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Multi-Cultural Jan Term Field Experience
 Our multicultural/intercultural education component of the Whitworth University teacher certification program, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, began in 1984 with a now-retired professor who took a group of students to the small central Washington town of Wapato during the three-week January Term. One purpose of the class was to immerse the Whitworth students into the diverse Wapato school district. This district serves a large Hispanic and Native American population.
Since that time the program has continued to grow in size and sites; we now place over 100 students each January in educational settings all over the world. The preceding prerequisite, Introduction to Intercultural Education, and the Jan Term immersion satisfy the required multicultural component in teacher education for certification. Whitworth students, we feel, have the best multicultural piece in their certification program of any university in a large geographical area. Our program was commended by NCATE and we have received many requests for information about "how we do it," particularly with the budget of a small, private, liberal arts institution.
Our aim is to deepen and broaden our students' experience. Most of our teacher education candidates have grown up in middle or upper middle suburban or rural schools. We have developed a large number of successful, cooperative programs with a wide variety of multicultural sites. Additionally, our entire School of Education faculty is involved in some way in our multicultural program.
 Students first take a one-credit course, EDM 536A - Introduction to Multicultural/Intercultural Education, that is taught by OJ Cotes. This experiential-based course emphasizes theory and the connection of that theory to their upcoming three-week multicultural immersion experience. Self-understanding and the understanding of one's own culture is critical for entering, participating and communicating effectively in another culture. Master in Teaching candidates work with these and related topics in EDM 536A.
For the Jan Term experience, the students are asked to choose a site that is very different from their own background and experiences. Sites vary greatly and include an orphanage school in Korea, inner-city schools in San Francisco, an international school in Taiwan, and a private Christian academy in Thailand. Some students work in Native American tribal schools or other schools located on or near Native American reservations. For students needing to stay in the immediate Spokane area, we have developed a number of local sites that provide an experience that immerses them in tribal schools, ESL programs for children and adults, local refugee resettlement programs, and public schools that serve low-income areas and special populations such as street and homeless children. Many of the local site schools serve the families of the 15,000 Russian immigrants granted refugee status in our area.
Additionally, students are given the ability to design their own Jan Term program. These students must submit their proposal to the professors who teach the multicultural course to be sure that it meets program criteria.
All of our university students participate in a debriefing following their Jan Term of multicultural immersion. They share what they did, what they learned, and what they still have to learn about effectively communicating across cultures. Additionally, they discuss how this immersion and the course will affect their future teaching. The power of their insights is exceptional. |
