2011 Heiskell Award Winner: Best Practices in International Partnerships

Nomination submitted by: Harriet Turner, Harold E. Spencer Professor of Modern Language

Program Overview
The University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) is recognized for its innovative exchange with the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), the Harold E. Spencer Exchange in Teacher Education. "Even in Nebraska, the most rapidly growing segment of our population is Spanish-speaking," says Linda Ray Pratt, Executive Vice President and Provost. "As the United States increasingly becomes a bilingual society, richness of cultural understanding is more important in our teachers than ever before."

Three components comprise the program's curriculum and activities: immersion in language and culture; academic course work in pedagogy; and a teaching practicum in elementary and secondary schools. This integration of academic work and service learning is designed to refine a student's understanding of pedagogy and second-language acquisition as these disciplines are applied cross-culturally between the U.S. and Spain.

Program Implementation
Read the winning nomination, including details on how the program achieves its objectives