What is education beyond borders all about?

The concept of education in the twenty-first century has outgrown its twentieth-century meaning. It is time to move beyond measures of disparity by race, ethnicity, and gender to education beyond borders. Education takes place in conditions ranging from a one room, rural classroom with one teacher instructing students in many grades to individual students tapping into distance learning all over the world beyond physical borders. Degrees, credentials, and certifications connote a measure of formal education and organizations. For the twenty- -first century, however, education is not necessarily synonymous with credits earned toward some finite degree or credential. Rather, ongoing learning and the sharing/creation ofknowledge are lifelong processes for individuals and organizations. Increasingly innovation, and creative productive capital demand a multidisciplinary approach. This is not to say that there is no longer a role for formal education but to acknowledge the value of ongoing informal education and shared knowledge, especially performance-based knowledge and team work.

(Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/ concept-of-education. Adapted.)

What is education beyond borders all about?

The concept of education in the twenty-first century has outgrown its twentieth-century meaning. It is time to move beyond measures of disparity by race, ethnicity, and gender to education beyond borders. Education takes place in conditions ranging from a one room, rural classroom with one teacher instructing students in many grades to individual students tapping into distance learning all over the world beyond physical borders. Degrees, credentials, and certifications connote a measure of formal education and organizations. For the twenty- -first century, however, education is not necessarily synonymous with credits earned toward some finite degree or credential. Rather, ongoing learning and the sharing/creation ofknowledge are lifelong processes for individuals and organizations. Increasingly innovation, and creative productive capital demand a multidisciplinary approach. This is not to say that there is no longer a role for formal education but to acknowledge the value of ongoing informal education and shared knowledge, especially performance-based knowledge and team work.

(Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/ concept-of-education. Adapted.)

What is education beyond borders all about?

The concept of education in the twenty-first century has outgrown its twentieth-century meaning. It is time to move beyond measures of disparity by race, ethnicity, and gender to education beyond borders. Education takes place in conditions ranging from a one room, rural classroom with one teacher instructing students in many grades to individual students tapping into distance learning all over the world beyond physical borders. Degrees, credentials, and certifications connote a measure of formal education and organizations. For the twenty- -first century, however, education is not necessarily synonymous with credits earned toward some finite degree or credential. Rather, ongoing learning and the sharing/creation ofknowledge are lifelong processes for individuals and organizations. Increasingly innovation, and creative productive capital demand a multidisciplinary approach. This is not to say that there is no longer a role for formal education but to acknowledge the value of ongoing informal education and shared knowledge, especially performance-based knowledge and team work.

(Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/ concept-of-education. Adapted.)

Public policies for English teaching, an overview of
Brazilian public network experience

Next year, 2020, English teaching will become compulsory in public schools in Brazil. The government has recognised that, if it wants to have a world class economy that can negotiate internationally, having a greater percentage of people who can operate in English is an essential requirement, not a luxury. A study carried out by Move Social exclusively for the British Council, the first comprehensive analysis of how Brazilian states are creating a basis for compulsory teaching and learning of English has been issued. The study is supplemented by analyses and reflections by professionals from the area of education and English language teaching, and also describes some inspirational practices. As was to be expected, the results show great variations in the states’ level of preparation, even though a considerable amount of work has been done in developing curricula to comply with the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) [Commom National Curricular Base]. There is also an important analysis of the positioning in state documents about a focus on traditional grammar versus essential communication skills for the 21st century listed in the BNCC.

According to the survey Demandas de Aprendizagem de Inglês no Brasil [Demand for English Learning in Brazil, British Council, 2013], only 5.1 per cent of the population aged 16 or more claim to have some knowledge of English. This claim, however, is more a question of perception and does not necessarily translate into actual knowledge of the language. Among the younger people, aged from 18 to 24 — who have completed or are about to complete their secondary education — the number claiming to speak English doubles to 10.3 per cent. Even so, this is a low percentage if we consider that most Brazilian students spend at least seven years studying English at school – more specifically, from the sixth grade of lower secondary education to the third grade of upper secondary education, for an average of two hours a week. There are also students who take English lessons at private language institutions or on courses offered before or after class by the public networks themselves. If we want to disrupt this conflicting situation and offer quality English teaching for all as part of the basic curriculum, we have to understand what it is during their time at school that determines whether or not they learn the language properly.

(Available at https://www.britishcouncil.org.br. Adapted.)

America could soon face a wave of single moms being evicted

(By Lauren Sandler; may 28/2021.)

It will be the true measure of our society and the predictor of our future: Whenever the CDC moratorium on evictions expires – which it’s set to do next month — millions of people could find themselves homeless. And perhaps most heavily represented among those millions are single mothers and their kids. These mothers are not numbers, they are people. People with names and narratives, with passions and ambitions. Data can tell us who is unemployed, who is on welfare, who is at risk for eviction, who is homeless. Data is an aggregate of lives distilled into cold figures, devoid of humanity. And yet the statistics of this pandemic year tell a staggering story. Women’s labor force participation has dropped to 57% since the pandemic began, and of all groups of parents, single moms have seen the biggest drop in the proportion who are employed. The service industry, a sector largely made up of women of color, shed more jobs than any other sector. Pandemic life – with massive unemployment, zoom schooling and social isolation — has brutalized no group as direly as the single mothers raising 15.76 million children. Lost jobs mean no money for rent, at least with our miserly welfare system. It didn’t have to be this way. It still doesn’t. For decades, researchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Harvard have shown that vouchers providing rent payment are themost effective form of homelessness-prevention intervention. Families who receive vouchers are not only less likely to experience housing instability, they’re also less likely to need foster care. And they’re considerably less likely to experience domestic violence: four times as many housing-insecure women report abuse compared to those with greater stability. Despite all this, Section 8 program, which provides housing assistance to families, is severely underfunded. We are defined by who we deem worthy of investment, as an economy as well as an ethical society. Today we are failing ourselves on both counts.

(Available at https://time.com. Adapted.)

America could soon face a wave of single moms being evicted

(By Lauren Sandler; may 28/2021.)

It will be the true measure of our society and the predictor of our future: Whenever the CDC moratorium on evictions expires – which it’s set to do next month — millions of people could find themselves homeless. And perhaps most heavily represented among those millions are single mothers and their kids. These mothers are not numbers, they are people. People with names and narratives, with passions and ambitions. Data can tell us who is unemployed, who is on welfare, who is at risk for eviction, who is homeless. Data is an aggregate of lives distilled into cold figures, devoid of humanity. And yet the statistics of this pandemic year tell a staggering story. Women’s labor force participation has dropped to 57% since the pandemic began, and of all groups of parents, single moms have seen the biggest drop in the proportion who are employed. The service industry, a sector largely made up of women of color, shed more jobs than any other sector. Pandemic life – with massive unemployment, zoom schooling and social isolation — has brutalized no group as direly as the single mothers raising 15.76 million children. Lost jobs mean no money for rent, at least with our miserly welfare system. It didn’t have to be this way. It still doesn’t. For decades, researchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Harvard have shown that vouchers providing rent payment are themost effective form of homelessness-prevention intervention. Families who receive vouchers are not only less likely to experience housing instability, they’re also less likely to need foster care. And they’re considerably less likely to experience domestic violence: four times as many housing-insecure women report abuse compared to those with greater stability. Despite all this, Section 8 program, which provides housing assistance to families, is severely underfunded. We are defined by who we deem worthy of investment, as an economy as well as an ethical society. Today we are failing ourselves on both counts.

(Available at https://time.com. Adapted.)

America could soon face a wave of single
moms being evicted

(By Lauren Sandler; may 28/2021.)

It will be the true measure of our society and the predictor of our future: Whenever the CDC moratorium on evictions expires – which it’s set to do next month — millions of people could find themselves homeless. And perhaps most heavily represented among those millions are single mothers and their kids. These mothers are not numbers, they are people. People with names and narratives, with passions and ambitions. Data can tell us who is unemployed, who is on welfare, who is at risk for eviction, who is homeless. Data is an aggregate of lives distilled into cold figures, devoid of humanity. And yet the statistics of this pandemic year tell a staggering story. Women’s labor force participation has dropped to 57% since the pandemic began, and of all groups of parents, single moms have seen the biggest drop in the proportion who are employed. The service industry, a sector largely made up of women of color, shed more jobs than any other sector. Pandemic life – with massive unemployment, zoom schooling and social isolation — has brutalized no group as direly as the single mothers raising 15.76 million children. Lost jobs mean no money for rent, at least with our miserly welfare system. It didn’t have to be this way. It still doesn’t. For decades, researchers from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to Harvard have shown that vouchers providing rent payment are themost effective form of homelessness-prevention intervention. Families who receive vouchers are not only less likely to experience housing instability, they’re also less likely to need foster care. And they’re considerably less likely to experience domestic violence: four times as many housing-insecure women report abuse compared to those with greater stability. Despite all this, Section 8 program, which provides housing assistance to families, is severely underfunded. We are defined by who we deem worthy of investment, as an economy as well as an ethical society. Today we are failing ourselves on both counts.

(Available at https://time.com. Adapted.)

Using Podcasts in World Language Classes

(Elena Spathis; September 03/2021.)

In a sense, language teachers act as tour guides as we lead our students through the unfamiliar territory that is a newlanguage. Over the course of this cultural and linguistic journey, we hope to witness them as they grow into culturally competent communicators. Therefore, we must ensure that they have ample opportunities to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the target language throughout the school year. Each year, my students consistently share that they find listening comprehension tasks to be the most difficult and nerve-racking. Without a doubt, listening to native speakers use the language at a fast pace can be daunting for language learners of all ages. To help build my students’ listening skills as well as their cultural awareness, I strive to expose them to a wide range of culturally rich songs, videos, and audio clips. Repeated practice improves their skills and builds their confidence.

With the rise in popularity of audiobooks and podcasts over the past few years, I suddenly thought to myself, why not integrate podcasts into my classes? Rather than repeatedly playing quick audio clips for my students, I felt that a podcast could tell a compelling story. This was likely to immediately engage them and hopefully could make listening to the target language a bit less overwhelming. I found myself exploring the award-winning Radio Ambulante by NPR, despite the fact that it was not a traditional language-learning podcast. Upon browsing the multitude of culturally focused podcasts on the site, I noticed that they aligned well with my units. Many of the episodes focused on immigration experiences, while others discussed environmental challenges or global issues. When using any podcast, I focus on designing pre-listening, while- -listening, and post-listening activities for students to complete. Here are some key steps for incorporating podcasts.

1. Preview the material. Prior to listening to the podcast, I present students with the title and theme of the episode and ask them to share what they know about the particular topic. I also have them make predictions in pairs as to what the podcast might address. This sets them up for success once they start listening.

2. Encourage active listening. While students listen to each podcast section, I provide them with cloze-style activities or a series of open-ended comprehension questions, students need to fill in the blanks with missing words; you can have them focus on verbs, nouns, adjectives, or a mix. I often have them participate in think-pair-share activities and ask them to share their responses with a partner. Sometimes I simply ask them to share what they’ve understood in the target language aloud.

3. Finish with reflection. Upon listening to the entirety of the podcast, I lead a whole-class discussion in which we collectively talk about the highlights and takeaways. While improving students’ listening skills is at the forefront, podcasts also allow for a wide range of speaking and writing tasks. If you are looking for podcast options take a look at an article in Afar magazine called “15 Best Podcasts to Help You Master a New Language”, which is broken down by proficiency level and language. Instead of treating listening comprehension as a drill, we can take a more creative and engaging approach by exploring world-language podcasts.

(Available at: https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-podcasts-worldlanguage- classes.)

Using Podcasts in World Language Classes

(Elena Spathis; September 03/2021.)

In a sense, language teachers act as tour guides as we lead our students through the unfamiliar territory that is a newlanguage. Over the course of this cultural and linguistic journey, we hope to witness them as they grow into culturally competent communicators. Therefore, we must ensure that they have ample opportunities to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the target language throughout the school year. Each year, my students consistently share that they find listening comprehension tasks to be the most difficult and nerve-racking. Without a doubt, listening to native speakers use the language at a fast pace can be daunting for language learners of all ages. To help build my students’ listening skills as well as their cultural awareness, I strive to expose them to a wide range of culturally rich songs, videos, and audio clips. Repeated practice improves their skills and builds their confidence.

With the rise in popularity of audiobooks and podcasts over the past few years, I suddenly thought to myself, why not integrate podcasts into my classes? Rather than repeatedly playing quick audio clips for my students, I felt that a podcast could tell a compelling story. This was likely to immediately engage them and hopefully could make listening to the target language a bit less overwhelming. I found myself exploring the award-winning Radio Ambulante by NPR, despite the fact that it was not a traditional language-learning podcast. Upon browsing the multitude of culturally focused podcasts on the site, I noticed that they aligned well with my units. Many of the episodes focused on immigration experiences, while others discussed environmental challenges or global issues. When using any podcast, I focus on designing pre-listening, while- -listening, and post-listening activities for students to complete. Here are some key steps for incorporating podcasts.

1. Preview the material. Prior to listening to the podcast, I present students with the title and theme of the episode and ask them to share what they know about the particular topic. I also have them make predictions in pairs as to what the podcast might address. This sets them up for success once they start listening.

2. Encourage active listening. While students listen to each podcast section, I provide them with cloze-style activities or a series of open-ended comprehension questions, students need to fill in the blanks with missing words; you can have them focus on verbs, nouns, adjectives, or a mix. I often have them participate in think-pair-share activities and ask them to share their responses with a partner. Sometimes I simply ask them to share what they’ve understood in the target language aloud.

3. Finish with reflection. Upon listening to the entirety of the podcast, I lead a whole-class discussion in which we collectively talk about the highlights and takeaways. While improving students’ listening skills is at the forefront, podcasts also allow for a wide range of speaking and writing tasks. If you are looking for podcast options take a look at an article in Afar magazine called “15 Best Podcasts to Help You Master a New Language”, which is broken down by proficiency level and language. Instead of treating listening comprehension as a drill, we can take a more creative and engaging approach by exploring world-language podcasts.

(Available at: https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-podcasts-worldlanguage- classes.)

Using Podcasts in World Language Classes

(Elena Spathis; September 03/2021.)

In a sense, language teachers act as tour guides as we lead our students through the unfamiliar territory that is a newlanguage. Over the course of this cultural and linguistic journey, we hope to witness them as they grow into culturally competent communicators. Therefore, we must ensure that they have ample opportunities to practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing in the target language throughout the school year. Each year, my students consistently share that they find listening comprehension tasks to be the most difficult and nerve-racking. Without a doubt, listening to native speakers use the language at a fast pace can be daunting for language learners of all ages. To help build my students’ listening skills as well as their cultural awareness, I strive to expose them to a wide range of culturally rich songs, videos, and audio clips. Repeated practice improves their skills and builds their confidence.

With the rise in popularity of audiobooks and podcasts over the past few years, I suddenly thought to myself, why not integrate podcasts into my classes? Rather than repeatedly playing quick audio clips for my students, I felt that a podcast could tell a compelling story. This was likely to immediately engage them and hopefully could make listening to the target language a bit less overwhelming. I found myself exploring the award-winning Radio Ambulante by NPR, despite the fact that it was not a traditional language-learning podcast. Upon browsing the multitude of culturally focused podcasts on the site, I noticed that they aligned well with my units. Many of the episodes focused on immigration experiences, while others discussed environmental challenges or global issues. When using any podcast, I focus on designing pre-listening, while- -listening, and post-listening activities for students to complete. Here are some key steps for incorporating podcasts.

1. Preview the material. Prior to listening to the podcast, I present students with the title and theme of the episode and ask them to share what they know about the particular topic. I also have them make predictions in pairs as to what the podcast might address. This sets them up for success once they start listening.

2. Encourage active listening. While students listen to each podcast section, I provide them with cloze-style activities or a series of open-ended comprehension questions, students need to fill in the blanks with missing words; you can have them focus on verbs, nouns, adjectives, or a mix. I often have them participate in think-pair-share activities and ask them to share their responses with a partner. Sometimes I simply ask them to share what they’ve understood in the target language aloud.

3. Finish with reflection. Upon listening to the entirety of the podcast, I lead a whole-class discussion in which we collectively talk about the highlights and takeaways. While improving students’ listening skills is at the forefront, podcasts also allow for a wide range of speaking and writing tasks. If you are looking for podcast options take a look at an article in Afar magazine called “15 Best Podcasts to Help You Master a New Language”, which is broken down by proficiency level and language. Instead of treating listening comprehension as a drill, we can take a more creative and engaging approach by exploring world-language podcasts.

(Available at: https://www.edutopia.org/article/using-podcasts-worldlanguage- classes.)