International outreach conference to examine best practices

Wisconsin’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Elizabeth Burmaster, will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming Title VI and Fulbright-Hays National Outreach Conference, as world studies outreach specialists from across the nation come together April 27-29 in Madison.

The conference, being sponsored by the Wisconsin International Outreach Consortium (WIOC), is intended as a resource for anyone involved with international outreach, especially those professionals who work with the U.S. Department of Education’s International Education Programs Service. The panels and presentations at this conference will help strengthen the capability and performance of American education in area, international, and global studies. The UW–Madison is home to eight Title VI national resource centers, which are all members of WIOC, including Global Studies, the primary organizer of the event.

Although the conference will address a variety of outreach constituencies, including business and the general public, its overriding goal is to facilitate the promotion of learning about world cultures in U.S. schools through increased understanding. Successful outreach models and best practices from all over the nation will be presented and discussed, along with approaches appropriate to all world regions and grade levels.

The conference will bring together not only those working on outreach within higher education, but also practicing K-12 teachers and professional staff. This mingling of outreach experts and education practitioners will create a dynamic environment for the discussion of ideas.

Burmaster has been a strong advocate and a national leader on internationalization of curriculum, counting among her staff the nation’s first and only continuous full-time international education advisor. In 2002, she initiated a statewide International Education Council, bringing together top business and education leaders to build Wisconsin’s international connections. Wisconsin was awarded the prestigious Goldman Sachs Foundation Prize for Excellence in International Education as a result of the efforts to develop a statewide international education focus.

Burmaster also has traveled to Germany, France, Thailand, and Vietnam, leading teacher seminars and developing memoranda of understanding with heads of state to promote international education.