Center for International Education at UMass Amherst

01/22/2021

Building an internal resource

The following is a lovely activity to help children, adolescents, parents, teachers – anyone really, get back in touch with their resourcefulness. If there is one thing that trauma is good at it is robbing us of our resources and making us go/feel small. We struggle to think, feel, act well, and our bodies no longer feel part of us – to mention just a few of the reactions.

The activity is the antithesis of the trauma response - it reconnects us to ourselves and what we are good at, it gives us a sense of competence and confidence, it switches back on our brains and our senses, our thoughts and feelings and helps locate us in our bodies.

01/21/2021

Congratulations to Dr. Ian Barron

Dr. Barron was formally acknowledged for his contributions as a
reviewer for the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, and welcomed to the Editorial Board of the journal.

Journal of Child Sexual Abuse (JCSA) is interdisciplinary and provides an essential interface for researchers, academicians, attorneys, clinicians, and practitioners. The journal advocates for increased networking in the sexual abuse field, greater dissemination of information and research, a higher priority for this international epidemic, and development of effective assessment, intervention, and prevention programs.

"We appreciate your dedication to the field and all of the time that you have devoted to the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse."
January 18, 2021

Institute on Violence, Abuse and Trauma
Family Violence and Sexual Assault Institute (FVSAI) dba IVAT
www.IVATcenters.org

01/20/2021

Training Manual "Combating domestic & Family violence in Palestine”

A CIE partner, CARE Center for Applied Research (www.care-palestine.com), in order to respond to the
urgent need to combat domestic and family violence during COVID-19, prepared and distributed (8000
copies) of the "Combating domestic & Family violence in Palestine” training manual.

The manual targets pupils and their parents, schools’ counselors, care-givers, social workers, and schools administrators. Contents and worksheets cover:
- Family violence & its impact on children (Professor Amer Al-Khateeb, Al Azhar University, Gaza)
- Suggested strategies to combat domestic and family violence (Professor Aida Saleh, Alqsa University, Gaza)
- Media & its role in evoking violence (Dr. Said Shaheen, Hebron university, Hebron, West Bank)
- Communication skills to combat domestic and family violence (Dr. Mahmoud Massalha, Head of the High Council of Islamic Affairs, Israel)
- Investing in motivation approaches to combat avoidance and disassociation that drives violence (Dr. Ghassan Abdallah)
- Implementing Psychodrama groups: Intervention techniques to minimize family & domestic violence (Associate Professor Nuha Iter, Dean of Higher Education Studies at Palestine Polytechnic University)

Editor: Dr. Ghassan Abdallah, Director of CARE
Activities & hand outs prepared by Counselors Radwan Abdo, Jumana Kamal, Rasha Aramin.
Lay out & design: Dia Safi

01/19/2021

Grants for student conferences and professional development

CIE will award up to 4 travel/professional grants of up to $500 each to students presenting their work at an academic conference and for other professional development activities this spring. Funds will be awarded for expenses related to presenting at the conferences or participating in other professional development opportunities which contribute to the field of international education.

Successful recipients shall be willing to present within CIE seminars (after the conference/professional development opportunity)

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, January 22, 2021

Full description and Application Form are here: https://umass.box.com/s/kbolf7kkdz3a27141vetikwcumds7nuq

Submit Application Form and the Letter of Invitation or other evidence of being in the program to [email protected]. If you have questions, please contact Barbara (413-545-4176)

All awards are contingent upon the availability of funding.

01/13/2021

Alumni updates

Sayed Sarwar Yaqubi (M.Ed. 2009)

Upon graduation in 2009 Sayed Sarwar Yaqubi continued as a lecturer in the math department of the education faculty of Jawzjan University. He shares: “At that time, in addition to teaching some mathematical and educational subjects, the university authorities asked me to take on other responsibilities as the head of the curriculum committee at university level, as the master trainer in methodological workshops in the university, and as a member of the academic committee. The Ministry of Higher Education in Afghanistan began a process of revising the curriculum in all the universities and currently more than 60 courses have changed. As a head of curriculum committee, I have attended many curriculum workshops in Kabul."

Since 2018 Sayed Sarwar Yaqubi has been serving as the Dean of the Education Faculty at Jawzjan University in northern Afghanistan (the administration affairs of the Education Faculty).

He continues: “Beside these duties I translated some articles in order to achieve academic rank in the education faculty. I translated from English into Dari the book “Introduction to Statistical Theory” by S.M. Chaudhry of Lahore University. I also translated several articles including one on “The Effect of Work Motivation and Work Climate on Teacher Performance” by a professor at the PGRI University in Palembang”.

“We will see what happens in future, in Afghanistan everything is possible. We live and survive here by chance. Please give my regards and warm wishes to all kind members of CIE”



https://www.umass.edu/cie/sayed-sarwar-yaqubi-med-2009

01/09/2021

College of Education Scholarship Award

Edher Lubin was awarded Helen Eaton Timson Scholarship for Academic year 2020-2021

College of Education Scholarship Award

Edher Lubin was awarded Helen Eaton Timson Scholarship for Academic year 2020-2021

Ed’s area of focus concerns accessibility of mental health services for K-12 student representing groups of black indigenous people of color (BI-POC).

Ed examines how forms of behavioral, emotional and cognitive dysregulation relate to risk factors embedded within the environment in which they continue to develop in. Risk factors like economic adversity, abuse, and neglect can impact student’s overall academic performance as well as their social-emotional development. In observing the adverse effects of these risk factors, Ed also examines the role school-based mental health services can play in developing interventions for BI-POC students in need of supports.

01/04/2021

A weighty call for international education
by Dr. Ian Barron

At the recent 2020 Star Conference: Global Connections Award, Noam Chomsky argued, that Internationalism, Solidarity, and Education are the main themes of our time. The horrors of a boundary breaking pandemic, demands international solidarity, and all the more so, with the distribution of a vaccine in our sights. Yet, as I write this, large corporations and wealthy countries are already appropriating the vaccine for themselves at a terrible cost for the rest of humanity. We can only hope that COVAX, a value driven corporation, working with 2 Turkish immigrants to Germany, will undermine such self-interest.

While, we can begin to envision an end-point to the pandemic, Noam reminds us that we are at the tipping point of no return with the disintegration of our artic icepacks. Leading environmental scientists, tell us that the consequences will be catastrophic and beyond our imaginings, if we don’t act fast and act together.

Two more global threats were named. The first was the longstanding but growing threat to humanity of nuclear war. Apparently, it’s been a miracle that despite, numerous accidents and the reckless behavior of dictators, we are still here today!

The final threat mentioned was that of ‘disintegrating’ democracy. Lest we think this threat is out of place with environmental catastrophe and terminal nuclear war, the recent developments of popularism, Trump in the White House, and a buffoon in Downing street to give only a few examples, has resulted in the doomsday clock being measured by seconds rather than minutes to midnight, 100 seconds to be precise (January 2020) till game over.

To finish on a more upbeat note, Noam concluded “the only hope for dealing with the major crises is an engaged, informed population dedicated to using the opportunities that exist to deal with and end these existential crises. Informed means educated in a way that we can apply our knowledge and skills, but it is the ‘international solidarity’ that is necessary in order to implement these means. It means that society is not only educated but able to deliberate, to interact, globally in fact, to move towards solutions … a problem of democracy, on an international scale.”

The event records:
YouTube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCSpr3SjC8j9kGM7x74yO6YA
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/STARscholarsnetwork
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/star-scholars-network
Twitter: https://twitter.com/star_scholars

WEB: https://starscholars.org/shaping-a-humane-world/?fbclid=IwAR3r9wGNadxJKUJsTXWkStpjVpRw114xxd9D7xElSz_TWV5EFPSNt0BnuhU

12/31/2020

Graduate School Dissertation Grants

The Graduate School at UMass Amherst offers dissertation grants in a campus-wide, competitive process for doctoral students. These are prestigious awards that are very competitive.

Lina Heaster-Ekholm is a doctoral student in International Education. Her research interests lie at the intersection of culture and learning with the goal of developing effective instructional design practices to meet the needs of global online learners. Despite evidence of the role cultural norms play in shaping learning processes, culture is rarely a consideration in the design and facilitation of online courses. This has the potential to disproportionately affect the academic success of international students enrolled in U.S. online higher education courses.

Lina’s proposed dissertation research involves a multi-round Delphi approach to engage experts from three domains in education: online learning design, culturally responsive pedagogy, and teaching international students, in a consensus building process. The outcome of this study will be a list of instructor competencies that can be used to create training resources for instructors, inform quality assurance rubrics, and shape future research.

https://www.umass.edu/cie/news/lina-heaster-ekholm-awarded-graduate-school-dissertation-grant

12/30/2020

College of Education Scholarship Award

Edher Lubin was awarded Helen Eaton Timson Scholarship for Academic year 2020-2021

Ed’s area of focus concerns accessibility of mental health services for K-12 student representing groups of black indigenous people of color (BI-POC).

Ed examines how forms of behavioral, emotional and cognitive dysregulation relate to risk factors embedded within the environment in which they continue to develop in. Risk factors like economic adversity, abuse, and neglect can impact student’s overall academic performance as well as their social-emotional development. In observing the adverse effects of these risk factors, Ed also examines the role school-based mental health services can play in developing interventions for BI-POC students in need of supports.

12/29/2020

College of Education Scholarship Award

Mariam Rashid was awarded Helen Eaton Timson Scholarship for Academic year 2020-2021

Mariam shares:

"In the wake of the global refugee crisis and forced displacement, public discourses on refugee representation have failed to take into account the gendered, racialized and colonial aspects of refugee (re)settlement education. As a scholar in the field of education, I recognize that (re)settlement education in host communities and third countries of asylum is critical, if refugees are to rebuild their ruptured lives. I also recognize that (re)settlement pedagogies and practices such as those that advocate for economic self-reliance/sufficiency among displaced populations are deeply embedded within coloniality and racial capitalism. My research attempts to unsettle and re-imagine resettlement practices and pedagogies through the lenses of raciality, postcolonial theories, and critical research methodologies".
https://www.umass.edu/cie/news/college-education-scholarships-awarded

12/24/2020

Ambassador Cynthia Shepard Perry Awards for 2020-2021

Mishka Murad was awarded an Ambassador Cynthia Shepard Perry Award for the 2020-2021 academic year. The award was established to provide support for graduate students in international education or affiliated with the Center for International Education to help them pursue international field work.

In her response to the award Mishka described her research topic:

"My dissertation explores the academic experiences of international doctoral student mothers at one U.S. university and how these varying identities intersect. Using qualitative interviews it brings these women’s voices, stories and lived experiences to light, and in a small way hopes to address the silence in the literature about international doctoral student mothers. The study explores practices currently implemented by faculty, advisors and peers that help this diverse group of students to feel like they belong and are appreciated. The study also analyzes the ways in which this group is often overlooked or ignored. The research will suggest strategies and solutions that may be practiced daily, on the micro-level, without waiting for top-down policy changes".

https://www.umass.edu/cie/news/ambassador-cynthia-shepard-perry-awards-2020-2021

12/23/2020

Ambassador Cynthia Shepard Perry Awards for 2020-2021

Mariam Sheikh was awarded an Ambassador Cynthia Shepard Perry Award for the 2020-2021 academic year.

Mariam describes her research interests as follows:
"Youth activism for social change is on the rise around the globe, and educators are grappling with the complexities of today’s student activism in higher education. My doctoral research focuses on the role of rising student activism in Pakistan, particularly how it challenges neoliberal reforms in education, exposes inequities in relation to gender, class and ethnicity, and strives for a socially just education system.
I am in the process of examining how students belonging to disadvantaged backgrounds navigate discriminatory access and educational experiences in higher education. Within this area of interest, I hope to study the intersection of gender and education by studying the recent efforts of female student activists to challenge patriarchal norms and gendered barriers to education."

https://www.umass.edu/cie/news/ambassador-cynthia-shepard-perry-awards-2020-2021

12/22/2020

College of Education Scholarship

Hassan Aslami was awarded the Joseph W. Keilty Memorial Scholarship which provides support to full-time graduate students with preference given to doctoral students with exceptional promise.

Hassan’s dissertation research examines the current sources of funding for public higher education in Afghanistan, and explores potential alternative resources and policy options to increase and sustain funding for the public higher education system. Because the constitution of Afghanistan provides for free education for students through the Bachelor’s level, the problem of funding public higher education is particularly challenging.

Hassan’s study examines a variety of alternative funding sources and looks at the policy and legal issues that would have to be addressed to take advantage of some of the alternatives. The scholarship will provide support as he analyzes his data and finishes writing his dissertation.

https://www.umass.edu/cie/news/college-education-scholarships-awarded

12/21/2020

College of Education Scholarships Awards

Sayed Javid Mussawy received the Jerome and Florence McCormick Doctoral award for 2020-2021. The award provides support to doctoral students in their dissertation-writing year.

Javid’s dissertation investigates the implementation of a new national accreditation process for public teaching and research universities in Afghanistan. The structure and procedures for accreditation of universities have been developed in the past several years, partly with support from a large project managed by the Center for International Education at UMass Amherst. His study analyzes the experiences of provincial teaching universities in contrast with the experiences of the larger, urban research universities as they implement the accreditation process. The scholarship will provide support for Javid as he finishes his dissertation.

https://www.umass.edu/cie/news/college-education-scholarships-awarded

12/19/2020

Call for proposals | British Council

Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Innovation and Reform (SPHEIR)

SPHEIR aims to transform the quality, relevance, scale, accessibility and affordability of higher education in focus countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Middle East. To find out more, please contact us (https://www.spheir.org.uk/blog)

Going Global 2021: Call for Proposals

Going Global is the conference for leaders of international education. The virtual conference takes place on 15 - 17 June 2021. The call for proposals is now open: submit your speaker, session and facilitator proposals by Friday 15 January 2021.

Find out more about the conference themes and how you can submit your proposal here: www.britishcouncil.org/going-global/get-involved/call-for-proposals.

Submit your proposal for Going Global 2021 by 15 January 2021 at 4pm (UK time).