Alissa Smith
Educational Policy Studies Special Major
The Intersection of Education and Culture: Teaching and Educational Research in Argentina
As an Educational Policy Studies major and teacher licensure candidate, I always seek to deepen my understanding of the field of education. I have had many experiences within the US in education but none in international education until this past summer. I had the opportunity to intern at Home Intercultural Learning, a language school in La Plata, Argentina. This brought its own set of challenges as it was my first time traveling abroad. However, I gained many valuable skills through the work and cultural immersion. At Home, I taught English classes, designed curriculum, and completed an ethnographic research project on cooperation and competition in classrooms. Not only did I leave the internship with a broader understanding of teaching and education, but I gained a deeper understanding of my place in the world and the meaning of being a global citizen.