Internationalizing Teacher Prep & Innovations in Internationalization

Overview

The Longview Foundation builds purposeful partnerships between state government, NGOs, colleges of education, and communities to integrate global competence into teacher and student experiences to prepare them for tomorrow. The tradition of supporting teachers and working with myriad policy and non-governmental partners to deliver high-quality international educational experiences to students.

As a small foundation, the Longview Foundation must focus its resources in order to have impact. Trustees have identified K-12 education in the U.S. as their area of interest and only fund projects that directly support building global perspectives in teachers and students. Proposals funded will advance the field or impact significant numbers of students.

Longview funds proposals for one-year grants focused on increasing global dimensions within K-12 education in the U.S. submitted using one of the following strategies. Successful applications will contribute to the field and/or will impact significant numbers of students.

We are placing a priority on applications that support professional development for teachers, globalizing career pathways, using AI to bring the world into your classroom, fostering civic discourse, and access to strong on-line global content in the categories as described below.

Innovations in Internationalization -- We seek to weave global competence into the fabric of school and teacher experiences to engage and inspire the people living in them to want to connect more meaningfully to the world.

We believe that there are many catalysts for public dialogue and that making global–local connections and encouraging shared cultural experiences contribute to a sense of place and communal identity.

Our innovations work specifically supports strategic, field–building activities that help address gaps in knowledge or capacity. Advancement of global education in new and creative mechanisms is particularly of interest. Previous grants in this field have ranged from connecting schools with communities around international children’s literature to building professional development resources for teachers that internationalize the U.S. History perspectives taught in middle and high school.

Learn more about the work we have supported and about current funding strategies in the innovations category.

Internationalizing Teacher Preparation -- As economic, social, and technological transformations link us in unprecedented ways, the critical role of teachers in preparing young people for a new global reality has never been clearer; yet, few teachers begin their careers with the deep knowledge and robust skills necessary to bring the world into their classrooms.

In February 2008, the Longview Foundation brought together leaders in education, government, and other sectors to examine what is currently being done in schools, colleges, and departments of education to prepare future teachers for the new global reality and to generate momentum to do more. The result was the commissioning of a new report and funding stream for Longview.

Teacher Preparation for the Global Age: The Imperative for Change, highlights promising practices identified during this meeting and subsequent discussions and suggests a framework for internationalizing the education of all pre–service teachers and increasing the number of world language teachers, especially in less commonly taught languages.

Teacher preparation programs that have been comprehensively internationalized ensure that the following actions occur:

• General education coursework helps each prospective teacher to develop deep knowledge of at least one world region, culture, or global issue, and facility in one language in addition to English.

• Professional education courses teach the pedagogical skills to enable future teachers to teach the global dimensions of their subject matter.

• Field experiences for faculty and students support the development of pre–service teachers’ global perspectives and contribute the broader research base of the aligned strategic plan.

• More teachers are prepared to teach less commonly taught languages and language education pedagogy is updated based on current research and best practice.

• There are incentives, not barriers, to faculty at all levels engaging in this work.

In addition, since the publication of the report, the following elements have been identified as critical to comprehensive, sustainable internationalization for today’s teacher education programs:

• Programs and courses are creating and utilizing formative and summative assessments to evaluate the effectiveness of new strategies in developing the global competence of prospective teachers.

• Technology is integrated into the student experience to enhance instructional practice and to facilitate connections to the world.

• Prerequisites for language study are in place and opportunities to build further proficiency and language application exist during students’ course of study.

• Key partnerships locally, regionally, and nationally exist and larger reform initiatives tie back to campus and college’s strategic plans.

• All work aligns to the global aspects of the college and campus strategic vision.

Though the strategies outlined in this report have begun to represent a consensus on the best way forward, we hope they will continue to inspire and challenge teacher preparation to embrace its pivotal role in educating teachers to better prepare tomorrow’s citizens for their roles in the world. We know this is just a beginning. Please share your ideas and examples with us!

Learn more about our fellows program, other work we have supported and about current funding strategies in the teacher preparation category.

The grant application process has three stages:
1) an eligibility quiz, 2) a short form Letter of Intent, 3) and a Full Proposal by invitation only. 

The foundation is interested in supporting activities that have other sources of funding and can demonstrate sustainability beyond the grant period.

Most grants will be between $15,000 and $25,000.