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College of Education and Human Development at The University of Texas at San Antonio Online Magazine

Global Outreach


Education without borders: teachers teaching teachers

Education without borders: teachers teaching teachers

The clicking of keys and the scratching of pen across paper created a quiet buzz that filled the air. Tables spread out around the room were filled with teachers from all walks of life. Some of them taught in elementary schools while others in middle or high schools. Four of them, however, traveled thousands of miles from countries around the world to come to UTSA’s College of Education and Human Development and the San Antonio Writing Project (SAWP).

Mfundo Diko from Capetown, South Africa, and Purva Sharma, Gopal Krishna Sharma, and Manaswita Singh from Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya (DSVV) in Haridwar, India, joined more than 20 local graduate students and teachers at the SAWP 2016 Summer Institute.

The four-week institute featured a variety of activities and writing workshops designed around the “teachers teaching teachers” model. The institute also gave each of the international students, who had never been to the United States, the opportunity to share their personal stories.

Mfundo Diko’s journey to San Antonio and to the education field, he said, was not easy. For 16 years, Diko worked as a gardener until one day, inspired by the pastor at his church in Africa, he felt called to pursue a career as a teacher.

“I saw the way he was teaching us in church and I got to see his passion for teaching,” said Diko. “Something inside of me told me that I must apply to the university to become a teacher, so I applied and they accepted me.”

Many times, it was so expensive to attend the learnership orientation, which is required to become a teacher, that sometimes, he said, there wasn’t much money left for food. But that only added to his passion to become a teacher.

It took him six years of hard work to become a teacher, and now he teaches seven-year-olds in grade one.

“It was not easy, but I cannot complain about anything,” said Diko. “I was able to finish my studies and move forward with my life as a teacher.”

Purva Sharma, Gopal Krishna Sharma, and Manaswita Singh were part of the inaugural group of attendees at the Haridwar Writing Project, which was established last summer in partnership with DSVV, a university dedicated for the global and spiritual renaissance, in Haridwar, India. Each of them were invited to continue to develop the knowledge they gained from the workshop they attended last year at the 2016 Summer Institute.

“When the workshop happened in Haridwar last year, we learned so much,” said Gopal Krishna Sharma. “This summer institute is a bonus for us. It has given us a vision that everyone is a writer and we take our inspiration from our patron-founder Pandit Sriram Sharma Acharya who has written many texts for thought revolution and social change”

Gopal, who is a lecturer of computer science and scientific spirituality and is also pursuing his doctorate in quantum artificial consciousness at DSVV, already began implementing some of the information and skills he learned at the Haridwar Writing Project. On Saturdays, he said, he has an open class and allows his students to write whatever they want in whatever language they choose.

Education without borders: teachers teaching teachers

“The students are making drama, they are making songs, and they are making documentaries all about computer science,” he said. “In everyday learning, we try to inculcate the things we were taught at the workshop.”

His wife, Purva Sharma, who is pursuing her doctorate in cyber psychology, has also implemented some of the writing techniques she learned in her role as a research scholar, lecturer of life management, and personally.

“I now have a platform for how to put my writings in a proper format because of this experience,” said Purva Sharma. “The feedback I have received has given me motivation to write.”

The information Purva has learned this past summer, she said, will also be shared with the teachers at the school that her parents have managed in her hometown of Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, India, for the last 30 years. The school, Gayatri Vidyapeeth, teaches children value based education modeled around the patron Pandit Sriram Sharma Archarya’s teachings and vision for children from early childhood through the 12th grade.

“I will definitely share these writing skills in my hometown so that more and more students and teachers will benefit,” said Purva Sharma.

Like Purva and Gopal Sharma, Manaswita Singh was also excited when asked to come to the United States to attend the SAWP Summer Institute. It was one of the biggest moments in her life, she said.

“We are learning a lot and we would like to give that back to our students and the community at large through the activities of the All World Gayatri Pariwar, a socio-spiritual organization working towards the betterment of humanity, when we go back home,” said Singh, a research associate and assistant editor of the Dev Sanskriti Interdisciplinary International Journal (DSIIJ) at Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya University. “We are going to pass along all that knowledge and information. I think this partnership is really going to work out well between both of the universities and benefit all.”

Although they come from different cultures and different countries, each of the four international students took the information and knowledge gained in the SAWP Summer Institute back home with them.

“I think what the San Antonio Writing Project is doing is great things, especially for teachers,” said Singh. “Once you get on the other side, you have the power to make a change and SAWP makes you realize that even more. Often you forget how it feels like to be a student. Here, you are among teachers feeling like a student, which is helpful for better understanding their perspective. I think it’s something that every teacher should do at some point in his or her career.”



UTSA training researchers to improve care for children with autism in Japan

Dr. Leslie Neely (top left) Skypes with Sawako Kawaminami in Japan.
Dr. Leslie Neely (top left) Skypes with Sawako Kawaminami in Japan.

Dr. Leslie Neely, assistant professor of educational psychology at UTSA, is providing top-tier training to researchers and volunteers from Japan in methods to help improve social behaviors in children with autism in their country.

“It’s a great honor to share the top-tier expertise we have here at UTSA with Japan,” Neely said. “I believe we are forging a strong connection and are at the forefront of helping other researchers meet the needs of children around the world with autism and developmental disabilities.”

Neely is the coordinator for the UTSA Applied Behavior Analysis graduate certification program and a doctoral-level board certified behavior analyst. Her approach, applied behavior analysis (ABA), involves understanding a child’s behavior and modifying the environment in order to help improve social and communication skills, reduce challenging behavior and improve academic behavior.

According to Neely, ABA therapy can be immensely helpful for autism or developmental disabilities, but it is not employed in many countries due a number of factors, including cultural barriers, lack of funding, or a lack of training and education about the needs of children with autism or developmental disabilities.

“There is a desperate need in these countries for training and education in care for children with autism,” said Neely. “Unfortunately, there aren’t enough certified experts available to train or educate others. My partners and I hope to create a culturally responsive model that can address those needs.”

This past fall, Neely and her collaborator, Ee Rea Hong from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, began the initial training sessions for what they are calling the Global ABA Project. The project’s goal is to craft a culturally sensitive training and education model using specialized therapy methods for children with autism that can be replicated by local organizations.

At last count, said Neely, there were only approximately 13 ABA experts in Japan who are certified by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, an international non-profit which oversees behavior analysts. A 2004 report by the Japanese Autism Association stated that about 360,000 individuals in Japan had been diagnosed with autism.

“Most of Japan’s behavior analysts are tied to research hospitals or universities,” Neely said. “So, as much as they might like to, they often cannot provide direct services or education on ABA therapy to communities, especially those living in rural towns or cities.”

After the fall collaboration, Neely and Hong will meet with researchers in Brazil led by Siglia Hoher Camargo from the University of Pelotas to continue the project. Neely hopes that the project can be adapted to serve the needs of other countries and cultures.

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