Monday, July 17, 2017

"Foundational Reading for Education Abroad Scholar-Practitioners" by Anthony Ogden, Ph.D.



Recently, Dr. Anthony Ogden, Executive Director of Education Abroad and Exchanges at Michigan State University, posted to SECUSS-L informing the field of his updated Foundational Reading for Education Abroad Scholar-Practitioners resource.

This nine page resource is an extraordinary compilation of literature and resources that every colleague in the field of education abroad should read or at least have knowledge of their existence.  Are you trying to break into the field of education abroad or more broadly into the field of international education?  If so, pick a reading off this list and start consuming!  Are you teaching a course on the internationalization/globalization of higher education?  If so, at a minimum link to and highlight this resource but more importantly you can find your required readings among the 77 listed readings and six key references.

Ogden breaks the readings down by the following 21 major knowledge areas followed by the key references:
1. Comprehensive Internationalization
2. International and Comparative Education
3. U.S. Education Abroad History
4. Evaluation and Assessment
5. Student Success
6. Curriculum Integration
7. Student Learning and Development
8. Student Advising and Support
9. Ongoing Orientation
10. Intercultural Competency
11. Global Citizenship
12. Cultural Learning and engagement
13. Diversity and Underrepresentation
14. Career Development and Employability
15. Academic Engagement and Development
16. Language Acquisition
17. Experiential Learning
18. Global Health Programming
19. Short-Term Education Abroad
20. General Research and Scholarship
21. General Professional
Key References
The list of authors of these foundational readings are a who's who of scholar-practitioners in the field and there are many colleagues that I have collaborated with on projects, co-authored book chapters or as the book editor, committees and task forces, presentations and workshops or in other endeavors such as Skyping in to a graduate level course as a guest speaker on international education.  Some of these authors are good friends and we have collaborated more in depth while some of these authors and I have only shared a microphone during a conference panel presentation and haven't collaborated beyond being invited to and showing up to the panel.  To be sure, there are many authors of these foundational readings that I know well but have yet to formally collaborate and there are others I have yet to meet in person or formally interact with electronically via email or Twitter or via some NAFSA online discussion forum but I hope to some day!  A list of the authors who I have collaborated with, large & small, follows (in no particular order):

Anthony Ogden
Gary Rhodes
Martin Tillman
Darla Deardorff
Bruce La Brack
Hans de Wit
the late Tony Adams
William Gertz
Michael Woolf
Bill Hoffa
Davina Potts
Bernhard Streitwieser
Gayle Woodruff
Michael Vande Berg
Martha Johnson
Margaret Wiedenhoeft
Mell Bolen
Lilli Engle
Victor Savicki
Richard Sutton
Gerald Fry
Elizabeth Stallman
John Hudzik
Jae-Eun Jon

I've been very fortunate to cross paths with so many wonderful people and contributors to the field of international education!


Friday, July 14, 2017

NAFSA's Voice on the National Security Education Board


Nice to see that Dr. Esther Brimmer, Executive Director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, was appointed to the National Security Education Board. My guess is that she was appointed by President Obama during the last months he was in office as the announcement that she was to become NAFSA's Executive Director and CEO was made in late September 2016.

You can learn more about the NSEB and see the see who are board members at:

This is of interest to me as I wrote my dissertation on the National Security Education Program (NSEP).

Thursday, July 13, 2017

AAPLAC (Association of Academic Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean) seeks session proposals for its Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, February 21-24, 2018



The following IHEC Blog post is a copy and paste (with permission) of a SECUSS-L post by Søren Peterson of the Center for Academic and Global Engagement at the University of South Dakota.

AAPLAC (Association of Academic Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean) seeks session proposals for its 29th Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, February 21-24, 2018. The proposal submission deadline is November 15, 2017.

Proposals should support the conference theme—Study Abroad: Meeting the Challenges of Cultural Engagement—and mission of the association. We are especially interested in proposals that address the following topics:


  • New Orleans after Katrina: The impact of the growing Hispanic population which came to help with rebuilding and has since stayed on.
  • Interdisciplinary Institutional Content Assessment: How to best track what students are doing overseas and the benefits for our campuses.
  • Global Partnerships through Peer Collaboration: How we can better work with institutions in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • Research Collaborations – US-Latin America: Faculty led/student participation in on-site studies.
  • Anglo-Hispanic Challenges: Cross-cultural understanding through experiential learning and study abroad.
  • Strategic Partnerships: How we can enhance protocols between our schools in the US and those in Latin America and the Caribbean.
  • Strengthening AAPLAC Relationships through Inter-Organization Mentoring: How we can enhance protocols amongst our schools in the US.
  • Latina Empowerment: There are more women on study abroad programs: How can we take advantage of this bond between women of the North and the South
  • Rethinking Mobility: How is the student’s identity compromised/enhanced abroad?
  • Community-Based Partnerships: How students can learn as they engage with local communities in working type environments.
  • Crossing Borders: The eternal quest for a global space as students interact with the other.
  • Global Xenophobia on the Rise of Brexit/Trump? What is our role?
  • Cuba: Future US Relations – Impact on Study Abroad.


For additional information and guidelines, including the proposal template, please visit http://www.aaplac.org/conference/call-for-papers.

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis interview with Teddy Fischer of The Islander (student newspaper of Mercer Island High School) and how International Education was part of the Discussion

U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis granted a rare interview with Teddy Fischer of The Islander (student newspaper of Mercer Island High School).  On June 20, 2017, The Islander published the full transcript of the interview and an answer to one particular question caught my attention as it relates to the value and importance of international educational exchange.  I have posted a screen shot of Teddy's question and Secretary Mattis' answer below that I refer to:



It's nice to see another U.S. Secretary of Defense to understand the value of soft power and talk positively about international educational exchange.





Monday, July 10, 2017

New Department of Homeland Security Proposal Would Require International Students to Reapply for Permission to Remain in the U.S. Every Year

Just under three hours ago, a concerning article by Maria Sacchetti and Devlin Barrett entitled "Overseas students would face close scrutiny under proposal floated at DHS" posted to The Washington Post.
Senior officials at the Department of Homeland Security are floating a proposal that would require foreign students to reapply for permission to stay in the United States every year, a controversial move that would create new costs and paperwork for thousands of visa holders from China, India and other nations, according to two federal officials with direct knowledge of the discussions.
You can access The Washington Post article at http://wapo.st/2sJLKPe.