EdNews - Spring 2008

A Publication of the College of Education at Florida State University

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College Offers Joint Master's Program With Peace Corps

by Connie Harris

The College of Education has joined forces with the Peace Corps to develop a graduate program that will incorporate two years of international volunteer service. The Peace Corps Master’s International Program in Education is presently recruiting its first cohort of students for the Fall 2008 semester.

“The program enables us to offer interested college graduates -- prospective teachers, new bachelor’s degree holders seeking professional experience or working adults thinking about career change -- the opportunity to gain graduate level expertise in a subject matter area and in its application to international education, and then to experience a new culture and share their knowledge, curiosity and enthusiasm with people in developing countries,” said Pamela “Sissi” Carroll, department chair in the School of Teacher Education, one of the two academic units collaborating in the project.

Students will be assigned to English, mathematics or science education teaching positions in one of the 70 countries in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America where Peace Corps presently operates, she explained.

The goals of this innovative program are to:

provide students with the knowledge and associated skills to effectively teach and/or train teachers at the secondary level in the U.S. or abroad;
equip students with in-depth knowledge of the profound ways in which cultural context affects teaching and learning and new methods for understanding environments radically different from their own;
offer students an academic environment that will ultimately increase their effectiveness as cross-cultural ambassadors;
enhance cross-cultural learning and international understanding at FSU while supporting better understanding of American culture by counterparts in host nations, and
enable participants to move on to valuable jobs in both the U.S. educational system and overseas and/or continue graduate study in specialty areas that will increase the ability to contribute to international harmony and development.

The initiative is a joint effort between two branches of the FSU College of Education: the programs in Science Education, English Education, Mathematics Education in the School of Teacher Education and the Program in Sociocultural and International Development Education Studies (SIDES) within the Department of Eeducational Leadership and Policy Studies. SIDES offers master’s and Ph.D. degrees in international development and education.

Students will spend a full academic year at FSU taking core courses in teaching methods and international education before their required two-year service in the Peace Corps. Upon returning they will complete their program of study and serve as mentors to incoming students in the program.

“The students will come back to campus to finish their degrees, filled with a world of new insights,” Carroll said. “They will enrich classroom discussions, creating a continuing and incredibly positive, productive cycle of education and growth. And, they will be well positioned for critically important careers.”

Peace Corps Master’s International graduates will be qualified for teaching and administrative positions in both U.S. and international schools upon completion of their studies and will have the global perspective required to make a mark, she added.

The Peace Corps was formed in 1961 to promote world peace and friendship. Its goals are to help the people of interested countries in meeting the need for trained men and women, help promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served and help promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.

Program coordinators are Jeffrey Milligan (SIDES) and Carroll.