Panel to highlight schooling around the world

A group of doctoral students in the University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Educational Policy Studies will offer global perspectives on education in “Schooling around the World: Sights, Sounds, Stories and Travels,” on Wednesday, Nov. 15, in a special program to mark International Education Week.

Based on their research on and travel to Uganda, Tanzania, China, Belize and Morocco, the five panelists will connect important global issues, such as modernization and migration, with everyday school life. They also will explore U.S. educational practices, such as culturally relevant pedagogy and child-centered learning, in international contexts.

The program, which is free and open to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in Room 154 of the Education Building, 1000 Bascom Mall, at UW–Madison. The event is sponsored by the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the International and Comparative Education Research Group.

The presenters are:

• Kristin Molyneaux, a recent U.S. Peace Corps volunteer who was encouraged to promote child-centered learning activities as a more effective approach to teaching in Ugandan schools. She will discuss the disconnect between the Peace Corps’ preferred techniques and education as experienced by Ugandan children.
• Ross Benbow, who recently returned from a study of higher education in Tanzania. He will present contemporary snapshots of schooling and social life in Dar es Salaam and the northern regions.
• Jinting Wu, who uses schooling as a lens for examining what “becoming modern” entails for ethnic minority youth in China’s hinterlands. Chinese leaders view education as the magic formula to modernize the country.
• Ben Osborne, who will discuss ways in which the Tumul K’in Centre of Learning — an alternative secondary school in Belize that provides a culturally relevant education — challenges the assimilationist practices and poor educational outcomes of Mayan students in traditional, colonial schools by offering an empowering view of Mayan culture.
• Jeremy Todd, who will examine the influence of migration on educational policy in Morocco, where school language policies are shaped by former immigrants to the European Union who returned to their home country.

For more information, call (608) 262-1760.