Northern Illinois University
College of Education

Do you love to travel and are interested in teaching in diverse classrooms as well as experiencing foreign cultures? Or are you thinking about a career overseas?

Check out Educate Global, the NIU College of Education’s unique opportunity for hands-on multicultural teaching. We partner with school districts from around the world to provide first-hand experiences with different cultures, international colleagues and a support system for both your teaching and your explorations of your host country.

Indonesia 2023

This experience is being funded by the NIU College of Education and College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The first part of the experience in Spring 2023 will include three sessions where 10 NIU pre-service teachers (five from COE and five from CLAS) will be paired with Indonesian teachers to teach three online virtual sessions to high school students in Indonesia. As a result, our NIU teachers will get to know the co-teacher and the students they will be teaching during the summer. 

The second part of the experience will include traveling to Indonesia from June 22 through July 16, 2023. NIU students will receive at no cost: round trip airfare, housing and food. NIU students are responsible for a valid passport, immunizations, personal spending money and admission costs to select cultural attractions. Travelers must have proof of a valid covid 19 vaccination to enter Indonesia

James Cohen, Ph.D., associate professor of ESL/Bilingual Education from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, will serve as the faculty mentor.

Pre-Departure Orientation 

Selected students will be responsible for attending five three-hour Saturday morning sessions where you will receive instruction on the following:

• An introduction to Indonesian language and culture
• Pedagogical orientation
• Perspectives orientation
• Logistics

Online Sessions

Selected students will be responsible for preparing for and teaching three online sessions with a co-teacher from Indonesia. Each session is approximately 90 minutes. The purpose of these sessions is for you to get to know the Indonesian teacher and students and for you to be introduced to the students’ English level. These sessions will take place on Friday evenings from 8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. These are scheduled to account for the time change as Indonesia is 12 hours ahead of our CST.

Three-week Summer Session

On June 22, 2023, we will travel to Pradita Dirgantara High School (SMA) in Solo, Indonesia on the island of Java. It will take approximately a day and a half to arrive. You will start teaching on the following Monday morning and will teach five days a week for three hours each morning. Your students will be the same students you taught in the online sessions. Indonesian students are high school juniors ages 17 and 18.

Utilizing a co-teaching model (paired with Indonesian teachers) and adopting a critical pedagogy context, NIU COE and CLAS students will deliver English language and International Baccalaureate curriculum instruction each morning. Afternoon activities will include engaging the students in a "club" context-focused on various interest areas.

Return

Friday July 14 will be your last day of teaching. We will fly to Jakarta on July 15 and return to Chicago on July 16.

Application Process

College of Education

Preference will be given to COE undergraduate students who have had at least two clinical experiences completed by the end of spring 2023 or the equivalent. We will accept five COE undergraduate students for this experience. COE students must be a major in one of the following programs:

• Early Childhood Education
• Elementary Education
• Middle-Level Teaching
• Physical Education
• Special Education

College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

All interested students are welcome to apply. However, preference will be given for CLAS undergraduate, pre-service educator licensure students who have had at least one ESL endorsement class and have had at least two clinical experiences by the end of Spring 2023. We will accept five undergraduate CLAS students for this experience. CLAS applicants could come from the following licensure programs (across K-12):

• English/ language arts teacher
• Foreign language/ world language teacher
• Math Teacher
• Science Teacher (all subjects)
• Social Science Teacher (all subjects)

The deadline for applications is Friday, Dec 9, 2022, at 5 p.m.

Online Application

If you have questions, please email James Cohen, Ph.D. at jcohen2@niu.edu or Eric Jones, Ed.D. at eajones@niu.edu.