Chile
Background
Texas State University and Universidad Alberto Hurtado have been in partnership since 2014, when Provost Bourgeois signed a Memorandum of Understanding and International Agreement between the two universities.
Between 2014 and 2015, grant funding from the Embassy of the United States-Santiago de Chile supported faculty exchanges between the two universities. Then, in 2015, Texas State received grant funding from the United States State Department's 100,000 Strong in the Americas initiative, which implemented a new study abroad opportunity for doctoral students in education. Thus, the Leadership and Educational Action Resource Network: Binational Graduate Student Collaboration for Educational Improvement in Chile (Project LEARN-Chile) was born. To date, Project LEARN-Chile has involved 34 doctoral students in Chilean study abroad.
Migration, Inclusion and Diversity in Texan and Chilean K-12 Schools
Chilean Exchange
In September 2019, Texas State welcomed nine students from UAH's English Pedagogy Program for a two-week visit. These students attended classes alongside Texas State students and participate in field experiences at local schools. They received course credit from UAH for their time in the United States, where their classroom and community experiences helped prepare them to become better teachers for migrant populations.
In the same spirit, the team from Texas State will spend the next year designing a two-week study abroad experience for Texas State students in Chile. The team will choose Chilean sites that will help students to understand the history and experience of inclusion, diversity and movement in Chile and guide them in expanding their perspectives of migration.
100,000 Strong in the Americas Funding
At a bilateral event promoting international exchange held in Santiago de Chile, U.S. Ambassador Carol Z. Perez announced that Texas State University College of Education faculty were named among those awarded a 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation Fund Grant. The grant competition, sponsored by the MetLife Foundation, sought out higher education institutions that would provide shorter-term academic exchange opportunities between the United States and Latin America to students who traditionally lack the resources or are underrepresented in international mobility programs. Among the nine teams to receive the $25,000 award was the Migration, Inclusion & Diversity in Texan and Chilean K-12 Schools and Local Communities: MID Texas-Chile Project, a partnership between Universidad Alberto Hurtado and Texas State University.
College of Education Students in Chile
Amy Biedermann is a Ph.D. student in the Adult, Professional and Community Education program at Texas State whose research focuses on pedagogies of social transformation. She also works closely with Dean O’Malley coordinating College of Education programs in Chile.
As a representative of the College of Education, she spent the fall 2018 semester managing an outreach office at Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago. She also conducted research on the recent Educación No Sexista protest movement and participated in a doctoral seminar at Alberto Hurtado on Chilean educational policy. During her five months abroad, she had the opportunity to travel around central Chile, take Spanish classes, and learn how to make traditional volantínes to celebrate Chilean independence day.
In January 2020, Amy returned to Chile as an invited participant in a transnational doctoral student research seminar on gender and violence hosted by Universidad de Chile. She has received funding from Texas State's Wilson Latin American Research Fellowship and Texas State's International Education Fee Scholarship in support of her research and outreach work in Chile.
In this article, Sara Espinoza presents her study abroad experience in Chile as a member of Texas State University's master’s program in educational leadership. Click the link to read the full article! A Little UNlearning...
