Elon's Center for Research on Global Engagement sponsored two presentations at the Forum on Education Abroad conference.
Kirstie Doehler, associate professor of statistics, and Maureen Vandermaas-Peeler, professor of psychology and director of the Center for Research on Global Engagement, presented a session entitled, “Challenge of change: A new program design framework for including the whole learner,” at the Forum on Education Abroad conference in Chicago on Thursday, March 24.
Doehler and Vandermaas-Peeler worked alongside colleagues Jennifer Wiley and Vesna Hart from Hart from James Madison University.
Presenters explored rationales for redesigning global learning programs to integrate deep inquiry into students’ identities and values. In dialogue groups, participants shared about redesigning programs to be responsive. Findings from multi-institutional research at Elon and JMU, funded by a Colonial Academic Alliance IN-CO grant and Bringing Theory to Practice, were presented, along with a new framework for knowing how aspects of the whole learner interact with program design and impact learning.
Vandermaas-Peeler also presented in a session with colleagues from a steering committee on Mentoring Undergraduate Research in Global Contexts (MURGC), including Kris Acheson-Clair from Purdue University, Elizabeth Frohlich with the Forum on Education Abroad, André P. Stevenson of Elizabeth City State University and Dawn Michele Whitehead of the American Association of Colleges & Universities.
In the past two years of limited mobility, we have learned important lessons about mentoring undergraduate research in global contexts. This session reported on some recent findings from a think-tank documenting involvement in and approaches to MURGC.
Focusing on inclusive best practices, presenters shared insights from interviews and surveys conducted in 2021 with professionals working in this area both within and outside of higher education institutions. Participants engaged in discussion of their own experiences with the opportunities and challenges of MURGC.