Educational Outreach/Teacher Training Program

Mission

Our mission is to enhance and promote in the United States an open and critical understanding of the socio-economic, political and cultural changes and continuities that define Latin American societies. From a multidisciplinary perspective, our purpose is to engage the interests, knowledge and practices of educators who teach about Latin America at all levels with those of researchers, policy-makers and grass-roots activists, who are also pursuing a deeper understanding of the diverse societies and identities of Latin America within local, regional and worldwide developments. Why learn about Latin America and other cultures? Enhancing our understanding of other cultures and their historical developments through multiple forms of education is guided by universal principles of social tolerance, social equity, and respect for human dignity and human rights. An education that promotes intercultural dialogue and understanding is based on an appreciation and reaffirmation of diversity and cultural identities. Such an education is pursued as a way of preventing conflicts through non-violent means and as a way of enhancing the ability of individuals to create and embrace social changes amid contexts of social cohesion (e.g., a vital civil society inclusive of citizen participation from various cultural backgrounds). These educational goals aim to improve the ways in which societies can collaborate with each other towards a more equitable and sustainable socio-economic development and, thus, to the improvement of the quality of life of all. Achieving this goal, international education, and specifically education about Latin America, will enable young people to critically address and participate in dialogues and decision-making aimed at better defining the dynamics and changes brought by an era of globalization, characterized by new technological and economic developments, transnational arrangements, and by vast and rapid information and migration patterns that have resulted in new multi-cultural social realities.  

Objectives

"To teach is not to transfer knowledge, but to create the possibilities for its own production or construction" (Paulo Freire, Pedagogía de la Autonomía, 1996)Educators participating in our various programs will develop and strengthen their content knowledge of Latin America in ways that will allow them to critically appropriate, reflect and construct for educational purposes, information, resources and knowledge about this region (Shulman, 1986; Freire, 1996). By enhancing their content knowledge and building on their own educational experience, educators should also be enabled to propose and examine pedagogical approaches that further develop their curriculum (Shulman, 1986; UNESCO, 2004): that is, what is learned and what is taught in a subject (context); how it is delivered (teaching-learning methods/styles); how it is assessed; and the resources and instructional materials used (e.g., books) - therefore, mediating and recreating content knowledge about Latin America in ways that are accessible, interesting, and challenging to diverse student populations.

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education through a Title VI National Resource Center Grant.

See Outreach