Diversity Committee Outreach

EGYPT PARTNERSHIP

Department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology

In 2015, the department of Educational Leadership and Research Methodology (ELRM), FAU, joined Balanced Education, Cairo, Egypt, to form a partnership, bringing additional expertise in educational leadership and curriculum, as well as new perspectives to the design and delivery of professional development programs. The partnership began with a commitment to provide professional development for 10,000 public school teachers predicated on the belief that education is a lever for equity. The FAU team rallied behind a vision to improve student learning by building teacher capacity using a teacher-of-teacher model. Feiman-Nesmer (2001) argued, “What students learn, is directly related to what and how teachers teach; and how teachers teach depends on the knowledge, skills and commitments they bring to their practice “(p.103). Faculty in the ELRM department, together with Faculty from the department of Curriculum Culture and Educational Inquiry (CCEI) were responsible for creating curriculum for a professional development program to prepare teacher leaders from a private international school who would then become the first two cohorts of PD facilitators to teachers in experimental public schools across Egypt. Teachers in experimental public schools were targeted as a first step because these schools were perceived as possible vehicles for quality education to advance social mobility opportunities for lower middle-class families in Egypt.

TV Interview with Dr. Barakat in Egypt

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CAMP SUPERSTAR

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Since 2008, Florida Atlantic University has hosted Camp Superstar, a summer weekend event for children with craniofacial anomalies and their families. FAU graduate students who are studying to be future speech-language pathologists volunteer their entire weekend to serve as “pals” for the participants of the camp who range in age from 8 to 18 years.