs) 

Starting a cultural unit in a language classroom with essential questions and guiding questions can open doorways to cultural sharing and mutual understanding. These kinds of initial inquiries in the classroom invert the power dynamics between teachers and students and are a powerful curricular tool that can create respect and peace among cultures. This virtual presentation will focus on pedagogical choices at the beginning of a project-based cultural unit to stimulate intercultural connections. As a framework, the presenter will highlight a few components from the cross-cultural unit they carried out in their virtual classroom with pre-service teachers in Sonora, Mexico, a project they designed as part of a Virtual Field Experience Project at the University of Arizona in April of 2023. The pre-service teachers involved come from rural communities and represent a variety of indigenous groups.  Therefore, the presenter’s aim was to draw upon their cultural assets and connect school and community in creative ways.

Democracy & Citizenship Learning Cycle with Pre-Service Language Teachers – Rebecca Stuvland (Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and University of Stavanger, Norway) 

This paper presents findings from a Learning Cycle on Democracy and Citizenship in Norwegian teacher education–two central areas of the Norwegian national curriculum–based on observations, student work, and interviews. It is based on findings from two teacher education courses for primary school pre-service teachers, based on classroom observations, pre-service teacher-produced work, and interviews; it included pre-service teachers viewing video recordings of EFL classroom teaching on human rights in primary and lower secondary schools. The 5-step learning cycle encourages individual and collaborative digitally supported work to make links between research and practice in Global Citizenship and Intercultural learning. 

Teachers Cultivating Interculturality and Criticality during Study Abroad – Christelle Palpacuer Lee (Rutgers Graduate School of Education, Rutgers The State University of New Jersey) & Erin Kearney (Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo) 

This presentation proposes and documents ways to intentionally cultivate critical intercultural citizenship and pedagogy in language teachers, and analyze the processes through which teachers’ critical pedagogies develop. We report on a qualitative study designed and conducted in two courses on interculturality, offered during a summer study abroad program for North American teachers of French, in Angers, France. We share illustrative examples from teachers’ sense-making discussions and the teaching plans they created and implemented in their K12 classrooms in order to show how critical intercultural pedagogies can flourish as a result of language teachers’ experiences abroad. 

Global Citizenship and Multilingual Competences – Tony Johnstone Young (Newcastle University, UK) 

The Global Citizenship and Multilingual Competences toolkit (https://gcmc.global/) is a product of a European Commision-funded project with partners across Europe, involving a multidisciplinary group of educators and academics with interests in Global Citizenship Education, intercultural communication, second language acquisition and teacher development. It provides free online resources for secondary teachers of all subjects about how to integrate global citizenship goals and plurilingual pedagogies into their practices in a sustainable way. 

Decolonizing Secondary Foreign Language Curriculum for Peacebuilding – Natalia Tereshchenko (Network International School) 

Decolonizing education is currently en vogue, but how realistic is it and what does it exactly entail? This presentation will explore the opportunities and limits of language education decolonization, and provide a rationale for it in relation to the nurturing of common humanity, tolerance and appreciation among next generation global citizens. It discusses what decolonization may look like in foreign language classes in secondary school and how it can be implemented within the restrictions of the curricula to create a platform for peace, global citizenship and open-minded appreciation of cultures, despite the power dynamics language may carry. 

In addtion, these workshops are geared for teachers at the high school and college level:

Walking the Land: Footsteps toward Impactful Place-based Language Learning –  Liudmila Klimanova (University of Arizona) and Lara Lomicka Anderson (University of South Carolina)

This workshop immerses participants in culturally diverse linguistic spaces in Tucson to see how local heritage and cultural practices can assist in intercultural learning. Included is an overview of critical pedagogies of place and hands-on practice. Participants explore activity design with mapping tools, mobile devices, and imagery.

Developing Global Citizenship in Virtual Exchange – Robert O’Dowd (Universidad de León, Spain), Markus Ritter (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany) and Sina Werner (Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany)

This workshop prepares teachers to deal with the challenges of integrating Virtual Exchange (VE) projects with a Global Citizenship focus. Through examples from recent VE initiatives, participants will reflect on the barriers which teachers encounter when developing these online projects and will then establish good practices for project design.