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As a part of the Peabody Dean's Office, International Affairs works to increase outreach and coordination within the college and externally to achieve the following objectives:

Build a platform upon which knowledge in teaching, learning and educational leadership are shared and advanced in a global context
Facilitate research collaborations with partnering international institutions
Support Peabody scholars and students with assistance for academic and cultural learning
Coordinate with the Vanderbilt International Office for cross-university initiatives

Announcements

News on the international front from Vanderbilt's Peabody College.

Check out our international opportunities

University of São Paulo Student Delegation Visits Peabody to Discuss Winning Education Innovation Project

University of Sao Paulo As part of Vanderbilt University’s continued efforts to strengthen ties with the University of São Paulo (USP), Peabody College and the Center for Latin American Studies recently hosted the visit of a delegation comprised of four undergraduate students from the USP's Department of Economics. These students -- Guilherme Denes, Andre Stztutman, Fernanda Seidel, and Lucas Finamore -– won first prize in the 2011 Competition of Economic Policies in Brazil (COPECO) for their project that focused on innovations for improving the Brazilian public education system. During their visit to Vanderbilt, the students were able to meet with students and faculty across the university and attend classes and lectures, including Steve Heyneman’s Education and Economic Development graduate-level seminar and Brian Heuser’s Global Dimensions of Community Development undergraduate-level course.

Additionally, the students collaborated with Hubert H. Humphrey fellow, Sonia Dias (Brazil), to present on the issue of racial disparities in the Brazilian education system at the February 10 session of the Peabody International Lunch Series (PILS). The USP delegation also had the opportunity to meet with Peabody’s other Latin American Humphrey fellows, Alonso Silva (Chile) and Julieta Sandoya (Ecuador), to discuss challenges to education at a regional level.

Pasi Sahlberg Visits Peabody College to Discuss Finnish Education Success

Finnish Lessons lecture On Friday, December 9, Peabody International Affairs and the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations (LPO) hosted the visit of Finnish scholar Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, who presented the lecture Finnish Lessons: What can the U.S. learn from educational change in Finland? to an audience of 150 students, faculty and community members. His presentation focused on the various elements of the Finnish education system that have contributed to the success of its schools and have propelled its students to the top ranks of various international assessments. For the last two decades Dr. Sahlberg has been advising governments on education policy reform. He currently holds the appointment as director of the Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation, the agency which sponsors student and faculty exchanges to Finland.

The full video of Dr. Sahlberg's lecture can be accessed here: http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/faculty_and_research/peabody_research_office/research_news.xml

Chinese Educators Collaborate with Vanderbilt, Metro Schools

A delegation of Chinese educators will visit Vanderbilt University Oct. 24-Nov. 4 to learn the latest in U.S. education policy and experience American classrooms and techniques firsthand. This marks the seventh consecutive year this program, the Educational Leadership Learning Exchange (ELLE), has convened leaders from Vanderbilt's Peabody College, South China Normal University, and Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools for seminars, school visits, cultural experiences and cooperative dialogue. To read the full article, click here.

Peabody Strengthens Research Ties with the University of São Paulo

Ph.D. student Jenny DeBoer hard at work in the Economics Department at USP

Ph.D. student Jonathan Stern running data analyses

Following the success of the first education policy forum held between Peabody College and the University of São Paulo in April 2010, Professors Dale Ballou, Will Doyle, Stella Flores and Stephen Heyneman traveled to Brazil in fall 2010 to conduct a second series of policy presentations. During those presentations, the Peabody and São Paulo faculty developed a common set of research topics on which data were available, and this summer, Ph.D. candidates Jonathan Stern and Jennifer DeBoer became the first Peabody students to visit the University of São Paulo.

Ph.D. student Jenny DeBoer hard at work in the Economics Department at USP

Building upon Peabody's growing research interests in Brazil, the purpose of their visit was to access local data sets on (i) affordable private schools for the poor and (ii) gain scores among higher education students. The success of their visit has now led to the development of an inter-institutional memorandum of understanding and a regular exchange of graduate students and faculty in both directions so that they might work on common research questions.

Vanderbilt Delegation Visits Four Chinese Universities to Develop Strategic Partnerships

Dean Benbow with students at Guangzhou Hua Yang Elementary School

In May 2011, a Vanderbilt delegation of top university administrators led by Provost Richard McCarty visited four Chinese universities in three cities. The delegation, which consisted of Timothy McNamara, Vice Provost for Faculty, Joel Harrington, Associate Provost for Global Strategies, Camilla Benbow, Dean of Peabody College of Education and Human Development, Xiu Cravens, Associate Dean for International Affairs at Peabody College, and Bill Ivey, Director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, met with university leaders at Fudan University in Shanghai, Suzhou University in Suzhou, South China Normal University and Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou.

Guangzhou Hua Yang Elementary School visit

The five-day schedule was organized to strengthen ties with core and strategic partnering universities and to assess the viability of a regional approach to institutional collaborations. Through various meetings with Chinese university leaders, the delegation was able to collect first-hand information and build relationships at high administrative levels in preparation for developing a larger Asia-Pacific regional strategy for Vanderbilt University.

Visit to Professor Claire Smrekar's class at Fudan University, Shanghai

In addition to these meetings, the delegation toured the four university campuses, attended student performances, visited local schools, and observed classroom activities. At Fudan University, the delegation was greeted by Peabody professor Claire Smrekar on her first day of a two-week lecture series on the social context of American education. Other highlights of the visit included the opportunity to meet and dialogue with the growing Vanderbilt alumni community in China, specifically in Shanghai, and to attend a reception hosted by the U.S. Consul General in Guangzhou.

In December, the Educational Leadership Learning Exchange (ELLE) -- our partnership with Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools and South China Normal University, which is directed by Tom Ward (LPO) -- was selected by the University Design Consortium for inclusion in the Innovation Clearinghouse of Good Practices.

-Educational Leadership Learning Exchange (ELLE), visit of the sixth ELLE cohort to Nashville
A delegation of twenty-two Chinese school principals from Guangzhou, China, recently visited Peabody College and Metro Nashville Public Schools from February 21 to March 4, 2011, as part of the Educational Leadership Learning Exchange (ELLE) program. ELLE is a principal leadership exchange program founded in 2005 with the goal of creating a mutually beneficial collaboration between school principals from the U.S. and China. Reciprocal visits between Nashville and Guangzhou pave the way for knowledge sharing and increased understanding as participants discuss best practices and innovative ideas in education reform with their international counterparts. The program provides an international perspective for principal leadership development through three key elements: lectures on learning-centered leadership by university faculty, visits to local area schools and cultural activities. The Chinese delegation was led by Professor Hong Wang from South China Normal University. The next delegation of American principals from Nashville will visit Guangzhou this summer, in June 2011.

-International Lunch Series - Fall 2011 dates now available!
Talks are held at noon in the Home Economics building, Room 104
This speaker series includes talks on current issues in international education and policy from visiting and resident scholars and students.

-The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, through the Institute of International Education
Funding has been extended for a third consecutive year of the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program. The 2011-2012 cohort consists of 10 fellows from 9 different countries. The fellows, nominated by U.S. Embassies and Fulbright Commissions, will participate in 10-months of non-degree studies and professional development. Peabody College is excited to welcome the 2011-2012 fellows from Brazil, Chile, Cote d'Ivoire (2), Ecuador, Indonesia, Mauritius, Myanmar, Pakistan, and South Africa.

-US Embassy Policy Specialist (EPS) in Higher Education for 2010-2011.
We are excited to announce the recent selection of Brian Heuser as an U.S. Embassy Policy Specialist in Higher Education for 2010-2011. Brian Heuser, an Assistant Professor of the Practice in International Education and Policy at Peabody, competed in a national competition for the award. The decision to appoint Professor Heuser was made by a committee comprised of representatives of the Department of State, the US Embassy in the Republic of Georgia and the International Research Exchange Board (IREX). The decision was based on Professor Heuser's proposal related to systems of accountability that govern academic research in tertiary institutions of the post-Soviet region, with an emphasis on the Republic of Georgia.

The EPS fellowship is part of the Title VIII Program, administered by the Bureau of Intelligence and Research of the US Department of State. A full description of the program can be found here: http://www.irex.org/programs/us_scholars/programs/uss_eps.asp

-Education Policy: A Discussion of Brazil and the U.S.
With funding support from the Vanderbilt International Office, Professor Stephen Heyneman recently facilitated a comparative discussion pertaining to education policies in Brazil and the United States. The presentations and discussions included faculty from the University of Sao Paulo and the Peabody Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations. The topics covered included: "Understanding Black-White Test Score Gaps in Another America," "Innovations and Dilemmas in Education Policy in Brazil and the United States," "Discrimination Goes to School," and "Pay for Performance: The Bonus System for Sao Paulo's Teachers." The audio files from the forum can be accessed here:

http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/vanderbilt.edu.1328929316.03958491870