For Immediate Release
Follow the students on the trip to China, read the UTB/TSC Doctoral Class’ blog at http://utbtscdoctoralchinaclass.blogspot.com/
Email this story
UTB/TSC College of Education Faculty, Doctoral Students To Travel To China
BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – JUNE 19, 2009 – Faculty and doctoral students from The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College will travel to China later this month to learn about language and culture.
The College of Education Doctoral Program will teach a portion of its English as a Second Language for Bilingual and Multicultural Settings course overseas from Wednesday, June 17 to Monday, June 29.
Nine doctoral program students will make the trip. Traveling with them will be Department of Language, Literacy and Intercultural Studies professor Dr. Graciela Rosenberg and Department of Teaching, Learning and Innovation professor Dr. Bobbette Morgan, who is also the program’s director and the Houston Endowed Chair in Education.
“The class is perfect to help them understand cultures and the structure of the English language,” Rosenberg said. “I want to give the students the ability to teach in a multicultural setting.”
Participants will visit Beijing, Xi’an, Guilin, Yangshuo and Shanghai. The UTB/TSC delegation will visit schools to observe teaching practices, take a boat cruise on the Li River and visit a traditional Chinese tea house and Tiananmen Square in Beijing, the Museum of the Terra-Cotta Army in Xi’an, Jin Mao Tower in Shanghai and other sites.
“I think it’s always important to learn about different places and cultures in the world, to be familiar and immersed in the culture,” Morgan said.
Students are paying about $2,700 to make the trip, with Morgan’s adding $1,000 to each student’s travel cost. Her contribution is coming from the $75,000, three year Houston Endowment, the largest philanthropic foundation in Texas. Morgan was named a Houston chair last fall.
Students will still pay University tuition and fees for the summer session I class and receive academic credit. The class is an elective in the Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction program with specializations in bilingual studies, early childhood and literacy.
Students will keep a trip journal, make a presentation and research questions they have about the Chinese education system.
Doctoral student William Thomas “Trey” Roach, an assistant principal at Weslaco High School in Weslaco, is pursuing the bilingual studies specialization and is scheduled to graduate with the degree’s first cohort in December 2010. He is looking forward to seeing how students are learning Chinese and English at the same time to become fluently bilingual as they get older.
“My school district is allowing me to take a video camera to record some of the things going on there,” Roach said. “I am going to use that as an educational and motivational tool for our teachers to show what is going on over there.”
Rosenberg has led master’s level students taking the class in past years to Ciudad Victoria, Mexico. She said she hopes the experience in China will be just as good for her and the students.
“It was fantastic because we made good connections and they got in touch with teachers there. And when they got back, they had people to correspond with,” Rosenberg said about the Mexico trips.
Morgan said she wants to have similar trips to other nations in 2010 and 2011, the year her endowed chair status ends.
“I would like to visit different places in the world that I probably wouldn’t and to have students visit, too,” she said.
For more information, contact Morgan at (956) 882-7965 or bobbette.morgan@utb.edu.