UAB’s Faculty Fellows in Education Abroad program is a fellowship designed to accelerate the work of faculty members eager to develop exemplary curricular approaches to education. These courses will promote active and ethical citizenship, cultural immersion, and community engagement. The program aims to integrate the philosophy, pedagogy, and process of faculty-led education abroad into the UAB academic environment.
The goal of the program is to provide a venue for faculty to design a new course or to modify an existing course to include a faculty-led education abroad component. The Fellows program is structured around a series of workshops (a total of six meetings) designed to help faculty develop a strong background in education abroad pedagogy. The workshops explore theories, implementation, and assessment of faculty-led education abroad and how to integrate this methodology into courses across the disciplines.
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Benefits of Participation
For faculty members accepted into the program, the Fellowship allows for an intellectual venue in which faculty can exchange ideas with an academically diverse group and learn from the experiences of other Fellows in the program. Faculty will leave the program with a comprehensive understanding of faculty-led programs and the tools and resources needed to successfully propose a faculty-led program and course. Additionally, faculty members will benefit from membership in a university-wide academic engaged scholarship network.
Participating faculty members will be provided with topic-specific readings and materials in advance of each workshop and have one-on-one assistance identifying additional discipline-specific resources and model courses in education abroad.
Financially, the Fellowship provides a $1,500 education abroad enhancement grant to each Fellow to support faculty-led program development. Funds can be used for faculty-led programs to offset the travel costs, lodging, or other associated program fees at the determination of the Fellow, his or her department chair and college dean, and the Office of Education Abroad.
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Expectations
Faculty Fellows in Education Abroad will meet on the following six dates from 12:30 pm-3:00 p.m. You will be responsible for attending all of these and at least one individual meeting held in early December. It is essential that you attend all of the meetings. If you have a class conflict or anticipate that you may be attending conferences or other meetings, please apply at another time when you will be able to make these meetings a priority. The best possible experience takes place when all of the members of the program can attend and discuss the topics presented. The seminar dates are listed on the Education Abroad portal.
Faculty will work with the Office of Education Abroad to manage program development, risk assessment, and structured reflection experiences, and will commit to offering at least one education abroad faculty-led course within one year of completing the program. This course is expected to be maintained in the department’s curriculum as an ongoing regular course offering, not taught as a one-time course. During the implementation of the course, fellows will have the continued assistance and support of UAB’s Education Abroad Coordinators.
Faculty Fellows will also present their education abroad work to their department (at a faculty meeting or brown bag luncheon). Faculty Fellows alumni may be called upon to present their experiences as instructors of each developed faculty-led course during the following academic year to the future Faculty Fellows. (We are sensitive to faculty workloads and will respect the time commitment of faculty participants). We intend that Fellows will serve as advocates and resources for education abroad in their home departments and provide consultations on education abroad faculty-led programs to colleagues.
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Eligibility and Selection Process
The Faculty Fellows in Education Abroad program is open to all faculty members involved in teaching (tenured and tenure-track faculty, professional and administrative educational staff, and adjunct/lecturer instructors) from any department on campus.
Applicants will be selected based on the quality of their personal statements, the potential sustainability of the course(s) they propose, and the support they have from their schools/college and academic departments. The program aims for Fellows from diverse areas of campus, so multiple members applying from the same department are discouraged. A panel of current and former Faculty Fellows in Education Abroad reviews applications.