BU Wheelock Welcomes Team of Educators from Jalisco, Mexico
BU Wheelock Welcomes Team of Educators from Jalisco, Mexico
Last month, BU Wheelock welcomed a team from the Secretariat of Education of Jalisco, Mexico, as part of an ongoing research collaboration. Led by Secretary of Education Juan Carlos Flores Miramontes, the team included Yolanda Quintero Reyes and Georgina Camberos, as well as six teachers working in early childhood, elementary, and secondary schools. They met with Dean David Chard and Dina Castro, director of BU Wheelock’s Institute for Early Childhood Well-Being, as well as Eleonora Villegas-Reimers, Ellie Friedland, Jane Lannak, and Boston University Provost Jean Morrison.
Castro is currently collaborating with researchers from the secretariat to explore the experiences of transnational students and their teachers, in both Jalisco and Texas. Students in this research project were born in either the United States or Mexico and have moved between the two countries more than once.
“We are learning about the circumstances behind families’ decisions to move, how children experience this mobility, and the extent to which their teachers and schools are prepared to meet the needs of these students,” she explains.
Findings of this cross-national study are expected to inform the improvement of policies and practices to better support these students’ socioemotional development and academic performance. Castro hopes that future collaboration between Jalisco and BU Wheelock could include faculty and student academic exchanges, interdisciplinary research, and community involvement, both in Boston and Jalisco.
“The knowledge generated from our international exchanges can help improve systems supporting children’s education and overall well-being, both in our increasingly diverse US society and in countries we work with abroad,” says Castro.