Bringing Back Belize
Incorporating Cultural Competence in the Classroom By Kelli Gemmer
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nternationalization and globalization of education” is a common phrase in the education community, but what exactly does it mean? According to Ella-Mae Daniel, teaching faculty in the School of Teacher Education, “It’s more than just paying homage to those words but really looking at how we’re building our students to be culturally competent when working with others who are fundamentally different.” Last summer, Daniel was one of 12 women chosen to participate in the Summer Institute on the Welfare of Women in Belize (SIWWB), a Fulbright-Hays Project funded by the U. S. Department of Education. The group was joined by Drs. Denise Davis-Maye and Annice Yarber-Allen, co-project directors and faculty members at Auburn University at Montgomery (AUM). The purpose of SIWWB was to gain an understanding of the cultural
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history and current status of women in Belize while developing curricula that will prepare students for an increasingly global and interdependent world. The project was broken up into two phases: the overseas phase and the post-seminar phase. In the first phase, participants spent four weeks in different Belizean cities visiting universities and schools to study women’s issues. In the second, participants integrated their newfound knowledge into curriculum modules for their own courses that they presented at a post-conference at AUM. Going into the program, Daniel’s focus was to examine the issues of
empowerment of women through education; however, after a week in Belize, she soon realized that she had a different focus in mind. She asked herself an important question: “How do I bring this back to my classroom and my courses at Florida State University?” Looking at the curriculum in her Teaching Diverse Populations (EDF 2085) course, a prerequisite for admission to the teacher education programs, Daniel discovered a connection between the course and her experiences in Belize. “Teaching Diverse Populations is really about teaching culturally diverse students,” said Daniel. “Because we have so many different
Cultural Competence: a process of guiding teacher candidates through a personal journey of learning how to interact effectively with others who are fundamentally different