Faculty

A linguistic anthropologist by trade, Dr. Limerick’s research focuses on how traditionally marginalized peoples work within state-forms of schooling, and how institutions affect people’s communication and engagement in language revitalization. Specifically, his work primarily centers on grassroots Kichwa revitalization in Ecuador, indigenous social movements, and the establishment of the Intercultural Bilingual Education System nationwide. Smaller in size and running parallel to the mainstream education system in Ecuador, the school system was founded through indigenous organizing and is primarily run by and for indigenous peoples to  provide indigenous education.

Also of interest to Dr. Limerick is the way teachers and schools work with different varieties of Kichwa, and how those stakeholders navigate the modernization of a language that does not necessarily have components to create words for things like “computer” or “hoverboard.” “More and more indigenous peoples live in cities and yet speak very different versions of what we consider to be the same language,” Dr. Limerick explained. This variation becomes an issue for teachers, as they are tasked with making sure that languages of all students in the classroom are included and valorized, while also creating a language standard that easily lends itself to teacher preparation regardless of access to teaching materials. A daunting challenge, Dr. Limerick’s work is focused on supporting Kichwa teachers who are searching for answers to this paradox.

A teaching stint in Ecuador straight out of college sparked Dr. Limerick’s original interest in indigenous education movements. The experience prompted him to live there for another six years, forming working relationships with indigenous education activists. He is now writing an ethnography about the experience of working in various national offices for the Intercultural Bilingual Education System as an indigenous person. Ecuador, like many other countries with a large indigenous population, has a long and difficult history of relations with these peoples. Dr. Limerick’s work examines what kind of tensions and difficulties emerge when the government or the nation-state you are working for has spent centuries trying to eradicate or assimilate you and your people. The tension lies in the unique context Indigenous Ecuadorians face. On one hand, while it is incredible that they were able to surpass all of the hurdles in the creation of the Intercultural Bilingual Education System, indigenous languages and peoples sometimes end up fitting into an existing structure, one created and determined by the government.

Not surprisingly, there is still much work to do. In looking towards the future, Dr. Limerick advised individuals who plan to become involved in international work to first establish a long-term, collaborative relationship, “It’s important not to come-and-go, but instead to put down roots and be involved in an ongoing dialogue, much of which is shaped by the interests of those in other parts of the world.”

— By: Tanwaporn Watanaporn (Editor: Blessing Nuga)

Catherine Crowley, J.D., Ph.D., is a Professor of Practice in the Communication Sciences and Disorders Program, Director of the Bilingual SLP Extension Institute, Coordinator of the Bilingual/Multicultural Program Focus, and Director of the Ghana and Bolivia programs at Teachers College. Since 2006, Dr. Crowley has led 23 service trips to Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Ghana, Peru, and the Philippines, where she and the students of Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) at Teachers College provide free services to people with communication disorders. As evidenced by her passion for service-oriented fieldwork learning as well as her students’ enthusiastic participation, she takes the title—Professor of Practice—especially to heart.

Dr. Crowley’s work with Teachers College began in 1998. Thanks to her unwavering dedication, her work with the SLP graduate students is known both nationally and internationally for its multicultural and bilingual focus in both clinical and research settings. Not only that, the work is an opportunity for students to acquire practical, high quality clinical skills and cultural competencies. Using her expertise in disability evaluations, Dr. Crowley addresses the disproportionate number of U.S. students referred to special education due to a lack of understanding of dialectical differences. Dr. Crowley believes that the key to these culturally responsive evaluations—and ultimately treatment and progress—is an evaluator’s ability to distinguish between the gaps in communication and disability. Her students acquire these skills as they provide services and work with families, teachers, and medical professionals on these international trips.

Now, more than half of the students in the master’s program—over 30 students a year—participate in Dr. Crowley’s service trips, many of which take place in international communities in dire need of fundamental services. Ghana, for example, a country with a population of 26 million people, is home to only five speech therapists. In collaboration with her colleagues at the University of Ghana, Dr. Crowley developed the country’s first SLP master’s program. The inaugural cohort began in 2016, and the first class of 13 students graduates in Spring 2018.

In working with these global communities, Dr. Crowley aims to build capacity and sustainability within local experts so that communities can begin to address their needs for speech therapists, and, in this way, become more self-sufficient. One example is the annual professional development retreat in Ghana for teachers of students with intellectual disabilities and autism, which has been running for the past seven years. Dr. Crowley also has a focus on cleft palate speech therapy, and has led cleft palate speech therapy training in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. She often includes her students in the training and offers free, online cleft palate speech therapy courses in Spanish and English. It was through this aim that the Law and Evidence-based Approaches for Disability Evaluation and Resources (LEADERS) Project was born. Since its inception, LEADERS has offered an open-sourced library of resources, training materials, and courses in a variety of languages for practitioners, educators, and families of children and adolescents with communication disorders.

Looking ahead, Dr. Crowley’s international involvement continues to increase. In January 2018, she plans to take another group of students to Ghana. This time, she will remain there for part of the semester to conduct research and teach in the master’s program. From there, Dr. Crowley will head to Paris for a language immersion program, so that she can expand her work to French-speaking countries in Africa. Afterwards, she plans to continue her work with Smile Train with a five-day speech therapy training institute for cleft palates across India, Africa, and Southeast Asia.

— By: Melanie Cooke

Dr. Mary Mendenhall isn’t simply an Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies, a committed researcher, or a loving mother; she’s also a pioneer. With a team of dedicated graduate students and the support of IDEO.org, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and the Office of International Affairs’ (OIA) Global Investment Fund (GIF) grant, Dr. Mendenhall spearheaded the pilot launch of “Teachers for Teachers”—a professional development initiative that combines teacher training, peer coaching, and mobile mentoring in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. Founded in 2015, Teachers for Teachers jumpstarts and sustains teacher professional development for refugee and national teachers providing education to refugees in Kenya.

In one of the largest refugee camps in the world—where 51% (90,673) of the population is under 18—only 31% of teachers have received any kind of training. The average teacher-to-student ratio is 1:103. The reality of such numbers led Dr. Mendenhall and her team to develop Teachers for Teachers. A comprehensive, open-source curriculum, Teachers for Teachers employs a three-pronged approach: (1) internationally and locally co-led training workshops for teachers; (2) in-person peer coaching and group support; and (3) mobile mentoring, through which teachers communicate with experienced teachers or passionate educators around the world using the mobile messaging device, Whatsapp. Dr. Mendenhall and her team aim to fill gaps in education for refugees in Kakuma Camp, Kenya and across the globe. They strive to make the model sustainable and dynamic as the program trains locals to become leaders in the camp’s education system: “What’s been amazing is that now that we have 132 teachers trained in this first round, we can draw on those same teachers to return to support future training and coaching activities. They are able to say in their own words what worked for them and what didn’t work. It just changes the dynamic and is far more effective when they’re right there co-leading with us.”

Dr. Mendenhall is quick to underscore the involvement of her students. Not only did they initiate the ambitious project, they are also indispensable in sustaining it. “A couple years ago, we started that process. It was a long process, but students who had taken my “Education Emergencies” class were really motivated, really committed, and coincidentally many of them were teachers themselves. We continued working together and we wrote—they wrote, heavily—the curriculum that’s now become the training pack for primary school teachers in crisis contexts.” With the GIF grant, Dr. Mendenhall and two Master’s students—Charlotte Bergin and Peter Bjorklund—spent several weeks in Kakuma to collect data for the pilot launch. Charlotte went on to be hired as a consultant analyzing the pilot data and drafting the final curriculum, which was developed in collaboration with the inter-agency Teachers in Crisis Contexts Working Group. Another student on the team, Kathleen Denny, joined the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to pilot the project in Iraq.

To the outside eye, the pilot of Teachers for Teachers couldn’t have been more successful. Even so, bolstered by this initial success, Dr. Mendenhall and her students eagerly anticipate further growth. Since its inception in Kakuma, the open-sourced curriculum has been adapted by additional organizations to fit the contexts and profiles of teachers in other refugee communities, including those in Iraq and Burundi. Teachers for Teachers is also in the process of adapting the model for use at the secondary level and in a nearby settlement—Kalobeyei—as part of a UN-led initiative to integrate refugees with national Kenyans. However, it’s not just the growing numbers and growing interest that keeps Dr. Mendenhall and her research team motivated, “…It’s the resilience the teachers have, despite having 200 kids in their classroom and not enough books. It’s that they’re still eager to be teachers because they know that education is what it will take to get out of that camp someday, and to have other opportunities. They just kind of blow me away. They’re so grateful for us, and yet they have no idea that what they’re giving us is so much more than what we could ever give them.”

Teachers for Teachers is currently fundraising to update the curriculum and expand its reach. If you would like to help, you can get in touch with them here.

— By: Melanie Cooke