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Article
Affiliation(s)

Sam Houston State University (SHSU), Texas, United States; Ministry of Education, Science, and Youth Policy, Komi Republic, Russia; Syktyvkar State University, Komi Republic, Russia

ABSTRACT

If the world is indeed becoming “smaller”, as the platitude suggests, the opportunities to reach out to colleagues in professional discourse should be employed. How does it happen that colleagues are able to exchange ideas and assess the practice of others? It is one thing for policy-makers to discuss pedagogy and philosophy, but how will that translate into practice? If global dialogs are meant to be influential, the importance of those directly affected (that is, teachers) cannot be understated. This paper describes the collaboration between an American University and a regional Ministry of Education in the Russian Federation in an attempt to bridge the cultural gap between two nations and promote effective teaching in public schools. The collaboration was considered to be a pilot project in order to evaluate feasibility, time, cost, adverse effects, and design. The findings indicate a positive experience for both the participants and presenters. That is, all indications point towards the participants believing the professional development made them more effective in their classroom and that a certain amount of cultural understanding had transpired. The stated needs by participants for future professional development and the need to help build relationships through more informal interaction will certainly be taken into consideration when planning ensuing collaborations.

KEYWORDS

international education, professional development, cross-national studies, diversity and education, knowledge exchange

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References

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