In this presentation and conference proceedings paper, we discuss a pilot program for international education and examine the development and preliminary assessment of an international education hub between Texas State University (TXST), USA and the Università degli Studi di Padova (UNIPD), Italy. Launched in 2024, the TXST-UNIPD hub (henceforth…

This essay explores the potential of short international study trips and virtual exchanges to foster EdD learner engagement with new ideas, practices, and peoples in other parts of the world. To frame the discussion, I consider alignment of frequently articulated goals for international learning with CPED (2022) Guiding Principles for Program…

This article draws on the Language Learning Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence Program 2012 thanks to which Dr. Suresh Canagarajah from Pennsylvania State University lectured at Universidad de La Plata in Argentina in May of that year. He delivered a talk open to language teachers, students and the community in general and also taught a…

Target 4.7 in Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) aims to ensure that education is equally accessible to all genders who are taught to appreciate human rights and cultural diversity as global citizens. Understanding and sympathy for intercultural differences become important in higher education. With a focus on the foundations and dimensions of…

The Linguistic Landscape (LL) is a relatively new field which draws from several disciplines such as applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and cultural geography. According to Landry and Bourhis (1997),"the language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop…

As Virtual Exchanges (VEs) become more common in foreign language classrooms around the world, teachers are rightly asking 'what will my students be getting from this'? If their students are advanced, they can enter into in-depth interactions thus attaining broader and deeper intercultural knowledge as a minimum, from participation in VE. However,…

Walk a Day in My Shoes is a curricular project designed to provide a starting point for teachers to cultivate cross-cultural understanding among elementary-age students. In this curricular project, students created their own digital stories about a day spent in their shoes. Through photography, writing, and digital storytelling, each student…

In this article, recent American high school graduate Shivam Bhatt reflects on his experience with an exchange program in Japan. He was struck by the cultural balance that the Japanese strike between holding on to tradition while keeping on an eye on the future. He also learned about language from his Japanese peers in the program and about…

This paper concerns a virtual exchange project between the University of Virginia (UVa), United States, and an upper-secondary school in Pavia, Italy. Centred on the question of gender equality, the project has been designed to take place over three years (2018-2021) with a direct reference to Robert O'Dowd's transnational model of virtual…

This presentation focuses on the Erasmus+ online introductory training course, which aims to introduce university educators and administrative/technical staff to Virtual Exchange (VE). The training, which requires no previous experience with VE, engages the participants in tasks that help them understand the requirements to successfully integrate…

This paper explores the value of writing journals for both students and teachers beyond English lessons and without insistence on evidencing writing progress. Keeping a journal or undertaking regular reflective writing is an unfamiliar experience for some students, and schools may offer limited privacy for writing. Used in a comprehensive school…

Language tandem exchanges offer students valuable opportunities for autonomous learning and authentic intercultural communication encounters. This paper will discuss the key principles of tandem language exchange, and in particular online ones, and then present the EU-funded European University Tandem (EUniTa) project which was developed by…

Since 2000, I have been coordinating a web-based Virtual Exchange (VE) project, "Project Ibunka." "Ibunka" means different cultures in Japanese. It aims to provide opportunities for authentic interaction among English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL) learners all over the world. By the end of…

In this Thinkpiece, the author, who is a Fulbright Teaching Assistant, examines what it really means to have mutual cultural exchange. She reflects on her experience as an American working in a university in Bucharest. In this paper she describes how some of her assumptions about academic life were challenged, and how being open to these…

Lack or complete neglect of international experiences among social studies teachers leads to superficial understanding of the importance of the development of global competences among students, neglect to very important themes in citizenship education, or even informal taboo on some critical controversial topics that address sensitive questions of…