Hello, Balfour Scholars
Welcome to Balfour Scholars Pre-college Academy. My name is Mina, one of your facilitators. I am currently a Ph.D. candidate (ABD) in the program of Curriculum Studies at School of Education in Indiana University. Before coming to IU, I spent five years working in public education as a nationally licensed elementary school teacher in South Korea. At IU, I worked as an Associate Instructor with the role of supervisor for the K495 Teaching All Learners (TAL) Field Experience Program and this experience got me interested in and familiarized with teaching in the unique and diverse environments of the U.S. classroom. In addition, this experience influenced on building my research interest in improving the quality of democracy in international contexts via citizenship education and curriculum reform by taking comparative and sociocultural perspectives.
Based on my teaching and research expertise, I would like us to have enjoyable and productive time to critically think about the following three themes with various artistic approaches: 1) Global Citizenship, 2) Westernization, & 3) Indigenous Knowledge. These three themes are worthwhile to be discussed for us to be global citizens in this interconnected era and ultimately improve the quality of democracy. What a certain society values as ideal often gets taught in its schools, and what and how students are taught often results in students developing certain ideals and values. Consequently, the meaning of democracy varies depending on common social values; rather than utilizing Western narratives of democracy within all societies, therefore, each society’s values should be examined in order to develop the best ways of educating for democracy in those specific contexts. At the end of the program, I hope, you will feel that democracy and desirable citizen in different parts of this globe should be understood from social and cultural perspectives.
I look forward to working with you, global citizens!
