Fulbright-Hays Project Abroad

Project Title: Colombia in the Twenty-First Century: History, Culture, Peace-building and Reconciliation. Implications for teaching: Spanish, Colombia and Latin America Across Disciplines.

Number of Participants: 15: three Morgan State University faculty, including the Project Director, eight K-12 teachers and administrators from Maryland school systems/districts, two MSU graduate students planning a teaching career, and one community college instructor.

M'bare N'gom, Ph.D., Project Director
Dean, College of Liberal Arts
Morgan State University

Phone: (443) 885-3090 | Fax: (443) 885-8222

E-mail: mbare.ngom@morgan.edu

1700 E. Cold Spring Lane
Baltimore, Maryland 21251-0001

Project Abstract

Morgan State University (MSU) will sponsor an international professional and curriculum development program to Colombia, South America, in the Summer of 2019. With the support of the U.S. Department of Education, MSU will select 14 educators, to participate in a five-week immersion program to Colombia to study issues related to history, culture and society, and to improve Spanish language skills. The specific focus will be peacebuilding, reconciliation, and national identity. Special attention will be devoted to the African Colombian community and the effects of armed conflict on this community. Participants will prepare to design and implement effective ways of developing and enhancing the teaching of the history, culture and society of Colombia and Latin America in general, at MSU, in Baltimore City and at Maryland area public school districts/systems and Local Education Agencies (LEAs).

This program will provide an opportunity for participants to study Colombia at a critical time of its history. The peace agreement in 2016 ended over 50 years of internal violence and began a process of reconciliation. The rigorous academic program will include lectures and seminars at different Colombian universities and other public institutions, field study and research throughout the country, and a thorough follow-up program in June 2020 at Morgan State. We will bring together Colombian experts from a wide range of disciplines, professions, civil society organizations, and government agencies, to give participants a full insight into the history, culture, and society of Colombia focused on, but not limited to, the black experience, during the peacebuilding process. The program will also offer community-based service-learning and individual research opportunities. The objectives of this Group Projects Abroad are to:

• Expose participants to experiential learning situations that will help them to improve their language and communicative skills in Spanish, and engage in service-learning;
• Help participants acquire knowledge of Colombian history, cultural traditions and ethnicities, and how they are relevant at this critical time.
• Provide participants with knowledge and tools to design and develop new curriculum materials about Colombia and Latin America and/or to enhance existing ones;
• Help participants improve and enhance their teaching skills and develop strategies and effective ways of imparting their knowledge capably and confidently about Colombia and other Latin American countries in general, to their students and members of surrounding communities