International Partnerships

CIMA's international initiatives provide teachers with ways to enhance their English skills and teaching practices while learning about culture and diversity in a global context. International partnerships enrich our lives through interactions that cultivate learning in new and innovative ways. This helps us to stay current and relevant while addressing the changing demographics of our schools and classrooms. Through our international partnerships we have become better advocates that lift the voices of our diverse learners in our US institutions. Our collaboration continues to advance English education and pedagogical practices while informing the perspectives of the entire K-State community.

Go Teacher Program

The Go Teacher program, as envisioned by the Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa, was designed to prepare educators to be highly qualified teachers of English to students who are learning English as a second language. Through a partnership with CIMA, the following overarching goals were achieved in aspiring towards President Correa’s vision:

• Interact in an intensive English learning environment situated in a native English-speaking context
• Achieve advanced levels of English competency to support their teaching of English to students in Ecuador
• Gain the knowledge and skills needed to be highly effective teachers of English

Vale la Pena: Revolutionizing Hearts, Minds, and Communities

This documentary features the many voices of our Go Teacher and master's programs, including stories from and about our K-State family, partner universities, Ecuadorian government officials, people from Manhattan and surrounding communities. The full video is available on the Vale la Pena web page.

Proyecta 100 Mil

A partnership project with Mexico focused on enhancing instructional skills of pre-service and in-service teachers from the state of Mexico. Emphasizing Sheltered Instruction, project SUMMIT (Sheltered Instruction Unifying Methodology, Multilingualism, and Innovation in Teaching) helped 40 scholars with their pedagogical understandings, cultural enrichments, and linguistic competencies. Made possible by a collaboration between CIMA and Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (SRE) and Agencia Mexicana de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarollo (AMEXCID), this innovative project brought teachers to the Manhattan campus over a period of six weeks to learn from K-State faculty and build on their own instructional practices.

Project SUMMIT (COMEXUS)

Another project emphasizing Sheltered Instruction brought 99 educators to the K-State community to participate in Project SUMMIT. This intensive, six-week professional development program housed in the College of Education at K-State was designed to bolster students’ skills in English while providing them with cutting edge theory, research, and strategies in pedagogy. In addition to 40 pre-service and 46 in-service teachers, a cadre of 13 administrators also participated in professional development sessions. This diverse combination of participants provided impetus for discussions around educational sustainability and growth for both the United States and Mexico. Made possible by funding through the Comisión México-Estados Unidos para el Intercambio Educativo y Cultural (COMEXUS).

Project KHBRAT

The essence of this project lies in the Arabic translation of the word Khbrat, which means experience. This partnership between the Ministry of Education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kansas State University focuses on transforming the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of Saudi education professionals. Through university-guided immersion in US K-12 schools, scholars strengthened their technical, linguistic, interpersonal, and leadership capacities. While enhancing English and pedagogical competency, Saudi educators acquired applicable knowledge during their time at K-State in order to serve as change agents within their areas of practice in their own education system.