COE Hosts President, Faculty From Two Filipino Universities

Five education faculty members from two universities in the Philippines, including the president of one of the universities, will be living, learning and sharing their educational insights here over the next three weeks with students and professors in UGA's College of Education.

The visit, the second this year by professors from West Visayas State University (WVSU) and Western Mindanao State University (WMSU), is part of a two-year Fulbright Educational Partnership Grant received by science education faculty at UGA.

The Filipino teacher educators will attend colloquiums with UGA faculty, visit Pinewood Estates, a mobile home community in Athens in which UGA students do volunteer tutoring of Hispanic students in an after-school outreach program, and observe a UGA service-learning class related to science at Barnett Shoals Elementary School.

The Fulbright Partnership is an expansion of the work of Deborah Tippins, a professor of science and elementary education, whose research into community-based science education over the past several years led her to the island of Panay in the Philippines. During the 2001-02 academic year, Tippins resided at WVSU as a Fulbright Scholar.

The visiting Filipino teacher educators will learn about some of the innovations in teacher preparation, particularly in relation to elementary science teaching and learning, exchange ideas regarding socio-cultural research in science education, and promote a deeper understanding of issues of culture and diversity, according to Tippins.

“These exchanges are important because there are more than a million Filipinos living and working in the U.S.,” she explains. “Cross-cultural exchanges can help American educators understand the experiences and backgrounds of these students.”

The visit also provides opportunity for both UGA and Filipino professors and students to erase some of the existing stereotypes.

“For example, the Filipino professors mentioned to me that they had a stereotype of U.S. students as ‘spoiled, rich students,'” says Tippins. “The professors were very surprised to learn how our students volunteer and contribute to their community through service learning.”

Similarly, Tippins says that U.S. students often think of the Philippines as a country much like Korea and Japan.

“They are very surprised to learn of the historical legacy in the Philippines – a culture very much influenced by the Spanish colonial period,” she says.

Filipino visitors include Lourdes Aranador, president of WVSU; Narissa Gangoso, professor of linguistics and literature; Imelda Espigar, coordinator of student teaching field experiences and director of the review center; Gerard Penecilla, professor of biology education; and Elsa Saavedra, professor of physics education.

The Fulbright Partnership, an initiative of the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, supports the three-way collaboration and exchange involving UGA science education faculty, the Regional Science Teaching Center and College of Education at WVSU and the Regional Science Teaching Center of WMSU.

The first of several planned faculty exchanges took place last February when a small group of UGA science education professors visited a variety of rural, coastal and mountain communities in the western Philippines. In March, the first visit came from Filipino faculty.

A second group of UGA faculty will visit the Philippines in February 2005. The group includes Michael Padilla, director of educator partnerships and professor of science education; Steve Oliver, associate professor of science education; Tom Koballa, professor of science education; Martha Allexsaht-Snider, associate professor of elementary education and Tippins. As part of the Fulbright grant, several faculty members have collaborated to publish a chapter entitled “Creating community-based science education research: Narratives from a Filipino barangay” in George Spindler's new book, New Horizons in Educational Ethnography.

In addition to discussions with UGA education faculty and students, the visitors will see programs on cloning cows, toxicology and computer animation of biological processes at UGA's veterinary school laboratories; attend the Southeastern Association for the Education of Teachers in Science in Gainesville, FL.; and visit the Atlanta Zoo, the Fernbank Museum and the Stone Mountain Environmental Interpretation Program.

The visitors will also be entertained with trips to Sea World and Universal Studies in Orlando. They'll visit the J&J Flea Market on their way to attending Octoberfest celebrations in Helen and experience Halloween and trick-or-treating.

Thursday, October 21, 2004
WRITER: Nicole Richardson, 706/542-5889, nrichard@uga.edu
CONTACT: Deborah Tippins, 706/542-1763, dtippins@coe.uga.edu