UC/Iraq Educational Partnership Plans Summer Workshops in Cincinnati

Workshops focused on economics, course development, educational technology, student-centered learning, intensive English and academic libraries are all on tap at the University of Cincinnati next week for a delegation of 19 educators from Iraq. So are trips to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, the Kentucky Horse Park, Newport on the Levee and some of Cincinnati’s favorite shopping spots. That’s as UC’s College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services (CECH) and Carl H. Lindner College of Business enter the second year of a three-year educational partnership with Salahaddin University-Hawler in Erbil, Iraq, a Kurdish region in Northern Iraq.

The two-week summer workshops get underway on July 5. UC was among only five U.S. institutions selected for the university linkages program, an initiative sponsored by the Academy for Educational Development – a nonprofit organization that works to improve education around the world – and the American Embassy in Baghdad.

Gulbahar Beckett, UC associate professor of teacher education and director of the Center for International Education and Research, says that UC was matched with Salahaddin University-Hawler because of CECH’s national reputation in building excellence in teaching, as well as its strengths in distance learning programs and faculty expertise in English-as-a-Foreign Language and English literacy studies. The support from UC’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business includes expertise in distance learning and in economics, business and finance, as Salahaddin University-Hawler begins the creation of a new academic department of banking and finance.

The partnerships are funded by a three-year grant from the U.S. Department of State.

Beckett says the exploration of the American public education system will also include a trip down the street to Cincinnati Public’s Hughes Center, one of UC’s K-16 educational partners.

“We also think the visit to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center might be of special interest to our guests who are from a Kurdish region that battled for independence,” Beckett says. The CECH team in the partnership includes Beckett, Holly Johnson, head of the School of Education, Laura Dell, academic director of distance learning, and Constance Kendall Theado, assistant professor and coordinator, postsecondary literacy instruction. George Vredeveld, director of the Economics Center for Education and Research, will be conducting career workshops in the Carl H. Lindner College of Business.

The delegation’s most recent visit to Cincinnati was last fall. The partnership aims to accomplish the following goals:

• Strengthen the expertise of Iraqi faculty
• Strengthen Iraqi faculty skills in teaching
• Increase Iraqi faculty research talent
• Strengthen online learning and teaching skills
• Build international exchange opportunities
• Establish a Hawler community career center
• Increase fluency in English

The Salahaddin University-Hawler visitors will depart Cincinnati on July 18.

Other U.S. partners in the linkages program are Ball State University, Oklahoma State University, Cleveland State University and the University of Kentucky.