Examining the Influence of the Fulbright-Hays Mexico and Colombia Seminar on Educators' Philosophic and Pedagogic Orientations to Multicultural Education

Abstract

Trends throughout my graduate research in education include educational transformation, critical pedagogy and cross-cultural, globally oriented competencies for educators. These threads have woven their way into my lens on the world, prompting questions about educational and curricular policy and reform, particularly challenging the ubiquitous Euro-centric platform from which most schools in the United States operate. In June and July of 2012, sponsored by the United States-Colombian Fulbright commission, 16 educators had the professional development opportunity to study in Mexico and Colombia, all with the charge to develop authentic multicultural curricula for the benefit of students and teachers in the United States. Through documentation of the Fulbright-Hays 2012 participants' reflections, the study addresses the scope of the Seminar's transformative impact on teachers and subsequently students, supporting its relevancy as a government social-service program. The study examines the larger impact of the Fulbright-Hays Seminar on educators' pedagogical and philosophic orientations to their work in the classroom. This research may be utilized internally by the Fulbright-Hays commission for evidence of transformational experiences starting with seminar participants and, ideally, filtering down to students of diverse demographics. The development of culturally representative and responsive curricula is a pressing area of need in the United States, both in public and private spheres. Work in this field could contribute to social change and equity-driven reform within the educational sphere: pedagogically, methodologically, and philosophically. The study analyzes the development of teachers with increased cultural competencies, understanding of cultures outside their own culture (and yet often represented in their classrooms), therefore being poised to create more inclusive, anti-biased atmospheres for their students.