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Japan: Universal Design and Innovation
Get PDFRecent trends in study abroad have seen a positive push for expanding diversity in student numbers; however, that push has generally not been targeted towards students with learning differences and disabilities (MIUSA, 2017). Though not exclusively tailored to participants with disabilities, The Japan: Universal Design and Innovation program is a summer program that builds participants’ knowledge, skills, and awareness in the topics of disability, access, and inclusion through the curricular/pedagogical methods of Experiential Learning and Universal Design. It takes place in Tokyo and Shizuoka Prefecture in Japan over the course of one month. It aims to challenge the concept of disability through the Critical Disability Theory, shifting participants’ perception of the term “disability” to more realistically mean a “difference” in ability. Since everyone has different abilities and learning styles, this is a linguistic shift that reflects the true, universal nature of ability. This linguistic shift can serve to create a society that is more empathetic and inclusive, and less discriminatory and judgmental.
On program, participants will engage in site visits, cross-cultural peer exchange, workshops, dialogue, reflection, and various other experiential activities to investigate and analyze Japan’s progressive policy efforts in adopting Universal Design for the transformation of their society into one that is barrier-free for increased and equitable access for all. With their newly gained knowledge, skills, and awareness, it is the program’s intention for participants to return to their communities and become advocates for social change
The Short-Term Youth Exchange Program
Get PDFThe study abroad world is constantly changing and adapting to the diverse needs of the global market. One current trend in France is the demand for students to begin studying abroad at a younger age, when many people believe it is easier to learn new languages and develop intercultural skills. Informed by needs assessment with members of the community at Saint-Denis International School, located in Loches France, I designed the short-term French youth exchange program. This three-week program will take place during the academic year and was designed for preadolescent students in 6th and 7th grade (ages 10 to 13). During the program, participants will stay with a host family, audit classes at a U.S. institution, attend intensive English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, participate in extracurricular activities and field trips, and meet several times a week with a group leader to work on developing intercultural skills and personal growth.
Keywords: study abroad, preadolescent, youth, ESL, intercultura
You Can\u27t Teach Global Engagement: Solving the Dilemma of How to Integrate Academic and Cultural Learning Objectives Within a Faculty-Led Study Abroad Program
Get PDFThe short-term, faculty-led study abroad program is the primary study abroad experience for students attending LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. Over time, the program became less focused on its mission of providing an exploratory experience of culture, global issues and academic rigor and became more of a one to three week “trip”. The purpose of this study is to design a course that demonstrates a way to combine the academic content with intercultural learning showing how a short-term faculty-led course can have a greater impact on the student and their personal and professional goals. This course, entitled L’Art de Vivre: Engaging in French Culture, Language and Arts, is modeled after an exhibition that occurred at Cooper-Hewitt National Museum of Design and focuses on the topics of the French language and decorative arts. The decorative arts are traditionally studied as an art history topic, but students can also engagement with these objects through hands on research and learning directly from the artisans and companies that created and produced these objects for centuries. This experience is accomplished by placing students in an internship with the Comité Colbert, an organization whose members are French companies that create the quintessential French l’art de vivre through their luxury products and services. Through this partnership, students are immersed in the French language and culture exposing them to cross cultural perspectives and historical trends and styles that influenced French art, society and culture. This study follows the course development from determining the learning theories and curriculum design concepts to the logistical support required to organize the learning experiences to the final evaluation
Factors in Refugee Resilience Building during Humanitarian Response
Get PDFIf countries hosting refugees want to build resiliency and reduce dependency on foreign relief, humanitarian response and local development need to be addressed simultaneously, and collaboration at all levels of stakeholders needs to take place in planning and decision making. Additionally, innovation and strong leadership are strong factors in creating and leading new ideas as funding and world leadership dynamics change, especially with traditional leaders such as the US and the UN losing influence. Observations made at the Mahama Refugee Camp in Rwanda as well as existing document analysis reflect these traits by active efforts of camp administrators and humanitarian leaders to build resilience with refugees through self-reliance activities such as camp jobs, growing their own food and encouraging positive relationships with the host community. Investing in resiliency is crucial for the future, and providing tools and resources to facilitate any organization or program to implement effective methods for collaboration and innovation can make a huge difference in whether refugees and their hosts can envision possibilities of growth and prosperity in these circumstances, or not
Critical Embodied Praxis for Social Justice and Peace Educators: a story of personal transformation through analysis of my Jewish and settler identities
Get PDFIn this paper, I examine definitions of and relationships between violence, oppression, peace, liberation, and embodiment in the context of critical pedagogy in order to construct a theory of critical embodied praxis for social justice and peace educators. Considering the body to be a tangible vessel through which narratives and mechanisms of violence are expressed and maintained, I explore the potential of the body to be a vessel through which liberatory narratives may be generated and shared. After constructing a theory of critical embodied praxis, I illustrate this framework in action through a personal narrative that explores the intersections of my diasporic Jewish and settler identities as they pertain to my work as a critical place-based educator. This analytic narrative tracks my holistic development over the course of several years, indicating the role of critical embodied praxis in my entwined personal and professional transformations. Bridging the fields of social justice education, peace education, conflict transformation, critical studies, trauma studies, and somatics in a cohesive pedagogical framework, I offer critical embodied praxis as a useful practice for anyone committed to critical pedagogy and/or interested in the healing and liberatory capacities of learning and education.
Keywords: critical pedagogy, embodiment, somatics, trauma healing, social justice education, peace education, Jewish identity, settler colonialism, place-based educatio
HOW TO ATTRACT YOUNG ADULTS TO AMERICORPS SERVICE
Get PDFAmeriCorps offers a variety of options for US citizens to serve their country in a non-military fashion while providing an opportunity for skill development, career exploration, community service, and self-growth. In exchange for service, AmeriCorps provides a minimal living allowance and an education award. Even with these benefits geared towards young adults, few young adults choose to enter AmeriCorps service upon the completion of their undergraduate studies. This research sought to understand motivations for and against service in an attempt to inform and improve AmeriCorps current recruitment practices. To understand how AmeriCorps can attract more young adults, a qualitative research study was conducted by employing online surveys with 73 AmeriCorps Members and 26 Non-Members; and interviews with two AmeriCorps employees. The findings revealed that the following factors influence recruitment: motivations for service, experiential poverty, preconceived notions of service, perspectives of compulsory service, challenges faced, and advertising/marketing. These findings informed recommendations on changes to the structure of AmeriCorps and improvements to current recruitment practices to help the organization increase its reach and influence the next generation of civically engaged citizens
The Impacts of Warming Coffee: The Climate Change-Coffee-Migration Nexus in the Northern Triangle of Central America
Get PDFAs climate change continues to threaten every corner of the world, one of the key features of the 21st century is migration, as a response to the myriad of effects related to a warming planet. This paper seeks to analyze the role of climate change as a motive for migration. The climate change-migration nexus is illustrated in this paper by revealing how slow-onset effects of climate change jeopardize the production of coffee in the Northern Triangle of Central America (NTCA), a region that is particularly vulnerable to the many effects. Thousands of people who depend on coffee production around Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador have already seen their livelihoods destroyed and consequently were forced to move. The future is uncertain with the rising temperatures in the region and millions more are employed by the industry.
This project accomplishes the analysis through a review of the climate change-migration nexus at large including in the discussion the complexity of other push factors leading to movement in the NTCA, followed by an account of the impacts of climate change on coffee production in the region. The design of this project incorporates an array of primary and secondary sources which include various government reports and academic papers in conjuncture with interviews conducted with experts around Geneva Switzerland from the Global Migration Center, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, and a world-renowned multinational coffee merchant, Sucafina
It Is Our Own Thing : The Expression of and Limits to Enculturation at St. Joseph\u27s Anglophone Parish
Get PDFDown a small side street in the heart of Yaoundé, Cameroon, St. Joseph’s Anglophone Parish houses worshippers from the Northwest and Southwest regions of the country. Its members bring their cultural traditions to the church in the process of enculturation, and mass is filled with clergy-sanctioned elements of traditional culture, but beyond its walls, people still carry out the traditional practices that are deemed as “non-Christian” by the Church. This study seeks to examine the ways that traditional culture manifests itself both inside and outside St. Joseph’s Anglophone Parish, exploring the ways in which tradition is translated in the church and reframed outside of it in order blend tradition and religion, make them compatible, and preserve culture in the face of modernity.
Au bout d’une petite rue au coeur de Yaoundé, au Cameroun, la paroisse anglophone St. Joseph’s accueille des fidèles du nord-ouest et du sud-ouest du pays. Ses membres apportent leurs traditions culturelles à l\u27église en train de s\u27enculturer, et la masse est remplie d\u27éléments de la culture anglophone sanctionnés par le clergé, mais au-delà de ses murs, les gens continuent à pratiquer les pratiques traditionnelles qui sont considérées comme «non chrétiennes». l\u27église. Cette étude cherche à examiner la manière dont la culture traditionnelle se manifeste à l\u27intérieur et à l\u27extérieur de la paroisse St. Joseph, en explorant la manière dont la tradition est traduite dans l\u27église et recadrée en dehors de celle-ci afin de mêler tradition et religion, de les rendre compatibles et préserver la culture anglophone face à la modernité
Understanding Civil Rights in a Democratic South Africa: A Case Study of Students at UKZN
Get PDFThis study examines the extent to which the principles and values of human dignity and non-discrimination laid out in the South African Bill of Rights resonate with South African university students. The objective is to understand how university students value or do not value these constitutional principles and how they see these principles being implemented in South African society. I examine both students’ personal views and how they see human rights, human dignity and non-discrimination playing out on campus and their communities. I conducted seven one-on-one semi-structured interviews with university students at the University of Kwazulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. Findings indicate that the majority of participants were concerned for the state of human rights and human dignity in South Africa and blamed the government and older generations for failing to adequately protect citizens. The study’s one conservative participant demonstrated a divide in political opinion and countered the notion of universities as liberal spaces
Behavioral Responses to Ancestral Predators in Vervet Monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) on Misali Island, Tanzania
Get PDFThe success of a species depends largely on their ability to recognize and respond to predatory cues. These responses can be controlled through genetic or social factors. This study aimed to assess the ability of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) to identify and respond to ancestral predatory cues following long-term isolation on Misali Island, Zanzibar, Tanzania in order to determine if anti-predator behaviors are innate or learned. This was accomplished through exposure of troops to auditory predator cues and the documentation of their behavioral responses. The results of these trials suggest that predator recognition is an innate behavior in C. pygerythrus, as seen through increased levels of vigilance and agitation