Bringing Costa Rica to U.S. classrooms: Cases of global experiences and teachers’ pedagogies

1. Bringing Costa Rica to U.S. classrooms: Cases of global experiences and teachers’ pedagogies Gerardo Joel Aponte-Martínez Comparative and International Education Society 2014 Annual Conference Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2. Overview • Introduction • Global perspectives and pedagogies • Experiences abroad/Translations at home • What it means to teach about the world • Discussion

3. Introduction Costa Rica: A cross-cultural experience

4. Lisa • “[Before the GPA to Costa Rica], I didn't know about PuraVida. I'd heard this as a welcoming or greeting, not as a philosophy, but it very much sums up how I am. I have, or I try to have, a very relaxed, fun-loving atmosphere ” • “I wanted to use Pura Vida as a [language] object to practice the infinitive ‘For me, Pura Vida is….’ but I also wanted to set a classroom culture, that lifestyle, of accepting what comes and taking life as it is.”

5. The Study • Looking with depth on teachers’ global cross-cultural experiential learning (Wilson, 1982) and the pedagogical implications of these experiences. • What are best teaching practices for global education? (Wilson, 1983; Merryfield, Jarchow, & Pickert, 1997; Gaudelli, 2003) • Pedagogical reasoning for curriculum development (Shulman, 1987) • Goals (cognitive, affective, pedagogical) for global education • Disciplinary and school community influences on pedagogies for global education • What is the educational value of the cross-cultural professional development experiences?

6. Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning (Wilson, 1982) • Cross-cultural experiential learning: planned, affective, individual, and thoughtfully evaluated experience in which a person from one culture is immersed in another culture. (Wilson, 1982) • Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) in Costa Rica. • Cultural and language immersion for five weeks, summer 2013 • 9 in-service and 3 pre-service U.S. secondary teachers (Spanish, Language Arts, and Social Studies) • Theme: UN Millennium Development Goals and their implementation in Costa Rica.

7. Cross-Cultural Experiential Learning (Wilson, 1982) • Activities: Language training, U. Peace workshops, meetings with government officials, private large- and small-scale organizations, rural community development association, teachers, and community members • Goal: Building teacher capacity and skills needed for teaching in, and preparing students for, an increasingly interdependent and global world. • Participants created curriculum materials to teach these global issues in U.S. classrooms.

8. Research Uncovering teachers’ experiences abroad and their translations for a home audience

9. Participants • Three of the Costa Rica GPA participants: • Lisa teaches high school Spanish in a suburban school in New Jersey • Christina teaches middle school Spanish in a rural school in northern Michigan • Nancy teaches high school social studies in an international school in New Mexico • Participants were selected through judgment sampling based on level of participation and reflection during in-country activities and commitment to future engagement in the topic. (Marshall, 1996)

10. Methods • Narrative inquiry within the naturalistic settings: in-country activities as teachers experienced Costa Rica and the school buildings where they teach about it • Data sources: • In country Journals (prompted and unprompted entries) • Interviews: • At the start of the school year (goals for the unit) • During implementation of the unit (reactions to/from students, adaptations to the unit) • After the unit (reflections, learning experiences) • Observations during implementation of the unit

11. Theoretical Framework Bringing global issues into the classroom

12. Global Perspectives • Five dimensions of a global perspective (Hanvey, 1975) • Perspective consciousness • “State of the planet” awareness • Cross-cultural awareness • Knowledge of global dynamics • Awareness of human choices • Two dimensions of a global perspective (Case, 1993) • Substantive dimension that includes knowledge or topics that students should know • Perceptual dimension involving dispositions and attitudes.

13. Global Perspectives Pedagogy • Ukpokodu’s (2010) framework for global perspectives pedagogy emphasizes infusing global perspectives in everyday learning experiences, going beyond having a global topic to include skills, classroom dynamics, and instructional strategies. • Six areas to infuse global perspectives: • Course objectives and descriptions • Content integration • Knowledge construction and reconstruction • Instructional resources and materials • Delivery strategies • Assessment of self-transformation

14. Findings What it means to teach about the world

15. Disciplinary framing

16. Disciplinary Framing • Five dimensions of a global perspective (Hanvey, 1975) • Perspective consciousness ✔✔✔ • “State of the planet” awareness ✔✔ • Cross-cultural awareness ✔✔✔ • Knowledge of global dynamics ✔ • Awareness of human choices✔✔✔ • Two dimensions of a global perspective (Case, 1993) • Substantive dimension that includes knowledge or topics that students should know ✔ • Perceptual dimension involving dispositions and attitudes. ✔✔✔ ✔Lisa ✔Nancy ✔ Christina

17. Global Perspectives Pedagogy • Ukpokodu’s (2010) framework for global perspectives pedagogy emphasizes infusing global perspectives in everyday learning experiences, going beyond having a global topic to include skills, classroom dynamics, and instructional strategies. • Six areas to infuse global perspectives: • Course objectives and descriptions ✔ • Content integration ✔✔✔ • Knowledge construction and reconstruction ✔ • Instructional resources and materials ✔✔✔ • Delivery strategies ✔✔ • Assessment of self-transformation ✔Lisa ✔Nancy ✔ Christina

18. Experience as the key to bringing global perspectives • Passion and shortcuts to knowledge were identified as the value added by the experience. • In-country self-reflection and group debriefings, especially in pedagogical areas, were key to developing their personal understanding and later their instructional decisions.

19. Discussion

20. Significance • Implications for the design of study abroad programs for teachers: importance of participants’ training and reflection. • Evidence of how negotiating school culture and context allows teachers’ global perspectives pedagogies to flourish • Nuanced perspective of the role of disciplinary knowledge and structures on global education as an interdisciplinary topic

21. Questions? Contact information: Gerardo J. Aponte-MartínezDoctoral Student & InstructorDepartment of Teacher EducationMichigan State University apontege@msu.edu www.msu.edu/~apontege