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Faculty and Staff

College of Education Faculty & Staff have engaged globally through:

Dr. Mary Ann Danowitz led a faculty delegation to Finland.

Dr. Hiller Spires initiated the partnership with Beijing Royal School (BRS) by leading a delegation to conduct the New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute with teachers at BRS in 2010. The ongoing partnership with BRS includes a variety of activities including: BRS teachers attending NC State to receive their M.Ed. in the New Literacies & Global Learning program, BRS teachers attending New Literacies Teacher Leader Institutes at the Friday Institute, and BRS students and teachers participating in Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global. For her work with BRS, Dr. Spires received NCSU’s Jackson Rigney International Service Award in 2011.

She led a study abroad program to China in May 2019.

She led a delegation to China for the PBI Global Summit held in Suzhou on May 30, 2018

She has also facilitated the New Literacies Teacher Leader Institute (NLI) in Kitale, Kenya

Dr. Micha Jeffries and Dr. Joanna Greer Koch are faculty leads of Mexico: Culture, Language and Service Learning for Educators. This short-term immersion is designed to provide student teachers with first hand experience working with students in a different cultural context, thereby helping them develop valuable skills to prepare them to teach in diverse learning environments.  In Summer 2015, 7 Students participated in Spanish language classes and visited graduate education classes at Universidad Iberoamericana. It was an opportunity for CED students to learn about and exchange views about education with Mexican students. Thanks to them, students who had practiced in this program got the chance to develop their intercultural competence through service learning while volunteering in local schools in Guanajuato, and living with a local family, for a truly immersive experience.

Dr. John Nietfeld has delivered invited lectures as part of the Contemporary Issues in Psychology program at the University of Jyvaskyla (JYU), Finland since 2007. Participants are a mix of Finnish students, Erasmus students from across Europe, and also international students from other continents. This opportunity has led to the opportunity to exchange ideas related to educational psychology and international educational processes with students from across the world and has even led to the recruitment of one doctoral student at NC State. He and Dr. Paul Umbach co facilitated a graduate study abroad program called Exploring Collaborative Resarch Partnerships in Finland and Estonia in Summer 2018.

Dr. Kevin Oliver co-taught the study abroad professional development course for in-service teachers on the integrated topic of writing, technology, and culture. Drs. Pritchard and Oliver received NC State’s 2015 Gertrude Cox Award for Innovative Excellence in Teaching and Learning with Technology for their innovative use of technology to prompt cultural reflecting during study abroad. With the help of the Brochart grant, Dr. Oliver has led other professional development trips for in service teachers to Finland, Sweden and Czech Republic.

Dr. Ruie Pritchard and Dr. Kevin Oliver gained funding from the Triangle Community Foundation’s Borchardt Fund aimed at promoting international exposure for teachers in Wake, Durham, Orange, and Chatham counties to sponsor North Carolina classroom teachers to participate in a study abroad program called New Literacies: Literal and Virtual Learning Through Cross-Cultural Connections for teachers to travel and study for 2 weeks in England in 2011, 2013 & 2014. Dr. Pritchard firmly believes that international experiences are necessary for educators to understand global contexts and to integrate broader perspectives into their lesson plans.


Dr. SiuMan Raymond Ting took students to Beijing, China in May, 2017 for a short study abroad program. During the program, our counseling students presented at the International Graduate Student Conference on Applied Psychology, which was co-organized by North Carolina State University and Beijing Normal University, a top psychology program in China. We also offered a two-day workshop on basic counseling skills to the teachers of Beijing Royal School. Students also had an opportunity to ride on the high speed train to visit XiAn, the ancient capital of China and visited the Terracotta Army Museum, a UNESCO world heritage.

Dr. Angela Wiseman is collaborating with literacy researchers from the University of Tampere in Tampere, Finland on a research project about mulitliteracies. Multiliteracies research is an emerging topic that is increasingly important to the understanding of literacy research and pedagogy. In the U.S., research on classroom perspectives and curriculum about multiliteracies, technology, and literacy is limited; in Finland it is nonexistent. International research that provides a comparative analysis in the U.S. and Finland will provide further understanding on how classrooms can embrace advances in technology to promote expansive and inclusive ways of learning and representing that embrace the diverse perspectives found in our 21st century classrooms.

Dr. Chad Hoggan has delivered invited lectures on his work with transformative learning theory at several universities across Europe, including: University of Padua (Italy), University of Siena (Italy), University of Aosta (Italy), Christ Canterbury Church University (England), University of Edinburgh (Scotland), University of Huddersfield (England). He has also presented at conferences around Europe, including in Edinburgh, Scotland; Glasgow, Scotland; Athens, Greece; and Freiburg, Germany. He has long-standing collaborations with European colleagues that has led to useful theoretical developments and practical applications of his work. One current project is developing educational programs in Ukraine and Germany to help immigrants transition more successfully to their new economic, social, and political environments.